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UNIV; 


BISMARCK 


IN   THE 


FRANCO-GERMAN    WAR 

1870-1871. 


AUTHORISED  IRANSLATION  FROM  THE  GERMA.W  Of 

DR.    MORITZ    BUSCH. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 
Vol.  I. 


NEW  YORK: 
CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS, 

743  AND  745  Bkoadway. 


PUBLISHERS'    NOTE. 


The  aim  in  the  present  translation  has  been  faithfully  to 
reproduce  Dr.  Busch's  remarkable  portrait  of  the  eminent 
statesman  who  conducted  the  affairs  of  Prussia  and  of 
Germany  during  the  memorable  months  of  the  Franco- 
German  war.  A  few  lines — not  more  than  half-a-dozen — 
where  tedious  explanations  would  have  been  required,  have 
been  omitted. 

Measures  and  money  have  been  generally  expressed  by 
their  English  equivalents. 


AUTHOR'S    PREFACE. 


It  is  almost  like  the  recollection  of  a  dream,  when  I  call  up 
before  my  mind  the  circumstances  under  which,  more  than 
eight  years  ago,  I  made  my  first  and  last  tour  tlirough 
France,  and  ponder  on  all  I  was  permitted  to  observe  and 
pass  through.  No  other  tour  I  ever  made  stands  out  so 
clearly  and  livingly  in  my  memory.  This  will  be  readily 
understood,  when  I  say  that  my  route  led  from  Saarbrucken 
to  Versailles,  by  way  of  Sedan,  and  that  I  had  the  honour 
of  passing  the  seven  months  it  took  me  to  traverse  it  in  the 
immediate  society  of  the  Imperial  Chancellor— or,  as  he  was 
then  called,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Confederation.  My  visit 
to  France  was  connected  with  the  campaign  of  1870  and 
187 1,  during  which  time  I  was  attached  to  the  mobiUsed 
Foreign  Office,  which  accompanied  the  first  section  of  the 
main  headquarters  of  the  German  army. 

That  I  had  the  opportunity  of  witnessing  from  a  favour- 
able position  some  of  the  decisive  actions  of  the  war,  and  of 
seeing  and  hearing  in  the  closest  proximity  other  important 
events,  was  a  circumstance  which  might  well  seem  dream- 
like, both  then  and  afterwards,  to  a  man  in  a  modest 
position,  who  eight  months  previously  could  not  even  have 
imagined  his  ever  coming  into  personal  contact  with  the 
Chancellor.  Immediately  under  my  eyes,  I  saw  consum- 
mated a  world-historical  evolution  which  had  scarcely  any 


vi  Author's  Preface. 

precedent.  Standing  in  the  midst  of  these  events  as  they 
developed  themselves,  we  could  feel  the  quick-drawn  breath 
of  the  spirit  of  our  people ;  we  heard  its  voice  in  thunder 
over  the  battle-fields;  we  felt  the  awful  anxieties  of  the  crisis, 
and  trembled  with  joy  at  the  news  of  every  victory.  Not 
less  fruitful  and  important  were  the  quiet,  sober,  laborious 
hours  in  which  we  were  permitted  to  glance  into  the  work- 
shop whence  issued  so  important  a  part  of  that  evolution, 
where  the  results  of  that  trial  of  arms  were  weighed  and 
measured  and  their  effects  calculated,  and  where  men  whose 
names  were  on  the  lips  of  all — crowned  heads,  princes, 
Ministers  of  State,  generals,  negotiators  of  the  most  various 
kinds,  leaders  of  parties  in  the  Diet,  and  other  interesting 
personages — went  in  and  out  among  us  at  Ferrieres  and 
Versailles.  Pleasant,  too,  was  the  thought,  after  the  day's 
work  was  over,  of  being  one  of  the  small  wheels  in  the 
machinery  with  which  the  Master  was  working  out  his  mind 
and  will  on  the  world,  and  shaping  it  according  to  his  plans. 
Best  of  all,  however,  was  the  consciousness  of  being  near 
him,  and  that  continued  to  be  my  highest  reward. 

In  these  recollections  I  believe  that  I  possess  the  greatest 
treasure  of  my  life,  and  I  trust  that  I  may  now  be  permitted 

■  to  allow  others  to  participate  in  some  of  them.  It  will  be  at 
once  understood  that  a  great  portion  of  what  I  might  have 
given  must,  for  the  present,  be  suppressed.  Much  also  of 
what  I  relate  or  sketch  will  appear  to  many  trivial  and 
superficial.  To  myself  nothing  is  so,  for  trifles  "  of  which 
the  Pr^tor  takes  no  notice "  not  seldom  display  men's 
feelings  and  characters  more  truly  than  great  or  striking 
deeds ;    and    things    and    situations,    in   themselves    unim- 

■  portant,  may  suggest  to  the  mind  flashes  of  thought,  and 
associations  of  ideas  fraught  with  consequences  for  the 
future.     I  might  instance  the  origin — often  accidental  and 


Author  s  Preface.  vii 

insignificant — of  epoch-making  inventions  and  discoveries ; 
the  tin  can  glittering  in  the  sun,  which  transported  Jacob 
Bcehmen  into  his  metaphysical  world  ;  or  the  spot  of  grease 
on  the  table-cloth  at  Ferri^res,  which  gave  the  Chancellor 
his  starting-point  for  a  most  remarkable  and  characteristic 
dinner  discourse.  The  influences  of  morning  and  evening 
on  nervous  constitutions  are  different ;  the  weather  and  its 
changes  act  upon  men  and  things.  Philosophers  have  laid 
down  theories  which,  broadly  expressed,  lead  almost  to  the 
view  that  man  is  what  he  eats  ;  and  absurd  as  it  may  sound, 
we  do  not  know  how  far  they  are  wrong.  Lastly,  it  appears 
to  me  that  everything  pertaining  to  this  glorious  war  is  of 
interest — a  war  which  won  for  us  a  German  Empire  and 
a  strong  frontier  to  the  West;  and  that  things  the  most 
apparently  trifling  have  their  value,  in  proportion  as  they 
are  connected  with  the  part  which  Count  Bismarck  played 
'vs\  the  events  of  the  war. 

Everything,  therefore,  should  be  preserved.  In  a  great 
Time,  what  is  little  appears  less ;  in  after  centuries,  it  is  the 
reverse ;  the  great  becomes  greater,  and  that  which  was 
without  meaning  becomes  full  of  significance.  People  then 
often  deplore  that  they  can  form  no  living  image  of  the 
events  and  persons  of  the  past  in  colours  true  to  nature ; 
because  materials  at  first  regarded  as  unessential,  but  then 
seen  to  be  indispensable,  are  wanting,  because  there  was  no 
eye  to  see,  and  no  hand  to  describe  and  preserve  while 
there  was  yet  time.  Who  would  not  now  delight  to  possess 
ampler  details  of  Luther  in  the  great  days  and  hours  of 
his  life — even  very  innocent  and  insignificant  traits,  cir- 
cumstances, and  situations  ?  In  a  hundred  years  Prince 
Bismarck  will  take  his  place,  in  the  thoughts  of  our 
people,  by  the  side  of  the  Wittenberg  doctor :  the  hberator 
of  our    political    life   from    the    pressure   of  the   foreigner 


viii  Author  s  Preface. 

by  the  side  of  the  hberator  of  the  conscience  from  the 
tyranny  of  Rome ;  the  creator  of  the  German  Empire  by 
the  side  of  the  creator  of  German  Christianity.  Many 
have  already  assigned  tliis  place  to  our  Chancellor  in  their 
hearts  and  amongst  the  portraits  that  hang  on  their  walls ; 
and  I  will  run  the  risk  of  being  blamed  here  and  there, 
because  I  have  spoken  of  the  husk  and  have  scarcely  touched 
the  kernel.  Perhaps  it  will  hereafter  be  permitted  to  me  to 
make  the  attempt  in  some  modest  fashion  to  portray  the  latter 
also  with  some  new  features.  For  the  present  I  merely  act 
on  the  principle  of  the  text,  "Gather  up  the  fragments  that 
remain,  that  nothing  be  lost." 

The  groundwork  of  my  notices  is  a  journal  which  recorded 
with  the  utmost  fulness  and  fidelity — especially  at  the  time 
when  we  were  stationary — the  events  and  sayings  which  I 
saw  and  heard  when  I  was  in  immediate  contact  with  the 
Chancellor ;  who  is  everywhere  the  central  figure  round 
which  persons  and  things  are  grouped.  To  note  down, 
for  myself  only  in  the  first  instance,  as  an  observant  and 
conscientious  chronicler,  how  our  Chancellor  bore  himself 
in  the  great  war,  so  far  as  I  was  an  eyewitness,  or  had 
trustworthy  direct  information  how  he  lived  and  worked 
during  the  campaign,  how  he  judged  of  the  present,  what 
he  related  from  the  past,  at  dinner,  at  tea,  or  on  any  other 
occasion,  was  the  first  and  immediate  task  which  I  proposed 
to  myself.  In  the  execution  of  that  task,  and  especially  in 
writing  down  what  he  said  in  the  outer  or  inner  circles  of 
his  friends,  I  was  aided  by  a  habit  of  attention  which  had 
been  strengthened  both  by  my  reverence  for  him,  and  my  pre- 
ceding official  intercourse  with  him  ;  and  by  a  memory, 
which,  though  of  moderate  capacity,  had  also  been  cultivated 
by  the  severest  official  exercise  in  the  half-year  preceding 
the  outbreak  of  the  war,  to  such  a  degree,  that  it  was  able 


Author's  Preface.  ix 

to  retain,  in  all  essential  points,  even  the  longer  discourses 
of  the  Chancellor,  whether  grave  or  sportive,  until  I  found 
time  to  commit  them  to  paper — that  is,  of  course,  if  nothing 
intervened,  and  against  such  intervention  I  could  in  most 
cases  guard  myself.  My  notes  of  his  sayings  were  written 
down,  almost  without  exception,  before  the  lapse  of  an  hour, 
for  the  most  part  indeed  at  once.  He  who  has  eyes,  ears, 
and  a  memory  for  the  style  in  which  our  Chancellor  gene- 
rally clothes  his  thoughts  when  he  expresses  himself  among 
his  intimate  friends,  will  at  once  recognise  this.  When 
our  Chancellor  relates  anything,  he  will  almost  always  meet 
with  those  sudden  and  rapid  transitions  and  silent  pre- 
suppositions which  remind  one  of  the  style  of  ballads,  and 
he  will  find  that  a  vein  of  humour  usually  runs  through  the 
whole — and  both  of  these  are  highly  characteristic  of  the 
way  in  which  the  Prince  expresses  himself. 

For  the  rest,  these  accounts,  and  the  sayings  and  remarks 
in  connection  with  them,  are  untouched  photographs.  In 
other  words  I  will  venture  to  say  not  only  that  I  observed 
and  attended  sharply  and  well,  but  that  I  am  conscious 
that  I  have  omitted  nothing  that  could  be  communicated, 
that  I  have  altered  nothing,  and  above  all,  that  I  have  added 
nothing.  Where  gaps  were  necessary,  I  have  generally 
marked  the  fact  by  .  .  .  Where,  on  certain  occasions,  I 
could  not  exactly  understand  the  speaker,  I  have  noted  it. 
Many  things  said  about  the  French  may  appear  severe, 
some  even  cruel.  Let  it  be  remembered  that  war  hardens 
and  inflames  men,  and  that  Gambetta's  "  war  to  the  knife  " 
urged  with  all  his  fiery  passionateness,  and  the  treacherous 
acts  of  his  Francs-tireurs,  evoked  feelings  in  our  camp,  in 
which  gentleness  and  mercy  had  little  place.  The  expres- 
sions of  these  feelings  are  not  of  course  published  in  order  to 
wound  and  to  irritate  now,  when  all  this  belongs  to  the  past, 


X  Author'' s  Preface. 

but  merely  as  contributions  to  the  history  of  the  war,  and  as 
characteristics  of  the  Chancellor.  I  would  remark,  in  con 
elusion,  that  the  descriptions  of  places,  battle-fields  and  the 
like,  which  I  give,  as  well  as  much  accessory  matter,  are 
added  for  variety's  sake,  and  the  articles  in  newspapers  are 
only  inserted  to  show  how  certain  thoughts  shaped  them- 
selves at  a  certain  time. 


CONTENTS   OF   VOL.  I. 


< 

CHAP.  PAGB 

I.  Departure  of  the  Chancellor  —  I  follow  him 
TO  Saarbrucken — Journey  continued  to  the 
French  frontier  —  The  mobilised  Foreign 
Office r 

II.    From  the  Frontier  to  Gravelotte 13 

III.  Commercy — Bar-le-Duc — Clermont  in  Argonne  .      44 

IV,  We  turn  Northwards — The  Chancellor  in  Rezon- 

viLLE — Battle  and  Battle-field  of  Beaumont      74 

V.    The  Day  of  Sedan — Bismarck  and  Napoleon  at 

Donchery 94 

VI.    From  the  Meuse  to  the  Marne 118 

VII.    Bismarck  and  Favre  in  Haute-Maison — A  Fort- 
night IN  Rothschild's  Chateau 155 

VIII.    The    Journey   to    Versailles  —  The    House    of 

Madame  Jesse — Our  usual  Life  there  .     .     .     201 

IX.    Autumn  Days  in  Versailles 215 

X.    Thiers    and    the    First    Negotiations    for    an 

Armistice 27c 

XI.    Lothar  Bucher  and  Privy  Councillor  Abeken  .     342 


BISMARCK 


IN  THE 


FRANCO-GERMAN    WAR. 


CHAPTER   I. 

DEPARTURE     OF     THE     CHANCELLOR 1      FOLLOW      HIM      TO 

SAARBRUCKEN — JOURNEY    CONTINUED   TO    THE    FRENCH 
FRONTIER — THE   MOBILISED    FOREIGN    OFFICE, 

On  the  31st  July,  1870,  at  half-past  five  in  the  afternoon, 
the  Chancellor,  who  had  some  days  before  partaken  of  the 
Sacrament  in  his  own  room,  drove  from  his  residence  in 
the  Wilhelm  Strasse  to  the  station,  accompanied  by  his  wife 
and  daughter,  in  order  to  start  with  King  WiUiam  for  the 
Seat  of  War,  in  the  first  instance  for  Mainz.  Several  Coun- 
cillors of  the  Foreign  Office,  a  secretary  of  the  despatch 
department  of  the  Central  Bureau,  two  experts  in  secret 
ciphering,  and  three  or  four  messengers  of  the  Chancellor's 
department  were  appointed  to  go  with  him.  The  rest  of  us 
followed  him  only  with  our  good  wishes,  as,  helmet  on 
head,  he  walked  down  the  stairs  between  the  two  Sphinxes, 
through  the  great  hall,  and  stepped  into  the  carriage.  I 
had  resigned  myself  to  taking  part  in  the  war  only  on 
maps  and  in  newspapers.  But  a  much  better  fate  was  in 
store  for  me. 

On  the  evening  of  the  6th  of  August  the  Government 

VOL.    I.  B 


2  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

received  the  telegram  announcing  the  victory  at  Worth. 
Half  an  hour  afterwards,  work  being  over,  I  carried  the 
joyful  news,  still  fresh  and  warm,  to  a  company  of  friends 
who  were  waiting  in  expectation  in  a  wine-shop  in  Potsdam 
Street,  Every  one  knows  how  Germans  celebrate  good 
news,  and  this  was  so  good  that  it  was  celebrated  by 
many  too  well,  and  by  most  of  us  at  any  rate,  too  long. 
In  consequence  I  was  still  in  bed  when  next  morning  a 
chancery  messenger  appeared,  bringing  the  copy  of  a  tele- 
graphic despatch,  requiring  me  to  set  out  for  headquarters 
in  the  course  of  the  day. 

Benignant  fate  !  say  I.  So  quickly  were  my  few  neces- 
saries collected,  that  by  midday  I  had  my  railway-pass,  my 
passport,  and  my  military  billet ;  and  by  eight  o'clock  in 
the  evening  I  was  joined  by  the  two  companions  ordered 
by  the  Minister  to  accompany  me.  We  travelled  by  the 
Anhalt  railway,  going  by  Halle,  Nordhausen,  and  Cassel, 
anxious,  by  God's  help,  to  reach  headquarters  as  fast  as 
possible. 

We  began  our  journey  in  a  first-class  coupe,  but  we  came 
down  to  a  third-class,  and  at  last  to  a  luggage-van.  Every- 
where there  were  long  delays,  which  seemed  longer  to  our 
impatience  than  they  really  were ;  and  it  was  not  till  the 
9th  of  August,  about  six  in  the  morning,  that  we  arrived  at 
Frankfort.  Here,  where  we  had  some  hours  to  wait,  we 
endeavoured  to  find  out  where  headquarters  were  estab- 
lished ;  but  the  superintendent  of  the  despatch  of  troops 
could  give  no  information,  and  the  telegraph  director  could 
say  nothing  certain.  "  Perhaps,"  he  said,  "  they  are  still 
in  Homburg ;  or  very  likely  they  have  already  reached  Saar- 
briicken." 

About  noon  we  again  started,  this  time  in  a  luggage-van; 
to  Mannheim  and  Neustadt,  by  Darmstadt,  in  the  Oden. 


I.]  By  Rail  to  the  Seat  of  War.  3, 

wald,  the  dark  mountains  of  which  were  veiled  in  heavy 
white  fog.  The  journey  seemed  more  and  more  tedious, 
and  the  train  was  continually  delayed  by  other  long  military 
trains  on  the  road  before  us.  At  every  place  where  wc 
stopped,  the  people  crowded  to  bring  the  soldiers  food  and 
drink,  among  them  poor  old  women,  who  had  nothing  to 
offer  but  cafe  au  lait  and  dry  black  bread. 

We  crossed  the  Rhine  by  night.  As  the  day  broke  we 
found,  lying  beside  us  on  the  floor  of  the  van,  a  well-dressed 
gentleman,  who  was  talking  English  to  some  one,  whom 
we  afterwards  discovered  to  be  his  servant.  This  turned 
out  to  be  the  London  banker,  Mr.  Deichmann,  who  was 
bound  for  headquarters,  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  leave  from 
Roon  to  serve  as  a  volunteer  in  a  cavalry  regiment,  for 
which  purpose  he  had  brought  his  horse  with  hmi.  The 
train  being  now  brought  to  a  stand  in  consequence  of  the 
many  others  blocking  up  the  line  in  front  of  us,  we  drove 
across  the  plain,  by  Deichmann's  advice,  in  a  fast-trotting 
country  car  to  Neustadt  in  the  Palatinate,  which  we  found 
swarming  with  soldiers — Bavarian  riflemen,  Prussian  red 
hussars,  Saxons,  and  other  uniforms. 

Here,  for  the  first  time  since  we  left  Berlin,  we  had 
something  hot  to  eat.  Up  to  this  time  we  had  had  nothing 
but  cold  meat,  and  our  attempts  to  sleep  at  night  on  the 
hard  wooden  seats,  with  our  traveUing-bags  under  our  heads, 
were  not  very  successful.  However,  we  were  going  to  the 
war ;  and,  after  all,  I  have  been  more  uncomfortable  on  a 
tour  with  much  humbler  objects  in  view. 

From  Neustadt,  after  an  hour's  delay,  we  went  on  diago- 
nally through  the  Hardt  mountains,  among  narrow  pine- 
covered  valleys,  through  a  number  of  tunnels,  till  we  reached 
the  gap  in  the  hills  in  which  Kaiserslautern  lies.  Up  to  this 
time  rain  and  sunshine  had  alternated,  but  now  the  rain 

B  2 


4  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

poured  down  without  intermission,  so  that  when  we  reached 
Homburg,  the  Uttle  place  seemed  to  be  notliing  but  darkness 
and  water.  Shouldering  our  trunks,  in  the  pelting  rain,  we 
waded  through  mud  and  slush,  asking  our  way,  and  stumbling 
over  the  rails  to  the  hotel  Zur  Post,  where  we  found  all  the 
rooms  crammed  and  everything  that  could  keep  body  and 
soul  together  eaten  up.  However,  if  our  stopping-place  had 
been  ever  so  pleasant  we  should  have  had  little  opportunity 
of  making  use  of  it,  for  we  learned  here  that  the  Count 
and  the  King  had  already  gone  on,  and  by  this  time  were 
probably  in  Saarbriicken  ;  and  we  should  have  to  hurry  to 
overtake  them  on  German  soil. 

To  set  off  again  in  this  deluge  was  not  very  pleasant,  but 
we  philosophised  by  the  way,  reflecting  that  others  were  still 
worse  off.  In  the  parlour  at  the  Post,  men  were  sleeping  on 
chairs  and  tables  put  together,  amid  the  fumes  of  tobacco, 
beer,  and  lamp-oil,  added  to  a  mixture,  not  at  all  aromatic, 
of  leather  and  damp  clothes.  In  a  hollow  to  the  left  of  the 
station  smouldered  the  great  watch-tire,  nearly  extinguished 
by  the  rain,  of  what  were  Saxon  troops,  if  our  question 
was  lightly  answered.  As  we  waded  back  to  the  train,  we 
caught  sight  of  the  arms  and  helmets  of  a  Prussian  battalion, 
which  was  stationed  in  front  of  the  railway  hotel.  Thoroughly 
wet  through,  and  very  tired,  we  at  last  found  our  way  back, 
to  a  luggage-van,  on  the  floor  of  which  Deichmann  had 
found  a  corner  where  we  could  stretch  ourselves  out,  and 
a  handful  or  two  of  straw  to  put  under  our  heads.  Our 
fellow-travellers,  among  whom  were  a  baron  and  a  professor, 
were  not  so  fortunate ;  they  had  to  snatch  what  rest  they 
could  among  the  mail-bags,  letter  carriers,  soldiers,  and 
baggage. 

About  one  o'clock  the  train  began  to  move  slowly  on, 
and,  after  many  delays,  we  found  ourselves,  when  morning 


L]  Saarbriicken.  5 

broke,  close  to  a  little  town  with  a  beautiful  old  church. 
In  the  valley  was  a  mill,  round  which  the  road  wound  to 
Saarbriicken,  which,  we  heard,  was  only  about  three  English 
miles  distant,  so  that  we  were  nearly  at  the  end  of  our 
journey ;  but  our  locomotive  seemed  to  be  quite  out  of 
breath,  and  though  we  might  at  any  moment  cross  the 
frontier  and  come  in  sight  of  headquarters,  neither  railway 
nor  any  other  mode  of  getting  on  seemed  available  to  us. 
Heavy  clouds  and  a  fine  drizzle  did  not  help  to  enliven  our 
impatient  and  anxious  minds.  We  had  waited  for  about 
two  hours  for  the  scream  of  our  engine  to  announce  our 
departure,  when  Deichmann  again  came  to  our  help.  He 
disappeared,  and  after  a  time  returned  with  the  miller,  whom 
he  had  persuaded  to  drive  us  to  the  town,  on  an  under- 
standing from  Deichmann,  that  his  horses  should  not  be 
appropriated  by  the  soldiers. 

During  the  drive  the  miller  told  us,  that  the  Prussians 
had  already  advanced  their  outposts  almost  as  far  as  Metz. 
Between  nine  and  ten  we  reached  St.  John,  a  suburb  of 
Saarbriicken  lying  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Saar,  where  we 
saw  few  traces  of  the  French  bombardment  of  a  few  days 
before,  though  it  presented  a  lively  picture  in  other  respects 
of  a  state  of  war,  A  medley  of  forage-carts,  baggage- 
waggons,  soldiers  on  horse  and  on  foot.  Knights  of  St. 
John  with  their  crosses,  and  such  like,  hurried  through  the 
streets.  Hessian  troops,  dragoons  and  artillery,  were  march- 
ing along,  singing  the  while : 

"  Red  dawn  that  lights  me  to  my  early  ^rave." 

At  the  inn  where  we  alighted,  I  heard  that  the  Chan- 
cellor was  still  in  the  place,  and  had  taken  up  his 
quarters  at  the  house  of  one  Haldy,  a  merchant  and  manu- 
facturer.    In  spite  of  all   difficulties,  I  had   thus  happily 


6  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap  . 

reached  the  desired  haven.  It  was  not  a  moment  too  soon, 
for  as  I  was  going  to  Haldy's  house  to  report  myself  I  heard 
on  the  stairs  from  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen,  the  Minister's 
cousin,  that  we  were  to  move  on  immediately  in  the  after- 
noon. 

I  took  leave  of  my  fellow-travellers  from  Berlin,  for  whom 
there  was  no  room  in  the  Minister's  carriages,  and  of  the 
London  banker,  whose  patriotic  offers  General  Roon  had 
reluctantly  declined.  I  then  moved  my  baggage  from  the 
inn  to  the  cook's  van,  which,  with  other  vehicles,  had  crossed 
over  at  the  Saar  bridge.  Having  arranged  this,  I  turned 
back  to  Haldy's  house,  where,  in  the  anteroom,  I  presented 
myself  to  the  Chancellor,  who  was  just  coming  out  of  his 
own  room  on  his  way  to  the  King.  I  then  sought  out  the 
newly-established  Bureau,  that  I  might  hear  whether  there 
was  anything  for  me  to  do.  There  was  plenty  to  do  !  The 
gentlemen  had  their  hands  full ;  and  I  immediately  under- 
took the  translation  of  the  Queen  of  England's  speech  on 
opening  Parliament,  which  had  just  come,  for  the  use  of 
the  King.  Of  the  highest  interest,  even  though  I  did  not 
quite  understand  it,  was  the  declaration  in  a  despatch,  which 
they  gave  me  to  dictate  in  secret  cipher  to  one  of  the 
experts,  that  we  on  our  side  should  not  be  content  with  the 
mere  overthrow  of  Napoleon. 

It  seemed  like  a  miracle !  Strassburg !  Perhaps  the 
Vosges  !  Who  could  have  even  dreamed  of  this  three  weeks 
ago? 

Meanwhile  the  weather  had  cleared  up.  A  little  before 
one  o'clock,  m  the  bright  sunshine,  the  carriages  drove  to 
the  door,  all  with  four  horses,  with  soldiers  for  outriders, 
one  for  the  Chancellor,  one  for  the  councillors  and  Count 
Bismarck-Bohlen,  one  for  the  secretary  and  the  two  cipherers. 
After  the  Minister  had  taken  his  seat  with  Privy-Councillor 


I.]  The  Mobilised  Foreign  Ojfice.  '    7 

Abeken  and  his  cousin,  and  the  two  other  councillors  had 
mounted  their  horses,  the  others  followed  with  their  portfolios 
beside  them.  I  took  a  seat  in  the  carriage  of  the  councillors, 
as  I  always  did  afterwards,  whenever  those  gentlemen  rode 
on  horseback.  Five  minutes  afterwards  we  crossed  the 
river  and  entered  the  long  main  street  of  Saarbriicken. 
From  thence  the  poplar-shaded  road  led  up  to  Forbach, 
past  the  battlefield  of  the  6th  of  August,  and  in  half  an  hour 
after  leaving  St.  Johann  we  were  on  French  soil.  Of  the 
bloody  battle  which  had  raged  here  just  on  the  frontier, 
five  days  before,  there  were  still  many  traces  to  be  seen  : 
trunks  stripped  by  the  balls,  knapsacks  thrown  away,  tattered 
garments,  linen  rags  lying  about  the  stubble  fields,  trodden- 
down  potato  fields,  broken  wheels,  holes  made  by  shells, 
little  wooden  crosses  roughly  tied  together  to  show  the  place 
where  some  of  the  fallen  were  interred,  and  so  on.  But,  so 
far  as  we  could  see,  all  the  dead  were  already  buried. 

And  here  at  the  beginning  of  our  journey  through  France, 
I  will  interrupt  my  narrative  for  a  little,  to  say  a  few  words 
about  the  mobilised  Foreign  Office,  and  the  mode  and 
fashion  in  which  the  Chancellor  travelled,  worked,  and  lived 
with  his  people.  The  Minister  had  in  his  suite  the  acting 
Privy  Councillors  Abeken  and  von  Keudell,  Count  Hatzfeld, 
and  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen.  There  were  besides,  the  pri- 
vate secretary  Bolsing  from  the  Central  Bureau,  the  cipherers  ■ 
Willisch  and  Saint-Blanquart,  and  lastly  myself.  Engel,  Theiss, 
and  Eigenbrodt  acted  as  messengers  and  attendants ;  the 
last  of  whom  was  replaced  in  the  beginning  of  September  by 
the  active  and  intelligent  Kriiger.  We  were  accompanied 
by  Herr  Leverstrom  in  a  similar  capacity,  the  "black  horse- 
man," so  well  known  in  the  streets  of  Berlin  as  a  govern- 
ment courier.  For  the  care  of  our  bodies  we  had  a  cook, 
whose  name  was  Schulz  or  Schultz.     Let  it  be  noticed,  how 


8  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War,     [Chap 

exact  I  am  trying  to  be,  and  that  I  rob  no  one  of  his  name 
or  title  !  In  Ferrieres  the  group  of  Councillors  was  completed 
by  Lothar  Bucher,  and  a  third  cipherer,  Herr  Wiehr,  also 
joined  us  there.  Holnstein,  young  Count  Wartensleben  and 
Privy  Councillor  Wagner  joined  us  at  Versailles.  Bolsing, 
being  unwell,  was  replaced  there  for  some  weeks  by  WoU- 
mann,  and  business  increased  to  such  an  extent  that  we 
required  the  services  of  a  fourth  secret  cipherer,  as  well  as 
of  one  or  two  additional  messengers  whose  names  have 
escaped  me.  The  kindness  of  our  "Chief,"  as  the  Chan- 
cellor was  called  in  ordinary  conversation,  by  those  belonging 
to  the  Foreign  Office,  had  arranged  things  so  that  his  fellow- 
workers,  both  secretaries  and  councillors,  were  all  to  a 
certain  extent  members  of  his  household.  We  livedo  when- 
ever circumstances  would  permit,  in  the  same  house  with 
him,  and  had  the  honour  of  dining  at  his  table. 

Tlie  Chancellor  wore  uniform  during  the  whole  of  the 
war,  generally  the  undress  of  the  yellow  regiment  of  heavy 
Landwehr  cavalry,  with  its  white  cap  and  great  top-boots. 
When  riding,  after  a  battle,  or  in  watching  its  course,  he 
wore  a  black  leather  case,  fastened  by  a  strap  round  the 
chest  and  back,  which  held  a  field  glass,  and  sometimes  a 
revolver  and  a  sword.  During  the  first  months  he  generally 
wore  as  a  decoration  the  cross  of  the  order  of  the  Red 
Eagle ;  afterwards  he  also  wore  the  Iron  Cross.  I  never 
saw  him  but  once,  in  Versailles,  in  a  dressing-gown,  and  then 
he  was  not  well — his  health  was  excellent  through  the  whole 
campaign.  During  the  journey  he  generally  drove  with 
Councillor  Abeken,  since  dead,  and  once,  for  several  days  in 
succession,  with  me  also.  As  to  quarters,  he  was  most  easily 
satisfied,  and  even  where  better  were  to  be  had,  he  put  up 
with  the  most  modest  accommodation.  At  Versailles,  when 
colonels   and   majors   had    splendidly   furnished   suites    of 


I.]  The  Chancellor s  Days  Work.  9 

apartments,  the  Chancellor,  all  the  five  months  we  were 
there,  was  content  with  two  little  rooms,  of  which  one  was 
study  as  well  as  bedchamber,  and  the  other,  on  the  ground 
floor,  though  neither  spacious  nor  elegant,  served  as  a  re- 
ception-room. Once,  in  the  school-house  at  Clermont,  in 
Argonne,  where  we  stayed  some  days,  he  had  not  even  a 
bed,  so  that  we  had  to  make  him  up  one  on  the  floor. 

During  the  journey  we  generally  drove  close  behind  the 
King's  carriage.  We  started  about  ten  in  the  morning,  and 
usually  accomplished  nearly  forty  English  miles  a  day. 
On  arriving  at  our  quarters  for  the  night  we  at  once  estab- 
lished a  Bureau,  in  which  work  was  seldom  wanting,  especially 
when  the  field  telegraph  reached  us ;  by  its  means  the  Chan- 
cellor again  became — what,  indeed,  he  always  was  at  this 
time,  with  brief  interruptions — the  centre  of  the  civilised 
world  of  Europe.  Even  where  we  only  halted  for  one  night, 
restlessly  active  himself,  he  kept  all  about  him  in  constant 
employment  till  quite  late.  Orderlies  came  and  went, 
couriers  arrived  with  letters  and  telegrams,  and  were  imme- 
diately sent  off  again.  According  to  the  directions  of  the 
Chief,  the  Councillors  prepared  notes  and  orders ;  the  clerks 
copied  and  registered,  ciphered  and  deciphered.  Material 
streamed  in  from  all  points  of  the  compass  in  the  shape  of 
reports,  questions,  articles  in  the  newspapers,  and  such  like, 
most  of  which  required  immediate  attention. 

Among  the  councillors  the  one  who  was  fastest  at  work 
before  the  arrival  of  Bucher,  was,  undoubtedly,  Abeken. 
He  was  in  fact  a  very  power  in  himself.  From  long  years 
of  service  he  was  thoroughly  acquainted  with  all  the  ins 
and  outs  of  business,  a  lover  of  routine,  furnished  with  a 
fine  store  of  phrases,  which  dropped  from  his  pen  without 
much  necessity  for  thought.  Master  of  several  languages, 
so  far,  at  any  rate,  as  was  needed  for  the  work  required  of 


lo  Bismarck  m  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chx\p, 

him,  he  seemed  m.ade  to  put  the  thoughts  of  his  Chief 
into  proper  dress.  He  did  it  with  the  rapidity  of  a  steam- 
engine.  The  substance  was  supphed  by  the  genius  and 
knowledge  of  the  Minister,  who  occasionally  improved  the 
style  in  which  Abeken  had  presented  his  ideas. 

The  almost  superhuman  capacity  of  the  Chancellor  for 
work,  sometimes  creating,  and  sometimes  appropriating  and 
sifting  the  labours  of  others,  his  power  of  solving  the  most 
difficult  problems,  of  at  once  seeing  the  right  thing,  and  of 
ordering  only  what  could  be  practically  done,  was,  perhaps, 
never  so  wonderfully  displayed  as  at  this  time  ;  and  this 
inexhaustible  power  of  work  was  the  more  remarkable  as 
his  strength  was  kept  up  with  so  little  sleep.  The  Minister 
lived  in  the  field  much  as  he  did  at  home.  Unless  an  ex- 
pected battle  summoned  him  before  daybreak  to  the  army  at 
the  side  of  the  King,  he  generally  rose  late,  as  a  rule  about 
ten  o'clock.  But  he  passed  the  night  sleepless,  and  fell  over 
only  when  the  morning  light  shone  through  his  window. 
Often,  hardly  out  of  bed,  and  not  yet  dressed,  he  began  to 
think  and  work,  to  read  and  make  notes  on  despatches,  to 
study  the  newspapers,  to  give  instructions  to  the  Councillors 
and  other  fellow-workers,  to  put  questions  or  state  problems 
of  the  most  various  kinds,  even  to  write  or  dictate.  Later 
in  the  day  there  were  visits  to  receive,  or  audiences  to  give, 
or  a  statement  to  be  made  to  the  King.  Then  came  the 
study  of  despatches  and  maps^  the  correction  of  papers  he 
had  ordered  to  be  prepared,  the  jotting  down  of  ideas  with 
the  well-known  big  pencil,  the  composition  of  letters,  the 
news  to  be  telegraphed  or  sent  to  the  papers  for  publication, 
and  in  the  midst  of  all  this  the  reception  of  unavoidable 
visitors,  who  must  sometimes  have  been  far  from  welcome. 
It  was  not  till  two  or  often  three  o'clock  that  the  Chancellor, 
in  places  where  a  ?ialt  of  any  length  was  made,  allowed 


LJ  The  Chancellor  s  Table. 


II 


himself  a  little  breathing-time  \  then  he  generally  took  a  ride 
in  the  neighbourhood.  Afterwards  he  went  to  work  again 
till  dinner  at  five  or  six  o'clock,  and  in  an  hour  and  a  halt 
at  the  latest  he  was  back  once  more  in  his  room  at  his 
writing-table,  midnight  frequently  finding  him  reading  or 
putting  his  thoughts  on  paper. 

The  Count  differed  from  other  men  in  the  matter  of 
sleep,  and  he  arranged  his  meal  times  in  a  peculiar  manner. 
Early  in  the  morning  he  took  a  cup  of  tea,  and  perhaps  one 
or  two  eggs ;  after  that,  generally  nothing  till  dinner  in 
the  evening.  He  very  seldom  took  a  second  breakfast, 
and  then  only  tea,  which  was  served  between  nine  and  ten 
o'clock.  Thus,  with  very  few  exceptions,  he  ate  only  once 
during  the  four-and-twenty  hours,  but  then,  like  Frederick 
the  Great,  he  ate  plentifully  and  with  appetite.  Diplomatists 
proverbially  keep  a  good  table,  and,  I  am  told,  come 
next  to  prelates.  It  is  part  of  their  daily  business  to  en- 
tertain distinguished  guests,  who,  for  some  reason  or  other, 
have  to  be  put  into  a  good  humour  by  the  contents  of  a 
well-stocked  cellar  and  the  eftbrts  of  a  skilful  cook.  Count 
von  Bismarck  therefore  kept  a  good  table,  which,  when  cir- 
cumstances permitted,  rose  to  the  rank  of  a  very  good  table. 
This  was  the  case,  for  instance,  at  Rheims,  Meaux,  Ferribres, 
and  Versailles,  where  the  genius  of  the  artist  who  wore  the 
livery  of  the  household  prepared  breakfasts  and  dinners 
for  us,  to  which  persons  accustomed  to  simple  fare  did 
justice,  feeling  almost  as  if  they  were  sitting  in  Abraham's 
bosom,  especially  when,  beside  the  other  good  gifts  of  God, 
champagne  was  not  wanting  in  the  list  of  drinkables.  For 
such  feasts  the  travelling  kitchen  contained  pewter-plates, 
tumblers  of  some  silver-like  metal,  gilt  inside,  and  cups  of 
the  same  kind.  During  the  last  five  months  of  the  campaign 
presents  from  home  added  grace  to  our  hospitable  board : 


12  Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War.  [Chap.  L 

for  home,  as  it  was  right  it  should,  thought  lovingly  of  its 
Chancellor,  and  liberally  sent  him  dainty  gifts  both  solid  and 
fluid,  corned  geese,  game,  fish,  pheasants,  cakes,  capital 
beer,  and  fine  wine,  with  many  other  excellent  things. 

To  conclude  this  chapter  I  remark  that,  beside  the  Chan- 
cellor, only  the  Councillors  at  first  wore  uniform,  von 
Keudell  that  of  the  Blue  Cuirassiers,  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen 
that  of  a  regiment  of  Dragoon  Guards,  Counts  Hatzfeld  and 
Abeken  the  undress  uniform  of  officers  in  the  Foreign  Office. 
It  was  afterwards  suggested  that  all  persons  belonging  to 
the  Minister's  permanent  staff,  not  of  course  the  two  first- 
named  gentlemen,  who  were  also  military  officers,  should 
wear  this  dress.  The  Chief  consented,  and  so  Versailles 
saw  the  chancery  messengers  in  a  costume  which  consisted 
of  a  dark  blue  coat,  with  two  rows  of  buttons,  with  black 
velvet  collar  and  cuffs,  a  cap  of  the  same  colour,  and  for  the 
Councillors,  secretaries  and  cipherers,  a  sword  with  a  gold 
porte-'epee.  In  this  costume  old  Privy  Councillor  Abeken,  who 
made  his  horse  prance  about  bravely,  had  quite  a  military 
air,  and  I  think  he  knew  this  and  liked  it.  He  was  well 
pleased  to  look  like  an  officer,  just  as  he  once  travelled 
through  the  Holy  Land  in  Oriental  costume,  without  under- 
standing either  Turkish  or  Arabic. 


(  13  ) 


CHAPTER  II. 

FROM  THE  FRONTIER  TO  GRAVELOTTE. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  I  hahed  at  the  French  frontier. 
That  we  had  crossed  it,  was  evident  from  the  names  of  the 
villages.  "  Departement  de  la  Moselle "  was  to  be  read 
on  all  the  way-posts.  The  white  road  swarmed  with  carts 
and  waggons  and  troops  on  the  march,  while  soldiers  were 
quartered  everywhere.  In  the  neighbourhood,  which  was 
hilly  and  partly  wooded,  little  camps  were  to  be  seen  rising 
up  here  and  there,  with  horses  fastened  to  picket-posts, 
guns,  ammunition  waggons,  forage-carts,  holes  for  the  cooking 
fires,  and  soldiers  in  their  shirt-sleeves,  busied  in  the  pre- 
paration of  food. 

In  about  two  hours  we  reached  Forbach,  which  we  passed 
through  without  stopping.  In  the  streets  where  we  drove, 
we  observed  that  while  the  goods  and  trades  of  the  dif- 
ferent shops  were  described  in  French,  the  nan)es  of  the 
proprietors  were  mostly  German :  for  instance,  "  Schwarz, 
Boulanger."  Many  of  the  inhabitants  who  were  standing 
before  their  doors  saluted  the  carriages  as  they  passed  ; 
most  of  them  looked  very  cross,  which  did  not  add  to  the 
charm  of  their  appearance,  but  was  very  easily  explained, 
for  they  had  evidently  more  soldiers  quartered  on  them 
than  they  liked.     Every  window  was  full  of  blue  Prussians. 

We  went  up  hill  and  down  dale,  through  woods  and 
villages,  till  we  reached  Saint-Avoid,  where,  about  half-past 
four  o'clock,  we  were  quartered  with  the  Chancellor  in  the 
house  of  a  M.  Laity,  No.  301,  in  the  Rue  des  Charrons. 
It  was  a  one-storied  house  with  white  blinds,  and  though  it 


14  Bismarck  hi  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

had  only  five  windows  in  front,  it  went  back  a  long  way, 
and  was  tolerably  roomy.  It  opened  behind  on  a  welL 
planted  garden,  with  trim  walks  among  fruit  and  vegetables. 
The  day  before  our  arrival  the  possessor,  apparently  a 
retired  officer,  and  well-to-do,  had  gone  away  with  his  wife, 
and  had  left  an  old  woman,  who  could  speak  nothing  but 
French,  and  a  maid.  The  Minister  had  the  one  front-room ; 
the  rest  of  the  party  shared  the  rooms  opening  on  the 
passage  leading  to  the  back  parts  of  the  house.  In  half 
an  hour,  the  Bureau  was  established  in  the  first  of  these  back 
rooms,  which  served  also  as  a  sleeping-room  for  Keudell. 
The  next  room,  which  looked  out  on  the  garden,  was  given 
to  Abeken  and  me.  He  slept  in  a  bed  placed  in  a  recess 
in  the  wall.  At  the  head  of  the  bed  there  was  a  crucifix, 
and  over  the  feet  a  Madonna  with  a  bleeding  heart.  The 
people  in  the  house,  therefore,  were  thorough  Catholics. 
They  made  a  very  comfortable  bed  up  for  me  on  the  floor. 
The  Bureau  was  at  once  set  to  work ;  and  as  there  happened 
to  be  nothing  to  be  done  in  my  particular  line  I  endeavoured 
to  help  in  deciphering  some  despatches,  a  task  which  pre- 
sented no  great  difficulty. 

After  seven  we  dined  with  the  Count  in  the  little  parlour 
next  his  room,  the  window  of  which  looked  into  a  court 
prettily  ornamented  Avith  flower-beds.  The  conversation  at 
table  was  lively,  the  Minister  taking  the  lead.  He  thought 
a  surprise  not  impossible  ;  for,  as  he  had  seen  for  himself, 
our  outposts  were  only  three  English  miles  from  the  town, 
and  very  far  apart.  He  had  asked  at  an  outpost  where  the 
next  one  was,  but  the  men  did  not  know.  Afterwards  he 
remarked  that  in  his  flight  our  landlord  had  left  all  liis 
drawers  full  of  clean  linen,  and  added :  "  If  the  people 
from  the  ambulances  come  here,  they  will  cut  up  his  wife's 
fine  chemises  to  make  lint  and  bandages,  and  very  properly 


IL]  Religious  Liberty.  1 5 

too.  But  then,  of  course,  it  will  be  said  that  Count  Bismaick 
carried  them  off." 

We  then  talked  of  the  disposition  of  the  troops,  and  the 
Minister  said,  "  Steinmetz  has  shown  himself  very  self-willed 
and  disobedient.  He  will,"  said  he,  in  conclusion,  "  come 
to  grief  with  his  obstinacy,  in  spite  of  the  laurels  he  won 
at  Skalitz." 

We  had  on  the  table  cognac,  red  wine,  and  sparkling 
Mainz  wine.  Some  one  spoke  of  beer,  and  remarked  that 
we  had  none.  The  Minister  rejoined  :  "  That  is  of  no  con- 
sequence. The  wide-spread  use  of  beer  is  much  to  be 
deplored.  Beer-drinking  makes  men  stupid,  lazy,  and  im- 
potent. It  is  the  cause  of  all  the  democratic  pofe-politics 
which  people  talk  over  it.  Good  corn  brandy  would  be 
better." 

I  do  not  know,  how  or  in  what  connection  the  subject 
of  the  Mormons  came  up,  but  the  conversation  turned  on 
the  question,  whether  they  and  their  many  wives  should 
be  tolerated.  The  Count  took  the  opportunity  to  express 
his  own  opinion  on  religious  liberty,  and  declared  himself 
very  decidedly  for  it ;  only  it  must,  he  said,  be  impartially 
managed.  "  Every  man  must  be  saved  after  his  own  fashion," 
he  added,  "  I  will  one  day  agitate  this  question,  and  the 
Reichstag  will  certainly  vote  with  me.  But  the  Church 
property  must  of  course  remain  with  those  who  stand  by  the 
old  Church  which  acquired  it.  A  man  who  secedes  from 
the  Church  ought  to  be  able  to  make  a  sacrifice  for  his  con- 
viction, or  rather  for  his  unbelief.  It  does  not  ofifend  us 
when  Catholics  or  Jews  are  orthodox.  Where  Lutherans 
are  so  it  does ;  and  the  Church  is  constantly  accused  of  a 
*  persecuting  spirit '  when  she  casts  out  the  non-orthodox  ; 
but  people  consider  it  quite  en  rlgle  that  the  orthodox  shoitid 
be  persecuted  and  maligned  by  the  press  and  in  their  lives." 


1 6  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.       [Chap 

After  dinner  the  Councillors  walked  with  the  Chancellor 
in  the  garden,  whence,  at  some  little  distance,  they  saw  a 
large  building  on  which  fluttered  a  white  flag  with  the 
red  cross,  where  some  nuns  at  the  windows  were  looking 
at  us  with  spy  glasses.  It  was  probably  a  nunnery  which 
had  been  turned  into  a  hospital.  In  the  evening  one  of  the 
cipherers  expressed  great  anxiety  and  apprehension  of  a 
surprise,  and  there  was  much  consultation  as  to  what  should 
be  done  with  the  portfolios  containing  the  state  papers  and 
the  secret  ciphers.  I  tried  to  quiet  them,  and  offered  in  case 
of  necessity,  either  to  save  or  destroy  the  papers  according 
^o  circumstances. 

The  gentlemen  had,  however,  alarmed  themselves  un- 
»).ecessarily  ;  and  when  morning  and  coffee  appeared,  it  was 
found  that  the  night  had  passed  peacefully  enough.  With 
ihe  morning,  too,  there  arrived  a  green  orderly  from  Berlin 
with  despatches.  Such  messengers  have  winged  feet,  yet 
this  one  had  not  been  quicker  than  I  in  my  fright  lest  I 
uJiould  arrive  too  late.  He  had  started  on  Monday,  the 
i?th  of  August,  and  had  changed  horses  several  times,  and  yet 
It  had  taken  him  quite  four  days  and  nights  to  reach  us. 
Early  in  the  morning  I  again  assisted  the  cipherers  with 
their  work.  Later,  while  the  Chief  was  with  the  King,  I 
went  with  the  Councillors  to  see  the  fine  large  church  in  the 
town,  over  which  the  sacristan  conducted  us.  In  the  after- 
noon, when  the  Minister  rode  out,  we  inspected  the  Prussian 
park  of  artillery,  placed  on  a  hill  behind  the  town. 

The  Chancellor  returned  by  four  o'clock,  when  we  dined. 
He  had  been  a  long  way  to  find  his  two  sons,  who  were 
serving  as  privates  in  the  Dragoon  Guards,  and  he  had 
learned  that  the  German  cavalry  had  already  gone  forward 
to  the  upper  Moselle.  He  seemed  to  be  in  good  humour, 
perhaps  because  our  cause  was  prospering,  and  quite  inclined 


II.]  The  Gods  of  Greece.  17 

to  talk.  When  the  conversation  turned  on  mythology,  he 
said  that  "  he  never  could  bear  Apollo.  He  had  flayed 
Marsyas  from  conceit  and  envy,  and  for  the  same  reasons 
had  killed  Niobe's  children.  He  is,"  he  continued,  "  the 
very  type  of  a  Frenchman ;  that  is,  one  who  cannot  bear 
that  another  should  play  the  flute  as  well  or  better  than 
he.  That  he  had  sided  with  the  Trojans,  did  not  prejudice 
him  in  his  favour.  Honest  Vulcan  would  have  been  his  man, 
and  Neptune  would  have  suited  him  still  better,  perhaps 
because  of  the  Quos  ego  !  "     He  did  not  however  say  this. 

After  dinner  we  had  to  telegraph  the  following  joyful 
message  to  Berlin  :  "  By  the  7  th  August,  we  had  above 
10,000  prisoners.  The  effect  of  the  victory  at  Saarbriicken 
turns  out  to  be  much  greater  than  we  at  first  believed. 
They  left  behind  a  pontoon  train,  with  about  forty  waggons, 
nearly  10,000  blankets,  which  are  now  of  great  use  for  the 
wounded,  and  a  store  of  tobacco  worth  a  million  of  francs 
Pfalzburg  and  the  pass  over  the  Vosges  at  that  place  are. 
in  our  hands.  Bitsch  is  watched  by  a  company,  as  it  haa 
a  garrison  of  only  300  Mobile  Guards.  Our  cavalry  ia 
already  close  to  Luneville."  A  little  later  we  were  able  to 
send  another  pleasant  message,  namely,  that  the  Minister  of 
Finance  in  Paris,  evidently  in  consequence  of  the  approach 
of  the  German  army,  had  issued  a  proclamation  warning 
the  French  not  to  keep  their  money  at  home,  but  to  send 
it  all  to  the  Bank  of  France. 

The  preparation  of  a  proclamation  was  discussed,  pro- 
hibiting conscription  in  the  districts  occupied  by  German 
troops,  and  putting  an  end  to  it  for  ever.  News  came  in 
from  Madrid  that  the  Montpensier  party,  and  the  poli- 
ticians who  belonged  to  the  Liberal  Union,  as  for  instance, 
Rios  Rosas  and  Topete,  and  several  other  party  leaders, 
were  striving  with  the  greatest  eagerness  to  bring  about  the 

VOL,   I.  C 


1 8  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

immediate  convocation  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  in 
order  that  by  the  election  of  a  king  it  might  put  an  end  to 
the  provisional  government ;  that  the  Duke  of  Montpensier, 
whom  they  were  thinking  of  for  King,  was  already  in  the 
Spanish  capital ;  but  that  the  Government  was  opposing 
the  plan  with  the  greatest  determination. 

Lastly,  we  learnt  that  we  were  to  start  early  in  the 
morning,  and  that  our  next  halt  was  to  be  at  the  little 
town  of  Faulquemont.  In  the  evening  I  again  employed 
myself  in  deciphering,  and  I  was  able  to  make  out,  without 
help,  a  despatch  of  about  twenty  groups  of  figures  in  as 
many  minutes. 

On  the  13th  of  August,  we  did,  in  fact,  arrive  at  Faulque- 
mont, or,  as  it  is  now  written,  Falkenberg.  Like  that  which 
we  had  traversed  at  Saarbriicken,  the  country  through 
which  we  drove  was  hilly,  often  covered  with  brushwood, 
and  equally  full  of  martial  sights.  The  road  was  crowded 
with  trains  of  waggons,  artillery,  ambulances,  gensdarmes 
and  orderlies.  Long  lines  of  infantry  were  marching  on 
the  road  and  to  the  right  across  the  stubble  fields  to  follow 
the  course  of  the  columns,  marked  out  there  by  poles  with 
wisps  of  straw  round  them.  Sometimes  we  saw  a  man  fall 
down  in  the  ranks ;  and  here  and  there  stragglers  lay  in  the 
ditches,  for  the  August  sun  shone  fiercely  from  a  cloudless 
sky.  The  troops  who  were  before  us,  and,  latterly,  mostly 
behind  us,  were  the  84th  Regiment  (Schleswig-Holsteiners), 
and  the  36th.  At  last  we  got  out  of  the  thick  cloud  of 
yellow  dust  which  rose  from  their  steps,  and  entered  the  little 
town,  where  I  was  quartered  on  one  Schmidt,  a  baker. 
The  Minister  had  disappeared  in  the  clouds  of  dust,  and  it 
was  some  time  before  I  learned  from  one  of  the  Councillors 
remaining  in  Falkenberg  that  he  had  gone  on  with  the 
King  to  the  village  of  Herny,  five  English  miles  farther. 


II.]  The  Woman  with  One  Cow.  19 

Falkenberg  is  a  place  of  some  2000  inhabitants,  with 
only  one  tolerably  long  principal  street,  and  sundry  little 
narrow  lanes  on  either  side.  It  lies  on  the  ridge  of  a  gently- 
sloping  hill.  Nearly  the  whole  of  the  day  troops  con- 
tinued to  march  through.  Among  them  were  some  Hessian 
infantry.  The  Saxons  were  stationed  close  by.  They  sent 
their  sutlers  even  in  the  night-time  to  my  baker  to  get 
bread,  who  was  soon  left  in  consequence  without  any. 

In  the  afternoon  Prussian  hussars  brought  in  more  pri- 
soners, one  a  dark-brown  Turco,  who  had  changed  his  fez 
for  a  hat.  In  another  part  of  the  town,  near  the  town-house, 
we  came  upon  some  noisy  squabblers;  a  sutler  woman  had 
stolen  something  from  a  little  shopkeeper,  I  don't  know 
what — some  hats,  I  think — and  of  course  she  had  to  give 
them  up.  So  far  as  I  saw,  our  people  paid  for  what  they 
wanted  with  ready  money,  cioraetimes  even  more  than  was 
necessary.  Count  Hatzfeld  told  this  story  :  "When  Keudell 
and  I  were  going  along  a  bye-road,  a  woman  approached  us, 
who  with  many  tears  complained  that  the  soldiers  had  taken 
away  her  cow.  Keudell  endeavoured  to  console  her :  he 
would  see  whether  he  could  get  it  back  for  her  again  ;  and 
when  she  told  us  that  it  was  the  cuirassiers  that  had  taken 
it  away,  we  went  to  seek  them,  taking  with  us  a  little  lad  as 
guide.  He  at  last  brought  us  to  the  open  country,  but 
neither  cuirassiers  nor  cow  could  he  show  us,  and  we  re- 
turned without  having  effected  anything."  Keudell  was  to 
pay  for  the  cow. 

The  people  with  whom  I  was  quartered  were  very  polite 
and  agreeable.  They  cleared  out  for  me  the  best  of  their 
rooms,  and  though  I  begged  them  not  to  trouble  themselves 
on  my  account,  they  brought  me  a  good  breakfast  with  red 
wine,  and  coffee  in  the  French  manner,  in  a  little  bowl  with 
a  silver  spoon,  with  which  I  was  to  drink  it ;  and  this  they 

C    2 


20  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

made  me  take  in  spite  of  my  reluctance.  The  woman 
spoke  only  broken  German,  but  tlie  man  talked  fluently, 
though  in  a  German  patois,  and  with  here  and  there  a  word 
of  French,  The  pictures  in  their  rooms  showed  them  to  be 
Catholics. 

I  dined  at  the  hotel  where  the  Councillors  were  lodged, 
and  when  I  came  back  to  my  baker  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
doing  him  a  slight  service,  in  return  for  his  readiness  to 
oblige.  About  eleven  o'clock  at  night  I  heard  a  noise  below, 
which  grew  louder  and  louder.  After  a  time  the  baker's 
wife  looked  in  and  begged  me  to  stand  by  her ;  our  men, 
she  said,  wanted  to  take  food  from  them  by  force,  and  her 
husband  had  nothing  ready  yet.  I  got  up  quickly  and  found 
baker  and  bakeress  surrounded  by  Saxon  soldiers  and  sutlers, 
clamouring  noisily  for  bread,  which  I  must  do  them  the 
justice  to  admit  they  were  sorely  in  need  of,  and  that  they 
did  not  want  it  without  payment.  But  there  were  only  two 
or  three  loaves  to  be  had.  I  proposed  a  compromise.  The 
baker  was  to  give  them  each  a  large  piece  of  bread — and 
they  might  rely  on  having  forty  loaves  ready  for  them  by 
the  morning.  After  some  parley,  they  agreed,  and  the  night 
passed  without  further  disturbance.     {Vide  end  of  chapter.) 

Sunday ,  August  14. — After  luncheon,  when  Keudell  said 
he  had  paid  the  woman  for  the  cow — fifty  thalers  I  think  it 
was — we  followed  the  Minister  to  Herny.  The  sky  over 
our  heads  was  of  the  deepest  blue,  and  the  fields  reeked 
from  the  scorching  heat.  Near  a  village  on  the  left  of  the 
road  some  Hessian  infantry  held  divine  service  in  the  open 
air,  the  Catholic  soldiers  in  one  circle,  the  Protestants  a 
little  distance  off  in  another,  each  round  their  own  clergy- 
man.    The  latter  sang  the  hymn — 

"  Ein,  feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott," 

Arrived   at   Herny,  we   found  that  the  Chancellor  had 


11.]      ,  Count  Gramont  and  the  War.  2 1 

taken  up  his  abode  in  the  first  story  of  a  long,  low,  white- 
washed house,  a  little  aside  from  the  principal  street,  where 
his  window  looked  on  to  a  dung  heap.  The  house  was 
tolerably  roomy,  so  that  we  joined  him  there,  and  I  was 
again  with  Abeken.  Hatzfeld's  room  was  also  the  Bureau. 
The  King  took  up  his  quarters  with  the  pastor,  near  a  fine 
old  church  the  windows  of  which  were  filled  with  painted 
glass.  The  village  consists  of  one  broad  straggling  street, 
with  a  well-built  mairie,  which  contains  also  the  parish 
school,  and  of  houses  mostly  crowded  close  together,  look- 
ing at  the  back  into  the  little  railway  station.  In  that  we 
found  a  great  deal  of  wanton  destruction,  papers  scattered 
about,  books  torn  up,  and  such  like.  Near  it  some  soldiers 
were  guarding  two  French  prisoners.  After  four  o'clock  we 
heard  for  several  hours  the  heavy  thunder  of  artillery  from 
the  neighbourhood  of  Metz.  At  tea-time  the  Minister  said, 
"  I  did  not  think  a  month  ago  that  I  should  to-day  drink 
tea  with  you  gentlemen  in  a  peasant's  house  in  Herny." 
Amongst  other  matters  we  talked  of  Gramont,  and  the 
Count  wondered  that  this  strong,  healthy  man,  after  such 
unhappy  antecedents,  had  not  joined  a  regiment,  in  order 
to  atone  for  his  stupidity.  He  certainly  was  big  and  strong 
enough.  "  I  should  have  acted  differently  in  1866,  if  things 
had  not  gone  well  with  me,"  said  he ;  "I  should  have 
joined  a  regiment  at  once  ;  I  never  would  have  allowed 
myselfto  be  seen  alive." 

When  he  returned  to  his  room,  which  by  the  way  was 
a  low,  countrified  little  parlour  with  very  little  furniture,  I 
was  frequently  called  to  receive  orders.  It  seemed  useful 
to  enable  our  illustrated  papers  to  give  a  representation 
of  the  storming  of  the  Spicherenberg.  Then  the  assertion 
of  the  Constitutionnel  had  to  be  contradicted,  according  to 
which  the  Prussians  burned  down  everything  in  their  march 


22  Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War.     [Chap. 

through  France,  and  left  nothing  but  ruins  behind  them  ;  of 
which,  with  every  opportunity  to  know  the  facts,  we  could 
honestly  declare  we  had  seen  nothing.  Finally  it  was 
desirable  to  counteract  the  IS/eue  Freie  Presse,  which  had 
hitherto  shown  itself  to  be  friendly  to  us,  but  these  last  few 
days  its  circulation  had,  according  to  the  Constitittioftnel, 
suffered,  perhaps  because  of  its  partiality  to  the  Prussians, 
and  perhaps  because  there  was  something  in  the  report  that 
the  Hungarian  French  party  had  bought  the  journal  and 
had  given  it  another  tone.  "  Say  this,"  said  the  Chan- 
cellor, concluding  his  directions  with  regard  to  another 
article  of  the  ConsHtutionnel,  "  that  there  has  never  been  the 
least  question  in  the  Ministerial  Council  of  ceding  Saar- 
briicken  to  the  French,  the  matter  not  having  been  men- 
tioned except  in  confidential  communications ;  and  of  course 
a  national  minister — one  in  sympathy  with  the  national 
feeling — could  not  therefore  entertain  it.  Yet  this  rumour 
may  have  a  little  foundation  :  it  may  be  a  misunderstanding, 
Dr  a  perversion  of  the  fact  that  the  question  was  mooted  and 
iliscussed  in  the  Ministerial  Council  before  1864  whether 
it  might  not  be  advisable  to  make  over  the  coal-mines  at 
Saarbriicken,  which  are  national  property,  to  companies.  I 
proposed  to  pay  the  cost  of  the  Schleswig-Holstein  war  in 
this  way,  but  the  thing  came  to  nothing  in  consequence  of 
the  King's  aversion  to  any  such  transaction." 

Monday,  August  15,  seemed  to  begin  all  at  once  and 
unusually  early.  At  daybreak,  by  four  o'clock,  the  attendant 
called  out  in  the  room  where  Abeken  and  I  slept,  "  His 
Excellency  is  going  off  directly ;  the  gentlemen  will  please 
to  get  ready."  I  got  up  at  once  and  packed  up.  It  was, 
however,  a  mistake.  By  the  "gentlemen"  only  the  Coun- 
cillors were  meant.  About  six  o'clock  the  Chancellor  started 
with  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen.     Abeken,  Keudell,  and  Hatz- 


II.]  A  Peasant  Family  in  Lorraine.  23 

feld  followed  him  on  horseback.  We  others  remained  in 
Herny,  where  there  was  plenty  to  do,  and  where,  when  we 
had  finished  our  work,  we  could  make  ourselves  useful  in 
other  ways.  Thick  yellowish-gray  clouds  of  dust  were 
rising  from  long  lines  of  infantry  passing  through  the  village  ; 
amongst  others,  three  Prussian  regiments,  partly  Pomeranian, 
almost  all  large,  fine  men.  The  band  played  "  Heil  dir  im 
Siegerkranz,"  and  "  Ich  bin  ein  Preusse."  One  could  see  in 
the  eyes  of  these  men  the  burning  thirst  they  were  enduring, 
so  we  organised,  as  quickly  as  possible,  a  little  fire-extin- 
guisher's brigade.  We  carried  the  water  in  pails  and  jugs, 
and  reached  it  out  to  them  as  they  marched  along— for 
they  dare  not  stop — in  their  ranks,  so  that  at  least  one 
here  and  there  could  get  a  mouthful  to  carry  him  on  a  bit, 
either  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand  or  in  the  little  tin  cup  which 
he  carried  by  his  side. 

Our  host  was  named  Matthiote;  his  wife,  Marie.  He 
spoke  a  little  German;  she,  only  the  hardly-intelHgible 
French  dialect  of  this  district  of  Lothringen.  Neither  of 
them  showed  any  disposition  to  oblige,  but  I  took  no  notice. 
Nor  did  the  Minister  know  anything  about  it.  He  had, 
before  our  arrival,  only  had  dealings  with  the  liian,  and  he 
"  was  not  a  bad  fellow."  "  He  asked  me,"  he  went  on  to  say, 
"  when  he  brought  up  my  dinner,  whether  I  would  not,  for 
once,  try  his  wine.  When  I  wished  to  pay  him,  he  charged 
only  for  the  dinner,  but  nothing  for  the  wine,  which  was, 
moreover,  very  drinkable.  He  enquired  about  the  future 
boundary,  and  thought  they  would  then  be  better  off  as  to 
taxes." 

Of  the  other  people  in  the  village  very  little  was  to  be 
seen ;  those  whom  we  did  meet  were  polite  and  pleasant. 
An  old  peasant  woman,  into  whose  house  I  went  to  beg  a 
light  for  my  cigar,  followed  me  into  her  room  and  showed 


24  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

me,  on  the  wall,  a  photograph  of  her  son  in  a  French 
uniform.  Weeping,  she  blamed  the  Emperor  for  the  war. 
lUtr  pativre  gar(on  was  certainly  killed  already,  she  thought, 
and  she  would  not  be  comforted. 

Our  Councillors  returned  from  their  ride  about  three 
o'clock  ;  the  Minister  was  rather  later.  Meanwhile  Count 
Henckel,  a  stately  dark-bearded  gentleman,  and  Bamberger, 
a  member  of  the  Reichstag,  had  arrived  ;  also  a  Herr  von 
Oldberg,  who  was  to  be  Prefect,  or  something  of  that  kind, 
so  that  we  begin  to  feel  that  we  are  masters  of  the  con- 
quered land,  and  are  settling  down  in  it.  How  much  of  the 
country  it  is  intended  to  keep  had  been  told  me  in  the 
morning  by  a  telegram  sent  eastwards,  in  the  deciphering 
of  which  I  had  been  helpful,  and  which  had  said  plainly 
that,  God  willing,  we  should  keep  Elsass. 

As  we  learned  at  dinner,  the  King  and  Chancellor  had 
made  a  sort  of  reconnoitering  tour  to  within  three  English 
miles  of  Metz,  and  had  seen  General  von  Steinmetz.  The 
French  army  stationed  outside  the  fortress  had  been  violently 
attacked  by  him  the  day  before  near  Courcelles,  and  driven 
into  the  town  and  forts.  The  enemy's  loss  was  estimated 
at  4000  men  ;  they  found  forty  dead  "  Red-breeches  "  in  one 
ditch,  most  of  them  shot  through  the  head. 

In  the  evening,  as  we  sat  on  a  bench  near  the  house 
door,  the  Minister  came  up  for  a  moment.  Whilst  he 
talked  with  us  he  asked  me  for  a  cigar,  but  Councillor 
Taglioni  (one  of  the  King's  cipherers,  formerly  in  the 
Embassy  at  Paris,  now  dead)  was  quicker  than  I  in  getting 
it  out  of  his  pocket.  The  more's  the  pity,  for  my  weed 
was  a  great  deal  better  than  his. 

At  tea  the  Chancellor  said,  among  other  things,  that  he 
was  twice  in  danger  of  being  shot  by  the  sentinels — at  San 
Sebastian  and  also  at  Schliisselburg,  and  from  what  he  said 


II]  The  Sentry  mid  the  Snowdrop.  25 

we  discovered  that  he  understands  Spanish  a  little.  The 
Schlusselburg  affair  suggested  to  him  the  following  anecdote, 
which  I  relate  as  having  happened  to  himself,  but  as  I  did 
not  hear  every  word,  I  cannot  say  for  certain  that  it  did  not 
really  happen  to  some  one  else.  The  Count  was  once 
walking  in  the  summer  garden  in  Petersburg  with  the  Em- 
peror. They  came  to  an  open  lawn,  in  the  middle  of  which 
stood  a  sentry.  Bismarck  took  the  liberty  of  inquiring  what 
he  was  there  for.  The  Emperor  did  not  know,  and  turned 
to  the  adjutant,  and  he  did  not  know.  Then  they  nsked 
the  sentinel,  who  said  nothing  but  "  Ordered  " — Bismarck 
gave  the  Russian  word  for  it.  This  was  no  help,  and  the 
adjutant  was  directed  to  make  further  enquiries  of  the 
guard  and  the  officers.  He  always  got  the  same  answer, 
"  Ordered."  Search  was  made  in  the  military  records,  but 
nothing  found  —there  always  had  been  a  sentinel  there.  At 
last  they  found  an  old  servant,  who  remembered  that  his 
father,  also  an  old  servant,  had  once  told  him  that  on  that 
spot  the  Empress  Katherine  had  found  an  early  snowdrop, 
and  had  given  orders  to  protect  it  from  being  plucked. 
There  was  no  better  way  of  doing  so  than  by  placing  a 
sentry  there,  and  placed  he  was  at  once. 

He  then  spoke  of  the  feeling  of  aversion  to  us  which 
existed  in  Holland,  and  the  causes  of  it ;  that  it  might  be 
traced  back  to  the  Minister  van  Guylen,  who  succeeded  in 
making  himself  disagreeable  as  ambassador  in  Berlin,  and 
who  was,  in  consequence,  not  honoured  quite  as  he  wished, 
so  that  he  returned  to  Holland  with  unkindly  feelings  to  us. 

We  were  told  that  we  were  to  proceed  next  day  to  Pont- 
a-Mousson,  and  as  we  turned  in  for  the  night,  I  thought  to 
pay  Abeken  a  compliment  by  telling  him  that  the  day's  ride 
was  quite  astonishing  for  one  of  his  years  ;  he  really  ought 
to  be  congratulated.    But  he  did  not  take  it  altogether  well ; 


26  Bismarck  hi  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

he  did  not  like  to  appear  old,  and  I  vowed  to  myself  quietly 
that  in  future  I  would  be  more  sparing  of  my  surprise  and 
my  good  wishes. 

On  August  1 6,  at  half-past  nine,  a  lovely,  but  warm 
morning,  we  set  off  again.  I  drove  in  the  Councillors' 
carriage,  as  some  of  them  rode,  and  by  me  sat  Landrath 
Jansen,  one  of  the  Free  Conservative  party  in  the  Reichstag ; 
a  good-looking,  pleasant  man,  who  had  come  to  take  part  in 
the  administration  of  the  conquered  district.  The  journey 
took  us  over  a  broad  undulating  plain,  to  the  chain  of  hills 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  Moselle,  among  which  stood  out 
the  cone  of  the  Mousson,  with  its  extensive  ruins.  We 
drove  on  an  excellent  road,  through  some  more  villages 
with  handsome  mairies  and  schools.  It  was  everywhere 
full  of  life  and  bustle,  with  the  infantry  soldiers,  the  detach- 
ments of  Saxon  horsemen  in  bright  blue,  and  all  kinds  of 
carriages  and  carts.  Here  and  there,  too,  there  were  little 
camps. 

At  last  about  three  o'clock  we  drove  over  the  slope  of  the 
hill,  and  down  into  the  valley  of  the  Moselle  towards  Pont-k- 
Mousson.  It  is  a  town  of  about  8000  inhabitants,  stretching 
along  both  sides  of  the  river,  over  which  is  a  beautiful  stone 
bridge,  and  with  a  great  old  church  on  the  right  bank.  We 
crossed  the  bridge  and  came  into  a  market-place  surrounded 
with  arcades,  hotels,  and  cafes,  and  an  old  town-house,  before 
which  the  Saxon  infantry  were  lying  on  straw  spread  on  the 
ground.  Here  we  turned  into  the  Rue  Saint-Laurent,  where 
the  Minister,  with  Abeken,  Keudell,  and  Count  Bismarck- 
Bohlen,  were  quartered  in  a  small  mansion  at  the  corner  of 
the  Rue  Raugraf,  which  was  covered  with  a  red-blossomeJ 
climbing  plant.  His  involuntary  host  was,  so  we  heard,  an 
old  gentleman  who  had  gone  off  with  Madame  on  his  travels. 
The  Chancellor  took  possession  of  the  apartments  on  the 


II.]  An  EthnograpJiical  Cabinet.  27 

first  floor,  which  looked  out  on  the  Uttle  garden  at  the  back. 
The  Bureau  was  estabhshed  on  the  ground-floor,  in  a  back 
room,  and  a  smaller  room  next  it  served  as  the  dining-room. 
The  Landrath,  I,  Secretary  Bolsing,  Willisch,  and  St.  Blan- 
quart,  the  other  temporary  cipherer,  were  about  ten  doors 
off",  in  the  Rue  Saint-Laurent,  in  a  house  which  seemed  to 
be  inhabited  only  by  some  French  ladies  and  their  maid-ser- 
vants. I  slept  with  Blanquart,  or  to  give  him  his  full  title 
for  once,  Hofrath  St.  Blanquart,  in  a  room  which  a  chance 
visitor  might  have  called  an  omnium  gatherum  of  memorials 
from  every  country ;  dried  flowers,  wreaths  of  roses,  palm 
branches;  photographs  from  the  city  of  David,  also  Vino 
di  Gerusaleffime,  a  darabuka,  cocoa-nuts,  corals,  cray-fish, 
sponges  from  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  a  sword-fish,  and  other 
monsters  with  gaping  jaws  and  sharp  teeth  ;  three  German 
tobacco  pipes,  next  which  came  three  Oriental  cousins  of 
theirs — a  tschibbuk,  a  nargileh,  and  a  schischi ;  then  a 
Spanish  Madonna  with  half-a-dozen  swords  in  her  breast, 
reminding  one  of  a  bull  fight ;  antelopes'  horns,  pictures  of 
saints  from  Moscow,  and,  lastly,  framed  and  glazed,  a  French 
newspaper,  with  an  article  in  it  obliterated  by  a  Russian 
censor  of  the  press.  In  short,  a  complete  ethnographical 
cabinet. 

We  remained  here  only  long  enough  to  make  ourselves 
decent.  Then  we  hastened  to  the  Bureau.  On  the  way  we 
saw  different  proclamations  nailed  up  at  the  corners  of  the 
streets ;  one,  of  our  victory  of  the  1 4th,  a  second,  about  the 
abolition  of  the  conscription,  and  a  third  in  which  the  mayor 
of  Pont-a-Mousson  exhorted  the  inhabitants  to  circum- 
spection,— which  must  have  been  issued  the  day  before  the 
attack  of  the  civilians  in  this  place  on  our  soldiers,  or  even 
before.  The  inhabitants  were  also  ordered  by  our  people, 
under  threat  of  punishment,  to  put  lights  in  all  the  windows 


zS  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

at  night,  and  to  leave  open  all  shutters  and  doors,  and  to 
deliver  up  all  their  weapons  at  the  town-house. 

The  distant  thunder  of  cannon  was  heard  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  afternoon,  and  in  the  evening,  at  dinner, 
we  learnt  that  there  had  again  been  a  hardly-contested 
action  near  Metz ;  upon  which,  some  one  remarked  that 
perhaps  we  should  not  succeed  in  preventing  the  French 
from  accomplishing  their  object,  and  withdrawing  to  Verdun. 
To  this  the  Minister  replied  jestingly,  "  Molk,  the  hard- 
hearted reprobate,  said  that  such  a  mishap  would  not  be  to 
be  lamented,  for  then  we  should  have  them  safe."  Which 
meant,  I  suppose,  that  then  we  should  shut  them  in  on 
every  side,  and  prevent  their  further  retreat, — in  fact,  anni- 
hilate them.  Of  the  other  sayings  of  the  Chancellor  on 
this  occasion,  I  give  only  this,  that  he  said  "  The  little  black 
Saxons,  who  looked  so  intelligent,"  had  pleased  him  greatly, 
during  the  visit  he  had  paid  them  the  day  before.  He  meant 
the  dark  green  riflemen,  or  the  loSth  regiment,  with  the 
same  colour  of  uniform.  "They  seem  to  be  sharp,  nimble 
fellows,  and  we  ought  to  mention  this  in  the  public  press." 

The  following  night  I  was  awakened  several  times  by  the 
measured  tread  of  infantry  marching  through,  and  the  roll- 
ing and  rumbling  of  heavy  wheels  over  the  uneven  pavement. 
As  we  learnt  afterwards  in  the  Bureau,  they  were  Hessian 
soldiers.  We  were  told  that  the  Minister  had  already,  about 
four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  ridden  off  towards  Metz, 
where  a  great  battle  was  expected  to-day  or  to-morrow.  As 
there  was  every  probability  of  my  having  little  or  nothing 
to  do,  I  seized  the  opportunity  to  take  a  walk  with  Willisch 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  town.  We  first  went  up  the 
river,  over  the  pontoon  bridge  made  by  the  Saxons,  who 
had  established  in  the  meadows  here  a  great  park  of  artillery 
in  which  were  to  be  seen  waggons  from  the  villages  near 


11,1  Pont-a-Mousson.  29 

Dresden.  We  swam  across  the  clear  deep  stream,  bordered 
on  both  banks  by  willows,  and  back  again.  Then  we  visited 
the  church  on  the  right  bank,  where  we  were  surprised  to 
find  an  extremely  fine  Sepulchre  with  a  representation  of  the 
sleeping  guards.  The  latter,  especially,  were,  in  altitude  and 
expression,  true  masterpieces  of  the  time  of  the  transition 
from  the  Middle  Ages  to  the  Renaissance. 

Returning  to  the  Bureau  we  found  it  was  still  holiday 
there.  I  had  time,  therefore,  to  pay  a  visit  with  Jansen  and 
Willisch  to  the  top  of  the  Mousson  and  its  ruins.  A  steep 
path  led  up  through  the  vineyards  wliich  cover  the  side  of 
the  cone  next  to  the  town  and  the  river.  From  the  ruins 
of  the  castle,  which  are  so  extensive  that  a  tolerable-sized 
village  once  nestled  there,  we  had  a  splendid  view  of  t!ie 
river  valley,  with  its  hills.  Most  of  these  regularly-shaped 
heights  are  planted  with  vines.  The  Moselle  winds  along, 
about  as  broad  as  the  Saale  at  Giebichenstein,  light-blue 
upon  the  green  meadows.  Villages  and  mansions  are 
scattered  through  the  valley  and  on  the  sides  of  the  hills. 
Down  below  on  the  white  road,  like  swarms  of  ants,  were 
columns  of  soldiers  with  their  gleaming  helms,  caps  and  gun- 
barrels  ;  behind  them  thick  clouds  of  dust ;  now  and  then 
the  sound  of  a  drum  or  a  signal-horn.  All  round  us  every- 
thing was  lonely  and  quiet.  Even  the  wind,  which  certainly 
blows  strong  enough  up  here  sometimes,  held  its  breath. 

We  descended  once  more  to  the  confusion  of  war  time 
and  to  our  house  in  the  Rue  Raugraf,  but  only  to  hear  that 
the  Chancellor  had  not  returned.  News  had  been  received 
of  a  battle  the  day  before  to  the  west  of  Metz.  We  heard 
of  the  heavy  losses  of  our  side,  and  that  Bazaine  had  with 
great  difficulty  been  prevented  from  breaking  through.  Tiie 
chief  scene  of  the  fighting  seemed  to  have  been  the  village 
of  Mars-la-Tour.     The  Chassepot  balls  literally  fell  like  a 


30  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

shower  of  hail.  A  Cuirassier  regiment,  so  it  was  said  then, 
with  an  exaggeration  not  uncommon  in  such  cases,  had  been 
almost  annihilated,  and  the  dragoons  of  the  guard  had  also 
suffered  severely.  There  was  no  division  whose  battalions 
had  not  had  terrible  losses.  To-day,  however,  when  we 
would  have  the  superiority  of  force,  as  the  French  had 
yesterday,  a  victory  might  be  expected  if  the  French 
attempted  to  advance. 

This,  however,  seemed  not  quite  certain.  Consequently 
we  were  rather  uneasy — no  sitting  still,  no  steady  thinking 
was  possible ;  as  in  a  fever,  certain  thoughts  were  constantly 
recurring.  On  going  to  the  market  and  to  the  bridge  we 
found  the  slightly  wounded  gradually  dropping  in  on  foot, 
those  badly  wounded  in  waggons.  Along  the  road  from 
Metz  we  met  a  long  line  of  about  one  hundred  and  twenty 
prisoners.  They  were  chiefly  small,  meagre  men,  but  still 
there  were  amongst  them  some  well-grown,  broad-shouldered 
fellows — Guards,  recognisable  by  the  white  cord  on  the 
breast.  Coming  back  from  the  market  we  went  into  the 
garden  at  the  back  of  the  Bureau,  where,  on  the  left  hand, 
in  a  corner  not  far  from  the  house,  "  the  dog  was  buried,' 
the  dog  of  Herr  Aubert,  who  was,  apparently,  our  landlord, 
and  who  erected  a  stone  in  memory  of  the  departed,  with 
the  following  touching  inscription  : 

GIRARD  AUBERT'S  EPITAPH  ON  HIS  DOG. 

Ici  tu  gis,  ma  vieille  amie, 
"  Tu  n'es  done  plus  pour  mes  vieux  jours. 

O  toi,  ma  Diane  cherie, 
Je  te  pleurerai  toujours. 

At  last,  about  six  o'clock,  the  Chancellor  came  back.  No 
great  battle  had  taken  place  to-day,  but  something  would 
most  likely  happen  next  morning.     The  Chief  told  us  at 


II.]  The  Chancellor  mid  the  Doctor.  3 1 

table,  that  he  had  been  to  visit  his  eldest  son,  Count  Herbert, 
who  had  been  wounded  by  a  shot  in  the  upper  part  of  the 
thigh  during  a  cavalry  attack  at  Mars-la-Tour,  and  who  was 
lying  in  the  field  hospital  of  Mariaville.  The  Minister, 
riding  about,  at  last  found  it  in  a  farmyard  at  the  top  of  a 
hill,  where  were  also  a  considerable  number  of  other  wounded 
men.  They  were  left  in  the  hands  of  a  doctor  who  could 
not  contrive  to  get  water  for  them,  and  who,  from  a  kind  of 
prudery,  refrained  from  taking  the  hens  and  turkeys  which 
were  running  about  the  yard  for  the  use  of  the  sick.  "  He 
said  he  dare  not,"  continued  the  Minister.  "  Friendly  re- 
presentations made  to  him  were  no  use.  Then  I  threatened, 
first  to  shoot  the  hens  with  a  revolver,  and  afterwards  gave 
him  twenty  francs  with  which  he  could  buy  fifteen  of  them. 
At  last  I  remembered  that  I  was  a  Prussian  general,  and  I 
told  him  so.  Upon  which,  he  listened  to  me.  But  the  water 
I  was  obliged  to  look  for  myself,  and  get  it  taken  to  them 
in  barrels." 

Meantime  the  American,  General  Sheridan,  had  entered 
the  town.  He  came  from  Chicago,  was  staying  in  the 
market-square  in  the  Croix  Blanche,  and  wanted  an  interview 
with  our  Chancellor.  I  waited  upon  him  by  the  Count's 
wish,  and  said  that  he  would  expect  him  in  the  course  of  the 
evening.  The  general,  a  little  corpulent  gentleman  of  about 
forty-five,  with  a  dark  moustache  and  a  tuft,  spoke  a  most 
decided  Yankee  dialect.  He  had  with  him  his  adjutant, 
Forsythe,  and  as  interpreter,  MacLean,  a  journalist,  who 
was  also  war  correspondent  for  the  New  York  World. 

In  the  night,  from  our  room,  we  heard  again  the  heavy 
tramp  of  soldiers  marching  through  the  town,  and  we  after- 
wards found  they  were  Saxons. 

Next  morning  they  told  me  in  the  Bureau  that  the  King 
and  the  Minister  had  already  driven  out  about  three  o'clock. 


32  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

There  was  fighting  again  almost  on  the  battle-field  of  the 
1 6th,  and  it  seemed  as  if  matters  were  coming  to  a  crisis. 
As  may  be  easily  imagined,  we  were  more  excited  by  this 
news  than  any  time  before  in  these  last  days.  Restless  and 
impatient  to  know  what  was  going  on,  we  started  to  walk 
in  the  direction  of  Metz,  and  arrived  in  a  state  of  mental 
and  bodily  stew,  at  a  spot  about  two  miles  and  a  half  from 
Pont-k-Mousson.  On  the  road  we  met  some  who  were 
slightly  wounded,  walking — some  singly,  some  in  pairs,  some 
in  larger  bodies — to  the  town.  Many  still  carried  their 
muskets;  others  were  supporting  themselves  with  sticks,  and 
one  had  enveloped  himself  in  the  red-lined  cloak  of  a  French 
cavalry  soldier.  They  had  taken  part  in  the  action  the  day 
before  at  Mars-la-Tour,  and  Gorze.  About  the  fight  which 
was  going  on  this  day  they  bring  reports,  good  and  bad, 
which  were  repeated  in  the  town  with  exaggerations.  At 
last,  good  news  got  the  upper  hand,  but  even  when  the 
evening  was  far  advanced  nothing  absolutely  certain  was 
known.  We  dined  without  our  Chief,  for  whom  we  waited 
in  vain  till  past  midnight  At  last,  however,  we  heard  that 
he  along  with  Sheridan  and  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen  was  with 
the  King  at  Rezonville. 

Friday,  August  19. — When  Ave  knew  for  certain  that  the 
Germans  had  been  victorious  the  day  before,  Abeken, 
Keudell,  Hatzfeld  and  I,  drove  towards  the  battle-fields. 
Our  road  took  us  at  first  between  the  Italian  poplars  on  the 
chausse'e  through  the  pleasant  valley  of  the  Moselle.  On 
our  right  hand  was  the  shimmer  of  the  stream,  on  the  left 
were  vineyards,  with  villas  and  pretty  villages,  and  ruined 
castles,  showing  themselves  above  the  now  widening,  now 
narrowing  levels  of  the  valley.  We  passed  by  Venditjres, 
ArnaviUe,  and  Noveant.  Then  we  made  a  bend  to  the 
left  up  to  Gorze,  a  little  town,  which  consists  almost  entirely 


IL]  To  the  Battle-field.  33 

of  a  long  narrow  street  running  through  a  hollow  in  the 
chain  of  hills  on  this  bank  of  the  river.  The  Councillors 
here  left  the  carriage,  to  proceed  on  horseback.  I  and  our 
faithful  Theiss  tried  to  drive  our  conveyance  through  the 
crowd  of  vehicles  which  had  got  themselves  into  the  narrow 
street,  but  it  was  impossible.  From  our  side  came  rack- 
waggons  with  hay,  straw,  wood,  and  baggage ;  from  the 
other  side  vehicles  of  every  kind  with  the  wounded  from 
the  field  and  munition  carts,  so  that  for  some  time  we  were 
quite  stuck  fast.  The  little  Geneva  flags  on  nearly  all  the 
houses  showed  that  they  were  turned  into  lazarettes,  and  at 
almost  all  the  windows  were  men  with  their  heads  bound  up 
or  their  arms  in  slings. 

After  about  an  hour,  the  stoppage  relaxed  and  we  drove 
very  slowly  on,  and  after  a  time  got  out  on  to  the  plateau 
sidewards  from  the  town.  Here  we  went  first  through  a 
wood,  where  we  were  overtaken  by  a  severe  thunderstorm 
with  heavy  rain,  then  out  on  a  wide  undulating  plain,  with 
stubble  fields  divided  by  roads,  mostly  planted  with  German 
poplars.  In  the  distance  to  the  right  more  villages  could 
be  seen,  and  beyond  hills  and  dales  with  greenwood. 

Not  far  from  Gorze  the  road  bends  downwards  by  a 
gentle  slope  to  the  right,  which  would  have  brought  us  to 
Rezonville  in  rather  over  half  an  hour,  where  I  was  to  meet 
the  Minister  and  those  of  our  party  who  were  riding.  But 
my  map  gave  me  no  information  about  the  villages  and 
roads  hereabouts.  The  road  to  the  left  as  well  as  that  to 
the  right  was,  so  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  quite  deserted. 
I  thought  we  should  come  out  by  it  somewhat  too  near 
Metz,  and  so  I  continued  to  drive  along  the  main  road,  which 
brought  us  first  to  a  solitary  farm,  where  house,  barn,  and 
stable  were  full  of  the  wounded,  and  then  to  Mars-la-Tour. 

Immediately  after  passing  Gorze  we  came  upon  traces  of 

VOL.    I.  D 


34  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

battle;  ditches  ploughed  by  cannon  balls,  branches  torn 
from  the  trees  by  shot,  and  a  few  dead  horses.  Further  on 
there  were  more ;  in  some  places  we  counted  two  or  three 
close  together,  and  in  another  there  was  a  heap  of  eight 
such  carcasses.  Most  of  them  were  frightfully  swollen  and 
their  legs  were  stretched  up  in  the  air,  with  their  heads  lying 
limp  on  the  ground.  Near  Mars-la-Tour  there  was  a  Saxon 
camp.  The  battle  of  the  i6th,  as  it  appeared,  had  done 
litde  harm  to  the  village ;  only  one  house  was  burned  down. 
I  asked  a  lieutenant  of  Uhlans  here  where  Rezonville  was. 
He  did  not  know.  "  Where  is  the  King  ?  "  "  At  a  place 
about  six  (English)  miles  from  here,"  was  the  answer.  "  Out 
there,"  said  the  oflficer,  pointing  towards  the  east.  A  peasant 
woman,  who  tried  to  show  us  where  Rezonville  lay,  also 
pointed  in  that  direction,  so  we  drove  on  straight  along  a 
road  which  brought  us  after  a  time  to  the  village  of  Vion- 
ville.  Just  before  we  reached  that  place  I  stumbled  on  the 
first  of  those  killed  in  this  fight — a  Prussian  musketeer  lying 
between  the  ditches  on  the  edge  of  the  road  and  a  stubble 
field.  His  face  was  as  black  as  a  Turco's,  and  his  body 
fearfully  swollen.  All  the  houses  in  the  village  were  full  of 
badly  wounded  soldiers ;  German  and  French  doctors  were 
moving  along  the  road,  and  ambulance  men  with  the  Geneva 
Cross  hurried  backwards  and  forwards. 

I  determined  to  wait  here  for  the  Minister  and  the 
Councillors,  for  I  thought  they  would  certainly  come  to 
this  place,  and  that  probably  before  long.  I  walked  to  the 
battle-field  through  a  narrow  path  on  the  left  side  of  the 
road,  where,  in  a  ditch,  a  man's  leg  which  had  been  cut 
off  lay  under  a  mass  of  bloody  rags.  About  four  hundred 
paces  from  the  village  I  came  to  two  ditches  about  300  feet 
long,  running  parallel  to  each  other,  neither  wide  nor  deep, 
which  m*en  were  still  digging,  and  near  them  great  heaps  of 
dead  bodies,  French  and  German,  huddled  together.    Some 


II.]  After  the  Battle.  35 

were  half-dressed,  most  of  them  still  in  uniform,  all  black- 
ened and  frightfully  swollen  from  the  heat.  There  must 
have  been  250  bodies,  which  had  been  brought  together 
here,  and  carts  were  still  arriving  with  more.  Many  others 
had,  no  doubt,  already  been  buried.  Farther  on  towards 
Metz  the  battle-field  sloped  upwards  a  little,  and  here  more 
seem  to  have  fallen  than  elsewhere.  The  ground  was  strewn 
with  French  caps,  German  helmets,  knapsacks,  arms  and 
uniforms,  linen,  shoes,  and  papers,  all  strewn  about.  Among 
the  furrows  of  the  potato-field  lay  some  single  bodies,  some 
on  their  faces,  some  on  their  backs ;  one  had  lost  the  whole 
of  his  left  leg,  to  a  span  above  the  knee ;  another,  half  his 
head  ;  some  had  the  right  arm  stretched  stiff  towards  the 
sky.  Here  and  there  we  came  upon  a  single  grave  marked 
by  a  little  cross  made  of  the  wood  of  a  cigar  box  and  tied 
together  with  string,  or  by  the  bayonet  from  a  Chassepot. 
The  odour  from  the  dead  bodies  was  most  perceptible,  and 
at  times,  when  the  wind  blew  from  the  direction  of  a  heap 
of  horses,  quite  unbearable. 

It  was  time  to  go  back  to  the  carriage,  and  I  had  had 
quite  enough  of  this  picture  of  the  battle-field.  I  took 
another  road,  but  here,  too,  I  had  to  pass  heaps  of  the 
dead  ;  this  time,  "  Red-breeches  "  only,  heaps  of  discarded 
clothing,  shirts,  shoes,  papers,  and  letters  ;  prayer-books  and 
books  of  devotion.  Near  some  dead  bodies  lay  whole 
packets  of  letters  which  the  poor  fellows  had  carried  with 
them  in  their  knapsacks.  I  took  two  or  three  of  them  as 
memorials,  two  of  them  German  letters  from  one  Anastasia 
Stampf,  from  Scherrweiler,  near  Schlettstadt,  which  I  found 
beside  a  French  soldier,  who  must  have  been  stationed  at 
Caen  just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  One  was  dated 
from  "25,  hay  month,  1870"  (July),  and  concluded  with  the 
words,  "  We  commend  thee  always  to  Mary's  holy  keeping." 

D    2 


^6  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap 

Wlien  I  got  back  to  the  carriage  the  Minister  had  not  yet 
arrived,  and  it  was  four  o'clock.  We  now  turned  round  and 
took  a  nearer  way  back  to  Gorze,  and  I  saw  that  we  had 
driven  round  the  two  long  sides  of  an  acute-angled  triangle, 
instead  of  choosing  the  shortest  route.  Here  we  met 
Keudell,  to  whom  I  explained  our  mist^ake  and  the  unfortu- 
nate roundabout  road  we  had  taken.  He  had  been  with 
Abeken  and  Count  Hatzfeld  with  the  Chief,  in  Rezonville. 
While  the  battle  of  the  i8th  was  raging,  the  decisive  struggle 
taking  place  on  Gravelotte,  Bismarck  had  advanced  with 
the  King  rather  too  far,  and  for  a  little  time  they  were 
in  some  danger.  Afterwards  he,  single-handed,  had  been 
carrying  water  to  the  badly  wounded.  At  nine  o'clock  in 
the  evening  I  saw  him  safe  and  sound  in  Pont-k-Mousson, 
where  we  all  met  together  once  more  at  supper.  The  con- 
versation at  table  turned  naturally  on  the  two  last  battles, 
and  the  gain  and  loss  which  accompanied  them  rhe 
French  had  left  masses  of  people  on  the  field.  The  Minister 
had  seen  their  Guards  laid  down  at  Gravelotte  in  rows  and 
heaps.  But  our  losses,  too,  were,  he  said,  very  great.  Those 
of  the  1 6th  of  August  were  only  now  known.  "A  number 
of  Prussian  families  will  be  thrown  into  mourning,"  remarked 
the  Chief.  "  Wesdehlen  and  Reuss  are  laid  in  one  grave ; 
Wedell,  dead ;  von  Finkenstein,  dead ;  Rahden  (Lucca's 
husband),  shot  through  both  cheeks ;  a  great  number  of 
commanders  of  regiments  and  battalions  killed  or  severely 
wounded.  The  whole  field  at  Mars-la-Tou^  was  yesterday 
still  white  and  blue  with  dead  Cuirassiers  and  Dragoons." 
In  explanation  of  this  remark  we  learned,  that  a  great 
cavalry  attack  had  been  made,  near  that  village,  on  the 
French  who  were  pressing  forward  in  the  direction  of 
Verdun ;  that  though  this  attack  had  been  repulsed  by 
tlie  enemy's  infantry  in  the  style  of  Balaklava,  it  had  so 
fiir  been  successful,    that    it    had  arrested   the  enemy,  till 


II.]  The  Battle.  37 

reinforcements  reached  us.  The  sons  of  the  Chancellor 
had  been  present  at  this  action,  and  had  displayed  great 
bravery ;  the  eldest  had  received  no  less  than  three  shots, 
one  through  the  breast  of  his  coat,  another  on  his  watch, 
and  a  third  through  the  fleshy  part  of  the  thigh.  The 
youngest  seemed  to  have  .come  through  it  unhurt ;  and  the 
Chief  related  with  manifest  pride,  that  Count  Bill  in  the 
retreat  had,  with  his  strong  arms,  dragged  out  of  the  fray 
one  of  his  comrades  who  was  wounded  in  the  leg,  and 
ridden  off  with  him  slung  across  his  horse,  till  they  got 
assistance.  On  the  i8th.  still  more  German  blood  was 
shed,  but  we  had  won  the  victory  and  attained  the  object 
of  this  destructive  war.  By  nightfall  Bazaine's  army  was 
decisively  driven  back  on  Metz,  and  the  officers  who  were 
taken  prisoners  themselves  admitted  to  the  Minister  that  it 
was  all  over  with  them.  The  Saxons,  who  on  the  two  pre- 
vious days  had  made  very  stiff  marches,  and  had  reached  a 
position  to  take  effective  part  in  the  fight  at  the  village 
Saint-Privat,  stood  now  across  the  road  to  Thionville,  and 
thus  Metz  was  entirely  surrounded  by  our  troops. 

The  Chancellor,  as  it  appeared,  had  not  approved  of 
some  of  the  measures  of  the  military  in  these  two  fights. 
Among  other  things,  he  said  of  Steinmetz,  "  that  he  had 
made  a  bad  use  of  the  really  prodigious  bravery  of  our 
troops — a  blood-spendthrift ! "  He  spoke  with  vehement 
indignation  of  the  barbarous  manner  in  which  the  French 
waged  war ;  they  had  fired,  it  was  said,  on  the  Geneva  Cross 
flag,  and  even  on  the  bearer  of  a  flag  of  truce. 

The  Minister  seemed  to  have  quickly  got  on  very  good 
terms  with  Sheridan ;  for  I  had  to  invite  him  and  his  two 
companions  to  dinner  next  evening. 

On  the  20th,  early,  came  Herr  von  Kuhlwetter,  who 
was  to  be  civil  commissioner,  or  prefect^  in  Elsass  or 
Lothrineen.     At  eleven    the  Crown  Prince,  who  with  his 


38  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

troops  was  stationed  some  twenty-five  miles  from  Pont-a- 
Mousson,  on  the  road  from  Nancy  to  Chalons,  came  to 
visit  the  Chancellor.  In  the  afternoon  there  passed  through 
the  Rue  Notre  Dame  nearly  twelve  hundred  prisoners  on 
foot,  and  amongst  them  two  carriages  with  officers,  guarded 
by  Prussian  cavalry.  In  the  evening,  Sheridan,  Forsythe,  and 
MacLean  were  guests  of  the  Chief,  who  talked  eagerly  with 
the  American  General  in  good  English,  whilst  champagne 
and  porter  circulated.  The  latter  was  drunk  out  of  the 
metal  pots  I  have  described,  one  of  which  filled  up  to  the 
brim  he  sent  to  me,  saying :  "  Doctor,  do  you  still  drink 
porter  ? "  I  mention  this  because  at  this  time  no  one 
look  porter  but  the  Minister  and  the  Americans,  and 
because  the  gift  was  extremely  welcome  and  agreeable ; 
for  though  we  had  more  than  enough  of  wine,  champagne, 
and  cognac,  we  had  had  no  beer  since  Saarbriicken. 

The  General,  well  known  as  a  successful  general  of  the 
Unionists  in  the  latter  part  of  the  war  of  Secession,  talked 
a  good  deal.  He  spoke  of  the  fatigues  he  had  under- 
gone during  his  ride  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  Chicago, 
of  the  horrible  swarms  of  gnats,  of  a  great  bone  cave 
in  California,  in  which  fossil  animals  were  found,  and  of 
buffalo  and  bear  hunting.  The  Chancellor  also  told  a 
hunting  story  in  his  best  style.  He  was  one  day,  in  Fin- 
land, in  considerable  danger  from  a  great  bear,  which  he 
could  not  see  plainly,  as  he  was  covered  with  snow.  "  At 
last  I  fired,"  he  continued,  "  and  the  bear  fell,  about  six 
steps  in  front  of  me.  He  was  not  dead,  however,  and 
was  able  to  get  up  again.  I  knew  what  was  the  danger, 
and  what  I  had  to  do.  I  did  not  stir,  but  loaded  aj;ain 
as  quietly  as  possible,  and  shot  him  dead  as  he  tried  to 
stand  up." 

In  the  forenoon  of  the  21st  we  worked  hard  for  the  post 
and  the  telegraph  in  order  to  send  off  the  news,  and  articles 


IL]  Italy  and  Germany.  39 

commenting  on  it,  to  Germany.  The  parlementaire  who 
had  been  shot  at  by  the  French,  as  he  approached  them 
with  his  white  flag,  was,  we  heard.  Captain  or  Major  Verdy 
of  Moltke's  staff;  the  trumpeter  who  accompanied  him  was 
wounded.  We  received  certain  intelhgence  from  Florence, 
that  Victor  Emmanuel  and  his  minister,  in  consequence  of 
our  victories,  had  determined  to  remain  neutral,  which 
hitherto  had  been  far  from  certain.  Lastly,  we  were  now 
able  to  calculate,  at  any  rate  pretty  nearly,  the  losses  of 
the  French  on  the  14th  at  Courcelles,  on  the  i6th,  at  Mars- 
la-Tour,  and  on  the  i8th  at  Gravelotte.  The  Minister  put 
these,  for  all  the  three  days,  at  nearly  50,000  men,  of 
whom  12,000  were  dead,  and  added,  "The  jealousy  of  some 
of  our  leaders  was  the  cause  of  our  losing  so  many  of  our 
men." 

In  the  afternoon  I  spoke  to  one  of  the  Dragoon  Guards, 
who,  on  the  i6th,  had  attacked  the  French  battery.  He 
told  me,  that  beside  Finkenstein  and  Reuss,  the  two  Tre- 
skows  were  dead  and  buried,  and  that,  out  of  the  three 
squadrons  of  his  regiment,  which  had  been  under  fire,  one 
had  been  formed  after  the  battle  ;  and  a  single  regiment 
out  of  the  I  St  and  2nd  regiments  of  Dragoons.  He  spoke, 
too,  most  modestly  of  the  bravery  they  had  shown  in  action. 
"  We  had  to  go  forwards,  if  only  to  save  our  artillery  being 
taken  by  the  enemy."  As  I  was  still  talking  with  him,  about 
150  more  prisoners  in  the  charge  of  Saxon  infantry  passed 
us,  going  through  the  town.  I  heard  from  the  escort,  that 
the  Saxons  had  joined  the  fight  at  Roncourt  and  Saint-Privat 
after  a  long  march,  had  attacked  at  once  with  bayonet  and 
butt  end,  and  had  lost  several  officers,  amongst  them 
General  Krausshaar. 

In  the  evening  at  tea  the  Chief  asked  me,  as  I  entered 
the  room, 

"  How  are  you.  Doctor?" 


40  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

"  Well,  I  thank  your  Excellency." 
"  Have  you  been  able  to  see  anything?" 
"  Yes,"  I  replied,  "  the  battle-field  of  Vionville." 
"  Pity  that  you  were  not  with  us  in  our  affair  of  the  i8th." 
Whereupon  he  related  fully  his  experiences  on  that  day 
in  the  last  hours  of  the  battle,  and  in  the  night  afterwards. 
These  particulars,  with  other  details  supplied  by  the  Minister, 
I  shall  give  in  one  of  the  following  chapters.    The  conversa- 
tion then  turned  on  General  Steinmetz,  of  whom  the  Chan- 
cellor said,  "  He   is   courageous    but  self-willed,  and  vain 
beyond  measure.    In  the  Reichstag  he  always  kept  near  the 
President's  chair,  and  stood  up  so  that  every  one  could  see 
him  well.     He  coquetted  also  as  if  paying  great  attention, 
and  made  notes  on  paper.     He  was  thinking  all  the  time," 
continued  the  Chancellor,  "  that  the  newspapers  would  take 
notice  of  this,  and  praise  his  zeal,  and  unless  I  am  mis- 
taken, he  did  not  miscalculate."     The  Chancellor  was   not 
at  all  mistaken  ;  the  press  had,  as  usual,  done  satisfactorily 
what  was  wished,  and  what  it  was  his  object  to  get  done. 

The  ladies  in  our  house  (I  mean  that  with  the  ethno- 
graphical cabinet)  were  not  at  all  shy,  rather  the  contrary. 
They  talked  to  us,  so  far  as  we  could  speak  French,  with 
the  utmost  freedom. 

Monday,  August  22. — I  wrote  in  my  journal  • 
"  Went  early  with  Willisch  again  to  bathe  before  the  Chief 
was  up.  At  half-past  ten  I  was  summoned  to  him.  He 
asked  at  once  how  I  was,  and  whether  I  had  not  been 
attacked  by  dysentery.  He  had  not  been  well  in  the  night. 
The  Count  and  dysentery !  God  preserve  him  from  that ! 
That  would  be  worse  than  a  lost  battle.  All  our  affairs 
would  fall  into  uncertainty  and  confusion." 

There  is  no  longer  any  doubt  that,  in  the  event  of  ulti- 
mate victory  over  France,  we  shall  keep  Elsass  and  Metz, 
with    the    surrounding    country,    and    the    following    was, 


IL]  The  Object  to  be  secured.  41 

perhaps,  the  train  of  thought  which  led  the  Chancellor  to 
this  decision. 

A  contribution,  however  great  it  might  be,  would  be  no 
compensation  for  the  enormous  sacrifices  we  have  made. 
We  must  secure  South  Germany,  exposed  as  it  is,  from  the 
attacks  of  the  French:  we  must  put  an  end  to  the  pressure 
which   France   has    exercised    upon    it   for   two   centuries, 
especially  since  this  pressure  has  essentially  contributed  to 
the  derangement  of  German  relations  during  the  whole  of 
that  time.     Baden,  Wiirtemberg,  and  the  other  countries  on 
the  south-west,  must  not  again  be  threatened  from  Strass- 
burg  and  overrun  at  pleasure.     It  is  the  same  with  Bavaria. 
During  the  last  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  the  French  have 
undertaken  more  than  a  dozen  wars  of  conquest  against 
the  south-west  of  Germany.     Guarantees  against  such  dis- 
turbances of  the  peace  were  sought,  in  1814  and  1815,  in 
a  policy  adopted  towards  France,  which,  however,  proved 
to  be  too  forbearing.     This  forbearance  was  useless,  and 
even  now  would  be  fruitless  and  without  result.    The  danger 
lies  in  the  incurable  assumption  and  dominating  spirit  in- 
herent in  the   French  character;  attributes  which  may  be 
abused  by  any  ruler — not  merely  by  the  Bonapartes — to  pro- 
voke attacks  on  peaceful  neighbours.    Our  protection  against 
it  does  not  lie  in  fruitless  attempts  momentarily  to  weaken  the 
susceptibility  of  the  French,  but  in  the  gaining  of  a  well- 
secured  frontier.     France  has,  by  her  continued  appropria- 
tion of  German  territory,  and  of  all  our  natural  defences  on 
our  west  frontier,  placed  herself  in  a  position  to  penetrate 
into  the  heart  of  South  Germany  with  an  army,  relatively 
speaking,  not  very  great,  before  any  help  can  be  brought 
down  from  the  north.     Since  the  time  of  Louis  XIV. — ■ 
under  him  and  his  successor,  under  the  Republic,  under 
the  first  Empire, — there  has  been  a  constant  repetition  of 
these  attacks,  and  the  feeling  of  insecurity  compels    the 


42  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap, 

States  of  Germany  to  keep  their  eyes  incessantly  on  France. 
That  a  feeling  of  bitterness  will  be  created  in  the  minds  of 
the  French  by  taking  away  a  piece  of  territory,  is  really  not 
worth  considering.  This  bitterness  would  exist  even  without 
cession  of  territory.  In- 1866  Austria  had  not  to  cede  one 
square  rood  of  her  territory ;  and  what  thanks  did  we  get 
for  it  ?  Our  victory  at  Koniggratz  filled  the  French  with 
aversion,  hatred,  and  bitter  vexation ;  how  much  more  effect 
will  our  victories  at  Worth  and  Metz  have  upon  them  ! 
Revenge  for  this  defeat  of  the  proud  nation  will,  therefore, 
even  if  we  took  no  territory,  be  the  war-cry  in  Paris  and  the 
provinces  influenced  by  Paris,  just  as,  for  many  years,  they 
thought  of  vengeance  for  Waterloo.  But  an  enemy  which, 
cannot  be  turned  into  a  friend  by  generous  treatment  after 
defeat,  must  be  rendered  permanently  harmless.  It  is  not 
the  levelling  of  the  French  fortresses  on  the  east  frontier 
of  France,  but  their  cession,  that  can  alone  be  of  service 
to  us.  Those  who  cry  out  for  disarmament  must  be  the 
first  to  wish  to  see  the  neighbours  of  the  French  adopt  these 
measures,  for  France  is  the  sole  disturber  of  the  peace  of 
Europe,  and  will  remain  so  as  long  as  she  can. 

It  is  quite  astonishing  how  naturally  such  opinions  of  the 
Chief  already  flow  from  my  pen  !  What  ten  days  ago  still 
looked  like  a  miracle,  is  now  quite  natural  and  self-evident. 

At  table  the  conversation  again  turned  on  the  improper,  not 
to  say  base,  manner  in  which  the  Red-breeches  carry  on  the 
war,  and  the  Minister  said  that  at  Mars-la-Tour  they  had 
fallen  upon  one  of  our  officers,  who  was  sitting,  wounded,  on 
a  stone  by  the  wayside.  Some  said  they  shot  him ;  others 
said,  and  a  doctor  who  examined  the  body  was  of  the  same 
opinion,  that  he  was  tlirust  through  with  the  sword,  where- 
upon the  Chief  remarked  that  if  he  had  to  choose,  he  would 
rather  be  stabbed  than  shot.  Then  he  complained  of  Abe- 
ken's  movements  during  the  night,  so  that  he,  who  was  a  bad 


A  beken  and  the  Yorks.  43 

sleeper  in  any  case,  was  disturbed  by  Abeken's  calling  out, 
running  backwards  and  forwards,  and  banging  the  doors. 
"  He  thinks  he  is  feeling  for  his  connections  by  marriage," 
said  he.  This  referred  to  the  Counts  York,  with  whom  our 
Geheimrath  had  become  distantly  connected  by  his  marriage 
with  Fraulein  von  Olfers — a  relationship  on  which,  with  his 
perpetual  "  my  cousins,  the  Yorks,"  he  plumed  himself  more 
than  a  man  of  self-respect  and  high  feeUng  would  have  done. 
One  of  the  two  Yorks  had  been  wounded  at  Mars-la-Tour 
or  Gravelotte,  and  the  old  gentleman  drove  that  night  to  see 
him.  I  can  easily  imagine  him,  under  the  pressure  of  high- 
wrought  feeling,  reciting  on  the  way,  as  he  sat  behind  the 
coachman,  something  gushing,  or  thrilling,  or  dithyrambic, 
from  Goethe,  or  Ossian,  or  even  out  of  the  old  Greek  tragic 
poets. 

Count  Herbert  was  brought  here  to-day,  from  the  field- 
ambulance  to  his  father,  on  the  floor  of  whose  room  they 
made  him  a  bed.  I  saw  him  and  spoke  with  him.  His 
wound  is  painful,  but  apparently  not  at  present  dangerous. 
He  will  go  back  to  Germany  in  a  few  days  till  he  recovers. 

Noi  E  I. — According  to  the  Constittitionnel  of  August  8,  the  pressure 
of  public  opinion  in  Vienna  had  grown  steadily.  It  showed  itself  in  this 
way,  that  in  a  single  day  the  Neite  Freie  Presse  received  more  than  a 
thousand  letters  from  subscribers,  to  give  notice  to  stop  their  papers, 
as  they  would  no  longer  take  in  a  print  which  continued  to  promote  the 
interests  of  Prussia,  to  the  injury  of  Austria. 

Note  2. — According  to  one  of  the  articles  inspired  from  Vienna  in 
the  Constilutio>inel,  the  Morgeiipost  of  that  city,  of  August  2,  contained 
revelations  said  to  come  from  "a  personage  on  a  very  friendly  footing 
with  the  Grand  Duke  of  Baden,"  "according  to  which  M.  de  Bismarck" 
is  said  to  have  "proposed  in  full  Ministerial  Council  to  give  up  Saar- 
briicken  and  Landau  to  France.  The  Grand  Duke  himself,"  it  goes  on 
to  say,  "  told  the  fact  to  the  person,  who  published  it  in  the  Aforgcnpost, 
and  the  Grand  Duke  had  it  from  the  King  of  Prussia,  who  asserted  that 
it  was  only  through  his  own  opposition  that  the  proposition  of  M.  de 
Bismarck  was  not  adopted  by  the  Council." 


44  Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War.      [Chap 


CHAPTER  III. 

COMMERCY — BAR-LE-DUC — CLERMONT    IN    ARGONNE. 

Tuesday,  August  23. — We  set  out  again  on  our  journey 
westwards.  Sheridan  and  his  people  were  to  accompany 
us,  or  follow  us  immediately.  President  von  Kuhlwetter 
remains  here  for  the  present  as  prefect ;  Count  Renard,  of 
gigantic  frame  and  corresponding  beard,  at  Nancy,  and 
Count  Henckel  at  Saargemiind,  in  similar  positions.  We 
saw  the  Imperial  envoy  B:\mberger  again.  Herr  Stieber, 
too,  made  his  appearance  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
house  at  the  corner  of  the  Rue  Raugraf  Lastly,  as  I  paid 
a  parting  visit  to  the  interior  of  the  town,  in  order  to  take 
away  a  mental  image  to  remember  the  place  by,  I  saw  the 
refined,  wrmkled,  smooth-shaven  face  of  Moltke,  for  the 
first  time  since  I  saw  him  along  with  the  Minister  of  War 
mounting  the  steps  of  Bismarck's  residence,  eight  or  ten 
days  before  the  declaration  of  war.  It  wore  to-day,  as  it 
seemed  to  me,  a  very  happy  and  pleasant  expression. 

An  account  of  the  way  in  which  Thiers  had  spoken  not 
long  ago  of  the  immediate  future  of  France  interested  me 
not  a  little  as  I  returned  to  the  Bureau.  He  had  clearly 
pointed  out,  that  in  the  event  of  victory  we  should  take 
possession  of  Elsass,  that  Napoleon  would,  after  the  loss  of 
battles,  certainly  lose  also  his  throne,  and  that  he  would 
be  succeeded  for  some  months  by  a  Republic,  and  then 
by  some  member  of  the  Orleans  family,  perhaps  even  by 
Leopold  of  Belgium,  who,  as  my  informant  claimed  to  know 
from  certain  knowledge,  was  very  ambitious. 


III.]  Westward  for  Paris.  45 

We  left  Pont-k-Mousson  at  ten  o'clock.  The  fine  weather 
of  the  last  few  days  had  changed  between  morning  and 
afternoon  to  a  grey  cloudy  sky  and  showers  of  rain.  I  drove 
in  the  Secretaries'  carriage,  which  carried  the  portfolios  of 
the  Foreign  Office  from  place  to  place.  The  road  took 
us  by  Maidieres,  then  over  the  sloping  hills  in  the  valley 
of  the  Moselle,  up  to  Montauban,  Limey,  and  Beaumont. 
It  cleared  up  a  little  about  twelve  o'clock,  and  we  saw  a 
rather  high  hill  country  before  us,  beneath  which  stretched 
an  undulating  land,  with  broad  depressions.  Now  and 
then  we  drove  through  a  bit  of  greenwood.  The  villages 
had  all  continuous  streets,  house  to  house,  as  in  a  town ; 
most  of  them  had  good  mairie  and  school  buildings. 
Some  of  them  had  also  old  Gothic  churches.  Beyond 
Gironville  the  road  ascended  a  steeo  hill,  from  which  there 
was  a  fine  view  over  the  plain  beneath.  We  left  the  car- 
riage here,  to  ease  the  horses,  the  Chancellor  walking  with 
Abeken  at  the  head  of  the  procession  for  a  quarter  of  an 
hour,  in  great  wide  top  boots,  which  in  size  and  shape  re- 
minded one  of  those  one  sees  in  portraits  from  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  Next  to  him  walked  Moltke,  the  greatest  artist 
in  war  of  our  days,  by  the  side  of  the  greatest  statesman  of 
our  time,  on  a  French  road  leading  to  Paris,  and  I  could 
bet  that  neither  thought  it  specially  remarkable. 

When  we  returned  to  the  carriages,  we  saw,  to  the  right 
of  the  road,  that  a  telegraph  had  been  established  by  some 
smart  soldiers.  Soon  afterwards  we  descended  into  the  valley 
of  the  Upper  Meuse,  and  shortly  before  two  reached  Com- 
merc,y,  a  pretty  little  town  with  about  6000  inhabitants, 
close  to  a  great  forest.  The  stream  here  is  still  narrow  and 
muddy.  On  it  is  an  old  mansion,  with  a  colonnade  in  front. 
The  white  shutters  of  the  better  houses  in  the  street  were 
mostly  closed,  as  though  the  proprietors  were  determined 


46  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

not  to  see  the  hated  Prussians.  The  people  in  blouses,  on 
the  contrary,  seemed  more  curious  and  less  hostile.  Over 
several  doors  was  to  be  seen  "  Fabrlque  de  Madeleines." 
These  are  biscuits  in  the  shape  of  little  melons,  which  are 
in  great  request  all  through  France,  so  we  did  not  fail  to  buy 
some  boxes  to  send  home. 

The  Chief  was  quartered  with  Abeken  and  Keudell  at  the 
house  of  Count  Macore  de  Gaucourt,  in  the  Rue  des  Fon- 
taines, in  which  not  long  before  a  Prince  of  Schwarzburg  had 
lived,  and  where  only  the  lady  of  the  house  remained  behind. 
Her  husband  was  in  the  French  army,  and  was  therefore  in 
the  field.  He  was  a  man  of  very  good  family,  descended 
from  the  old  Dukes  of  Lorraine.  There  was  a  pretty  flower- 
garden  near  his  house,  and  a  park  with  charming  shade 
stretched  behind  it.  I  was  not  far  from  the  Minister,  at 
No.  I,  Rue  Heurtebise,  on  the  ground  floor  dressing-room 
of  a  man  living  on  his  means,  whom  I  found  a  friendly  and 
obliging  host.  He  gave  me  an  excellent  four-poster  bed. 
In  walking  through  tlie  town  I  met  Sheridan's  adjutant,  in 
front  of  a  house  with  steps  leading  up  to  the  door.  He 
told  me  that  he  left  California  in  the  beginning  of  May,  and 
travelled  to  Chicago  in  great  haste,  and  from  thence  to  Lon- 
don ;  then  to  Berlin,  and  from  there  to  Pont-k-Mousson  in 
five  days.  He  and  the  General,  who  was  looking  out  at  a 
window  on  the  first  floor,  now  wear  uniform.  Afterwards, 
I  sought  for  the  Chancellor,  found  him  in  the  garden, 
and  inquired  whether  he  had  anything  for  me  to  do.  After 
some  thought,  he  said  "  Yes,"  and  an  hour  afterwards  I  set 
the  field  post,  as  well  as  the  telegraph  to  work.  I  wrote, 
for  instance,  the  following  article  : 

"  It  is  now  quite  certain  that,  the  Princes  of  the  Orleans 
family,  in  the  expectation  of  seeing  the  star  of  the  Napo- 
leons pale  and  sink  still  lower,  consider  their  time  come. 


III.]  The  Orleans  Family.  47 

Emphatically  declaring  themselves  Frenchmen,  they  have 
placed  their  sword  at  the  command  of  France  in  the  present 
crisis.  By  their  indolence,  for  the  most  part — by  adhering 
to  the  principle  of  laissez-faire  in  dealing  with  the  affairs 
of  their  neighbours,  the  Orleans  family  lost  their  throne.  It 
seems  as  if  they  desired  to  reconquer  it  by  energy,  and  as 
if  by  indulging  the  passions  of  Chauvinism,  the  craze  foi 
glory  and  the  assumption  of  the  guardianship  of  the  world, 
inherent  in  Frenchmen, — they  would  seek  to  maintain  them- 
selves upon  the  throne.  We  are  by  no  means  at  the  end 
of  our  work.  A  decisive  victory  is  probable,  but  not  yet 
certain ;  the  fall  of  Napoleon  is  somewhat  nearer,  but  it  is 
not  yet  a  fact.  If  Napoleon  actually  falls,  could  we  be 
content — in  view  of  what  we  have  just  remarked — merely 
with  this  result  of  our  enormous  exertions  ?  Ought  we  to 
feel  that  we  had  attained,  in  that  event,  what  must  be  our 
supreme  object — a  peace  with  France,  secured  for  many 
years  ?  No  one  will  assert  this.  A  peace  with  the  Orleanist 
family  reseated  on  the  throne  of  France  would  be,  without 
any  doubt,  far  more  delusive  than  a  peace  with  Napoleon, 
who  has  had  enough  to  do  with  glory.  Sooner  or  later,  we 
should  be  again  challenged  by  France,  when  France  pro- 
bably would  be  better  armed,  and  more  secure  of  powerful 
alliances." 

Three  reserve  armies  are  to  be  formed  in  Germany : 
one,  the  strongest,  at  Berlin  ;  another  on  the  Rhine,  and  a 
third — on  account  of  Austria's  suspicious  attitude — in  Silesia 
at  Glogau.  The  latter  was  a  purely  defensive  measure. 
The  troops  on  the  Rhine  were  to  be  commanded  by  the 
Duke  of  Mecklenburg ;  those  at  Berlin  by  General  von 
Canstein,  and  those  at  Glogau  by  General  von  Lowenfeld. 

Towards  evening  the  military  band  played  before  the 
house  of  the  King,  who  had  been  quartered  in  Commercy 


48  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

during  the  War  of  Liberation,  and  the  street  boys  were 
quite  pleased  to  hold  the  notes  of  the  music  for  the  men 
who  played  the  horns  and  hautboys. 

At  dinner,  where,  among  other  good  things,  we  had  some 
marvellously  fine  white  Bordeaux,  Counts  Waldersee  and 
Lehndorf,  and  afterwards  Lieutenant-General  von  Alvens- 
leben,  were  guests  of  the  Chief.  The  latter  related — I  no 
longer  remember  in  what  connection  it  was  said — a  story 
of  the  "Marl-major"  who  used  to  reduce  all  things  that 
happened  here  below  to  geognostic  causes.  He  reasoned 
almost  in  this  way  :  The  Maid  of  Orleans  could  only  have 
been  born  on  fertile  marl  soil ;  she  must  have  gained  a  vic- 
tory on  the  chalk,  and  she  was  certain  to  die  on  sandstone. 

Alvensleben  said,  referring  to  the  enemy's  barbarous  mode 
of  warfare,  that  while  they  had  fired  upon  the  bearer  of  a 
flag  of  truce  from  Toul,  another  officer,  who  rode  on  to 
the  glacis  in  a  joke,  had  been  able  to  hold  a  friendly  chat 
with  those  on  the  walls.  The  question  was  put  whether 
Paris  could  not  be  stormed  in  spite  of  its  fortifications,  and 
the  military  men  thought  it  might.  The  General  said  :  "  A 
great  city  of  this  kind  cannot  be  successfully  defended,  if 
the  army  attacking  it  is  sufficiently  numerous."  One  of  the 
gentlemen  wanted  "  Babel  destroyed,"  and  gave  reasons 
which  pleased  me  uncommonly.  The  Minister,  however, 
replied :  "  Yes,  that  would  be  right  enough,  but  for  many 
reasons  it  will  not  do,  and  for  this,  among  others,  because 
Germans  also,  good  people  from  Cologne  and  Frankfort, 
have  laid  out  considerable  capital  there." 

We  then  spoke  of  the  country  already  conquered,  and  that 
still  to  be  conquered,  in  France.  Alvensleben  wished  to  hold 
the  country  as  for  as  the  Marne.  Our  Count  had  another 
wish,  although  he  did  not  seem  to  think  it  practicable.  "My 
ideal  would  be,"  he  said,  "  to  have  a  kind  of  colony  belong- 


III.]  TJie  Bear  and  his  Skin.  49 

ing  to  Germany,  a  neutral  state  of  eight  or  ten  millions, 
where  there  should  be  no  conscription,  and  whose  taxes 
should  flow  towards  Germany,  so  far  as  they  were  not 
needed  for  internal  purposes.  France  would  thus  lose  the 
districts  which  furnish  her  best  soldiers,  and  would  be  pre- 
vented from  doing  mischief.  In  the  rest  of  France  no 
Bourbons,  no  Orleanists,  I  don't  know  whether  we  should 
have  Lulu,  or  the  fat  Bonaparte,  or  the  old  one.  I  wanted 
no  war  about  the  Luxemburg  business,  for  I  knew  well 
enough  that  six  wars  would  come  of  it.  But  there  must  be 
an  end  to  this.  Don't  let  us  talk,  however,  of  the  bear's 
skin  till  we  have  shot  the  bear ;  I  confess  I  am  somewhat 
superstitious  on  that  point."  "  Yes,"  said  Count  Waldersee, 
*'  but  the  bear  is  already  wounded  I" 

The  Chancellor  then  began  to  speak  of  his  sons,  and  said, 
*'  I  hope  now  that  I  shall  keep  at  least  one  of  my  young 
fellows — I  mean  Herbert,  who  is  on  his  way  home.  He 
had  got  very  much  in  his  place  in  the  field.  When  he  lay 
wounded  near  us  in  Pont-k-Mousson,  and  common  dragoons 
came  to  see  him,  he  conversed  with  them  more  freely  than 
with  the  officers." 

At  tea  it  was  mentioned  that  in  18 14  the  King  had  lived 
in  the  very  same  street,  and,  indeed,  in  a  house  close  by  the 
one  he  was  quartered  in  now.  The  Minister  said,  "  My 
plan  for  His  Majesty  in  the  future  campaign  is  to  send  the 
Staff  Guard  on  in  front.  The  country  right  and  left  of  the 
road  must  be  thoroughly  searched  by  a  company  of  soldiers, 
and  the  head-quarters  must  keep  together.  Sentinels  must 
be  placed  at  short  distances  from  one  another.  The  King 
agreed  to  this  plan,  when  I  told  him  that  it  had  been 
followed  in  1 8 14.  At  that  time  the  monarchs  did  not  drive, 
but  always  rode,  and  Russian  soldiers,  twenty  feet  apart, 
lined  the  road."     Some   one   observed   that   it  was  quite 

VOL.   I.  E 


50  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

possible  that  peasants  or  Francs-tireurs  might  fire  on  the 
King  in  the  carriage. 

The  next  morning  my  landlord  drove  me  to  the  castle  in 
which,  during  the  last  centur}',  the  father-in-law  of  Louis  the 
Fifteenth,  Stanislaus  Leszczynski,  held  his  court  there  as 
Duke  of  Lorraine  and  Bar,  and  which  has  of  late  years 
been  turned  into  Cuirassier  barracks.  From  the  back  win- 
dows there  is  a  charming  view  along  the  slowly-flowing 
Meuse  beneath,  and  the  groups  of  trees  on  the  opposite 
bank.  We  paid  a  visit  also  to  the  chapel  of  the  castle  and 
to  its  "  Fabrique,"  which  word  seems  to  mean  both  work- 
shop and  lumber  room.  Here  our  soldiers — they  were 
hussars  said  the  sacristan — had  done  much  damage ;  sundry 
images  of  saints,  with  the  noses  knocked  off,  a  shattered 
marble  medallion,  a  chandelier  in  fragments,  the  archives 
scattered  about,  and  an  old  oil  picture  spoiled  by  a  sabre 
cut.  Perhaps  it  had  all  been  done  by  mistake  in  the  dark ; 
but  the  two  Frenchmen  were  very  angry  about  it,  and 
I  think  I  did  not  convince  them  when  I  said  that  such 
disorder  was  not  customary  amongst  us.  Yet  the  people 
with  whom  I  came  in  contact  were  not  ill-disposed ;  espe- 
cially my  kind  host,  who  more  than  once  assured  me  he 
considered  me  not  as  an  enemy  but  as  his  guest.  He 
belonged  to  that  class,  so  numerous  in  France,  of  people  in 
business,  who  having  till  the  age  of  fifty  honestly  worried 
and  saved  carefully,  retire  from  business  with  some  means, 
enough  to  let  them  bring  the  remainder  of  their  lives  to  a 
comfortable  close,  with  no  heavier  duties  than  those  be- 
longing to  a  flower  and  fruit  garden,  relieved  by  the  reading 
of  newspapers,  a  gossip  in  a  coftee-house,  and  visits  to 
neighbours  and  friends.  Gillot  had  two  sons,  of  whom  one 
lived  in  Cochin  China,  the  other  was  a  clergyman  some- 
where in  France.     He  hoped  that,   since  there  was  some 


III.]  Precautions  for  the  King's  Safety.  51 

talk  of  the  clergy  being  called  upon  to  serve  in  the  field,  his 
son  might  be  employed— as  soldiers  of  a  few  weeks  could 
be  of  little  service— as  a  notary,  and  not  sent  to  fight. 

About   twelve   we    drove   back   to    Commercy,    through 
beautiful  green  wood  with  different  kinds  of  trees  and  much 
underwood,  ivy,  and  climbing  plants,  a  thicket  full  of  fine 
hiding-places   for   murderous   Francs-tireurs,   and    out    into 
open,  undulating  country.     The  soil  did  not  seem  to  be 
good,  the  grain  which  we  saw,  oats,  was  thin  and  poor.     We 
overtook    several  columns  on  the  way,  and    passed   some 
more  camps.     The  precautionary  measures,  of  which  the 
Chief  had   spoken,  were  carried  out.     We  had  a  vanguard 
of  Uhlans  in  front,  and  the  Staff  Guard  as  escort,  which 
being  picked  out  from  the  different  bodies  of  cavalry  in  the 
army,  all  colours  were  there  together,  green,  red,  and  blue 
Hussars,  Saxon  and   Prussian  Dragoons,  and  so  on.    The 
Chancellor's  carriages   followed  close  behind  those  of  the 
King.     For  a  long  time  we  passed  through  no  village  ;  then 
we  reached  Saint-Aubin,  and  soon  afterwards  we  came  to  a 
milestone  by  the  side  of  the  road,  on  which  we  read,  "  Paris, 
241  kilometres,"  so  that  we  were  now  only  about  a  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  from  Babel.     Further  on  we  come  upon  a 
long  train  of  Bavarian  baggage-waggons  belonging  to  the 
regiments  of  King  John  of  Saxony,   the  Grand   Duke  of 
Hesse,   von   der   Tann,    Prince    Otto,    and    others,    which 
showed  us  that  we  were  now  among  the  army  commanded 
by  the  Crown  Prince. 

Soon  after  this,  we  drove  into  the  little  town  of  Ligny, 
packed  with  Bavarian  and  other  soldiers  ;  and  here,  in  the 
market-place,  we  waited  some  three-quarters  of  an  hour  in  a 
strange  confusion  of  vehicles  of  every  kind,  while  the  Chief 
pai-i  a  visit  to  the  Crown  Prince.  This  over,  we  extricated 
our  carriages  from  the  throng,  and  pursued  our  way,  soon 

E  2 


52  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

coming  to  a-  lovely  green  valley  with  trees  and  meadows, 
through  which  we  reached  Bar-le-Duc  by  the  side  of  & 
canal.  On  the  way  we  again  passed  masses  of  Bavarian 
infantry  in  their  light-blue  uniforms.  Then  we  came  on  an 
encampment  of  light  horse,  with  their  flickering  cooking 
fires ;  then  on  a  second  by  which  was  a  herd  of  oxen 
guarded  by  soldiers ;  and  lastly,  on  a  third,  with  a  park  of 
waggons  drawn  up  for  the  night. 

Bar-le-Duc,  the  largest  French  town  to  which  the  cam- 
paign has  yet  brought  us,  has  about  15,000  inhabitants. 
It  lies  on  a  canal  with  beautiful  green  water,  and  on  the 
shallow  and  muddy  little  river,  the  Ornain,  over  which  are 
several  bridges  \  the  greater  part  of  the  town  being  built 
on  the  heights  on  each  side  of  these  watercourses  it  has 
a  very  picturesque  appearance.  The  streets  and  squares 
were  full  of  life  as  we  drove  through,  and  women's  faces 
were  to  be  seen  peeping  at  the  carriages  curiously  from 
behind  the  window-blinds.  When  the  King  arrived  he  was 
received  by  a  Bavarian  band,  which  played  "  Heil  dir  im 
Sieger  Kranz."  He  took  up  his  abode  in  the  principal 
street  of  the  lower  town,  in  the  house  of  the  Bank  of 
France.  We  were  quartered  over  the  way  with  a  M.  Per- 
nay.  The  •  Bureau  was  established  on  the  ground-floor,  on 
the  right  hand  of  the  entrance ;  the  room  on  the  left  of 
it  serving  for  us  all  to  breakfast  and  dine  in.  The  Chief 
had  the  front  room  on  the  first-floor,  Abeken  a  little  room 
which  looked  out  on  a  pretty  garden  at  the  back  of  the 
house,  with  its  roses  in  full  bloom,  its  little  fir-trees  and 
flowering  shrubs.  I  had  a  room  hung  with  pictures  of 
saints,  portraits  of  clergymen,  and  all  kinds  of  things 
connected  with  the  Church.  The  master  of  this  elegantly- 
furnished  house,  apparently  well-to-do,  had  gone  away,  and 
had  left  only  an  old  waiting-woman  behind. 


III.]  Capua — The  Saxons  in  Battle.  53 

At  dinner  the  King's  private  physician,  Dr.  Lauer,  wae 
a  guest  of  the  Minister.  He  was,  as  usual,  communicative, 
and  indeed  seemed  to  be  in  a  particularly  good  humour. 
During  the  Crown  Prince's  visit  at  Ligny  the  Minister  had 
been  obhged  to  breakfast  with  him  and  the  Princes  and 
higher  officers  of  his  suite,  and  had  fared  exceedingly  well. 
"The  Augustenburg  one  was  there  too;  he  wore  the  Bavarian 
uniform,  so  that  I  really  did  not  recognise  him,  and  looked 
quite  at  a  loss  when  he  was  introduced  to  me."  We 
learnt  also  from  what  the  Chief  said,  that  Count  Hatzfeld 
was  to  act  as  a  sort  of  prefect  during  the  time  we  remained 
here ;  a  position  he  was  particularly  well  fitted  to  fill,  from 
his  thorough  knowledge  of  the  French  language  and  his 
familiarity  with  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  country, 
gained  by  long  residence  in  Paris.  From  another  remark 
of  the  Minister,  it  appeared  that  the  head-quarters  were 
likely  to  remain  here  for  several  days — "  as  in  Capua,"  said 
the  Count,  smiling. 

In  the  evening  before  tea,  some  more  articles  were  sent 
to  Germany,  amongst  others,  one  on  the  co-operation  of 
the  Saxons  at  Gravelotte,  whose  praises  the  Chief  never 
tired  in  repeating.     It  ran  thus  : 

"In  the  battle  at  Metz  on  the  i8th,  the  Saxons  distin- 
guished themselves  by  their  usual  heroic  bravery,  and  con- 
tributed most  essentially  to  the  attainment  of  the  object  of 
the  German  troops.  To  bring  the  Saxon  Army  Corps  into 
the  field,  very  long  marches  from  the  right  to  the  extreme 
left  wing  had  been  made  the  day  before,  and  even  on  the 
1 8th  itself.  In  spite  of  these  fatigues  they  attacked  with 
extraordinary  energy,  drove  the  enemy  back,  and  completely 
fulfilled  the  duty  they  were  charged  with,  preventing  the 
enemy  breaking  through  towards  Thionville.  Their  losses 
in  these  actions  amounted  to  2200  men." 


54         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.       [Chap. 

Here  I  will  again  allow  my  journal  to  speak  for  itself: 
Thursday,  August  25. — Quite  early,  before  there  was  any 
work  to  be  done,  I  took  a  walk  in  the  upper,  evidently  older 
pa,rt  of  the  town,  where  there  is  a  fine  Gothic  church 
dedicated  to  St.  Peter,  with  richly  ornamental  doors,  and 
some  handsome  houses  of  the  period  of  the  middle  Re- 
naissance. The  view  from  the  castle  over  the  town  is  quite 
lovely,  nothing  is  wanting  to  the  beauty  of  the  valley  but 
running  water.  The  little  streets  of  the  upper  town  are  in 
many  parts  veiy  steep,  and  for  the  most  part  narrow,  and 
also  dark.  Below  it  is  more  sunny.  There  are  here  numbers 
of  one-storied,  but  strong  houses,  well-built  of  freestone, 
with  white  open-barred  outside  summer  shutters.  In  these 
parts  of  the  town  there  are  some  churches  in  a  good  style, 
and  amongst  them  a  couple  of  new  ones.  The  shutters  are 
nearly  all  flung  open ;  people  of  whom  we  ask  the  road 
answer  politely.  Not  far  from  our  quarters  there  is  an  old 
stone  bridge  over  the  river,  which  has  a  little  tower  in  the 
middle  of  it,  and  which  doubtless  saw  the  days  when 
Lorraine  and  the  Duchy  of  Bar  did  not  belong  to  France. 
We  visited  the  railway  station,  where  the  waiting-rooms  and 
offices  have  been  shamefully  destroyed — they  say,  by  the 
French  themselves. 

About  nine  o'clock  the  Bavarians  began  to  march  through. 
They  went  along  the  Rue  de  la  Banque,  and  therefore 
passed  the  King's  abode  as  well  as  ours.  There  were 
more  French  spectators  than  was  convenient  to  us,  on  the 
pavement,  on  both  sides  of  the  rows  of  trees  which  border 
the  wide  street.  I'he  light  cavalry  in  green  uniforms 
turned  up  with  red ;  dark-blue  cuirassiers,  among  whom 
were  many  fine  men ;  lancers,  artillery,  infiintry,  regiment 
after  regiment  marched  for  several  hours  past  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  German  armies.     As  they  marched 


III.]  The  Francs-tireiirs.  5  5 

in  front  of  the  house  where  the  King  stood,  they  raised  loud 
ringing  hurrahs,  while  the  cavalry  brandished  their  sabres, 
and  the  infantry  held  up  their  right  hands  and  lowered 
their  colours,  amid  blaring  fanfare  of  the  trumpets  of  the 
cavalry,  and  music  from  the  bands  of  the  infantry.  Who 
after  the  war  of  1866,  or  even  three  months  ago,  would 
have  thought  it  possible  ? 

More  articles  were  written  for  the  post,  and  others  for  the 
telegraph.  Our  people  press  rapidly  forwards.  The  heads 
of  the  German  columns  already  stand  between  Chalons  and 
Epernay.  In  Germany  the  three  reserve  armies  which  have 
been  talked  of  for  some  days,  are  in  process  of  formation. 
In  opposition  to  our  plan  of  creating  a  safe  frontier  on  the 
•west,  by  the  incorporation  of  French  territory,  the  neutral 
powers  for  the  most  part  raise  difficulties,  especially  Eng- 
land, which,  jealous  of  us  for  some  time  past,  shows  a  dis- 
position to  tie  our  hands.  The  accounts  from  St.  Petersburg 
appear  to  be  better,  where  the  Emperor,  though  not  without 
some  doubts  of  the  measures  we  have  in  view,  seems  dis- 
posed to  favour  us,  and  where  too  the  Archduchess  Helena 
lias  given  us  her  active  sympathy.  We  stand,  however,  by 
our  plan,  dictated  by  the  necessity  of  securing  South  Ger- 
many from  the  attacks  of  France  once  and  for  all,  and  of 
thus  making  it  independent  of  French  politics,  the  achieve- 
ment of  which  will  doubtless  be  demanded  by  the  national 
feeling  with  an  energy  quite  irresistible.  The  troops  before 
us  report  much  exciting  news  about  the  bands  of  Francstireurs 
which  have  been  formed.  Their  uniform  is  of  such  a  kind 
that  they  can  hardly  be  known  as  soldiers,  and  what  they 
wear  to  distinguish  them  as  such  can  easily  be  thrown 
away.  One  of  those  fellows,  when  a  troop  of  our  cavalry  is 
going  along  the  road,  lies  apparently  sunning  himself  in  the 
ditch  near  a    wood.     As  soon  as  our  men   have  passed, 


56  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

up  he  starts  and  fires  his  rifle  at  them,  which  he  had  kept 
concealed  in  a  neighbouring  bush,  and  runs  into  the  wood, 
out  of  which,  perfectly  acquainted  with  the  paths  in  it,  he 
comes  again,  a  little  farther  on,  an  innocent  countryman 
in  a  blouse.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  these  are  not 
defenders  of  their  country,  but  assassins,  who  should  be 
hanged  without  ceremony,  if  they  fall  into  our  hands. 

At  dinner  Count  Seckendorf,  Adjutant  in  the  Crown 
Prince's  general  staff,  was  one  of  the  guests.  {Vide  note  i, 
at  end  of  chapter.)  He  denied  that  the  Crown  Prince  had,  as 
was  reported,  caused  some  treacherous  French  peasants  to 
be  shot ;  on  the  contrary,  said  the  Prince,  he  had  always 
behaved  with  great  mildness  and  forbearance,  even  towards 
officers  of  the  enemy,  who  showed  great  want  of  soldier-like 
breeding. 

Count  Bohlen,  who  is  always  full  of  fun  and  anecdotes, 
said,  "When  the  battery  von  Breinitz,  on  the  i8th,  was 
sustaining  such  a  sharp  fire  that  in  a  short  time  nearly  all 
its  horses,  and  most  of  its  men,  were  lying  on  the  ground 
either  dead  or  wounded,  the  captain  said,  as  he  raUied  the 
last  who  were  left  standing,  '  A  fine  fight  this,  isn't  it  ?' " 

The  Chief  said,  "  Last  night  I  asked  the  sentinel  outside 
the  door,  who  he  was,  and  what  he  got  to  eat,  and  I  heard 
that  the  man  had  not  had  anything  to  eat  for  four-and- 
twenty  hours.  Then  I  went  in  and  found  the  cook,  and  cut 
a  great  hunch  of  bread,  and  took  it  to  him,  which  seemed  to 
be  most  acceptable  to  him." 

The  conversation  then  turned  from  Hatzfeld's  prefecture 
to  other  prefects'  and  commissaries  in  spe,  and  when  first 
one  and  then  another  name,  which  were  all  well  known,  were 
objected  to,  the  Minister  remarked,  "  Our  officials  in  France 
may  be  allowed  to  do  a  few  stupid  things,  if  only  their 
administration  in  general  be  energetic." 


III.]  Abeken  and  Stained  Glass.  57 

We  spoke  of  the  telegraph  lines  so  quickly  established 
behind  us,  and  it  was  said  that  the  telegraphists  whose  posts 
■were  taken  away,  and  their  wires  cut,  begged  the  peasants 
to  watch  them  at  night,  but  they  would  not  do  so  even 
■when  they  were  paid  for  it.  At  last  they  were  told  that 
each  post  should  bear  the  name  of  the  man  who  watched 
it,  and  this  speculation  on  the  vanity  of  the  French 
■was  so  successful  that  the  fellows  watched  faithfully  the 
■whole  night  in  their  night-caps,  and  no  more  mischief  was 
done. 

Friday,  August  26. — They  say  that  we  are  to  advance 
to-day  towards  Sainte-Menehould,  where  our  troops,  as  I 
telegraphed  this  morning  to  Germany,  have  taken  prisoners 
800  of  tlie  Mobiles.  This  expected  move  was  announced 
by  Taglioni,  who  by  the  way  gave  us  yesterday  some  most 
excellent  caviare,  which  he  had,  I  believe,  from  fat  Borck. 
The  first  thing  this  morning,  I  wrote  an  article  on  the 
Francs-tireurs,  and  described  in  detail  their  delusions  as  to 
•what  is  permitted  in  warfare.  Then — for  the  Chief  had 
gone  out,  some  said  to  see  the  King,  others  to  make  a 
tour  of  inspection  in  the  upper  town  {vide  note  2,  at  end  of 
chapter) — in  company  with  Abeken  I  went  to  see  the  fine 
old  church  of  Saint-Pierre.  The  walls  and  pillars  in  this 
church  are  not  so  high,  and  the  latter  much  less  slender 
than  is  usual  in  Gothic  churches,  but  the  whole  is  very 
elegant.  On  one  of  the  walls  is  a  skeleton  of  marble, 
presented  by  one  of  the  duchesses,  who  loved  her  husband 
in  such  a  marvellous  fashion  that  when  he  died  she  had  his 
heart  preserved  in  the  hand  of  this  skeleton.  The  windows 
are  filled  with  painted  glass,  which  throws  a  coloured  shade 
over  the  nave.  Abeken  was  strangely  moved  and  excited 
by  it.  He  cited  passages  from  the  second  part  of  Goethe's 
*  Faust,'  and  showed  himself  for  once  quite  the  romanticist 


58  Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War.      [Chap 

he  is  or  wants  to  be  taken  for.  I  fear  that  with  the  aesthetic 
tendencies  of  his  character  he  imbibed  during  his  residence 
in  Rome,  where  he  was  preacher  to  the  embassy,  a  strong 
leaning  to  the  Cathohc  church,  which  was  not  weakened 
by  the  fact  that  distinguished  people  in  Berlin,  to  whose 
circles  he  had  the  entree,  were  enthusiastic  for  it,  and  his 
heart  will  never  be  in  the  work  if  he  has  to  form  front 
against  that  Church. 

Back  again  we  went  down  steep  stairs,  through  the  narrow 
little  passages  to  the  street  called  after  Oudinot,  coming  out 
immediately  in  front  of  the  house  where  he  was  born,  and 
which  is  pointed  out  as  such  by  a  tablet.  It  is  a  little 
mean,  tumble-down  place,  which  has  only  three  windows, 
and  in  whose  interior  a  saw  is  going.  Abeken  saw  two 
photographs  of  the  church  in  a  shop  window,  and  bought 
them  "  as  memorials  of  the  devotional  inspiration  "  which 
he  there  experienced,  and  honoured  me  by  presenting  me 
with  one  of  them.  As  we  returned  to  our  quarters  we 
heard  that  Eigenbrodt  is  suddenly  ill  with  dysentery,  and 
that  he  must  be  left  behind. 

On  the  26th  we  did  move  on,  but  not  towards  Sainte-Mene- 
hould,  where  it  was  still  unsafe,  and  Francs-tireurs  and 
Gardes  Mobiles  were  hovering  about,  but  to  Clermont  in 
Argonne,  where  we  arrived  about  seven  o'clock  in  the 
evening.  For  the  last  few  miles  of  the  road,  which  took  us 
through  several  large  villages  with  fine  old  churches,  soldiers 
were  stationed  at  every  200  paces,  as  a  precaution.  The 
houses  were  all  built  of  grey  stone  without  whitewash,  and 
stood  close  one  to  another.  Everyone  here  hobbled  along 
in  heavy  wooden  shoes,  and  the  features  of  the  men  and 
women,  who  stood  at  the  doors  in  great  numbers,  were,  so 
far  as  I  could  judge  in  passing,  almost  all  of  them  ugly. 
But  it  is  probable  that  the  prettiest  girls  had  been  placed  in 


III.]  A  Cartful  of  Franc-tireiir  Prisoners.  59 

safety,  before  the  arrival  of  the  German  birds  of  prey.  We 
several  times  passed  by  woods  of  an  extent  which  I  had 
not  expected  to  find  in  France,  which  had  been  described 
to  me  as  poor  in  wood.  They  wore  always  of  deciduous 
trees,  with  thick  underwood  and  climbing  plants. 

\\'e  met  first  some  Bavarian  troops  and  baggage- waggons, 
from  whom  the  King,  who  was  just  before  us  on  the  road, 
received  a  salvo  of  hurrahs,  of  whiclr  the  Chancellor  came 
in  for  a  share.  Then  we  overtook,  one  after  the  other,  the 
31st  Regiment,  the  96th,  and  the  66th,  and  afterwards  passed 
some  Hussars  and  Uhlans,  and  lastly  some  Saxon  artille- 
rists. Just  outside  a  wood,  not  far  from  a  village  that,  if  I 
mistake  not,  is  named  Triancourt,  we  passed  a  vehicle  con- 
taining captured  Francs-tireurs,  and  behind  them  a  second 
containing  their  arms  and  knapsacks,  and  the  weapons  of 
some  other  people  of  the  same  kind.  Most  of  these  fellows 
hung  their  heads,  and  one  was  crying.  The  Chief  halted 
and  spoke  to  them.  He  did  not  seem  to  have  had  anything 
very  cheering  to  say.  Afterwards  a  superior  officer,  who 
rode  up  to  the  Councillors'  carriage  and  got  a  friendly  glass 
of  cognac,  told  us  that  these  fellows  or  comrades  of  theirs, 
had,  the  day  before,  not  far  from  this  place,  shot  or  murdered 
a  major  of  Dhlans,  named  von  Fries  or  Friesen.  When 
taken  prisoners,  they  had  not  behaved  like  soldiers,  but  had 
escaped  from  their  escort,  but  in  the  vineyards  to  which 
they  had  crept,  the  troopers,  assisted  by  some  riflemen,  had 
driven  them  up  into  a  corner  like  game,  and  some  of  them 
were  again  captured,  others  shot  or  cut  down.  It  is  evident 
that  the  war  is  now  beginning,  in  consequence  of  the  prac- 
tices of  these  Francs-tireurs,  to  take  a  savage  turn.  The 
soldier  looks  on  them  henceforward  as  men  who  meddle 
with  things  with  which  by  right  they  have  nothing  to  do,  as 
those  who  do  not  belong  to  the  profession,  as  mere  bunglers, 


6o  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

and  he  hardly  needs  to  add  to  that  that  they  are  likely 
enough  to  lie  in  wait  to  shoot  him. 

We  arrived  at  Clermont  wet  through,  for  we  had,  twice 
on  the  way,  been  overtaken  by  heavy  showers  of  rain  and 
hail,  and  with  the  exception  of  Keudell  and  Hatzfeld,  we 
took  up  our  abode  in  the  town  school,  on  the  left  side  of 
the  principal  street.  The  King  was  quartered  just  opposite. 
In  the  evening  we  had  an  opportunity  of  taking  a  look  at 
the  place.  It  may  have  about  two  thousand  inhabitants, 
and  is  picturesquely  situated,  partly  in  a  hollow  on  the  side 
of  a  low  hill  in  the  wooded  chain  of  the  Argonnes,  and 
partly  on  a  conical-shaped  hill  with  a  chapel  on  its  summit. 
The  long  Grande  Rue  was  full  of  baggage  waggons  and 
carriages  in  consequence  of  our  arrival,  and  the  pavement 
was  covered  with  thick  yellow  mud.  Here  and  there  a 
Saxon  Jager  was  to  be  seen.  At  sunset  Abeken  and  I 
climbed  the  stone  steps  behind  the  school  house,  up  to  the 
old  Gothic  church  which  stands  half-way  up  the  hill,  and  is 
surrounded  by  tall  shady  trees.  This  church  is  dedicated 
to  St.  Didier,  a  saint  of  whose  existence  I  was  ignorant 
up  to  this  time.  It  was  open,  and  we  entered,  but  in  the 
twilight  we  could  only  see  the  outlines  of  the  chancel  and 
altar.  The  lamp  shed  a  twilight  on  the  figures  on  the 
walls,  and  the  last  rays  of  sunlight  fell  on  the  pavement 
through  the  painted  windows.  We  were  alone.  All  around 
us  was  quiet  as  the  grave.  Only  a  muffled  murmur  reached 
us  from  all  the  babel  of  men's  voices,  the  ralde  of  wheels, 
the  tramp-tramp  of  marching  troops^  and  the  hurrahs  that 
were  saluting  the  King. 

As  we  came  down,  a  May  fly  flew  past  us.  The  Minister 
had  gone,  and  left  word  for  us  to  follow  him  to  the  Hotel 
des  Voyageurs,  where  we  were  to  dine  with  him,  our  cooking 
waggon  being  late,  or  not  having  arrived.     We  went  there 


TIL]  A  School  Doi'mitory.  6i 

and  found  food  and  places  at  the  Chiefs  table,  in  a  sort  of 
"back-room  used  for  skittles,  and  full  of  noise  and  tobacco- 
smoke.  An  officer  with  a  long  black  beard,  wearing  th< 
cross  of  St.  John,  dined  with  us.  This  was  Prince  Pless. 
He  said  that  the  captive  French  officers  at  Pont-k-Mousson 
"behaved  in  a  very  arrogant  and  shameless  way,  and  spent 
the  whole  night  in  drinking  and  playing  hazard.  A  general 
had  wanted  a  private  carriage,  as  proper  for  his  rank,  and 
had  behaved  in  a  very  unseemly  way  when  it  was,  as  was 
natural,  refused  him.  The  Francs-tireurs  and  their  unmen- 
tionable mode  of  warfare  were  then  talked  of ;  and  the 
Minister  mentioned,  what  Abeken  had  told  me  already^ 
that  when  he  overtook  some  of  them  in  the  road  this  after- 
noon, he  had  given  them  a  terrible  lecture.  "  I  told  them, 
*  Voiis  serez  tons  pendiis ;  voiis  tietcs  pas  soldats,  vous  etes 
des  assassins ' ;  upon  which  some  of  them  began  to  whine." 
That  the  Chancellor  is  anything  but  hard  we  have  already 
seen,  and  shall  see  often  again. 

In  our  quarters,  the  Chief  had  a  room  on  the  first  floor ; 
Abeken  had,  I  believe,  the  back  room  on  the  same  floor ; 
the  rest  of  us  were  sent  up  to  the  second  floor,  to  the 
dormitory  of  the  two  or  three  scholars  whom  the  school- 
master seemed  to  have  had — a  very  large  room,  in  which  at 
iirst  there  was,  by  way  of  furniture,  nothing  but  two  beds, 
"with  mattresses  but  without  blankets,  and  two  chairs.  The 
night  was  bitterly  cold,  and  I  had  nothing  but  my  waterproof 
cloak  for  bedclothes ;  but  I  got  on  pretty  well,  sleeping  on 
the  thought.  How  must  the  soldiers  fare,  camping  out  in 
muddy  fields  off  the  roadside  ? 

In  the  morning  a  little  quiet  but  ingenious  contrivance 
and  re-arrangement  was  required  to  fit  our  sleeping-room  for 
our  very  different  requirements.  It  became,  without  losing 
its  fundamental  character,  at  once  Bureau,  dining-room,  and 


62  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

tea-room.      In  the  artistic  hands  of  Theiss  some  trestles,  or 
which  stood  a  kneading-trough,  a  cask  raised  to  the  neces- 
sary height  by  a  not  very  high  box,  a  door  which  we  appro- 
priated, and  which  was  laid  by  the  artist  on  the  top  of  the 
kneading-trough   and  cask,   made  us  a  magnificent  table, 
at   which  the   Chancellor    himself  afterwards    dined    and 
breakfasted,    and   which   between   the    meal   times    sei'ved 
as    writing-table    for    the   secretaries    and    Councillors,   at 
which  world-stirring  ideas  of  the  Count  in  the  room  below 
were   reduced   to   shape  and   written   out,   and   the   most 
important   despatches,   instructions,    telegrams,    and   news- 
paper articles  penned.     The  want  of  chairs   was   happily 
supplied  by  a  form  from  the  kitchen  and  an  empty  box  or 
two  ;   a  cracked  and  altogether  shaky  washhand-basin  was 
found,  which  Willisch,   clever  as  an  old  sailor  in  mending 
and  patching,  made  tight  again  by  the  help  of  sealing-wax. 
For  candlesticks,  the  Minister  and  ourselves  made  use  of 
the    empty    wine    bottles- — champagne-bottles    answer   the 
purpose   best — and  in  the    necks  of  these,    good  stearine 
candles  burn  as  brightly  as  in  the  sockets  of  silver  candle- 
sticks.    Not   so    easily  and   happily   as   in  the  matters  of 
utensils,  furniture  and  lights,  did  we  contrive  about  getting 
the  necessary  water  either  for  washing  or  drinking  purposes, 
for  the  crowds  of  men  who  had  been  besieging  the  little  wells 
of  Clermont  during  the  two  days  before  had  pumped  away 
all  the  water  for  themselves  and  their  horses.     Only  one 
of  us,   who  was  something  of  a  grumbler,  complained  of 
these  little  misfortunes ;   the  rest,  including  Abeken,  who 
was  an  old  traveller,  seemed  to  take  them,  as  I  did,  good- 
humouredly,  as  giving  a  flavour  to  the  expedition. 

In  two  little  school-rooms  on  the  ground-lloor  the  Bureau 
of  the  War  Minister,  or  the  general  staff,  was  established  ; 
and  there,  quartermasters  and  soldiers  wrote  on  the  school 


III.]  The  CJiancellor  s  Work-room.  63 

tables  and  the  masters'  desks.  On  the  walls  were  different 
kmds  of  apparatus  for  teaching,  on  one  were  maps  and 
sentences  and  a  black-board  for  teaching  arithmetic,  on  the 
other  an  advice  most  applicable  to  these  bad  times  :  "  Faitcs- 
vous  line  etude  de  la  patience  et  sachez  ceder  par  raisofi. " 

While  we  were  still  drinking  our  coffee  in  the  morning, 
the  Chief  came  and  angrily  inquired,  why  the  proclamation, 
according  to  which  certain  offences  of  the  population  con- 
trary to  military  law  were  to  be  punished  with  death  had 
not  yet  been  posted  up.  By  his  order  I  went  to  inquire  of 
Stieber,  who  had  found  out  good  quarters  for  himself  in  the 
other  part  of  the  town,  and  I  returned  with  the  answer  that 
Abeken  had  given  the  proclamation  to  the  general  staff,  and 
that  it  was  his  duty  as  the  director  of  the  field  police  to  post 
up  only  such  proclamations  as  issued  from  his  Majesty. 

I  took  this  message  to  the  Chancellor  and  received  some 
more  commissions.  I  saw  that  he  was  hardly  better  put  up 
than  we.  He  had  slept  that  night  on  a  mattress  on  the 
floor,  his  revolver  within  reach,  and  he  worked  at  a  table 
so  small  that  he  could  hardly  put  both  elbows  on  it  at  once, 
in  a  corner  near  the  door.  The  room  was  meanly  fur- 
nished ;  there  was  neither  sofa,  arm-chair^  nor  anything  of 
the  kind.  He  who  for  years  had  made  the  history  of  the 
world,  in  whose  head  its  currents  met  and  changed  cha- 
racter according  to  his  plans,  had  hardly  a  place  to  lay  his 
head,  while  stupid  courtiers  in  their  comfortable  four-posters 
had  the  sound  sleep  of  the  idle  classes  ;  and  even  M.  Stieber 
himself  had  managed  to  get  much  more  comfortably  housed 
than  our  master. 

On  this  occasion  I  saw  a  letter  which  had  fallen  into  our 
hands,  having  been  sent  from  Paris  some  days  ago,  and 
addressed  to  a  French  officer  of  high  rank.  According 
to   its  contents,  the  circles  to  which  he  belonged  neither 


64  Bismarck  in  the  Frajico-German  War.      [Chap. 

believed  in  the  possibility  of  further  resistance,  nor  hoped 
to  maintain  the  dynasty  on  the  throne.  The  writer  did  not 
know  what  to  hope  or  expect  in  tlie  immediate  future ;  a 
Republic  without  Republicans,  or  a  monarchy  without  be- 
lievers in  monarchy,  appeared  to  be  the  choice  which  he 
saw  before  him.  To  him  the  Republicans  appeared  too 
much  in  love  with  moderation ;  the  Monarchists  too  self- 
seeking.  They  were  enthusiastic,  he  said,  about  the  army, 
but  no  one  showed  any  great  activity  in  joining  it  in  order 
to  fight  the  enemy. 

The  Chief  began  to  speak  again  of  the  performances  of 
the  Saxons  on  the  day  of  Gravelotte.  "  Especially  the 
little  black  regiments  ought  to  be  praised,"  he  continued ; 
"  they  speak  so  modestly  of  themselves  in  their  papers,  and 
yet  they  fought  with  extraordinary  bravery.  Try  to  get  some 
details  of  their  fine  conduct  on  the  i8th." 

Meanwhile  everyone  was  working  hard  in  the  Bureau. 
On  the  table,  which  still  bore  every  sign  of  its  origin  as  a 
kitchen  door,  councillors  and  secretaries  wrote  and  de- 
ciphered with  great  activity,  in  the  midst  of  a  picturesque 
confusion  of  portfolios  and  papers,  cloaks,  shoes,  and  clothes- 
brushes,  bottles  with  candles  in  them,  with  which  to  seal 
the  documents,  torn  paper,  and  open  envelopes,  with  which 
the  ground  was  strewed.  Orderlies  came  and  went,  couriers 
and  Government  messengers.  Everybody  talked  without 
minding  anyone  else.  We  were  too  much  in  a  hurry  to 
take  notice.  Abeken  darted  in  and  out  between  the  im- 
provised table  and  tlie  messengers,  and  his  voice  was  more 
distinct  than  ever.  I  believe  that  his  nimble  hand  must 
have  turned  out  a  fresh  piece  of  writing  every  half-hour  this 
morning,  so  continually  was  he  heard  to  push  back  his 
stool  and  call  the  messengers.  P'rom  the  street  below  rose 
the   almost   continual  tramp,  tramp,    music,    the   rattle   of 


III.]  A  Panorama  in  France.  65 

drams,  and  the  rambling  of  wheels.  It  was  not  easy  to 
keep  one's  thoughts  together,  or  to  do  one's  work  as  one 
wished.     But  it  had  to  be  done  with  good  will. 

The  Chancellor  and  the  Councillors  dined  with  the  King, 
and  after  our  dinner,  for  which  the  cooking  waggon  had  once 
more  furnished  its  stores,  Willisch  and  I  mounted  the  steps 
up  to  the  church,  and  then  along  a  winding  path  to  the  top 
of  the  hill,  where  there  is  a  chapel  dedicated  to  St.  Anne. 
Here,  in  the  shade  of  a  wide-spreading  tree,  a  group  of 
country  folks,  soldiers  from  a  Freiberg  rifle  battalion,  were 
enjoying  their  evening  meal.  They  had  been  in  the  battle 
on  the  1 8th,  and  I  tried  to  obtain  from  them  some  par- 
ticulars of  the  action,  but  I  did  not  get  much  out  of  them, 
except  that  they  had  lost  a  great  many  men.  Here  and 
there  on  the  road  we  found  traces  of  old  walls,  and  ton  the 
flat  at  the  top  of  the  hill  we  observed  a  certain  regularity  in 
the  trees  and  bushes  which  suggested  that  a  great  garden 
and  grounds  had  once  existed  here. 

At  one  side  of  the  chapel,  between  dark  green  trees  of 
arbor  vitoe,  a  sloping  path  led  up  to  some  seats  at  a  point 
where  the  prospect  is  lovely.  In  the  middle  of  this  path 
walked  a  clergyman  in  a  black  cassock,  reading  in  a  prayer- 
book,  or  book  of  devotion.  It  is  a  splendid  point  of  view. 
In  the  foreground  close  at  our  feet  lay  the  little  town.  North 
and  East  beyond  it  was  a  broad  plain,  with  stubble-fields, 
villages,  and  churches  with  their  spires,  groups  of  trees,  and 
reaches  of  woodland.  To  the  south  and  west  the  ridse  of 
the  Argonnes,  endless  dark  green  woods  stretching  far  away 
till  they  became  a  misty  blue.  This  plain  is  traversed  by 
three  roads.  One  leads  in  a  straight  line  to  Varennes. 
Near  this  road,  not  far  from  the  town,  was  a  Bavarian  camp, 
the  fires  of  which  lighted  up  the  picturesque  clouds  of  smoke. 
To  the  right,  against  the  horizon,  was  the  village  of  Faucoix 

VOL,    I.  F 


66  Bismarck  m  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap, 

on  a  wooded  hill.  Further  to  the  right  more  single  hills,  while 
behind  and  over  these,  just  visible  in  the  light  blue  distance, 
was  the  high-lying  little  town  of  Montfaulcon.  More  to  the 
East  a  second  road  crossed  the  plain  in  the  foreground,  going 
towards  Verdun.  Still  further  to  the  right,  in  the  semicircle 
near  a  Saxon  camp,  ran  the  road  to  Bar-le-Duc,  on  which 
troops  were  marching  our  way,  their  bayonets  gleaming  in 
the  setting  sun,  and  the  roll  of  their  drums  coming  faint 
to  our  ears  from  the  distance. 

We  sat  a  long  time  looking  at  this  lovely  picture,  flooded 
over  with  the  light  of  the  setting  sun — so  long  that  we 
watched  the  lengthening  shadows  of  the  hills  creeping  over 
the  fields,  till  all  was  dark.  On  our  way  back  we  took  an- 
other look  into  the  church  of  St.  Didier,  where  some  Hessian 
troops  were  quartered.  They  lay  on  straw  in  the  choir 
before  the  altar  and — certainly  without  thinking  any  harm, 
for  they  were  good  quiet  folks — lighted  their  pipes  at  the 
sacred  lamp. 

I  shall  here  introduce  some  interesting  notes  from  the 
journal  of  a  Bavarian  superior  officer,  which  have  been 
placed  at  my  disposal.  In  May,  187 1,  on  the  return  march 
to  Clermont  he  was  quartered  in  the  same  house  in  which 
King  William  had  lived  during  our  residence  there,  and  he 
also  visited  the  hill  and  its  chapel  to  St.  Anne.  There, 
too,  he  met  the  priest,  made  his  acquaintance,  and  learnt 
from  him  all  sorts  of  interesting  things.  The  remains  of 
walls  which  we  noticed  had  belonged  to  an  old  castle,  which 
was  afterwards  turned  into  a  cloister,  destroyed  at  the 
time  of  the  first  French  Revolution.  The  priest  was  an  old 
man  who  had  lived  in  the  place  for  fifty-six  years.  He  was 
a  man  of  much  feeling,  and  a  good  patriot.  The  mis- 
fortunes of  his  country  lay  heavy  on  his  heart,  but  he  did 


III.]  The  Dog  and  the  Chancellor.  67 

not  deny  that  it  was  a  mischievous  arrogance  which  had 
brought  this  sad  fate  upon  it  Of  this  arrogance  he  gave  a 
curious  proof,  which  I  will  give  as  nearly  as  I  can  in  the 
Father's  own  words. 

"  Like  you,  gentlemen,  the  French  Cuirassiers  appeared 
here  suddenly  last  August.  The  beautiful  hill  tempted 
them  too,  to  admire  the  country  from  its  summit.  They 
went  joking  along,  and  coming  to  my  church,  standing  open, 
as  usual,  they  said  that  a  public-house  would  have  been 
more  in  place  here.  Whereupon  they  got  a  cask  of  wine,  which 
they  drank  in  the  chapel,  after  which  they  had  dancing  and 
singing.  Suddenly  there  appeared  a  sturdy  cuirassier,  who 
carried  on  his  back  a  dog  dressed  in  woman's  clothes,  which 
he  set  down  in  the  circle  of  dancers.  '  Cest  Monsieur 
de  Bismarck!'  he  cried,  and  their  noisy  delight  over  this 
wretched  joke  seemed  as  if  it  would  never  end.  They  pulled 
the  dog  by  the  tail,  and  as  he  howled  they  shrieked,  '  Ccst 
le  langage  de  Monsieur  de  Bismarck  !'  They  danced  with 
the  creature,  and  at  last  the  soldier  got  it  on  his  back 
again;  after  which  they  formed  a  procession,  which  was 
to  go  down  the  hill  and  through  the  town.  This  excited 
me  past  bearing.  I  begged  a  hearing,  and  told  them  it  was 
a  shame  to  compare  any  man,  even  an  enemy,  to  a  brute. 
In  vain ;  they  overpowered  me  with  noise  and  thrust  me  on 
one  side.  In  a  rage  I  called  out  to  them  :  '  Look  to  it, 
diat  the  punishment  due  to  insolence  does  not  fall  on  your 
head.'  However,  they  would  not  be  warned  ;  the  noise 
went  on  and  the  crowd  went  away  with  their  dog,  shouting 
and  brawling,  unhappily,  meeting  only  applause  all  through 
the  town.  Ah  !  all  that  I  ffeared  was  only  too  completely 
realised.  Fourteen  days  had  not  passed  before  Bismarck 
stood  as  conqueror  on  the  very  spot  where  he  had  been 
ridiculed  in  so  absurd  a  fashion.     I  saw  diis  man  of  iron, 


68  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

but  I  did  not  then  think  him  such  a  terrible  person,  or  that 
he  would  make  my  poor  France  bleed  to  death.  Yes,  I 
can  never  forget  the  day  when  these  soldiers  sinned  against 
him  so." 

The  author  of  the  journal  continues  :  "  We  returned  to  our 
quarters,  and  our  host  willingly  showed  us  the  room  in 
which  the  Emperor  William  lived  and  the  bed  on  which  he 
slept.  The  old  gentleman  could  not  sufficiently  praise  the 
Emperor's  chivalrous  manners,  and  he  did  not  think  Bis- 
marck nearly  so  dreadful  as  he  was  represented.  The  Count 
had  come  there  one  day  to  see  the  Emperor,  but  had  to  wait 
a  very  long  time,  for  MoUke  was  already  engaged  with  him. 
He  had  taken  a  walk  with  Bismarck  through  the  garden 
while  he  was  waiting,  and  found  him  very  pleasant.  He 
spoke  French  admirably,  and  no  one  would  ha\  e  thought 
him  such  a  terrible  Prussian.  He  had  talked  with  him 
about  all  kinds  of  rural  matters,  and  had  shown  himself  as 
much  at  home  there  as  in  politics.  Such  a  man,  he  said 
emphatically,  is  what  France  needs." 

Sunday,  August  28. — When  we  got  out  of  bed  a  fine,  soft 
rain  was  falling  from  a  dull  grey  sky,  reminding  us  that 
Goethe,  not  far  from  here,  in  1792,  in  frightful  weather, 
amidst  mud  and  dirt,  had  passed  the  days  before  and  after 
the  cannonade  at  Valmy.  I  went  to  General  Sheridan, 
who  had  found  a  home  for  himself  in  the  back-room  of  an 
apothecary's  shop,  and  by  the  Chief's  directions,  took  him 
the  Fait  Matt  Gazette.  Then  I  wished  to  get  from  the 
Saxons  some  details  of  the  i8th,  but  at  first  I  could  only 
find  single  soldiers  who  had  no  time  to  tell  me  anything.  At 
last,  by  chance,  I  came  upon  one  of  their  Landwehr  officers, 
a  country  gentleman,  Fuchs-Nordhof,  from  Mocker,  near 
Leipsic.     But  he  could  not  tell  me  much  that  was  new.     The 


III.]  The  Necessary  Conditions  of  Peace.  6g 

Saxons  had  fought  nobly  near  Sainte-Marie-aux-Chenes  and 
at  Saint-Privat,  and  had  saved  the  Guard  there,  who  had  fallen 
somewhat  into  disorder,  from  entire  defeat.  The  Freiberg 
riflemen  had  taken  the  French  position  on  the  right  attack, 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  without  firing  a  shot.  The 
Leipsic  regiment,  the  107th,  had  lost  many  men  and  almost 
all  its  officers.  This  was  all.  He  told  me  also  that  Krauss- 
haar  had  fallen. 

When  the  Minister  rose  we  had  plenty  to  do.  Our  cause 
makes  excellent  progress.  I  am  to  telegraph  that  the  Saxon 
cavalry  at  Voussieres  and  Beaumont,  in  the  North,  have 
scattered  the  Twelfth  Chasseurs.  I  learnt,  and  was  allowed 
to  repeat  to  others,  that  the  determination  to  take  some 
provinces  from  France  was  still  firmly  adhered  to,  and  that 
peace  would  be  concluded  on  no  other  terms.  An  article 
sanctioned  by  the  Chief,  explained  our  reasons  in  the  fol- 
lowing manner : 

The  German  armies,  since  the  victorious  days  of  Mars-la- 
Tour  and  Gravelotte,  have  continually  advanced,  and  the  time 
appears  to  have  come  when  the  question  may  be  put  under 
what  conditions  Germany  will  conclude  peace  with  France. 
In  this  we  must  not  be  governed  by  the  love  of  glory  or 
the  lust  of  conquest,  and  as  little  by  the  magnanimity 
dinned  into  our  ears  by  the  foreign  press.  In  all  our  pro- 
ceedings we  have  to  consider  merely  how  best  to  protect 
Germany,  and  especially  South  Germany,  from  fresh  attacks 
of  French  ambition,  such  as  we  have  had  renewed  more 
than  a  dozen  times  from  Louis  XIV.  to  the  present  day, 
and  which  will  be  repeated  as  often  as  France  feels  herself 
strong  enough  to  do  so.  The  enormous  sacrifices,  both  in 
men  and  money,  which  the  German  people  have  made  in 
this  war,  and  all  our  victories,  would  be  in  vain,  if  the  power 
of  France  to  attack  were  not  weakened,  and  Germany's 


70  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

capacity  of  defence  not  strengthened.  The  German  people 
have  a  right  to  demand  this.  If  we  contented  ourselves 
with  a  mere  change  of  dynasty  or  with  a  contribution,  no 
substantial  improvement  in  our  condition  would  ensue. 
Nothing  would  preverwt  this  war  from  being  the  first  of  a 
series  of  wars  ;  and  especially  the  sting  of  the  present  defeat 
would  drive  the  pride  of  the  French  to  revenge  the  German 
victories.  The  contribution  would  soon  be  forgotten,  the 
riches  of  France  being  so  great  in  comparison  with  our  own. 
Each  new  dynasty,  in  order  to  maintain  itself,  would  seek 
compensation  for  the  disaster  of  the  dynasty  now  in  power 
by  victories  over  us.  Magnanimity  is  no  doubt  a  very 
estimable  virtue ;  but,  in  politics,  magnanimity,  as  a  rule, 
gets  little  thanks.  In  1866  we  took  not  a  single  acre  of 
territory  from  the  Austrians.  Have  we  found  that  we 
are  thanked  in  Vienna  for  this  self-denial  ?  Are  they  not 
full  there  of  bitter  feelings  of  revenge,  simply  because  they 
were  beaten  ?  And  further,  the  French  growled  at  us  from 
envy  because  of  Koniggratz,  where,  not  they,  but  a  foreign 
power  were  conquered.  How  will  they  ever  forgive  us  the 
victories  of  Worth  and  Metz,  whether  we  magnanimously 
renounce  or  do  not  renounce  any  cession  of  territory  ?  How 
they  will  dream  of  vengeance  for  the  defeats  which  they 
have  now  suffered  at  our  hands  ! 

If  in  1 8 14  and  181 5  the  French  were  treated  other- 
wise than  as  we  here  indicate,  the  result  of  the  leniency 
with  which  France  was  then  dealt  with  has  sufficiently 
proved  that  it  was  a  mistaken  clemency.  Had  the 
French  been  weakened  in  those  days,  as  it  was  desirable 
they  should  have  been  in  the  interests  of  the  peace  of  the 
world,  we  should  not  have  had  to  be  carrying  on  tliis 
war  now. 

The  danger   lies,  not   in  Bonapartism,    although    Bona- 


III.]  The  Defence  of  South  Germany.  71 

partism  is  specially  pledged  to  a  Chauvinistic  foreign  policy. 
It  lies  in  the  incurable,  ineradicable  arrogance  of  that  por- 
tion of  the  French  people  which  gives  the  tone  to  France. 
This  trait  of  the  French  national  character,  which  will  pre- 
scribe its  line  of  action  to  every  dynasty,  let  it  call  itself  what 
it  may,  even  to  a  French  republic,  will  continually  be  a 
goad  to  attacks  upon  peaceable  neighbours.  He  who 
desires  the  load  of  military  armament  in  Europe  to  be 
lightened,  he  who  wants  to  see  such  a  peace  as  will  permit 
nothing  of  the  kind,  must  wish  for  a  solid  and  impreg- 
nable barrier  against  the  war-chariot  of  the  French  lust  of 
conquest,  not  in  a  moral  but  a  material  form  ;  that  for  the 
future  it  may  be  made  as  difficult  as  possible  to  the  French 
to  invade  South  Germany  with  an  army  comparatively  small, 
so  as  by  the  possibility  of  such  an  invasion  to  constrain  the 
Germans  of  the  south,  even  in  a  time  of  peace,  to  consider 
France.  To  secure  South  Germany  by  defensible  frontiers 
is  our  present  task.  To  fulfil  it  is  to  liberate  German^ 
entirely — is,  in  fact,  to  complete  the  war  of  liberation  o 
1813  and  1814. 

The  least,  therefore,  which  -we  must  demand,  the  least 
which  the  German  nation  in  all  its  parts,  but  especially  our 
countrymen  and  fellow-soldiers  beyond  the  Maine,  will 
demand  is  the  cession  of  the  sallyports  of  France  towards 
Germany,  the  conquest  of  Strassburg  and  Metz  for  Germany. 
To  expect  a  lasting  peace  from  the  dismantling  of  these 
fortresses  would  be  a  short-sighted  illusion  of  the  same  kind 
as  the  hope  that  it  is  possible  to  gain  the  French  by  mere 
clemency.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  moreover,  that  when 
we  demand  these  cessions  we  are  demanding  the  cession  of 
territory  originally  German,  a  considerable  part  of  which  is 
still  German,  the  inhabitants  of  which  may  perhaps  again 
learn  in  time  to  feel  their  German  nationality. 


72  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

To  us  change  of  dynasty  is  a  matter  of  indifference ;  a 
war  contribution  might  weaken  France  for  a  time  finan- 
cially. What  we  want  is  the  increased  security  of  the  German 
frontier,  and  this  is  only  attainable  by  the  transformation  of 
the  two  fortresses  which  threaten  us,  into  bulwarks  to  protect 
us.  From  being  French  fortresses  of  aggression  Strassburg 
and  Metz  must  become  German  places  of  defence. 

He  who  sincerely  desires  peace  on  the  continent  of 
Europe,  he  who  wishes  that  nations  should  lay  dov/n  their 
arms,  and  that  the  plough  should  prevail  over  the  sword, 
must  wish  above  all  that  the  neighbours  of  France  on  the 
East  may  secure  this  position,  for  France  is  the  only  dis- 
turber of  peace,  and  will  remain  so,  so  long  as  she  has  the 
power. 

Note  (i). — Among  other  matters  we  talked  at  dinner  of  the  Angus- 
tenburg  prince  who  was  serving  with  the  Bavarians.  The  opinion 
expressed  of  him  was  much  what  was  said  to  me  some  months  later  by 
a  kindly  disposed  friend  of  his,  who  was  at  that  time  a  professor  in  Kiel, 
in  a  letter  to  myself.  "  We  all  know  that  he  is  not  born  for  any  heroic 
exploits.  It  is  not  his  nature.  It  is  a  family  trait,  that  he  rather  takes 
to  a  persistent  waiting  on  Providence,  an  expectation  of  the  mar- 
vellous things  his  inheritance  is  to  bring  him.  He  has  never  once  made 
any  attempt  at  heroism.  It  would  have  been  much  more  seemly  if, 
instead  of  hanging  about  the  army  as  a  mere  amateur  of  battle-fields,  he 
had  led  a  company  or  a  battalion  of  the  soldiers  who  were  once  almost 
his  own,  as  a  captain  or  a  major,  or,  if  he  preferred  it,  a  Bavarian 
company.  Probably  little  would  have  come  of  it,  but  one  would  have 
been  glad  at  least  of  the  goodwill  it  would  have  shown." 

NoTK  (2). — In  the  latter  case  the  following  may  refer  to  our  stay  in 
Bar-le-Duc.  Charles  Loizet  says  in  the  Paris  Revue  Politique  et  Litte- 
raire  for  February  or  March,  1874  :— "  In  a  town  in  eastern  France 
which  had  the  sorry  honour  of  harbouring  the  highest  personages  of  the 
invasion  for  several  days,  and  where  the  forced  march  on  Sedan  was 
decided  on  at  a  moment's  notice,  the  famous  Bismarck  took  a  walk 
round  alone,  up  and  down  thrf)ugh  the  most  outlying  quarters  of  the 
town,  indifferent  to  the  ill-wishes  and  the  amazement  of  the  people  who 
pointed  at  him.     A  man  whose   heart  was  made  bitter  by  domestic 


III.]  The  Defence  of  South  Germany.  73 

trouble,  and  who  had  ceased  to  care  for  his  own  life,  secretly  sought  a 
concealed  weapon  for  an  enterprise  which  would  have  made  a  great 
sensation.  It  was  refused  him,  the  people  were  terrified  for  fear  he 
should  find  one.  The  inhabitants  of  the  town,  who  were  very  patriotic, 
had  been  previously  disarmed.  The  man  hung  about  for  days,  and  his 
plan  went  to  the  grave  with  him.  And  the  Chancellor  went  alone,  in 
uniform,  for  a  walk  through  the  meadows  above  the  upper  town  !"  The 
regret  with  which  M,  Loizet  concludes  his  story  has  something  tragi- 
comical in  it. 


74  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap, 


CHAPTER  IV. 

WE    TURN   NORTHWARDS — THE   CHANCELLOR   IN    REZONVILLE 
BATTLE   AND    BATTLE-FIELD    OF    BEAUMONT.  . 

Sunday,  August  28. — At  tea  we  were  surprised  by  great 
news.  With  the  whole  army,  except  what  remains  behind 
for  the  investment  of  Metz,  we  alter  the  direction  of  our 
march,  and  instead  of  going  Westward  to  Chalons  we  move 
Northwards  under  the  edge  of  the  forest  of  Argonnes  to 
the  Ardennes,  and  the  Meuse  district.  Our  immediate 
object  will  be,  it  is  said,  Grand  Pre.  This  movement  is 
owing  to  Marshal  MacMahon,  who,  with  a  strong  force  to 
the  north  of  us,  is  marching  to  Metz  to  relieve  Bazaine. 

On  the  2<)th,  by  ten  o'clock,  we  started.  The  weather, 
which  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  day  rainy  and  cold,  now 
improved,  and  the  sky  gradually  cleared.  We  passed 
different  villages,  and  sometimes  a  pretty  chateau  and  park. 
On  the  road  were  Bavarian  camps,  line  infantry,  riflemen, 
light  cavalry,  and  cuirassiers.  We  drove  through  the  little 
town  of  Varennes,  by  the  small  two-windowed  house 
where  Louis  XVI.  was  arrested  by  the  postmaster  of  Sainte- 
Menehould,  and  which  now  contains  a  store  of  scythes  be- 
longing to  the  firm  of  Nicot-Jacquesson.  The  first  market 
we  came  to  in  the  town,  with  square-trimmed  lime-trees, 
the  little  three-cornered  square,  which  came  next,  and  the 
large  market-place  further  on,  were  all  full  of  foot  and 
horse  soldiers,  waggons,  and  guns.  The  crowd  of  men  and 
animals  was  so  great  that  we  could  with  difficulty  get 
through  them  out  into  the  open  ground,  and   then  it  was 


IV.]  Setting  out  for  Beaumont.  75 

only  to  pass  through  other  villages  and  by  more  camps,  past 
the  Prussian  artillery,  to  Grand  Pre,  where  the  Chancellor 
took  up  his  quarters  in  the  Grande  Rue,  two  or  three  houses 
from  the  market.  The  King  lived  at  the  apothecary's,  not 
far  oif  on  the  left  side  of  the  road,  towards  the  gloomy  old 
castle  above  the  town.  The  second  division  of  the  head- 
quarters, in  which  was  Prince  Karl,  Prince  Leopold  of  Ba- 
varia, the  Grand  Duke  of  Weimar,  and  the  Hereditary  Grand 
Duke  of  Mecklenburg-Schwerin  had  arrived  at  the  neigh- 
bouring village  of  Juvin.  The  quartermaster  had  got  a 
lodging  for  me  not  far  from  opposite  the  Chief,  in  a  modest 
little  room  belonging  to  a  milliner,  who  had  left  home. 
On  our  arrival  in  the  market-place  we  saw  there  some 
French  prisoners,  and  towards  evening  more  came  in.  I 
heard  that  a  collision  with  Mac-Mahon's  army  was  expected 
the  next  day. 

In  Grand  Pre,  too,  the  Chief  showed  that  he  had  no  fear 
of  any  murderous  attack  on  his  person.  He  went  about  the 
narrow  streets  of  the  town  freely  in  the  twilight  without  a 
companion,  in  lonely  places  where  he  was  quite  liable  to 
be  attacked.  I  say  this  from  my  own  knowledge — for  I 
followed  him  at  a  little  distance.  It  seemed  to  me  possible 
that  I  might  be  of  use  to  him. 

I  heard  the  next  morning  that  the  King  and  the  Chan- 
cellor were  going  out  together,  to  be  present  at  the  great 
battue  of  this  second  French  army.  Remembering  what  the 
Chancellor  said  to  me  at  Pont-k-Mousson,  one  day  when 
he  came  back  from  Rezonville,  and  the  proverb  he  quoted 
another  time,  "  It  is  he  who  makes  himself  green  that  the 
goats  will  nibble,"  I  took  heart  as  the  carriage  drove  up, 
and  begged  him  to  take  me  with  him.  He  answered, 
"  Yes,  but  if  we  stay  out  the  night,  what  will  you  do  ?"  I 
replied,  "  Never  mind.  Excellency,  I  shall  be  able  to  take 


"j^  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

care  of  myself."  "  Well,  then,  come  along,"  said  he,  smiling. 
He  then  took  another  stroll  to  the  market-place,  while  I 
joyfully  got  together  my  bag,  my  waterproof,  and  my  faith- 
ful diary,  and  when  he  came  back  and  got  into  the  carriage, 
he  beckoned  to  me  to  take  a  seat  by  his  side.  A  man  must 
have  luck,  as  well  as  do  his  duty,  to  get  on. 

It  was  a  little  after  nine  when  we  started.  First  we  went 
back  a  little  way  on  the  same  road  we  had  come  by  a  few 
days  before,  then  to  the  left,  up  through  vineyards,  past 
more  villages  in  a  hilly  country,  with  columns  of  troops  and 
parks  of  artillery  everywhere  before  us  marching  or  resting, 
then  down  another  road  to  the  right,  through  the  valley  to 
the  little  town  of  Busancy,  which  we  entered  at  eleven 
o'clock,  where  we  halted  in  the  market-place  to  wait  for 
the  King. 

The  Count  was  very  communicative  on  the  way.  First  he 
complained  that  he  was  so  often  disturbed  at  his  work  by 
people  talking  outside  his  door,  "  especially  as  some  of  the 
gentlemen  speak  so  loud.  The  common  inarticulate  noises 
do  not  irritate  me.  Music,  or  the  rattle  of  carriages,  does 
not  put  me  out;  but  talking,  if  the  words  are  audible,  is 
quite  a  different  thing.  I  then  want  to  know  what  is  being 
said,  and  lose  the  thread  of  my  thoughts." 

Further  on  he  remarked  that  it  was  not  proper  for  me 
to  return  the  military  salutes  of  officers  who  passed  the 
carriage.  The  salute  was  not  to  him  as  Minister  or  Chan- 
cellor, but  simply  to  his  rank  as  general,  and  officers  might 
take  it  amiss  if  a  civilian  took  their  salutes  as  including 
himself. 

He  feared  that  nothing  decisive  would  be  done  to-day,  an 
opinion  which  was  shared  by  some  Prussian  artillery  officers 
standing  by  their  guns  close  to  Busancy,  whom  he  asked 
about  it.     "  This,"  said  he,   "  reminds  me  of  a  wolf  hunt  I 


IV.]  King  and  Chancellor  in  Danger.  yy 

once  had  in  the  Ardennes,  which  begin  just  here.  We  were 
for  many  long  days  up  in  the  snow,  and  at  last  heard  that 
they  had  found  the  tracks  of  a  wolf.  When  we  went  aftei 
him  he  had  vanished.  So  it  will  be  to-day  with  the 
French." 

Then  he  expressed  a  hope  that  he  might  meet  his  second 
son  here,  about  whom  he  frequently  incjuired  of  the  officers, 
and  he  remarked,  "  You  see  how  little  Nepotism  there  is 
with  us.  He  has  been  serving  now  twelve  months,  and 
has  not  been  promoted,  whilst  others,  who  have  not  served 
much  more  than  one  month,  are  ensigns  already."  I 
ventured  to  ask  how  that  could  be.  "  Indeed,  I  don't 
know,"  replied  he.  "  I  have  particularly  inquired  whether 
there  was  any  fault  in  him — drinking  or  anything  of  that 
kind  ;  but  no,  he  seems  to  have  conducted  himself  quite 
properly,  and  in  the  cavalry  fight  at  Mars-la-Tour  he 
charged  the  French  square  as  bravely  as  any  man  among 
them."  A  few  weeks  afterwards  both  sons  were  promoted 
to  the  rank  of  officers. 

Then,  amongst  other  things,  he  told  another  of  his  ex- 
periences on  the  evening  of  the  i8th  : "  I  had  sent  my  horse 
to  water,  and  stood  in  the  dusk  near  a  battery,  which  was 
firing.  The  French  were  silent,  but,"  he  continued,  "when 
we  thought  their  guns  were  disabled,  they  were  only  con- 
centrating their  guns  and  mitrailleuses  for  a  last  great  push. 
Suddenly  they  began  a  quite  fearful  fire  with  shells  and  such 
like  —  an  incessant  cracking  and  rolling,  whizzing  and 
screaming  in  the  air.  We  were  separated  from  the  King, 
who  had  been  sent  back  by  Roon.  I  stayed  by  the  battery, 
and  thought  to  myself,  '  if  we  have  to  retreat,  put  yourself  on 
the  first  gun-carriage  you  can  find.'  We  now  expected  that 
the  French  infantry  would  support  the  attack,  when  they 
might  have  taken  me  prisoner  unless  the  artillery  carried  me 


y8  Bismarck  m  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

away  with  them.  But  the  attack  failed,  and  at  last  the 
horses  returned,  and  I  set  off  back  to  the  King.  V/e  had 
gone  out  of  the  rain  into  the  gutter,  for  where  we  had  ridden 
to  the  shells  were  falling  thick,  whereas  before  they  had 
passed  over  our  heads.  Next  morning  we  saw  the  deep 
holes  they  had  ploughed  in  the  ground. 

"  The  King  had  to  go  back  farther,  as  I  told  him  to  do, 
after  the  officers  had  made  representations  to  me.  It  was 
now  night.  The  King  said  he  was  hungry,  and  what  could 
he  have  to  eat  ?  There  was  plenty  to  drink — wine  and  bad 
rum  from  a  sutler — but  not  a  morsel  to  eat  but  dry  bread. 
At  last,  in  the  village,  we  got  a  few  cutlets,  just  enough  for 
the  King;  but  not  for  any  one  else,  so  I  had  to  find  out 
something  for  myself  His  Majesty  would  sleep  in  the 
carriage,  among  dead  horses  and  badly-wounded  men.  He 
afterwards  found  accommodation  in  a  little  public-house. 
The  Chancellor  had  to  look  out  somewhere  else.  The  heir 
of  one  of  the  greatest  German  potentates  (the  young  Here- 
ditary Grand  Duke  of  Mecklenburg)  kept  watch  by  our 
common  carriage,  that  nothing  should  be  stolen,  and 
Sheridan  and  I  set  off  to  find  a  sleeping-place.  We  came 
to  a  house  which  was  still  burning,  and  that  was  too  hot. 
I  asked  at  another,  '  full  of  wounded  soldiers.'  In  a  third, 
also  full  of  the  wounded.  In  a  fourth,  just  the  same  ;  but 
I  was  not  to  be  denied  this  time.  I  looked  up  and  saw 
a  window  which  was  dark.  '  What  have  you  got  uji  there  ? ' 
I  asked.  '  More  wounded  soldiers.'  '  That  we  shall  see 
for  ourselves.'  I  went  up  and  found  three  empty  beds, 
with  good  and  apparently  fairly  clean  straw  mattresses. 
Here  we  took  up  our  night  quarters  and  I  slept  capitally.' 

"  Yes,"  said  his  cousin,  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen,  when  the 
Chancellor  told  us  this  story  the  first  time,  and  with  less 
detail ;  "  you  did  sleep  sound ;  and  so  did  Sheridan,  who — 


IV.]  Field  Commissariat.  79 

where  he  got  it  I  don't  know — had  rolled  himself  up  in 
white  linen  all  over,  and  who  must  have  been  dreaming  of 
)'0u,  for  I  heard  him  several  times  murmuring,  '  O,  dear 
Count !'  H'm,  and  the  Hereditary  Grand  Duke,  who 
took  the  thing  very  well,  is  a  particularly  pleasant  and 
agreeable  young  fellow."  "  The  best  of  the  story  is,"  said 
Bohlen,  "  that  there  was  no  necessity  for  such  a  pinch,  for 
we  found  out  that  quite  close  by  there  was  an  elegant  country- 
house,  which  had  been  prepared  for  Bazaine — with  good 
beds,  sack  in  the  cellar,  and  what  not — everything  of  the 
best.  One  of  our  generals  lodged  there  and  had  a  capital 
supper  with  his  friends." 

On  our  way  to  Busancy,  the  Chancellor  went  on  to  say, 
"  The  whole  day  I  had  had  nothing  to  eat  but  the  soldiers' 
bread  and  fat  bacon.  Now  we  found  some  eggs — five  or 
six — the  others  must  have  theirs  boiled ;  but  I  like  them 
uncooked,  so  I  got  a  couple  of  them  and  broke  them  on  the 
pommel  of  my  sword,  and  was  much  refreshed.  When  it 
got  light  I  took  the  first  warm  food  for  six-and-thirty  hours 
— it  was  only  pea-sausage-soup,  which  General  Goben  gave 
me,  but  it  tasted  quite  excellent." 

Afterwards  they  gave  us  a  roast  fowl,  "  over  whose  tough- 
ness the  best  teeth  would  have  despaired."  This  had  been 
offered  to  him  by  a  sutler,  after  he  had  bought  one  un- 
cooked from  a  soldier,  Bismarck  had  taken  the  former 
and  paid  for  it,  and  gave  the  soldier's  to  the  sutler,  telling 
him,  "  If  we  meet  again  in  the  course  of  the  war,  you  shall 
give  it  to  me  roasted  ;  if  not,  then  I  hope  you  will  pay  it  me 
back  in  Berlin." 

The  market-place  in  Busancy,  a  small  provincial  town,  was 
full  of  officers,  Hussars,  Uhlans,  messengers,  and  vehicles  of 
every  kind.  After  a  time  Sheridan  and  Forsythe  came.  At 
half-past  eleven  the  King  appeared,  and  immediately  after- 


8o  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap, 

wards  we  started  again,  news  coming  that  the  French  were 
unexpectedly  going  to  make  a  stand. 

Some  four  kilometres  from  Busancy  we  came  on  higher 
land  with  bare  depressions  to  the  right  and  left,  with  heights 
again  beyond.  Suddenly,  a  dull  heavy  crack  in  the  distance. 
"  A  cannon  shot,"  said  the  Minister.  A  little  farther  on, 
beyond  the  depression  on  the  left,  on  a  treeless  rise,  I  saw 
two  columns  of  infantry  stationed,  and  in  front  of  them  two 
guns,  which  were  being  fired.  But  it  was  so  far  from  us 
that  we  hardly  heard  the  shots.  The  Chief  was  surprised  at 
my  sharp  eyes,  and  put  on  his  spectacles,  as  I  now  for  the 
first  time  notice  that  he  is  obliged  to  do  when  he  wants  to 
make  out  anything  distant.  Little  white  round  clouds,  like 
air-balloons,  floated  for  two  or  three  seconds  in  the  air  over 
the  hollow  beyond  which  the  guns  stood,  and  vanished  with 
a  flash;  they  were  shrapnels.  The  guns  must  be  German, 
and  seem  to  aim  at  the  slope  beyond  the  declivity  on  the 
other  side.  We  could  make  out  a  wood  on  the  slope,  and 
in  front  of  it  dark  lines  which  were  probably  Frenchmen. 
Still  further  off  on  the  horizon  a  high  spur  of  hill,  with 
three  or  four  large  trees  on  the  top  of  it,  stood  forward ;  on 
the  map  this  was  called  the  village  of  Stonn,  where,  as  we 
afterwards  heard,  the  Emperor  Napoleon  remained  to  watch 
the  battle. 

The  firing  on  the  left  soon  ceased.  Bavarian  artilleiy, 
blue  cuirassiers,  and  green  light  horse  came  along  the  road 
past  us  at  full  trot.  A  little  further  on,  as  we  drove  through 
some  brushwood,  we  heard  a  crackling,  rather  like  a  long 
drawn  out  and  badly-fired  platoon  salvo.  "A  squirt  of 
shot,"  said  Engel,  turning  round  on  the  box. 

Not  far  from  this,  on  a  spot  where  Bavarian  riflemen 
were  resting  in  the  ditches  and  in  a  clover  field  by  the  side 
of  a  road,  the  Minister  mounted  his  horse,  in  order  to  ride 


IV.]  The  Battle  of  Beawnont.  8i 

on  with  the  King,  who  is  before  us.  We  remained  some 
time  standing  on  the  same  spot,  and  artillery  kept  continually- 
galloping  past.  Many  of  the  riflemen  seemed  to  be  drop- 
ping out  of  the  ranks.  One  of  them  begged  mournfully  for 
water.  "  I  have  had  dysentery  for  five  days,"  he  murmured. 
"  Ah,  dear  comrade,  I  am  dying ;  no  doctor  can  do  me  any 
good  !  Burning  heat  inside,  nothing  but  blood  running  from 
me  ! "  We  comforted  him,  and  gave  him  water  with  a  little 
cognac.  Battery  after  battery  rushed  past  us,  till  at  last  the 
road  was  again  free.  Right  in  front,  on  the  horizon,  which 
was  here  very  close  to  us,  the  white  clouds  from  shells 
were  again  rising,  so  that  we  concluded  that  the  fight  was 
going  on  in  a  valley  not  far  off.  The  thunder  of  the  guns 
was  more  distinct,  and  the  snarl  of  the  mitrailleuses,  the 
noise  of  which  sounds  to  us  something  like  a  coffee-mill  at 
work.  At  last  we  turned  into  a  stubble  field,  on  the  right 
from  the  road,  which  goes  down  at  that  point  into  a  broad 
depression  to  the  left.  The  ground  now  sloped  gently  to  a 
height  on  which  the  King  had  taken  his  stand  with  our  Chief 
and  a  number  of  princes,  generals,  and  other  officers  of 
high  rank,  about  a  thousand  paces  in  advance  of  the 
horses  and  carriages  which  brought  them  here.  I  followed 
them  over  fresh  ploughed  fields  and  stubble  fields,  and  a 
little  apart  from  them  I  watched,  till  night  fell,  the  Battle 
of  Beaumont. 

A  broad  not  very  deep  valley  stretched  before  us,  at  the 
bottom  of  which  was  a  beautiful  deep  green  wood  of  leafy 
trees.  Then  an  open,  gently  rising  country  in  which  the 
small  tov/n  of  Beaumont,  with  its  fine  church,  was  visible 
a  little  to  the  right.  Still  further  to  the  right  were  more 
woods.  To  the  left  also,  at  the  edge  of  the  valley  in  the 
background,  there  were  woods'  to  which  led  a  road  bordered 
with  Italian  poplars.      In  front  of  them  was  a  small  village, 

VOL.    I.  G 


82  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap, 

or  rather  a  collection  of  buildings,  belonging  to  an  estate. 
Beyond  the  gently-swelling  ground  before  and  behind  Beau- 
mont the  prospect  terminated  with  dark  hills  in  the  dis- 
tance. 

Now  the  guns  could  be  seen  distinctly  firing.  From  the 
heavy  cloud  of  smoke  hanging  over  it,  the  town  seemed  to 
be  burning,  and  soon  afterwards  smoke  burst  up  from  the 
village  or  farm  at  the  wood  beyond  the  poplar-trees. 

The  firing  now  slackened  a  little.  First  it  was  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  town,  then  it  moved  upward  some- 
what to  the  left,  and  at  last  it  came  from  the  wood  at  the 
bottom  of  the  valley,  apparently  from  the  Bavarian  artillery 
which  had  passed  us. 

To  our  left,  behind  a  village  which  lay  a  little  below  our 
station,  and  is  named  in  the  maps  Sommauthe,  a  regiment 
of  Bavarian  hussars  and  another  of  light  cavalry  filled  up 
the  foreground  of  the  picture  for  some  time.  About  four 
o'clock  these  bodies  of  cavalry  galloped  off  towards  the 
wood  below,  and  disappeared  there.  Afterwards  more  ca- 
valry, Uhlans,  if  I  remember  right,  went  down  into  the 
hollow,  beyond  which  we  first  saw  the  firing  from  the  road 
behind  the  place  where  tlie  carriages  were  left,  and  rode 
on  to  Stonn.  At  the  edge  of  the  wood  beyond  the  burning 
village  in  front  and  to  the  left,  the  battle  again  seemed  to 
be  raging  furiously.  Once  there  was  a  bright  burst  of  light, 
and  then  a  dull  report.  Probably  a  munition  waggon  had 
exploded.  It  was  said  that  the  Crown  Prince  himself  had 
been  for  some  time  taking  part  in  the  battle. 

It  began  to  get  dark.  The  King  now  sat  on  a  chair, 
near  which  a  straw  fire  had  been  kindled,  for  the  wind  blew 
keenly,  and  watched  the  battle  through  his  field-glass.  The 
Chancellor  watched  it  too ;  but  he  had  taken  his  place  on  a 
grassy  ridge,   from  which  Sheridan  and  his    adjutant  also 


IV.]  Losses  of  both  sides.  ?,}, 

observed  the  spectacle.  We  now  distinctly  perceived  the 
flash  of  the  exploding  shells,  changing  the  little  round  balls 
of  vapour  in  a  inoment  into  jagged  stars  of  fire,  and  the 
flames  as  they  burst  forth  from  Beaumont.  The  French 
were  retiring  more  and  more  rapidly,  and  the  battle  dis- 
appeared behind  the  ridge  of  the  treeless  heights,  which 
closed  the  horizon  on  the  left  of  the  woods  beyond  the 
burning  village.  The  battle,  which  from  its  commencement 
appeared  like  the  enemy  covering  his  retreat,  was  won. 
We  had  caught  the  Minister's  wolf,  or  would  catch  him  that 
day  or  next.  The  following  morning  I  wrote  home,  after 
making  out  additional  details. 

The  French,  with  whom  were  the  Emperor  and  his  son, 
gave  way  at  all  points,  and  the  whole  battle  was  in  fact, 
a  constant  advance  of  our  side  and  a  constant  retreat  of 
theirs.  They  never  showed  the  energy  which  they  dis- 
played in  the  actions  at  Metz,  and  which  showed  itself 
there  latterly  in  vehement  attacks.  They  were  either 
greatly  discouraged,  or  the  regiments  had  in  their  ranks 
many  Mobile  guards,  who,  as  may  be  easily  imagined,  do 
not  fight  like  real  soldiers.  Even  their  outposts  were  badly 
set,  so  that  their  rearguard  could  be  at  once  surprised  by  an 
attack.  Our  losses  in  killed  and  wounded  were  far  less  this 
time  than  in  the  battles  at  Metz,  when  they  were  not  far 
from  equal  to  those  of  the  French.  They  had  lost,  however, 
frightfully,  especially  in  that  surprise,  and  still  more  fright- 
fully at  Mouzon,  where  they  were  crowded  back  over  the 
Meuse.  As  far  as  yet  ascertained  we  have  captured  about 
twenty  guns,  among  which  there  are  eleven  mitrailleuses, 
the  equipages  of  two  tents,  masses  of  baggage  and  military 
stores.  Up  to  the  present  we  have  taken  nearly  15.000 
men  prisoners.  The  French  army,  which  was  estunated  at 
from  100,000  to  120,000  on  the  morning  of  the  day  of  battle 

G  2 


84  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

is  now  in  Sedan,  cut  off  from  the  possibility  of  a  farther 
inarch  round  about  the  extreme  end  of  our  right  wing 
towards  Metz.  I  think  we  have  cause  to  count  August  30 
as  one  of  the  best  and  most  productive  of  our  days  of 
victory  in  this  war. 

From  the  position  whence  we  had  witnessed  the  fight  at 
Beaumont,  we  returned,  as  darkness  came  on,  towards 
Busancy.  Everywhere  along  the  road,  and  a  great  way  off 
from  it  we  were  reminded  of  the  night  life  of  a  great  army. 
The  road  was  full  of  Bavarian  infantry.  Further  on  gleamed 
the  spiked  helmets  of  Prussian  line  troops,  whom,  when 
we  approached,  we  found  to  be  the  King's  Grenadiers. 
Lastly,  there  were  long  lines  of  waggons,  which  had  some- 
times lost  their  way,  so  that  we  were  detained  some  time. 
At  one  place,  where  there  was  a  steep  declivity  between  two 
hills,  and  we  were  forced  to  make  an  unusually  long  halt, 
the  Chief  said,  "  I  wonder  whether  the  reason  why  we  are 
stuck  fast  here  is  the  same  as  that  which  made  the  five 
Swabians  capable,  after  they  had  eaten  the  dumplings,  of 
blocking  up  the  defile." 

It  was  pitch  dark  when  we  reached  Busancy.  Round  it 
blazed  a  hundred  little  fires,  in  the  lights  of  which  glided 
the  silhouetted  figures  of  men,  horses,  and  waggons.  We 
dismounted  at  the  house  of  a  physician,  who  lived  at  the 
end  of  the  principal  street,  not  far  from  the  house  in  which 
the  King  had  taken  up  his  quarters,  and  in  which  those  who 
had  been  left  behind  in  the  morning  in  Grand  Pre  had  also 
meanwhile  found  accommodation.  I  slept  here  in  an  almost 
empty  back  room  on  the  ground  floor,  on  a  straw  mattress, 
under  a  blanket  fetched  from  the  town  hospital  by  one  of 
our  soldiers  somewhere  about  ten  o'clock.  But  the  sleep  of 
the  righteous  was  none  the  worse  on  that  account. 

Wednesday,  Aii^^ust  31. — In  the  morning,  between  nine 


IV.]  A  aire  for  Cramp.  85 

and  ten  o'clock  the  King  and  Chancellor  drove  out  to 
inspect  the  battle-field  of  the  preceding  day.  I  was  again 
to  accompany  the  Minister.  At  first  we  took  the  same 
road  as  the  day  before,  past  Bar  de  Busancy  ai>d  Som- 
mauthe,  and  between  these  two  villages  we  passed  some 
squadrons  of  Bavarian  Uhlans,  who  Avere  resting,  and  who 
greeted  the  King  with  loud  "  Hurrahs."  It  seemed  to  me 
as  if  their  lances  were  shorter  than  the  others.  Behind 
Sommauthe,  which .  was  full  of  the  wounded,  we  drove 
through  the  beautiful  wood  between  it  and  Beaumont,  and 
it  was  after  eleven  when  we  reached  the  latter.  King 
William  and  our  Chancellor  here  took  horse  and  galloped 
across  the  fields  to  the  riglit.  I  took  the  same  direction 
on  foot.  The  carriages  went  on  to  the  town,  where  they 
were  to  wait  for  us. 

Before  I  started,  indeed,  as  soon  as  I  was  alone,  as  on  the 
day  before,  I  carefully  noted  the  commissions  which  I  had 
received  on  the  road,  and  any  other  remarks  which  had 
fallen  from  the  Chief  this  morning  were  committed  to  paper 
as  accurately  as  was  possible.  The  Chancellor  was  again 
unusually  communicative'  and  very  accessible  to  questions. 
He  spoke  rather  as  if  he  had  a  cold.  He  had  had  cramp,  he 
said,  in  his  legs  all  night,  which  often  happened  with  him. 
He  was  then  obliged  to  get  up  and  walk  about  for  awhile  in 
his  room  with  bare  feet,  and  that  usually  gave  him  cold. 
So  it  was  this  time.  "  One  devil  drove  out  the  other ;  the 
cramp,  went  away,  and  the  snivelling  came  on."  He  then  said 
that  he  wished  me  again  to  notice  in  the  press  the  horrible 
way  in  which  the  war  is  being  carried  on  by  the  French,  and 
their  repeated  violations  of  the  Geneva  Convention,  "which 
indeed  is  good  for  nothing,"  said  he,  "  and  cannot  be 
carried  out  in  practice,"  and  of  their  unjustifiable  firing 
at  those  bearing  white  flags  of  truce,  with  their  trumpeters. 


86  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

"  They  have  allowed  German  prisoners  in  Metz  to  be 
ill-treated  by  the  mob,"  he  continued,  "giving  them  nothing 
to  eat  and  shutting  them  up  in  cellars.  But  it  is  not  very 
much  to  be  wondered  >at.  They  have  barbarians  for  com- 
rades, and  from  their  wars  in  Algiers,  China,  Cochin  China, 
and  Mexico,  they  have  become  barbarians  themselves." 

Then  he  related  how  the  Red-breeches  had  yesterday 
made  no  great  stand,  and  shown  very  little  foresight.  "  At 
Beaumont,"  he  said,  "  they  were  attacked  in  their  camp  on 
a  clear  morning  by  a  surprise  party  of  heavy  artillery.  We 
shall  see  to-day  where  their  horses  are  lying,  shot  at  the 
picket  posts,  with  many  dead  soldiers  lying  in  their  shirt- 
sleeves, chests  rifled,  bowls  full  of  boiled  potatoes,  pots  with 
meat  half-cooked  in  them  and  such  like." 

While  driving  through  the  wood  — perhaps  the  remark  Avas 
suggested  by  our  having  met  before  we  came  to  it  the 
King's  suite,  to  which,  by  the  way,  Counts  Hatzfeld  and 
Bismarck-Bohlen  had  attached  themselves — he  spoke  of 
Borck,  the  Keeper  of  the  King's  Privy  Purse,  and  from  him 
passed  to  Count  Bernstorfif,  who  was  then  our  ambassador 
in  London,  and  who  had  (while  he  was  in  office)  "  kept  him 
for  a  long  time  from  entering  on  his  diplomatic  duties  while 
he  was  laboriously  weighing  and  considering  whether  London 
or  Paris  was  the  better  embassy  to  appoint  him  to."  I 
ventured  to  ask  what  sort  of  a  man  von  der  Goltz,  of 
whom  one  hears  such  different  opinions,  had  been — whether 
he  was  really  as  clever  and  as  considerable  a  man  as  people 
say.  "  Clever  !  Yes,  in  a  certain  sense,  a  rapid  worker, 
well  informed,  but  changeable  in  his  judgment  of  men 
and  things :  to-day  for  this  man,  or  these  plans ;  to-morrow 
for  another  man  and  quite  opposite  arrangements.  Then 
he  was  always  in  love  with  the  Queens  to  whose  courts 
he  was  accredited ;  first,  with  Amalia  of  Greece,  then  with 


IV.]  Von  der  GoHz.  87 

Eugenie.  He  seemed  to  think  that  what  I  had  had  the 
good  fortune  to  do,  he  with  his  larger  ..ntellect  might  have 
done  still  better.  Therefore  he  was  continually  intriguing 
against  me,  although  we  had  been  acquaintances  when 
young.  He  wrote  letters  to  the  King  in  which  he  com- 
plained of  me,  and  warned  him  against  me.  This  did  him 
no  good,  for  the  King  gave  me  the  letters,  and  I  answered 
them.  But  in  this  respect  he  was  unchangeable,  and  con- 
tinued writing  letters,  unexhausted  and  indefatigable.  For 
the  rest,  he  was  not  much  liked  by  his  subordinates.  In 
fact  they  hated  him.  I  remember,  when  I  went,  in  1862, 
to  Paris,  and  called  upon  him,  he  had  just  gone  to  take  a 
nap.  I  wished  to  leave  him  undisturbed,  but  the  secretaries 
were  obviously  delighted  that  he  would  have  to  get  up,  and 
one  of  them  went  off  at  once  to  announce  me  to  him  so  as 
to  cause  him  annoyance.  He  might  so  easily  have  gained 
the  respect  and  attachment  of  the  people  about  him.  Any 
man  can  do  so  as  ambassador.  It  was  always  a  great  object 
with  me.  But  as  Minister  there  is  no  time  for  that ;  there 
are  so  many  other  things  to  do  and  to  think  of,  that  I  am 
obliged  to  manage  at  present  in  a  more  military  fashion." 

From  these  characteristic  traits  we  see  that  von  der 
Goltz  was  a  kind  of  intellectual  kinsman  and  forerunner  of 
Arnim. 

The  Minister  spoke,  lastly,  of  Radowltz,  and  said, 
amongst  other  things :  "  They  ought  to  have  placed  their 
army  sooner  in  position  before  Olmutz,  and  it  is  his  blame 
that  this  was  not  done."  The  very  interesting  and  charac- 
teristic remarks  with  which  he  supported  this  assertion 
must,  unhappily,  for  the  present,  be  suppressed,  like  some 
others  made  afterwards  by  the  Chancellor. 

The  King  and  the  Chancellor  had  ridden  to  the  place 
where  the  "  surprise  patrols  of  heavy  artillery "  had  done 


88  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gerjuan  War.       [Chap. 

their  work,  and  as  soon  as  I  had  finished  my  notes,  I 
followed  them  there.  The  part  of  the  field  referred  to  lay- 
to  the  right  of  the  road  which  brought  us  here,  and  about 
eight  or  nine  hundred  paces  from  it.  Before  it,  near  the 
wood  at  the  bottom  of  the  valley,  were  some  fields  sur- 
rounded with  hedges,  in  which  lay  about  a  dozen  dead 
German  soldiers,  Thuringians  of  the  31st  Regiment.  One 
of  them  was  lying  on  the  hedge,  shot  through  the  head. 
He  was  caught  in  the  thornbush  just  as  he  was  getting  over 
it.  The  encampment  itself  looked  horrible,  all  blue  and 
red,  with  dead  Frenchmen,  some  of  whom  had  been  blown  to 
pieces  by  the  bursting  shells  of  the  surprise  party  belonging  to 
the  Fourth  Corps — in  a  manner  quite  impossible  to  describe. 
Blackened  with  powder,  stiff  in  their  blood,  they  lay,  some 
on  their  backs,  others  on  their  faces— many  with  staring 
eyes  like  wax  figures.  One  shot  had  scattered  about  five  in 
one  place — like  so  many  ninepins  ;  three  of  them  had 
their  heads  quite  or  half  shot  away,  some  had  their  bodies 
ripped  up,  whilst  one  whose  face  had  been  covered  with  a 
cloth  seemed  to  have  been  even  more  frightfully  mangled. 
Further  on  lay  a  piece  of  a  skull  like  a  dish  with  the  brains 
on  it  like  a  cake.  Caps,  shakoes,  knapsacks,  jackets,  papers, 
shoes,  clothes  and  blacking -brushes,  were  strewn  about. 
Officers'  chests  open,  horses  shot  at  the  picket  post,  pots 
with  peeled  potatoes,  or  dishes  with  bits  of  meat  which  the 
wind  had  salted  with  sand,  at  the  extinguished  cooking-fires — 
all  showed  how  unhoped  for  had  been  success  to  us,  how 
unexpected  their  loss  to  them.  A  bronze  gun  even  had 
been  left  where  it  stood.  I  took  a  brass  medal  from  one  of 
the  dead,  which  he  wore  next  his  bare  breast  on  a  bit  of 
elastic.  A  saint  was  Represented  on  it  with  a  cross  in  his 
hand,  and  below  it  the  episcopal  insignia — the  mitre  and 
crosier,  over  which  were  the  words  and  letters,  "  Crux  S.  P. 


IV.]  After  the  battle.  89 

Bened."  At  the  back  in  a  circle  of  dots  was  a  figure 
resembling  one  on  our  Landwehr  crosses,  covered  with 
several  letters,  perhaps  the  initials  of  the  words  of  a  prayer 
or  some  pious  charm.  Also  an  amulet,  seemingly  of  eccle- 
siastical origin,  given  no  doubt  to  the  poor  fellow  by  his 
mother  or  by  his  pastor,  but  which  had  not  made  him 
bullet  proof.  Sutlers  and  soldiers  went  poking  about. 
"Are  you  a  doctor?"  they  called  to  me.  "Yes,  but  not 
a  physician  ;  what  do  you  want  ?  "  "  There  is  a  man  here 
still  alive."  This  was  true,  and  he  was  removed  on  a 
hand-barrow  covered  with  linen.  A  little  further  on,  in  front 
of  me,  at  a  field-path  which  ran  into  the  main  road,  lay  a 
man  stretched  on  his  back,  whose  eyes  turned  as  I  ap- 
proached, and  who  still  breathed,  although  he  had  been  hit 
in  the  forehead  by  a  German  rifle  bullet.  In  a  space  of  five 
hundred  paces  square  there  must  have  been  a  hundred  and 
fifty  dead  bodies,  but  not  more  than  ten  or  twelve  of  them 
were  ours. 

I  had  once  more  had  enough  of  such  sights,  and  hastened 
towards  Beaumont,  to  reach  our  carriage.  On  the  way,  just 
before  the  first  houses  in  the  town,  I  saw  a  number  of 
French  prisoners  in  a  redstone  quarry  to  the  right  of  the 
road.  "  About  seven  hundred,"  said  the  lieutenant,  who  with 
a  detachment  was  guarding  them,  and  who  gave  me  some 
muddy  Bavarian  beer  out  of  a  cask,  for  which  I  showed 
my  gratitude  by  giving  him  a  pull  at  my  flask  of  cognac. 
Further  on  along  the  road  was  a  young  wounded  officer  in 
a  carriage,  shaking  hands  with  the  men  of  his  company. 
In  the  market-place  and  round  the  principal  church  of 
the  town,  which  stood  on  a  small  patch  of  elevated  ground, 
there  were  more  captured  Red-breeches,  and  amongst  them 
some  of  high  rank.  I  asked  a  Saxon  rifleman  where  the 
King's  carriages  were.      "  Gone  already — a  quarter  of  an 


90  Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War.     [Chap. 

hour  ago — that  way."  So  I  was  too  late.  Alas  !  I  hurried 
in  the  direction  indicated,  in  the  piping  heat,  along  the 
poplar-bordered  road,  uphill  towards  the  town  which  was 
in  flames  last  night,  and  asked  the  soldiers  there.  "  They 
are  just  gone  through."  At  last  at  the  edge  of  the  wood, 
behind  the  last  house,  where  lay  a  great  number  of  dead 
Bavarians  as  well  as  of  Frenchmen  on  both  sides  of  the 
ditches  in  the  roadside,  I  saw  the  carriage  of  the  Chief  stop. 
He  was  evidently  pleased  that  I  had  returned.  "  Ah  !  there 
he  is,"  said  he ;  "I  wanted  to  have  sent  back  for  you  before 
— I  would  if  it  had  been  anyone  else.  But  I  thought  to 
myself.  The  doctor  will  take  no  harm.  He  will  stay  all  night 
by  a  watch-fire  if  necessary,  and  can  soon  ask  his  way  back 
to  us." 

He  then  told  me  what  he  had  seen  and  experienced  since 
I  left  him.  He  also  had  seen  the  prisoners  in  the  quarry, 
and  among  them  a  priest,  who  was  said  to  have  fired  on  our 
people.  "  When  I  charged  him  with  it  he  denied  it.  '  Take 
care,'  said  I  to  him,  '  for  if  it  is  proved  against  you,  you 
will  most  certainly  be  hanged.'  I  allowed  him  in  the  mean- 
time to  take  off  his  priest's  gown." 

"  Near  the  church,"  the  Chief  continued,  ''  the  King 
noticed  a  soldier  who  was  wounded.  Although  the  man 
looked  somewhat  dirty  from  his  work  of  the  day  before, 
the  King  held  out  his  hand,  to  the  great  surprise,  no  doubt. 
Of  the  French  officer  who  was  standing  by,  and  asked  him 
w'  t  was  his  trade.  He  was  a  doctor  of  philosophy.  'Well, 
you  must  have  learned  to  bear  your  wounds  philosophically,' 
said  the  King.  '  Yes,'  answered  the  soldier,  '  that  I  had 
already  made  up  my  mind  to.'  " 

On  the  road,  near  a  second  village  we  overtook  some 
Bavarian  stragglers,  common  soldiers,  who  were  dragging 
themselves   slowly  along  in    the   burning  sun.      "Halloa, 


IV.]  The  Duke  of  Augiisteiibiirg,  91 

fellow-conutryman  ! "  cried  the  Chancellor  to  one  ;  "  will 
you  have  a  drop  of  cognac  ?  "  Naturally  he  would,  and 
another  with  his  longing  eyes  looked  like  wanting  it,  and 
then  a  third  and  so  they  and  some  more  each  had  his  pull 
at  the  Minister's  flask  and  then  at  mine,  after  which  each 
of  them  got  a  genuine  cigar. 

A  mile  further  on,  at  a  village,  the  name  of  which  my  map 
did  not  give,  but  which  sounded  something  like  Crehanges, 
the  King  had  arranged  a  breakfast,  to  which  Count  von 
Bismarck  was  also  invited  ;  and  there  were  all  the  princes  of 
the  second  grade  and  gentlemen  of  the  suite  of  the  Crown 
Prince.  Meantime,  I  made  my  pencil  notes  on  a  stone  by 
the  roadside,  and  then  went  to  assist  the  Dutch,  who  had 
set  up  their  ambulance  close  by  in  a  large  green  tent,  where 
they  brought  the  wounded  and  nursed  them.  When  the 
Minister  came  back,  he  asked  me  what  I  had  been  doing. 
I  told  him.  "  I  should  have  liked  to  have  gone  too,"  he 
said,  drawing  a  deep  breath. 

On  the  road  afterwards,  the  conversation  wandered  for 
a  while  into  high  regions,  and  the  Chief  discussed  good- 
naturedly  and  fully  all  the  questions  suggested  by  my  curiosity. 
I  regret  that,  for  various  reasons,  I  must  keep  these  utter- 
ances to  myself,  the  more  so  as  they  were  as  wise  as  they 
were  characteristic,  and  as  they  were  full  of  genial  humour. 
At  last  we  came  down  from  the  sphere  of  the  gods  above  the 
clouds  back  to  men  ;  out  of  the  region  of  the  supernatural, 
or,  if  my  reader  likes  it  better,  the  extra-natural,  back  to  the 
natural.  There  we  stumbled  on  the  Duke  of  Augustenburg 
in  his  Bavarian  uniform.  "  He  might  have  done  better," 
said  he — I  mean  the  Minister — continuing,  "  I  wanted 
originally  no  more  from  him  than  what  the  minor  princes 
had  conceded  in  1866.  But  he  would  not  yield  (Thank 
goodness,  thought  I  to  myself,  and  thanks  to  the  wisdom  of 


92  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

Samwer  the  advocate  !).  I  remember  a  conversation  which 
I  had  with  him  in  1864 — he  was  with  us  in  the  bilUard-room 
beside  my  study — and  which  lasted  till  late  at  night.  At 
first  I  called  him  '  your  Highness,'  and  was  rather  especially 
polite.  But  when  I  began  to  speak  of  Kiel  harbour,  which 
we  wanted,  and  he  said,  '  that  would  be  about  twenty  square 
miles  of  water,'  which  I  could  not  but  allow ;  and  when  he 
would  also  have  nothing  to  say  to  our  demands  with  regard 
to  the  military, — I  put  on  a  different  face.  I  now  called 
him  '  illustrious  person,'  and  said  to  him  at  last  quite  calmly 
— plattdeutsch — that  we  were  quite  able  to  wring  the  neck  of 
the  chicken  we  had  ourselves  hatched." 

After  an  unusually  long  drive,  over  hill  and  dale,  we 
arrived  about  seven  in  the  evening  at  to-day's  destination, 
the  town  of  Vendresse.  On  the  way  we  passed  several  large 
villages,  a  few  mansions,  one  very  old  with  towers  in  the 
corners,  like  a  castle,  by  a  canal  with  old  trees  on  both 
sides,  and  latterly  through  a  district  which  the  Chancellor 
said  reminded  him  of  a  Belgian  landscape.  At  a  window 
in  one  of  the  villages  was  Ludwig  Pietsch  from  Berlin,  who 
must  have  been  here  as  war  correspondent — who  saw  me  and 
screamed  down  his  salutations  to  me.  In  the  next  village, 
Chemery,  a  halt  was  made  for  half  an  hour,  whilst  more 
infantry  regiments  defiled  before  the  King  and  saluted  him 
with  the  usual  hurrahs. 

In  Vendresse  the  Chancellor  went  to  the  house  of  Widow 
Baudelot,  where  the  other  gentlemen  of  the  suite  had  already 
settled  themselves.  Keudell  and  Abeken,  who  I  think  had 
ridden  here  from  Busancy,  had  met  with  an  adventure  on 
the  way.  When  they  were  in  the  wood  behind  Sommauthe, 
or  near  Stonn,  suddenly  eight  or  ten  French  soldiers,  with 
chassepots,  rushed  on  them  out  of  a  thicket,  and  then  dis- 
appeared.   The  Councillors,  thereupon,  as  was  very  natural, 


« 


IV.]  Dangers  of  the  road.  93 

had  turned  round  and  taken  a  less  suspicious  road.  It  was 
not  impossible  that  each  party  wished  to  give  the  other  a 
wide  berth.  But  Saint  Blanquart,  who  had  travelled  the 
same  road,  with  Bolsing  and  Willisch,  and  seen  the  same 
suspicious  Red-breeches,  was  firmly  convinced  that  he  had 
risked  his  life  for  the  Fatherland.  Lastly,  Hatzfeld  and 
Bismarck-Bohlen  could  boast  of  a  pretty  little  heroic  deed, 
for  at  the  place,  if  I  remember  right,  where  the  Chancellor 
had  breakfasted  with  the  Princes,  they  had  discovered  a 
fugitive  Red-breeches  hiding  in  a  vineyard,  had  started  him 
out  of  it,  and  had  either  themselves  made  him  prisoner  or 
got  some  else  to  catch  him. 

In  Vendresse  I  saw  Wiirtemberg  soldiers  for  the  first  time. 
They  were  mostly  fine  strong  fellows.  Their  uniform,  dark 
blue,  with  two  rovs  of  white  buttons  and  black  straps, 
reminded  me  of  the  Danish  soldiery. 


94  Bismarck  hi  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   DAY   OF   SEDAN. — BISMARCK   AND   NAPOLEON   AT 

DONCHERY. 

On  the  \st  September,  Moltke's  chase  after  the  French  in 
the  district  of  the  Meuse,  according  to  all  that  we  heard,  was 
evidently  drawing  to  an  end,  and  it  was  permitted  me  to 
join  in  it  the  very  next  day.  Having  risen  very  early  to  get 
forward  in  my  journal — that  book  which  was  waiting  for  so 
many  interesting  entries — I  left  the  house  where  I  had  been 
quartered  for  that  of  the  Widow  Baudelot,  and  just  as  I  was 
entering  it  a  large  squadron  of  cavalry,  consisting  of  five 
Prussian  hussar  regiments,  green,  brown,  black,  and  red 
(Bliichers),  passed  by  the  railing  of  the  little  garden  before 
the  Chiefs  window.  He,  we  were  told,  was  going  to  drive 
with  the  King,  in  about  an  hour,  to  a  commanding  point  of 
view  near  Sedan,  to  witness  the  catastrophe  which  was  now 
confidently  expected.  When  the  carriage  came,  and  the 
Chancellor  appeared,  he  looked  round,  and  his  glance 
fell  upon  me.  "Can  you  decipher.  Doctor?"  "Yes,"  I 
replied,  and  he  rejoined,  "Then  get  a  cipher,  and  come 
with  us."  I  did  not  need  to  be  told  twice,  and  soon  took 
my  seat  in  the  carriage,  in  which  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen 
had  a  place  at  the  Minister's  side,  this  morning. 

A  few  hundred  paces  oh  we  stopped  in  front  of  the  house 
where  Verdy  was  quartered,  behind  the  carriages  of  the 
King,  who  was  not  quite  ready.  In  this  interval  Abeken 
came  to  us,  to  receive  his  orders  respecting  some  papers 
he  brought  with  him.     The  Chief  explained  his  views  pre- 


v.]  A  beken  and  the  Prime.  95 

cisely,  and  Abeken,  as  his  habit  is,  insisted  a  httle  on  a 
point  he  wanted  made  clear.  Just  at  that  moment  Prince 
Karl,  with  his  negro  in  Oriental  costume,  passed  by.  Now 
the  old  gentleman,  who  on  such  occasions  had  generally 
ear  and  thought  for  nothing  but  the  Chief's  words,  had  the 
misfortune  to  be  over-much  interested  in  everything  con- 
cerning the  Court,  which  this  time  brought  him  into  trouble. 
The  appearance  of  the  Prince  was  evidently  more  engross- 
ing than  the  words  of  the  Minister,  who  must  have  noticed 
it.  On  asking  Abeken  what  he  had  just  been  saying,  he 
got  a  rather  mooning  answer.  He  had  a  rather  sharp 
rebuke.  "  Listen  to  what  I  say,  M'r.  Privy  Councillor,  and 
in  God's  name  let  princes  be  princes.  We  are  talking  busi- 
ness here."  Afterwards  he  said  to  us,  "The  old  gentleman 
is  quite  carried  away  if  he  sees  anything  belonging  to  the 
Court."  Then,  as  if  apologising  for  him,  "  But  after  all  I 
could  not  do  without  him.." 

When  the  King  appeared,  preceded  by  his  bright  uni- 
formed life-guards,  we  followed  him,  and  so  passed  once 
more  the  towns  of  Chemery  and  Chehery,  which  we  saw 
yesterday,  and  then  by  a  third  village,  which  lies  to  the 
left  of  the  road  in  a  hollow  at  the  foot  of  a  bare  hill,  halt- 
ing in  a  stubble-field  on  the  right  hand  of  the  road.  Here 
the  King,  with  his  retinue  of  princes,  generals,  and  courtiers, 
mounted  their  horses,  our  Chief  doing  the  same,  and  all 
hastened  towards  the  flat  top  of  the  rising  ground  before  us. 
The  expected  battle  was  already  going  on,  as  the  distant 
thunder  of  the  guns  informed  us.  Bright  sunshine  from 
a  cloudless  sky  lighted  the  scene. 

After  a  time  I  followed  the  riders,  leaving  the  carriage 
under  the  care  of  Engel,  I  found  the  party  in  a  stubble- 
field  at  the  top  of  the  hill,  where  there  was  a  view  of  the 
country  far  and^  near.     Before  us  it  dropped  into  a  broad. 


g6  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap 

deep,  green  valley,  on  the  hills  enclosing  which  a  wood 
was  here  and  there  to  be  seen,  and  through  whose  meadows 
the  blue  water  of  the  Meuse  wound  along  to  a  middle-sized 
town,  the  fortress  of  Sedan.  On  the  rocky  hill  on  our  side, 
about  a  rifle-shot  off,  began  wood,  and  to  the  left  there  was 
some  brushwood.  The  foreground  below  our  feet  was 
formed  by  a  slanting  descent,  over  which  we  looked  down 
the  valley.  Here  on  our  right  stood  Bavarian  batteries, 
which  kept  up  a  vigorous  fire  at  and  over  the  town,  and 
behind  were  dark  columns,  first  infantry,  then  cavalry. 
Still  further  to  the  right  a  column  of  black  smoke  curled  up 
out  of  a  hollow  near  the  descent  to  the  bottom  of  the 
valley.  This  was,  as  we  heard,  the  burning  village  of 
Bazeilles.  Sedan  is,  in  a  direct  line,  about  a  mile  from 
us  \  the  weather  being  so  clear,  its  houses  and  churches 
can  be  distinctly  seen.  Above  the  fortress,  which  joins  the 
town  on  the  left,  and  looks  something  like  a  straggling 
suburb,  rises,  not  far  from  the  farther  bank  of  the  stream,  a 
long  chain  of  hilltops,  with  its  middle  clothed  with  a  wood, 
which  also  runs  down  into  the  hollow  which  here  divides 
the  ridge,  bare  on  the  left,  and  covered  on  the  right  with 
a  few  solitary  trees  and  bushes.  Near  this  gorge  there 
are  some  cottages,  if  I  am  not  wrong;  or  they  may  be 
villas.  To  the  left  of  this  ridge  is  a  plain,  from  which 
swells  up  an  isolated  hill,  with  a  group  of  tall  trees  on  it 
with  dark  tops.  Not  far  from  this,  in  the  river,  are  the 
pillars  of  a  bridge  which  has  been  blown  up.  In  the  farther 
distance,  to  the  left  and  right,  are  three  or  four  villages. 
Behind,  towards  the  horizon,  the  picture  before  us  is  closed 
in  by  ranges  of  high  hills,  covered  all  over  with  dark  woods, 
seemingly  pine  forests.  These  are  the  Ardennes,  on  the 
Belgian  frontier. 

The  main  position  of  the  French  now  appears  to  be  on 


v.]  T lie  Battle  of  Sedan.  97 

the  hills  immediately  beyond  the  fortress,  and  it  looks  as  if 
our  troops  were  intending  to  surround  them  there.  At 
present,  however,  the  advance  of  our  men  is  only  obvious 
on  the  right ;  the  line  of  their  artillery  fire  is  slowly  pushing 
nearer  and  nearer,  with  the  exception  of  the  Bavarian 
artillery  below  our  point  of  view,  which  appear  stationary. 
Gradually  clouds  of  gunpowder  smoke  rise  behind  the  line 
of  hills  with  the  gorge  in  the  centre,  and  we  infer  from 
this  that  our  masses  enclosing  the  enemy  are  endeavouring 
to  continue  farther  the  semicircle  they  now  form,  so  as  to 
complete  the  circle.  On  the  left  of  the  picture,  however, 
all  is  yet  perfectly  still.  About  eleven  o'clock  there  rises 
from  the  fortress,  which,  by-the-way,  is  not  firing,  a  black, 
grey  pillar  of  smoke,  edged  with  yellow.  Beyond  it  the 
French  are  firing  furiously,  and  above  the  wood  of  the 
gorge,  rise  unceasingly  a  number  of  little  white  clouds  from 
bombs,  whether  German  or  French  we  know  not ;  some- 
times also  the  crackling  and  snarling  of  a  mitrailleuse. 

On  our  hill  a  brilliant  assemblage  had  gathered ;  the 
King,  Bismarck,  Moltke,  Roon,  a  crowd  of  princes.  Prince 
Karl,  their  Highnesses  of  Weimar  and  Coburg,  the  Heredi- 
tary Grand  Duke  of  Mecklenburg,  generals,  aides-de-camp, 
marshals  of  the  household,  Count  Hatzfeld,  who  after  a 
time  disappeared,  Kutusofif  the  Russian,  Colonel  Walker  the 
English  military  plenipotentiary.  General  Sheridan  and  his 
adjutant,  all  in  uniform,  all  with  field-glasses  at  their  eyes. 
The  King  stood.  Others,  among  whom  was  the  Chancellor, 
sat  on  a  grassy  ridge  at  the  edge  of  the  stubble.  I  heard 
that  the  King  had  sent  round  word  that  large  groups  must 
not  stand  together,  as  the  French  in  the  fortress  might  fire 
on  them. 

After  eleven  o'clock  our  line  of  attack  on  the  right  bank 
of  the  Meuse  developed  itself  by  a  further  advance  in  order 

VOL.  I.  H 


98  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Germaii  War.     [Chap. 

to .  surround  the  French  position  in  a  narrower  ring,  and  ia 
my  zeal  I  was  explaining  this  perhaps  somewhat  more 
loudly  than  was  necessary  or  befitting  the  place,  to  an 
elderly  gentleman  of  the  Court,  when  the  Chief  hearing  me 
with  his  sharp  ears,  turned  round,  and  beckoned  me  to 
come  to  him.  "  If  you  are  developing  your  strategical 
ideas,  Doctor,"  said  he,  ''  it  would  be  better  to  do  it  less 
audibly,  otherwise  the  King  will  ask.  Who  is  that?  and  I 
must  then  present  you  to  him."  Soon  afterwards  he  re- 
ceived a  number  of  telegrams,  and  came  and  gave  me  six 
of  them  to  decipher,  so  that  the  contemplation  of  the 
spectacle,  for  me  at  least,  came  to  an  end  for  a  time. 

I  went  back  to  the  carriage  and  found  in  it  a  companion, 
Count  Hatzfeld,  who  had  also  to  combine  the  useful  with  the 
agreeable,  but  who  did  not  seem  at  all  to  relish  his  change 
of  position.  The  Chief  had  given  him  a  French  letter  of 
four  pages,  which  had  been  intercepted  by  our  troops,  to 
copy  out  immediately.  I  mounted  the  coach-box,  took  the 
cipher  I  had  brought  with  me,  and  with  my  pencil  set  to 
work  at  deciphering  whilst  on  the  hill  beyond  our  position 
the  battle  was  raging  like  half-a-dozen  thunderstorms.  In 
haste,  eager  to  get  done,  I  was  not  the  least  aware  that 
the  scorching  midday  sun  had  covered  one  of  my  ears  with 
blisters.  The  first  translated  telegram  I  wrote  out  I  sent 
to  the  Minister  by  Engel,  that  he,  too,  might  see  something 
of  the  battle ;  tlie  next  two  I  took  to  him  myself,  as,  greatly 
to  the  gratification  of  my  propensity  for  sight-seeing,  the  last 
three  did  not  correspond  with  my  ciphers.  Apparently  not 
much  was  lost  thereby,  the  Chief  thought. 

It  was  now  one  o'clock.  Our  line  of  fire  by  this  time 
swept  the  larger  half  of  the  enemy's  position  on  the  heights 
on  the  other  side  of  the  town.  Clouds  of  smoke  from  the 
powder   rose  in   a  wide  curve,  and    the  little  white   balls 


v.]  The  Battle  of  Sedan.  99 

of  smoke  from  the  shrapnels  which  we  knew  the  look  of 
so  well,  kept  rising  and  shattering.  Only  to  the  left  there 
was  still  one  quiet  gap.  The  Chancellor  now  sat  on  a 
chair  and  studied  an  official  document  of  many  sheets. 
I  asked  whether  he  would  like  something  to  eat  or  drink, 
as  we  had  it  ready.  He  declined.  "  I  should  like  it,  but 
neither  has  the  King  anything,"  he  answered. 

The  enemy  on  the  other  side  of  the  river  must  now 
have  been  very  near,  for  we  heard  more  frequently  than 
before  the  hateful  sound  of  the  mitrailleuses,  of  which, 
by-the-way,  we  had  been  told  meantime  that  their  bark 
was  worse  than  their  bite.  Between  two  and  three  o'clock 
by  my  watch  the  King  came  close  past  the  place  where 
I  was  standing,  and  said  to  the  people  about  him,  after 
looking  for  some  time  through  a  glass  towards  the  suburb : 
"  They  are  pushing  great  masses  forward  there  to  the  left — 
that,  I  think,  must  be  an  attempt  to  break  through."  They 
were,  in  fact,  columns  of  infantry  advancing,  but  soon  going 
back,  apparently  because  they  found  that  the  gap,  though 
quiet,  was  not  at  all  open.  Shortly  afterwards  we  could 
see,  through  a  telescope,  French  cavalry  on  the  crest  of  the 
hill  to  the  left  of  the  wood  and  the  gorge  make  repeated 
charges,  which  were  met  by  quick  fire,  after  which  at  a 
semicircular  sweep  of  the  field  we  could  see,  even  with  the 
naked  eye,  the  ground  strewn  with  white  objects — horses  or 
cloaks.  Soon  after  the  artillery  fire  became  weaker  at  all 
points,  and  the  French  everywhere  fell  back  into  the  town 
and  its  immediate  neighbourhood.  They  had  been  sur- 
rounded, except  for  a  small  gap  near  the  Belgian  frontier, 
and  for  some  time,  on  the  left,  there  also,  as  the  Wiirtem- 
bergers  had  planted  a  couple  of  batteries  not  far  from  our 
hill,  to  which,  as  we  were  told,  they  had  now  brought  up 
the  Fifth  and  Eleventh  Army  Corps.     After  half-past  four 

u  2 


lOO         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

all  the  enemy's  guns  were  silent,  and  a  little  afterwards  ours 
also. 

Once  more  the  scene  became  more  lively.  Suddenly 
there  rose,  first  in  one  part  of  the  town,  then  in  another, 
great  whitish-blue  clouds,  signs  that  the  town  was  burning 
in  two  places.  Bazeilles,  too,  was  still  in  flames,  and  sent 
up  from  just  below  the  horizon  to  the  right  a  column 
of  thick  yellowish-grey  vapour  into  the  clear  evening  sky. 
The  burning  light  of  the  late  afternoon  became  more  and 
more  intense,  the  valley  below  looking  every  moment 
brighter  and  more  golden.  The  hills  of  the  battlefield,  the 
gorge  in  its  midst,  tlie  villages,  the  houses  and  towers  of  the 
fortress,  the  suburb  of  Torcy,  the  ruined  bridge  to  the  left 
in  the  distance,  shone  bright  in  the  evening  glow,  and  their 
details  became  clearer  every  minute,  as  if  one  were  looking 
through  stronger  and  stronger  spectacles. 

About  five  o'clock  General  Hindersin  talked  with  the 
King,  and  I  thought  I  heard  him  speak  .of  the  "  bombard- 
ment of  the  town  "  and  the  "  ruins  of  houses."  A  quarter 
of  an  hour  afterwards  a  Bavarian  officer  galloped  up  the 
hill  to  us :  General  von  Bothmer  wished  to  tell  the  King, 
that  General  Maillinger  said  that  he  was  with  his  riflemen 
in  Torcy,  that  the  French  wished  to  capitulate,  and  that 
ihey  were  ready  to  surrender  unconditionally.  The  King 
answered,  "  No  one  can  negotiate  this  affair  but  myself 
Say  to  the  General,  that  the  bearer  of  a  flag  of  truce  must 
come  to  me." 

The  Bavarian  rode  back  again  down  the  valley.  The 
King  talked  it  over  with  Bismarck — then  groups  of  these 
two  with  the  Crown  Prince,  who  had  come  up  some  time 
before  from  the  left,  Moltke  and  Roon.  Their  Highnesses 
of  Weimar  and  Coburg  stood  close  by,  but  a  little  aside. 
After  a  time  a  Prussian  adjutant  appeared,  bringing  word 


v.]  The  Surrender.  loi 

that  our  losses,  so  far  as  was  yet  known,  were  not  large ; 
moderate  with  the  Guards,  somewhat  larger  with  the  Saxons, 
less  with  the  other  corps  which  had  taken  part  in  the  battle. 
Only  a  few  of  the  French  had  escaped  by  the  woods  towards 
the  Belgian  frontier  and  were  being  pursued.  All  the  rest 
had  been  driven  into  Sedan. 

"  And  the  Emperor  ?"  asked  the  King. 

"  Nobody  knows,"  answered  the  officer. 

About  six  o'clock  another  adjutant  appeared,  and  said 
that  the  Emperor  was  in  the  town,  and  would  immediately 
send  out  a  flag  of  truce. 

"  This  is  indeed  a  great  success  !"  said  the  King,  turning 
round  to  his  retinue.  "  And  I  thank  thee  "  (to  the  Crown 
Prince),  "  that  thou  hast  contributed  to  it." 

With  that  the  King  gave  his  hand  to  his  son,  who  kissed 
it ;  then  to  Moltke,  who  kissed  it  also.  Lastly,  he  gave 
his  hand  to  the  Chancellor,  and  talked  with  him  for  some 
time  alone,  which  seemed  to  me  to  make  some  of  their 
Highnesses  uncomfortable. 

About  half-past  six,  a  guard  of  honour  of  cuirassiers 
appeared  a  little  way  off,  and  the  French  general,  Reille,  as 
the  bearer  of  Napoleon's  flag  of  truce,  rode  slowly  up  the 
hill.  He  dismounted  about  ten  paces  from  the  King  and 
went  up  to  him,  took  ofif  his  cap,  and  presented  him  with  a 
letter  having  a  large  red  seal.  The  general  is  an  oldish, 
middle-sized,  slight  man,  in  a  black  overcoat,  open,  with 
straps  and  epaulettes,  black  vest,  red  stockings,  and  polished 
riding  boots.  He  wore  no  sword,  but  carried  a  walking 
stick  in  his  hand.  All  stepped  back  from  the  King,  who 
opened  and  read  the  letter,  and  then  told  the  now  well- 
known  contents  to  Bismarck,  Moltke,  the  Crown  Prince, 
and  the  other  gentlemen.  Reille  stood  a  little  way  apart, 
below  him,  at  flrst  alone,  then  in  conversation  with  the 


I02         Bismarck  in  the  Frajico-Germaji  War.     [Chap, 

Prussian  generals.  The  Crown  Prince  also,  Moltke,  and 
the  Coburg  Highness,  talked  with  him,  whilst  the  King 
conferred  with  the  Chancellor,  who  then  commissioned 
Hatzfeld  to  sketch  an  answer  to  the  Imperial  letter. 
After  some  minutes  he  brought  it,  and  the  King  wrote 
it  out,  sitting  on  one  chair,  while  the  seat  of  a  second 
was  held  up  by  Major  von  Alten,  who  knelt  before  him  on 
one  knee,  with  the  chair  supported  on  the  other  by  way  ot 
table. 

Shortly  before  seven  o'clock,  the  Frenchman  rode  back  in 
the  twilight  to  Sedan,  accompanied  by  an  officer  and  a 
Uhlan  trumpeter,  with  a  white  flag.  The  town  was  still 
blazing  in  three  places,  and  the  red  lights  flashing  in  the 
pillar  of  smoke  rising  over  Bazeilles  showed  that  the  con- 
flagration there  was  still  raging.  But  for  these  signs  the 
tragedy  of  Sedan  was  played  out,  and  the  curtain  of  night 
fell  on  the  scene. 

An  after-piece  only  was  left  for  the  next  day.  For  the 
present  we  went  home.  The  King  went  again  to  Ven- 
dresse.  The  Chief,  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen,  and  myself, 
drove  to  the  little  town  of  Donchery,  where  when  we 
arrived  it  was  quite  dark.  We  took  up  our  quarters  in  the 
house  of  a  Doctor  Jeanjot.  The  place  was  full  of  Wiirtem- 
berg  soldiers,  encamped  in  the  market-place.  We  made 
this  diversion  to  Donchery,  because  it  had  been  arranged 
that  the  Chancellor  and  Moltke  should  meet  the  French 
plenipotentiaries  this  evening,  with  a  view  to  settling  the 
terms  of  the  capitulation  of  the  four  French  Army  Corps 
shut  up  in  Sedan. 

I  slept  here  in  a  little  alcove  in  a  back  room  on  the  first 
floor,  separated  only  by  the  partition  from  the  Chancellor, 
who  had  taken  possession  of  the  large  front  room.  About 
six  o'clock  in  the  morning  I  was  awakened  by  hasty  step^ 


v.]  The  After-piece.  103 

and  I  heard  Erigel  say,  "  Your  Excellency  !  your  Excel- 
lency !  there  is  a  French  general  down  here  at  the  door ; 
I  don't  understand  what  he  wants."  The  Minister  seems 
at  once  to  have  jumped  out  of  bed,  and  held  a  short  parley 
with  the  Frenchman  out  of  the  window — it  was  again 
General  Reille.  He  then  dressed  as  quickly  as  possible, 
mounted  his  horse — without  touching  breakfast,  just  as  he 
had  arrived  the  night  before — and  rode  off  at  full  speed.  I 
went  at  once  to  the  window  of  his  room  to  see  in  what 
direction  he  had  gone,  and  saw  him  trotting  towards  the 
market-place.  Everything  was  lying  about  his  room  in 
great  disorder.  On  the  floor  there  lay,  *  Tagliche  Losungen 
und  Lehrtexte  der  Briidergemeinde  fiir  1870,'*  and  on  the 
night  table  there  was  another  book  of  devotion,  '  Die 
tagliche  Erquickung  fiir  glaubige  Christen 'f;  books  in 
which,  as  Engel  told  me,  the  Chancellor  was  accustomed  to 
read  at  night. 

I,  too,  now  dressed  quickly,  and  after  I  had  learned 
downstairs  that  the  Count  had  ridden  off  to  Sedan,  in  order 
to  meet  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  who  had  left  the  fortress, 
I  followed  him  as  quickly  as  possible.  About  800  paces 
from  the  bridge  over  the  Meuse,  at  Donchery,  there  stands 
on  the  right  of  the  high  road,  which  is  lined  with  poplars, 
a  solitary  house,  which  was  then  inhabited  by  a  Belgian 
weaver.  It  is  a  one-storied  house,  painted  yellow,  with 
four  windows  in  front,  white  shutters  on  the  ground  floor, 
and  on  the  first  floor  white  Venetian  blinds.  It  is  slated, 
like  most  of  the  houses  in  Donchery,  Close  beside  it  on 
the  left  there  was  a  field  of  potatoes  in  flower,  while  to  the 
right  there  were  a  few  bushes  across  the  path  leading  to  the 
house,  which  was  about  fifteen  paces  from  the  high  road. 

*  '  Daily  Watchwords  and  Texts  of  the  Moravian  Brethren  for  1870.' 
t  *  Daily  Refreshment  for  Believing  Christians.' 


104         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

Here  I  saw  that  the  Chancellor  had  already  found  the 
Emperor.  In  front  of  the  weaver's  little  house,  six  French 
officers  of  superior  rank  were  standing,  of  whom  five  wore 
red  caps  with  gold  lace,  the  sixth  a  black  one.  On  the 
high  road  a  carriage  with  four  seats,  apparently  a  hired  one, 
was  waiting.  Opposite  the  Frenchmen  stood  Bismarck, 
his  cousin  Count  Bohlen,  and  a  little  way  off  Leverstrom 
and  two  hussars,  one  in  brown  and  the  other  in  black 
uniform.  About  eight  o'clock  Moltke  came,  with  some 
officers  of  the  general  staff,  but  after  a  short  time  he  re- 
moved to  a  distance.  Soon  afterwards  a  little  thick-set 
man  came  forward,  behind  the  house,  who  wore  a  red  cap 
with  a  gold  border,  a  black  paletot  lined  with  red,  with  a 
hood,  and  red  trousers.  He  spoke  first  to  the  Frenchmen, 
some  of  whom  were  sitting  on  the  bank  near  the  potatoes. 
He  wore  white  kid  gloves,  and  was  smoking  a  cigarette. 

It  was  the  Emperor.  From  the  short  distance  at  which 
I  stood  I  could  see  his  face  perfectly.  The  look  in  his  light 
grey  eyes  was  somewhat  soft  and  dreamy,  like  that  of 
people  who  have  lived  hard.  He  wore  his  cap  a  little  on 
the  right,  to  which  side  his  head  also  incUned.  His  short 
legs  were  out  of  proportion  to  the  long  upper  body.  His 
whole  appearance  was  a  little  unsoldierlike.  The  man 
looked  too  soft,  I  might  say  too  shabby  for  the  uniform 
he  wore  :  he  gave  one  the  impression  that  he  could  be 
occasionally  sentimental — feelings  which  forced  themselves 
upon  one  the  more  on  comparing  this  little  molluscous 
gentleman  with  the  erect  and  lofty  form  of  our  Chancellor. 
Napoleon  looked  unstrung,  but  not  very  much  broken 
down,  and  not  so  old  as  I  had  imagined  him  to  be :  he 
might  have  been  a  tolerably  preserved  man  of  fifty. 

After  a  while  he  went  up  to  the  Chief  and  spoke  for  about 
three  minutes  with  him,  then  he  again  walked  up  and  down 


v.]  The  Terms  of  Surrender.  105 

alone,  smoking,  with  his  hands  behind  his  back,  through 
the  potato-field  in  flower.  Another  short  conversation  fol- 
lowed between  the  Chancellor  and  the  Emperor,  which  the 
Chancellor  began.  After  it  Napoleon  conversed  with  the 
French  officers  of  his  suite.  About  a  quarter  to  nine 
o'clock  Bismarck  and  his  cousin  went  away  in  the  direction 
of  Donchery — whither  I  followed  them. 

The  Minister  repeatedly  spoke  of  the  events  of  this 
morning  and  of  the  preceding  evening.  I  throw  these 
different  statements  together  in  the  following  paragraphs, 
which  give  always  the  sense,  generally  the  very  words. 

"  Moltke  and  I,  after  the  battle  of  the  ist  September,  had 
gone  to  Donchery,  about  three  miles  from  Sedan,  with  a 
view  to  negotiations  with  the  French.  We  passed  the  night 
there,  while  the  King  and  the  head-quarters  returned  to 
Vendresse.  These  negotiations  lasted  till  after  midnight 
without  coming  to  any  conclusion.  Besides  Moltke  and 
myself  Blumenthal  and  three  or  four  other  officers  of  the 
general  staff  were  present.  General  Wimpft'en  was  the 
spokesman  for  the  French.  Moltke's  terms  were  short : 
tlie  whole  French  army  to  surrender  as  prisoners  of  war. 
Wimpfifen  found  that  too  hard.  '  The  army,'  said  he,  '  had 
merited  something  better  by  the  bravery  with  which  it 
had  fought.  We  ought  to  be  content  to  let  them  go, 
under  the  condition  that  as  long  as  tliis  war  lasted  the  army 
should  never  serve  against  us,  and  that  it  should  march 
off  to  a  district  of  France  which  should  be  left  to  our  deter- 
mination, or  to  Algiers.'  Moltke  coldly  persisted  in  his 
demand.  Wimpffen  represented  to  him  his  own  unhappy 
position  :  that  he  had  arrived  from  Africa  only  two  days 
ago ;  that,  only  towards  the  end  of  the  battle,  after 
MacMahon  had  been  wounded,  had  he  undertaken  the 
command ;  now  he  was  asked  to  put  his  name  to  such  a 


io6         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

capitulation.  He  would  rather  endeavour  to  maintain  him- 
self in  the  fortress,  or  attempt  to  break  through.  Moitke 
regretted  that  he  could  take  no  account  of  the  position 
of  the  general,  which  he  quite  understood.  He  acknow- 
ledged the  bravery  of  the  French  troops,  but  declared  t'hat 
Sedan  could  not  be  held,  and  that  it  was  quite  impossible  to 
break  through.  He  was  ready,  he  said,  to  allow  one  of  the 
general's  officers  to  inspect  our  positions,  to  convince  him 
of  this.  Wimpffen  now  thought  that  from  a  political  point 
of  view  it  would  be  wise  for  us  to  grant  them  better  con- 
ditions. We  must,  he  said,  desire  a  speedy  and  an  enduring 
peace,  and  this  we  could  have  only  by  showing  mag- 
nanimity. If  we  spared  the  army,  it  would  bind  the 
army  and  the  whole  nation  to  gratitude,  and  awaken 
friendly  feelings  ;  while  an  opposite  course  would  be  the 
beginning  of  endless  wars.  Hereupon  I  put  in  a  word, 
because  this  matter  seemed  to  belong  to  my  province.  I 
said  to  him  that  we  might  build  on  the  gratitude  of  a 
prince,  but  certainly  not  on  the  gratitude  of  a  people — ■ 
least  of  all  on  the  gratitude  of  the  French.  That  in  France 
neither  institutions  nor  circumstances  were  enduring ;  that 
governments  and  dynasties  were  constantly  changing,  and 
the  one  need  not  carry  out  what  the  other  had  bound 
itself  to.  That  if  the  Emperor  had  been  firm  on  his 
throne,  his  gratitude  for  our  granting  good  conditions  might 
have  been  counted  upon ;  but,  that  as  things  stood,  it 
would  be  folly  if  we  did  not  make  full  use  of  our  success. 
That  the  French  were  a  nation  full  of  envy  and  jealousy ; 
that  they  had  been  much  mortified  with  our  success  at 
Koniggratz,  and  could  not  forgive  it,  though  it  in  no  wise 
damaged  them.  How,  then,  should  any  magnanimity  on 
our  side  move  them  not  to  bear  us  a  grudge  for  Sedan  ? 
This  Wimpffen  would  not  admit.     '  France,'  he  said,  '  had 


v.]  The  Emperor's  Sword.  107 

much  changed  latterly;  it  had  learned  under  the  Empire 
to  think  more  of  the  interests  of  peace  than  of  the  glory 
of  war.  France  was  ready  to  proclaim  the  fraternity 
of  nations;'  and  more  of  the  same  kind.  It  was  not 
difficult  to  prove  the  contrary  of  all  he  said,  and  that  his 
request,  if  it  were  granted,  would  be  likelier  to  lead  to  the 
prolongation  than  to  the  conclusion  of  the  war.  I  ended 
by  saying  that  we  must  stand  to  our  conditions. 

"  Thereupon  Castelnau  became  the  spokesman,  and,  as 
the  Emperor's  personal  commissioner,  declared  that  on  the 
previous  day  he  had  surrendered  his  sword  to  the  King 
only  in  the  hope  of  an  honourable  capitulation.  I  asked, 
'Whose  sword  was  that — the  sword  of  France  or  the  sword 
of  the  Emperor  ?'  He  replied,  '  The  Emperor's  only.' 
'  Well,  there  is  no  use  talking  about  any  other  condi- 
tions,' said  Moltke  sharply,  while  a  look  of  contentment 
and  gratification  passed  over  his  face.  *  Then,  in  the 
morning  we  shall  begin  the  battle  again,'  said  Wimpffen. 
'  I  shall  recommence  the  fire  about  four  o'clock,'  replied 
Moltke ;  and  the  Frenchmen  wanted  to  go  at  once.  I 
begged  them,  however,  to  remain  and  once  more  to  con- 
sider the  case ;  and  at  last  it  was  decided  that  they  should 
ask  for  a  prolongation  of  the  armistice  in  order  that  they 
might  consult  their  people  in  Sedan  as  to  our  demands. 
Moltke  at  first  would  not  grant  this,  but  gave  way  at  last, 
when  I  showed  him  that  it  could  do  no  harm. 

"  Early  on  the  2nd,  about  six  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
General  Reille  appeared  in  front  of  my  house  at  Donchery 
to  tell  me  that  the  Emperor  wished  to  speak  with  me.  I 
went  with  him  directly,  and  got  on  my  horse,  all  dusty  and 
dirty  as  I  was,  in  an  old  cap  and  my  great  waterproof 
boots,  to  ride  to  Sedan,  where  I  supposed  him  still  to  be. 
But  I  met  him  on  the  high  road   near    Fresnois,  a  mile 


Io8         Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War.     [Chap 

and  three-quarters  from  Donchery.  He  sat  with  three 
officers  in  a  two-horse  carriage,  and  three  others  were  on 
horseback  beside  him.  I  only  knew  Reille,  Castehiau, 
Moscowa,  and  Vaubert.  I  had  my  revolver  in  my  belt, 
and  his  eye  rested  upon  it  for  a  moment.*  I  gave  the 
military  salute.  ^  He  took  his  cap  off,  and  the  officers  did 
the  same ;  whereupon  I  took  mine  off,  although  it  is  con- 
trary to  rule.  He  said,  '  Couvrez-vous  done'  I  behaved, 
to  him  just  as  if  in  Saint-Cloud,  and  asked  his  commands. 
He  inquired  whether  he  could  speak  to  the  King.  I  said 
that  would  be  impossible,  as  the  King  was  quartered  nine 
miles  away.  J.  did  not  wish  them  to  come  together  till 
we  had  settled  the  matter  of  the  capitulation.  Then  he 
inquired  where  he  himself  could  stay,  which  signified  that 
he  could  not  go  back  to  Sedan,  as  he  had  met  with  un- 
pleasantnesses there,  or  feared  to  do  so.  The  town  was 
fiill  of  drunken  soldiers,  who  were  very  burdensome  to  the 
inhabitants.  I  offered  him  my  quarters  in  Donchery,  which 
I  would  immediately  vacate.  He  accepted  this.  But  he 
stopped  at  a  place  a  couple  of  hundred  paces  from  the 
village  and  asked  whether  he  could  not  remain  in  a  house 
which  was  there.  I  sent  my  cousin,  who  had  ridden  out  as 
my  adjutant,  to  look  at  it.  When  he  returned,  he  reported 
it  to  be  a  miserable  place.  The  Emperor  said  that  did  not 
matter.  He  went  across  to  the  house  and  came  back  again, 
apparently  not  being  able  to  find  the  stairs,  Avhich  were 
at  the  back,  I  went  up  vdth  him  to  the  first  floor,  where 
we  entered  a  little  room  with  one  window.  It  was  the 
best  in  the  house,  but  had  only  one  deal  table  and  two  rush- 
bottomed  chairs. 

"  Here  I  had  a  conversation  with  him  which  lasted  nearly 

*  I  must  hue  omit  an  expression  of  the  Chancellor's,  very  charac- 
teristic bolh  of  liimself  and  of  the  Emperor. 


v.]  Capitulation  or  Peace.  1 09 

three-quarters  of  an  hour.  He  complained  at  first  of  this 
unhallowed  war,  wliich  he  had  not  desired.  He  had  been 
driven  into  it  by  the  pressure  of  public  opinion.  I  rejoined 
that  neither  had  any  one  with  us  wished  war — the  King 
least  of  all.  We  had  looked  upon  the  Spanish  question  as 
Spanish,  and  not  German  ;  and  we  had  expected,  from  his 
friendly  relations  with  the  princely  house  of  Hohenzollern 
that  the  hereditary  Prince  would  easily  have  come  to  an 
understanding  with  him.  Then  he  turned  to  speak  of  the 
present  situation.  As  to  that,  he  wished  above  all  for  a 
more  favourable  capitulation.  I  explained,  that  I  could  not 
enter  upon  a  discussion  on  that  point,  as  it  was  a  purely 
military  question,  on  which  Moltke  must  decide.  Then  we 
left  the  subject,  to  speak  of  a  possible  peace.  He  answered, 
he  was  a  prisoner,  and  therefore  not  in  a  position  to  decide : 
and  when  I  asked  him  whom  he  considered  competent  for 
that,  he  referred  me  to  the  Government  in  Paris.  I  re- 
marked to  him,  that  in  that  case,  things  were  just  where 
they  were  yesterday,  and  that  we  must  stand  by  our  former 
demands  with  regard  to  the  army  of  Sedan,  so  as  to  have 
some  pledge  that  the  results  of  the  battle  of  yesterday 
should  not  be  lost  to  us.  Moltke,  who  had  been  summoned 
by  me,  had  now  arrived.  He  was  of  the  same  opinion, 
and  went  to  the  King  to  tell  him  so. 

"  Outside,  in  front  of  the  house,  the  Emperor  praised  our 
army  and  its  generalship ;  and  when  I  allowed  to  him  that 
the  French  had  also  fought  well,  he  came  back  to  the 
conditions  of  the  capitulation,  and  asked  whether  it  was 
not  possible  for  us  to  allow  the  corps  shut  up  in  Sedan  to 
cross  the  Belgian  frontier,  and  there  to  lay  down  their 
arms  and  be  '  interned.'  1  tried  again  to  make  him  under- 
stand that  this  was  a  military  question,  not  for  me  to 
decide  without  an  understanding  with  Moltke.     And  as  he 


no         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

had  explained,  that  as  a  prisoner  he  could  not  take  upon 
himself  the  Imperial  powers  of  the  Government.  The 
negotiations  on  these  questions  could  only  be  conducted 
with  the  general  in  command  at  Sedan. 

"  Meantime,  efforts  had  been  made  to  find  him  better 
accommodation ;  and  the  officers  of  the  general  staff  had 
discovered  that  the  chateau  of  Bellevue,  near  Fresnois, 
where  I  had  first  met  him,  was  suitable  for  his  reception, 
and  was  not  yet  filled  with  the  wounded.  I  told  him  so, 
and  advised  him  to  settle  himself  there,  as  the  little  weaver's 
house  was  not  comfortable,  and  he  perhaps  needed  rest. 
We  would  inform  the  King  that  he  was  there.  He  agreed 
to  this,  and  I  rode  back  to  Donchery  to  dress  myself.  Then 
I  conducted  him  with  a  guard  of  honour,  consisting  of  a 
squadron  of  the  first  Cuirassier  regiment,  to  Bellevue.  At 
the  conferences  which  now  began,  the  Emperor  wished  to 
have  the  King  present — from  whom  he  expected  softness 
and  good-heartedness — but  he  also  wanted  me  to  take  part. 

"  I  on  the  contrary  was  determined  that  the  military 
men,  who  can  be  harder,  should  have  the  whole  affair  to 
settle.  So  I  whispered  to  an  officer  as  we  went  upstairs 
that  he  was  to  call  me  out  in  about  five  minutes — the  King 
wanted  to  speak  with  me — and  he  did  so.  With  regard  to 
the  King,  the  Emperor  was  told,  that  he  could  not  see  him 
till  after  the  capitulation  was  settled.  The  arrangement 
between  Moltke  and  Wimpffen  was  thus  made  much  as 
we  had  wished  it  to  be  the  evening  before.  Then  the  two 
sovereigns  came  together.  When  the  Emperor  came  out 
after  the  interview,  his  eyes  were  full  of  tears.  Towards 
me  he  was  quieter,  but  friendly  throughout." 

^\'e  had  heard  nothing  about  all  these  occurrences  pre- 
vious to  the  forenoon  of  September  2,  and  from  the  moment 
when  the  Chief  in  his  best  uniform  with  his  cuirassier's  hel- 


v.]  A  Chance  of  A  nother  Battle.  Ill 

met  on  his  head,  rode  away  again  from  Donchery,  till  quite 
late  at  night,  only  indefinite  reports  reached  us.  About  half- 
past  nine  some  Wiirtemberg  artillery  trotted  past  our  house, 
and  it  was  said  that  the  French  would  renew  the  fight,  that 
Moltke  had  granted  them  a  respite  till  eleven  o'clock  for  re- 
flection, and  that  the  bombardment  would  then  immediately 
commence  from  five  hundred  guns.  In  order  to  see  this  I 
went  with  Willisch  over  the  Meuse  Bridge,  where,  at  the 
barracks,  there  were  many  French  prisoners  standing,  to  the 
high  road,  passing  the  little  weaver's  house,  now  become  his- 
torical, and  up  to  the  top  of  the  range  of  hills  overlooking 
it,  whence  we  could  overlook  Donchery  with  its  grey  slate 
roofs,  and  the  whole  neighbourhood.  Everywhere  on  the 
roads  and  in  the  fields  clouds  of  dust  rose  under  the  horses' 
hoofs  of  the  passing  squadrons  of  cavalry,  and  the  weajions 
of  columns  of  infantry  flashed  in  the  sun.  Sideways  from 
Donchery,  near  the  bridge  which  had  been  blown  up,  we  saw 
a  camp.  The  highway  at  our  feet  was  taken  up  with  a  long 
row  of  waggons  with  baggage  and  forage.  After  eleven 
o'clock,  when  we  saw  there  was  no  firing,  we  came  down  the 
hill  again.  Here  we  met  the  lieutenant  of  police,  von 
Czernicki,  who  meant  to  drive  in  a  little  conveyance  into 
Sedan,  and  who  invited  us  to  go  Avith  him.  We  had  gone 
as  far  as  near  Fresnois  when  we — it  was  about  one  o'clock 
— met  the  King  with  a  great  retinue,  amongst  whom  was 
the  Chancellor.  Expecting  that  the  Chief  might  wish  to 
go  home  we  got  out  and  went  back.  The  cavalcade,  which 
included  Hatzfeld  and  Abeken,  went  on  through  Donchery, 
with  the  intention  of  riding  round  the  whole  field  of  battle. 
Not  knowing,  however,  how  long  the  Minister  might  be 
away,  we  remained  where  we  were. 

About  half-past  one  some  thousands  of  prisoners  marched 
through  the  town  on  their  way  to  Germany ;  partly  on  foot. 


112         Bismarck  ill  tJie  Franco-German  War.     [Chai 

partly  in  waggons — a  general  on  horseback,  and  sixty  or 
seventy  officers  of  different  grades.  There  were  cuirassiers 
with  white  helmets,  blue  hussars  with  white  lace,  and 
infantry  of  the  22nd,  52nd  and  58th  regiments.  The  escort 
consisted  of  Wiirtemberg  infantry.  About  two  o'clock  there 
came  two  thousand  more  prisoners,  amongst  them  negroes  in 
Arab  garb — broad-shouldered  figures  with  savage  faces, 
looking  hke  apes,  and  a  number  of  old  troopers  wearing 
the  Crimean  and  Mexican  medals.  A  tragi-comical  incident 
happened  here.  One  of  the  troop  of  prisoners  marching 
along  noticed  a  wounded  man  in  the  market-place,  and  re- 
cognised his  brother,  with  a  cry,  "  Eh,  mon  frere  !"  He  tried 
to  run  out  to  him.  But  Godfather  Schwab,  of  the  escort, 
said,  "  Is  it  freezing  (frieren)  you  are  ?  I  am  freezing  too ;" 
and  pushed  him  back  into  the  column.  I  beg  my  reader's 
pardon  if  this  is  a  pun,  but  I  am  only  telling  the  story,  and 
did  not  make  it. 

After  three  o'clock  two  captured  guns  with  their  ammu- 
nition waggons  passed  through  our  street,  all  still  drawn  by 
their  own  French  horses.  On  one  cannon  there  was  written 
in  chalk,  "  5th  Rifles,  Gorlitz."  Somewhat  later  a  fire  broke 
out  in  a  side  street  close  behind  our  quarters — the  Wiirtem- 
bergers  had  there  broken  open  a  cask  of  brandy  and  in- 
cautiously allowed  it  to  catch  fire ;  they  were  said  to  have 
demolished  another  house  because  the  people  refused  them 
Schnaps.  The  damage  done  could  not  have  been  very  great, 
for  when  we  came  to  the  place  there  was  nothing  of  it  to  be 
observed. 

There  was  hunger  now  among  the  inhabitants  of  our  little 
town,  and  our  host  himself,  who  as  well  as  his  wife  was  a 
good  soul,  was  in  want  of  bread.  The  place  was  over-full 
from  the  numbers  of  soldiers  quartered  there,  as  well  as  of  the 
wounded,  some  of  whom  were  laid  in  the  stables.      People 


v.]  The  Secret  of  Pig  Driving.  1 1 3 

from  the  court  wanted  to  take  our  house  for  the  Hereditary 
Grand  Duke  of  Weimar,  but  we  opposed  this  wilh  success. 
Then  an  officer  wanted  quarters  with  us  for  a  Mecklenburg 
prince.  We  showed  him  the  door,  and  told  him  it  would 
not  do — this  was  the  Chancellor's  place.  But  when  I  was 
away  for  a  little  time,  the  gentlemen  from  Weimar  had  forced 
themselves  in,  and  we  might  be  glad  that  they  had  not  ap- 
propriated the  very  bed  of  our  Chief. 

About  ten  o'clock  the  Minister  had  not  yet  returned,  and 
we  were  in  trouble  and  perplexity.  Some  accident  might 
have  happened  to  him,  or  he  might  have  returned  with  the 
King  from  the  battle-field  to  Vendresse.  He  arrived  after 
eleven,  and  I  had  supper  with  him.  The  Hereditary  Prince 
of  Weimar,  in  the  light  blue  uniform  of  a  hussar,  and  Count 
Solms-Sonnenwalde,  formerly  of  the  embassy  in  Paris,  now 
attached  to  our  bureau,  but  hitherto  seldom  to  be  seen, 
supped  with  us. 

The  Chancellor  told  us  all  sorts  of  things  about  his  ride 
over  the  field  of  battle.  He  had  been  nearly  twelve  hours 
in  the  saddle,  with  only  short  interruptions.  They  had  gone 
over  the  whole  battle-field,  and  found  the  greatest  excitement 
in  all  the  camps  and  bivouacs.  In  the  battle  itself  25,000 
prisoners  were  taken,  and  40,000  more  in  Sedan  after  the 
capitulation,  which  had  taken  place  at  mid-day. 

The  Minister  had  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  his  youngest 
son.  "  I  discovered  in  him  " — so  he  said  at  dinner — "a  new 
famous  talent — he  possesses  exceptional  dexterity  in  pig- 
driving.  He  had  found  out  the  fattest,  on  the  principle 
the  fatter  the  pig  the  slower  his  pace,  and  the  more  diffi- 
cult to  run  away.  At  last  he  carried  it  off  in  his  arms  like 
a  child.  It  must  have  seemed  odd  to  the  French  officers 
among  the  prisoners,  to  see  a  Prussian  general  embrace  a 
common  dragoon." 

VOL.  I.  I 


114         Bismarck  m  the  Franco-Gennajt  War.      [Chap. 

"  In  another  place,"  he  went  on  to  say,  "  they  smelt  sud- 
denly a  sLrong  odour  as  of  roasted  onions.  I  remarked 
that  >\X.  came  from  Bazeilles,  and  it  was  probably  the  French 
peasants  who  had  been  killed  by  the  Bavarians,  and  had  then 
been  burnt  in  their  houses^  because  they  had  fired  at  them 
from  their  windows."  Then  they  spoke  of  Napoleon,  who 
was  to  set  oft"  to-morrow  morning  to  Germany,  and  indeed 
to  Wilhelmshohe.  "  It  was  a  question,"  said  the  Chief, 
"  whether  they  should  go  by  Stenay,  and  Bar-le-Duc,  or 
through  Belgium."  "  But  here,"  replied  Solms,  "  he  would 
be  no  longer  a  prisoner."  "  That  would  not  matter  at  all, 
even  if  he  had  gone  in  another  direction.  I  was  for  his 
going  through  Belgium,  and  he  himself  appeared  inclined  to 
do  so.  If  he  should  not  keep  his  word,  it  would  do  us  no 
great  mischief.  But  to  make  this  tour,  we  must  have  asked 
permission  from  Brussels,  and  could  not  have  got  an  answer 
under  two  days." 

..,  When  I  came  back  to  my  alcove  Kriiger,  the  new  mes- 
senger, had  confiscated  my  mattress  and  blanket  for  the  use 
of  Abeken.  He  was  standing  by,  and  said,  "  But  now  you 
have  no  bed."  I  answered,  "  It  of  course  belongs  to  you ;" 
as  indeed  was  only  fair ;  for  the  old  gentleman  had  gone 
valiantly  through  the  whole  long  expedition  with  the  King 
on  horseback. 

I  got  through  the  night  quite  tolerably  on  the  floor  of  the 
back-room  opposite  our  doctor's  kitchen.  My  resting-place, 
constructed  by  that  most  ingenious  of  servants,  the  excellent 
Theiss,  consisted  of  four  carriage  cushions  covered  with  blue 
cloth,  one  of  which,  leaning  against  the  back  of  a  chair  he 
had  turned  upside  down,  made  a  comfortable  pillow.  My 
water-proof  cloak  and  my  fatigue  made  up  for  blankets,  and 
in  the  morning  when  it  had  become  bitterly  cold,  Kriiger 
added  a  blanket  of  brown  wool  which  lie  had  taken  from 


v.]  Short  Commons.  115 

the  French.  On  the  floor  beside  me  slept  Engel  on  my 
right  hand,  and  Theiss  on  my  left,  while  two  Bavarian  sol- 
diers lay  in  the  one  corner  on  a  trestle  bed.  In  the  next 
room,  shot  through  the  arm,  was  Captain  Domberg.  the 
Adjutant  of  General  Gersdorfwho  commanded  the  Eleventh 
Army  Corps.  Early  in  the  morning  I  was  wakened  after 
a  while  by  the  noise  of  people  in  the  room  brushing  trou- 
sers, cleaning  boots,  polishing  buttons,  calling  to  the  maid 
in  bad  French  for  water,  the  barber,  &c.  &c.,  and  I  drank 
a  bowl  of  coffee  with  a  table-spoon,  and  ate  a  piece  of 
dry  bread  with  it.  We  tasted  once  at  least  a  few  of  the 
privations  of  a  campaign. 

About  eight  o'clock,  as  I  was  still  busy  with  my  breakfast, 
there  was  a  noise  just  as  if  the  firing  had  recommenced. 
It  was,  however,  only  the  horses  in  a  stable  close  by,  stamp- 
ing their  feet  on  the  wooden  floor— perhaps  out  of  vexation 
that  they  were  put  on  such  short  commons  to-day,  for  the 
coachman  could  only  get  them  half  a  peck  of  oats.  Want 
reigned  everywhere.  I  afterwards  heard  that  Hatzfeld  had 
gone  to  Brussels  with  a  commission  from  the  Chief  Soon 
afterwards  he  called  me  to  his  bedside.  He  had  received  a 
present  of  five  hundred  cigars,  which  I  was  to  distribute 
among  our  wounded  soldiers.  I  went  for  this  purpose  to  the 
barracks,  which  had  been  turned  into  an  hospital,  then  into 
the  rooms,  barns,  and  stables  of  the  side  street  behind  our 
house.  At  first  I  only  allowed  the  Prussians  to  share  my 
treasures,  but  the  Frenchmen  who  were  sitting  among  them 
watched  me  with  such  longing  eyes,  and  their  German  neigh- 
bours on  the  straw  begged  so  heartily  for  them,  "  they  must 
not  look  on  without  getting  any,"  "  they  have  shared  every- 
thing with  us,"  that  I  thought  it  no  robbery  to  give  them 
some.  All  complained  of  hunger,  all  asked  if  they  would 
soon  be  taken  away  from  this  place.     But  in  time  came  soup 


Ii6         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

and  bread  and  sausages ;  indeed,  those  in  the  barns  and 
stables  were  made  happy  with  bouillon  and  chocolate, 
brought  by  a  Bavarian  ambulance-man. 

The  morning  was  cold,  dull,  and  rainy,  but  the  Prussian 
and  Wiirtemberg  troops  passing  through  in  numbers  seemed 
to  be  in  the  best  of  spirits.  The  music  played  and  the  men 
sang.  More  in  harmony,  probably,  with  the  uncomfortable 
weather  and  the  hidden  sun  were  the  thoughts  of  the  occu- 
pants of  a  long  train  of  carriages  which  passed  about  the 
same  time  through  the  town  in  an  opposite  direction  to  that 
which  the  troops  had  taken.  As  I  was  wading  about  ten 
o'clock  through  the  frightful  filth  of  the  market-place  in  a 
drizzling  rain,  towards  the  barracks  in  the  execution  of  my 
errand  to  the  wounded,  there  crowded  past  me  a  long  row 
of  carriages  from  the  bridge  over  the  Meuse,  escorted  by 
the  black  Brunswicker  hussars.  They  were  chiefly  covered 
coaches,  then  baggage  and  cooking  waggons,  and  lastly  a 
number  of  cavalry  horses.  In  a  closed  coupe,  immediately 
behind  the  hussars,  by  the  side  of  General  Castelneau  sat 
the  "  Prisoner  of  Sedan,"  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  on  his  way 
through  Belgium  to  Wilhelmshdhe.  There  followed  him, 
in  an  open  char  a  l>a7ics,  with  Prince  Lynar  and  some  of  the 
French  officers,  who  had  been  present  the  day  before  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Chancellor  and  the  Emperor,  the  general  of 
inflmtry,  General-Adjutant  von  Boyen,  who  had  been  selected 
by  the  King  to  accompany  the  Emperor.  "  Boyen  will  do 
admirably  for  this,"  said  our  Chief  to  us  the  night  before, 
probably  thinking  that  the  officers  who  surrounded  the  illus- 
trious captive  might  be  somewhat  insolent ;  "  he  can  be 
very  rude  in  the  most  polite  manner." 

We  learnt  some  time  afterwards  that  the  route  round  by 
Donchery  was  taken  because  the  Emperor  very  much  wished 
not  to  pass  through  Sedan  again.    The  hussars  rode  with  them 


v.]  Whose  Gzms  are  they  ?  117 

to  the  frontier,  near  Bouillon,  the  first  Belgian  town.  The 
Emperor  was  not  badly  received  by  the  French  prisoners 
whom  they  passed  on  the  way.  The  officers,  on  the  con- 
trar}',  had  to  put  up  with  some  disagreeable  remarks.  They 
were  naturally  "traitors,"  as  from  henceforth  every  one  was 
who  lost  a  battle  or  sustained  any  defeat  from  us.  A  par- 
ticularly bitter  moment  for  these  gentlemen  seemed  to  be 
when  they  drove  past  a  number  of  guns  which  had  fallen 
into  our  hands.  Abeken  told  us  the  following  story  about 
this  :  "  One  of  the  Emperor's  adjutants — I  think  it  was  the 
Prince  of  Moscowa — thought  these  cannon  were  guns  of 
ours,  because  the  men  and  horses  with  them  were  Prussian, 
and  yet  something  about  them  surprised  him.  He  asked, 
'  Quoi,  est-ce  que  vous  avez  deux  systemes  d'artillerie  ? ' 
'  Non,  monsieur,  nous  n'avons  qu'un  seul,'  he  was  told. 
'Mais  ces  canons-Ik?'  'lis  ne  sont  pas  de  notres,  mon- 
sieur.' ('  Have  you  two  systems  of  artillery,  then  ?'  '  No, 
sir,  only  one.'  '  Look  at  those  cannon  there.'  '  They  are 
not  of  our  casting,  sir.')" 


Ii8         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

FROM  THE  MEUSE  TO  THE  MARNE. 

I  WILL  now  let  my  journal  once  more  speak  for  itself. 

Saturday,  September  3. — We  left  Donchery  this  morning 
rather  before  one  o'clock.  On  the  way  we  were  overtaken 
by  a  short  but  unusually  heavy  storm,  with  thunder  which 
echoed  through  the  valleys  for  a  long  time.  The  terrible 
downpour  which  followed,  wet  the  Chancellor,  who  was  in 
an  open  carriage,  through  and  through,  even  under  the 
armpits,  as  he  told  us  at  dinner.  He  had  pulled  on  his  water- 
proof, but  had  not  found  much  good  from  it.  Fortunately 
no  evil  consequences  followed,  but  the  time  is  arrived 
when  diplomacy  must  come  more  to  the  front  again  in  our 
affliirs,  and  if  the  Chief  were  to  fall  ill,  who  could  replace 
him  ? 

I  drove  with  the  Councillors,  and  Count  Bohlen  gave  us 
all  sorts  of  details  of  the  occurrences  of  the  last  few  days. 
Napoleon  had  left  Sedan  so  early — it  must  have  been  just 
about  daybreak,  if  not  sooner — because  he  did  not  feel  safe 
in  the  midst  of  the  enraged  soldiers,  who,  crowded  together 
in  the  fortress,  were  furious  when  the  news  of  the  capitu- 
lation spread  through  the  town,  and  broke  to  pieces 
muskets  and  sabres,  wherever  they  could  get  them.  The 
Minister  had  said  to  Wimpflfen  at  their  first  interview  at 
Donchery,  that  he  was  well  aware  that  the  arrogance  and 
pugnacity  of  the  French,  and  their  envy  of  their  neighbours' 
successes,  did  not  come  from  tlfe  labouring  or  industrial 
classes,    but  from  the   journalists  and    the    Parisians;    but 


VI,]  Seven  Times  Seven.  119 

these  guided  and  controlled  public  opinion.  Accordingly, 
we  could  not  reckon  on  those  moral  guarantees  at  which 
the  general  hinted,  we  must  have  material  ones ;  the  army 
of  Sedan  must  first  be  rendered  harmless,  and  then  the 
great  fortresses  in  the  East  must  be  handed  over.  The 
troops  had  laid  down  their  arms  on  a  sort  of  peninsula 
formed  by  one  of  the  bends  of  the  Meuse.  At  the  inter- 
view between  the  King  and  the  Emperor,  before  which 
Moltke  had  ridden  out  a  little  to  meet  the  King  on  his 
road  from  Vendresse,  the  two  sovereigns  were  left  for  about 
ten  minutes  alone  together  in  the  drawing-room  with  the 
glass  verandah,  in  the  little  chateau  of  Bellevue.  The 
King  afterwards  called  the  officers  of  his  retinue  to  read 
the  capitulation  to  them,  while  he  thanked  them,  with  tears 
in  his  eyes,  for  helping  to  bring  it  about.  The  Crown 
Prince  told  the  Hessian  regiments  that  the  King  had  sent 
the  captive  Emperor  to  Cassel  as  a  reward  for  the  bravery 
with  which  they  had  fought. 

The  Minister  dined  with  the  King  at  Vendresse,  where 
we  were  quartered  for  one  more  night,  but  he  came  back  in 
time  to  eat  pancakes  with  us.  He  read  to  us  part  of 
a  letter  from  his  wife,  which  in  Biblical,  but  most  ener- 
getic language,  expressed  her  hope  of  the  destruction  of 
the  French.  He  then  said  thoughtfully:  "  H'm  !  1866  in 
seven  days.  This  time,  perhaps,  seven  times  seven.  Yes, 
when  did  we  cross  the  frontier  ?  On  the  4th  ?  No,  on  the 
I  oth  August.  It  is  not  yet  five  weeks  since  that.  Seven 
times  seven — it  is  possible." 

To  show  once  more  the  myths  that  are  made  about  us 
and  how  wild  are  their  imaginations,  I  may  mention  that 
Bohlen  asserted  that  at  Bazeilles  the  inhabitants  had  joined 
treacherously  with  the  French  soldiers  against  the  advancing 
Bavarians,  that  they  had  killed  some  wounded  Bavarians, 


I20         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap, 

that  a  woman  had  shot  four  men  from  behind,  &c.,  &c., 
and  that  Bazeilles  had  therefore  "  been  dehberately  set  fire 
to,  house  by  house,"  and  that  a  woman  and  thirty-five 
peasants  had  been  hanged  there.*  Keudell  said  that  he 
met  Court  Councillor  Freyberg,  who  had  accompanied  his 
Highness  of  Coburg  and  his  Illustriousness  of  Augusten- 
burg  into  the  war.  The  latter — with  superfluous  and  utterly 
uncalled-for  wisdom — dissuades  us  from  putting  any  con- 
straint on  the  South  Germans,  and  is  particularly  anxious 
that  we  should  demand  from  the  French  the  restoration  of 
some  manuscripts — I  believe  the  Manasse  collection  of 
Middle  High  German  poems— which  they  took  away  from 
Heidelberg  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 

I  again  sent  off  some  articles  to  Germany,  amongst  which 
was  one  on  the  results  of  the  battle  of  the  ist  September. 
These  results  have  grown  greater  bit  by  bit  since  yesterday, 
as  at  Koniggratz.  We  have  made  prisoners  of  more  than 
90,000  Red-breeches,  all  told,  and  captured  over  300  guns, 
an  army  of  horses,  and  an  enormous  quantity  of  war 
material.  In  a  few  days  we  shall  have  still  more,  for 
of  MacMahon's  army,  which,  after  Beaumont,  was  still 
reckoned  at  nearly  120,000  men,  evidently  not  many  have 
escaped. 

The  Chief  is  again  quartered  in  the  house  of  Widow 
Baudelot.  I  am  not  this  time  at  the  Field  Post,  but  in  a 
side  street,  at  the  house  of  an  elderly  widower,  a  kindly, 
feeble  soul,  who  complained  to  me  with  tears  of  the  loss  of 
his  '''■  pauvre  petite  fctnme"  showed  me  every  attention,  and 
cleaned  my  boots  without  being  asked.  It  is  said  that  we 
are  to  go  on  in  the  morning  in  the  direction  of  Reims  and 
halt  nt  the  town  of  Rethel. 

*  The  real  facts  will  be  given  further  on  in  the  proper  place. 


VI.]  Into  Champagne.  121 

Rethel,  Septe7nber  4,  evenitig. — Early  to-day  the  Chief  called 
me  to  him,  when  we  were  still  in  Vendresse,  to  give  me  an 
account,  the  latter  part  of  which  he  almost  dictated,  of  his 
iTieeting  with  Napoleon,  for  the  newspapers.*  Soon  after- 
wards, about  half-past  nine,  the  carriages  drove  up  and 
we  began  our  journey  into  Champagne. 

We  first  passed  through  a  hilly  country,  then  over  a  gently 
undulating  plain  full  of  fruit-gardens,  lastly,  through  poor 
stretches  where  there  was  hardly  a  village.  We  drove  past 
long  lines  of  troops,  first,  Bavarians,  then  the  6th  and  60th 
Prussian  regiments,  in  which  last,  Willisch  greeted  his 
brother,  who  had  come  through  the  battle  unhurt.  A  little 
while  afterwards,  the  wheels  of  one  of  Prince  Carl's  carriages 
took  fire,  and  he  was  obliged  to  remain  behind  in  a  village. 
Count  Ddnhoff,  his  master  of  the  horse,  and  Major  von 
Freyberg,  the  adjutant  of  Prince  Leopold  of  Bavaria, 
accordingly,  came  into  our  carriage,  which  made  us  look 
much  more  picturesque,  the  Count  wearing  a  bright  red 
Hussar  uniform  and  the  Major  the  familiar  sky-blue  of  the 
Bavarian  troops.  The  tragedy  of  Bazeilles  was  again  spoken 
of,  and  the  Major's  account  was  very  different  from  that 
which  Bohlen  gave  us  yesterday.  According  to  him,  about 
twenty  peasants  were  killed,  and  one  woman,  but  all  while 
fighting  with  the  attacking  soldiers.  Afterwards  a  priest 
was  shot,  lawfully,  according  to  the  usages  of  war.  The 
narrator  had  not,  however,  been  an  eye-witness,  so  that  his 
version  of  the  story  may  be  no  more  historical  than  the 
other.  He  knew  nothing  of  Bohlen's  thirty-five  men 
"hanged."  There  are  people  whose  tongue  is  always 
crueller  than  their  disposition. 

We  arrived  here,  in  Rethel,  about  half-past  four.     The 

*  I  have  worked  it  in  in  the  last  chapter. 


122         Bismarck  m  tlie  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

place  is  a  middle-sized  town  and  full  of  Wiirtemberg 
soldiers.  As  we  drove  through  to  the  market-place,  we 
saw  French  prisoners  looking  down  at  us  from  the  first 
story  windows  of  a  house  in  the  street.  The  quarter- 
master had  assigned  us  the  spacious  and  elegantly-furnished 
house  of  M.  Duval,  in  the  Rue  Grand  Pont,  where  I  had, 
next  to  Abeken,  a  pretty  little  room  with  mahogany 
furniture  and  a  four-poster  with  yellow  satin  hangings — a 
pleasant  contrast  to  last  night  in  Donchery.  The  whole 
of  the  mobilised  foreign  office  is  established  here.  The 
numerous  family  of  Duvals  are  wearing  crape  and  gauze, 
in  mourning — if  I  understand  rightly — for  their  country. 
In  the  evening,  after  dinner,  I  was  summoned  three  times 
to  report  to  the  Chief.  He  said,  too,  "  It  is  the  fortresses 
of  Metz  and  Strassburg  which  we  want  and  which  we  will 
take.  Elsass " — he  evidently  referred  to  the  strong  em- 
phasis laid  on  the  German  origin  and  the  use  of  the  German 
language  by  its  inhabitants  in  the  periodical  press — "  is  an 
idea  of  the  professors."  Afterwards,  at  tea,  where  there 
were  only  Keudell,  Bohlen,  and  I,  he  again  read  us  part 
of  a  letter  from  his  wife,  telling  him  that  Count  Herbert 
had  arrived  all  right  at  Frankfort-on-the-Maine. 

-  Meantime  newspapers  had  arrived  from  home.  In  these 
we  saw  that  the  press  of  South  Germany  is  beginning  to 
protest,  in  the  most  satisfactory  way,  against  the  foreign 
diplomacy  which  is  so  eager  to  effect  a  peace  between  us 
and  France.  It  was  quite  in  the  Chiefs  sense  that  tlie 
Stuabian  Mercury  said,  on  this  point,  "  When  the  German 
nations  marched  to  the  Rhine  to  defend  their  native  country, 
it  became  the  duty  of  the  European  Cabinets  to  let  the  two 
combatants  alone,  to  confine  themselves  to  localising  the 
war.  Well  then,  we  have  carried  on  the  war  alone,  against 
those  who  threatened  Europe ;  we  mean  also  to  localise  the 


VI.]  Marching  Order.  123 

conclusion  of  peace.  We  mean  to  dictate  in  Paris  the  con- 
ditions which  are  to  protect  the  German  people  from  the 
renewal  of  a  burglarious  attack  like  this  war  of  1870,  and 
no  diplomatist  of  the  foreign  Powers  who  kept  their  arms 
folded,  shall  dictate  to  us  respecting  these  conditions. 
Those  who  have  done  nothing  have  no  business  to  in- 
terfere." "  This  article  will  take  the  young  fellows,"  said 
the  Chief,  and  it  did  so. 

Reims,  September  5. — The  French  do  not  seem  to  look 
upon  us  all  as  barbarians  and  villains.  Many  of  them 
evidently  suppose  us  to  be  honourable  people.  I  went  this 
morning  to  a  shop  to  buy  some  shirt  collars.  The  shopman 
told  me  the  price  of  a  box,  and  when  I  put  down  two  thalers 
for  them,  he  handed  me  a  basket  full  of  small  money  that  I 
might  take  the  change  he  had  to  give  me. 

The  stream  which  flows  through  Rethel,  the  Aisne,  is 
beautifully  green  like  the  Rhine.  Not  far  from  our  quarters 
there  is  a  stone  bridge  over  it,  and  during  the  whole  of  the 
forenoon  great  masses  of  troops  were  crossing.  The  last 
were  four  Prussian  infantry  regiments.  There  were  singu- 
larly few  officers  with  them ;  several  of  the  companies  were 
commanded  by  young  lieutenants  or  ensigns.  This  was 
the  case  especially  in  the  6th  and  46th  Regiments,  one  of 
the  battalions  of  which  carried  a  French  Eagle  which  they 
had  captured.  Then  followed  the  50th  and  the  37th.  The 
heat  was  scorching  ;  the  men  were  quite  covered  with  a 
thick  layer  of  the  chalky  dust  of  Champagne,  but  they  kept 
marching  steadily  on  in  good  form  and  firm  on  their  legs. 
Our  coachman  put  some  pails  of  water  on  the  road  for 
them,  out  of  which  the  thirsty  men  helped  themselves  as 
they  passed,  with  tin  cups,  or  bowls,  or  glasses,  sometimes 
even  taking  a  draught  out  of  their  helmets. 

Between  twelve  and  one  o'clock  we  started  for  Reima 


124         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap 

The  district  through  which  our  road  passed  is  chiefly  flat 
sUghtly  undulating  land,  with  few  villages,  and  a  whitish 
soil ;  oftener  pastures  than  fields  with  standing  grain ;  here 
and  there  a  windmill — an  institution  which  I  had  not  before 
noticed  in  France,  then  by  the  side  of  the  road  a  Stunted 
fir  wood.  On  this  road  Keudell  had  a  conversation 
with  a  captain  in  the  Black  Dragoons.  "  He  is  a  son  of 
Minister  von  Schon,"  said  he.  "  He  fought  at  Worth  and 
Sedan." 

At  last,  far  away  over  the  sunny  plain,  emerged  the  towers 
of  the  cathedral  of  Reims  and  beyond  the  town,  hills,  which 
at  first  looked  bluish,  but  as  we  approached  them  became 
green,  with  white  villages  hanging  on  their  slopes.  We 
drove  first  through  poor  little  streets,  then  through  some  of 
more  pretensions  and  across  a  square  containing  a  monu- 
ment, to  tlie  Rue  de  Cloitre,  where  we  took  up  our  quarters 
in  the  handsome  house  of  M.  Dauphinot,  nearly  straiglit 
opposite  the  grand  cathedral.  The  Chief  here  lived  in  the 
wing  to  the  right  of  the  entrance  into  the  court,  on  the  first 
floor ;  the  Bureau  was  established  on  a  raised  ground  floor, 
under  the  Minister's  chamber,  while  a  room  close  by  was 
appropriated  for  a  dining-room.  I  found  my  bedroom  in 
the  left  wing,  near  Abeken.  The  whole  house,  so  far  as  I 
can  see,  is  elegantly  furnished.  Once  more  I  sleep  in  a 
mahogany  four-poster,  with  silk  hangings,  have  cushioned 
chairs  covered  with  crimson  damask  ;  a  mahogany  commode 
with  marble  top,  a  washhand-stand  and  night  table  of  the 
same  kind,  and  a  marble  chimney-piece  in  my  bedroom. 
The  streets  are  thronged  with  Prussians  and  Wiirtem- 
bergers.  King  William  did  the  Archbishop  the  honour  to 
take  up  his  quarters  in  his  palace.  I  hear  that  our  host  is 
the  Mayor  of  Reims.  Keudell  thinks  that  the  district  to 
be  held  by  us  at  the  conclusion   of  the  war  will  not  be 


VI.]  The  Cathedral  of  Reims.  125 

given  to  one  state,  nor  be  divided  among  several,  but  that 
it  will  remain  as  the  property  of  the  whole  of  Germany, 

In  the  evening  the  Chief  was  at  dinner,  and  as  we  were  here 
between  the  two  great  champagne  firms  of  the  country,  we 
tried  different  brands  of  that  wine.  It  was  mentioned  that 
yesterday  a  squadron  of  our  hussars  had  been  fired  upon 
from  a  coffee-house.  "  Then,"  said  the  Minister,  "  die 
house  must  be  at  once  destroyed,  and  the  occupier  brought 
before  a  court-martial.  Stieber  must  be  directed  to  inves- 
tigate the  matter  without  delay."  The  champagne  recom- 
mended by  Count  Bohlen  was  good,  and  he  was  specially 
praised  for  finding  it,  I  suppose  by  me  among  others.  The 
Minister  said,  "Our  Doctor  is  not  like  the  rest  of  the 
Saxons,  who  drink  nothing  but  coftee."  I  replied,  "Yes, 
your  Excellency,  that  is  why  I  am  so  downright,  occasion- 
ally perhaps  not  perfectly  polite  ;"  at  which  there  was  great 
laughter.  It  is  said  that  we  shall  remain  here  ten  or  twelve 
days. 

Tuesday.,  September  6. — Early  betimes  to  the  cathedral, 
the  chimes  of  the  bells  having  already  awakened  me  several 
times  during  the  night.  A  magnificent  edifice  of  the  best 
period  of  Gothic  architecture,  dedicated  to  Our  Lady.  A 
glorious  main  facade  beneath  the  two  unfinished  towers, 
three  portals  richly  decorated  with  sculptures ;  in  the  in- 
terior, wonderful  lights,  falling  from  painted  windows,  on  the 
pavement  and  on  the  sides  of  the  pillars.  The  high  altar  in 
the  great  nave,  where  the  kings  of  France  were  crowned, 
is  a-blaze  with  gilding.  In.  one  of  the  side  chapels,  in  the 
passage  which  runs  round  the  choir,  mass  was  being  read. 
In  front,  fellow  Christians  in  the  shape  of  Silesian  and  Polish 
infintry  and  Cuirassiers,  are  kneeling,  beside  the  French 
women  with  their  rosaries.  Outside,  round  the  church, 
there  are  many  beggars,  some  of  them  singing  their  petitions, 


126         Bismarck  hi  the  Fra7ico-German  War.     [Chap. 

From  ten  till  three  o'clock  I  worked  diligently,  without  once 
looking  up ;  amongst  other  things,  on  two  articles — one  of 
considerable  length,  the  other  shorter — upon  the  conditions 
under  which  Germany  can  conclude  peace.  Our  Chief  con-, 
sidered  an  article  in  the  Volks-Zeitung,  of  August  31,  "very 
sensible,  and  deserving  to  be  more  widely  circulated."  It 
pronounced  against  the  incorporation  of  the  conquered 
provinces  of  France  in  Prussia ;  and  after  attempting  to 
show  that  this  would  not  strengthen  but  weaken  Prussia^  it 
ended  with  these  words :  "  Not  the  aggrandisement  of 
Prussia,  but  the  unity  of  Germany  and  the  rendering  France 
innocuous,  are  the  objects  to  be  pursued."  Bamberger  has 
established  in  Nancy  a  newspaper  in  French  ;  to  which  news 
is  to  be  sent  from  us  from  time  to  time. 

Before  dinner.  Count  Bohlen,  counting  the  covers,  said, 
"Are  we  not  thirteen  at  table  to-day?"  "It  is  well  you 
mention  it,  for  the  Minister  does  not  like  sitting  down 
thirteen."  Bohlen,  to  whom  our  bodily  comforts  seem  to  be 
entrusted,  had  evidently  stimulated  the  genius  of  our  chef  de 
cuisine  to  do  its  very  best.  The  dinner  was  quite  sumptuous. 
Von  Knobelsdorf,  captain  of  the  guards,  Count  York,  and  a 
tall,  slender,  rather  shy  youth,  in  the  uniform  of  a  lieutenant  of 
dragoons  with  a  crimson  collar,  who  as  we  afterwards  heard 
was  a  Count  Briihl,  were  the  guests  of  the  Chancellor.  The 
latter  brings  great  news  with  him,  that  in  Paris  the  Republic 
is  proclaimed,  and  a  Provisional  Government  instituted,  in 
which  are  the  leaders  of  the  former  Opposition,  Gambetta  and 
Jules  Favre.  Rochefort,  also,  of  La  Lanterne,  sits  with  them 
in  high  council.  These  gentlemen,  it  is  said,  intend  to  carry 
on  the  war  against  us.  In  that  case  our  position  is  not  im- 
proved, in  so  far  as  we  wish  peace,  but  it  is  by  no  means  made 
worse,  especially  if  the  Republic  lasts  ;  and  if  afterwards  they 
want  to  win  good  friends  for  France  at  the  difterent  Courts. 


VI.]  Fate  of  a  Coffee-house  Keeper.  1 27 

With  Napoleon  and  Lulu  all  is  over  for  the  present ;  the 
Empress  has  done  as  Louis  Philippe  did  in  1848;  she  has 
left  the  field  and  is  said  to  be  in  Brussels.  What  sort  of  a 
web,  these  advocates  and  titerati  will  spin,  who  have  come 
in  her  place,  will  soon  be  seen.  Whether  France  will 
recognise  their  authority  remains  also  to  be  seen. 

Our  Uhlans  are  already  at  Chateau  Thierry.  Two  days 
more  and  they  might  be  before  Paris.  But,  as  is  now  certain, 
we  shall  be  at  least  a  week  longer  at  Reims.  Count  Bohlen 
told  the  Chief  about  the  coffee-house  keeper,  from  whose 
premises  our  cavalry  had  been  fired  at.  The  man  is  a 
Sieur  Jacquier,  the  hussars  belonged  to  a  Westphalian 
regiment,  and  their  commander  was  a  Captain  von  Vaerst, 
a  son  of  a  member  of  the  Reichstag.  The  house,  at  the 
urgent  entreaties  of  Jacquier,  who  says  the  man  was  innocent 
in  the  main,  has  not  been  destroyed,  especially  as  the 
treacherous  shot  had  not  taken  effect.  They  have  simply 
ordered  the  landlord  to  give  200  or  250  bottles  of  champagne 
to  the  squadron — which  he  gladly  agrees  to  do. 

Some  one  at  tea,  I  don't  remember  who,  turned  the  con- 
versation on  the  exceptional  position  in  the  North  German 
Confederation  which  Saxony  was  permitted  to  take  with 
regard  to  military  matters.  The  Chancellor  would  not 
admit  that  any  great  weight  should  be  attached  to  this. 
"  Moreover,  I  am  not  the  author  of  the  arrangement,"  he 
added.  "  Savigny  concluded  the  treaty,  for  I  was  then  in  bed 
exceedingly  ill.  Still  less  did  I  interfere  with  the  foreign 
affairs  of  the  smaller  states.  By  many  people  too  much 
stress  is  laid  on  this  point,  and  we  are  threatened  with 
danger  from  having  diplomatic  representatives  of  the  smaller 
states  beside  those  of  the  confederation.  But  if  such 
states  were,  in  other  respects,  powerful,  they  could  even, 
without  official  representatives,  both  by  letters  and  by  word 


128         Bismarck  ill  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

of  mouth,  intrigue  at  foreign,  courts.  Whatever  measures 
we  adopted,  a  dentist,  or  somebody  of  that  sort  could  carry 
on  an  intrigue." 

Wednesday,  September  7. — Early  this  morning  I  took  a 
walk  through  the  town.  It  seems  well  to  do,  and  has  some 
rather  fine  streets.  The  shops  are,  almost  without  exception, 
open,  and  some  of  them  do,  as  I  learn,  a  very  good  busi- 
ness with  our  officers  and  soldiers.  In  the  square  into 
which  our  street  enters,  is  a  handsome  monument  to  Louis 
XV,  In  the  middle  of  a  broad  street,  which  serves  as  a 
sort  of  market,  having  arcades  on  both  sides,  with  shops  and 
coffee-houses,  is  a  statue  of  Marshal  Drouet,  tolerably  exe- 
cuted. On  my  way  back  I  again  met,  near  the  cathedral, 
quite  a  number  of  beggars,  and  among  them  some  great 
originals.  One  litde  lad,  with  a  still  smaller  one  on  his 
back,  pranced  about  me  whining  all  the  time,  '■^/e  me 
meurs  de  /aim,  M'sieur,  j'e  me  incurs ;  donnez-inoi  nn  petit 
sou."  ("I  am  dying  of  hunger,  sir,  dying;  give  me  a  half- 
penny.") A  man,  without  feet,  slid  along  the  pavement 
on  his  knees,  whilst  his  companion  played  the  accordion 
and  collected  alms  for  him.  A  woman,  with  a  child  in 
her  arms,  begs  for  something  ^^ pour  acheter  du  pain"  ("  to 
buy  a  bit  of  bread  with  ").  A  big  strong  man,  certainly  any- 
thing but  ill  in  body,  sings  in  a  deep  bass  voice  a  verse 
with  the  refrain,  "  O,  c'est  terrible  de  mourir  de  fai?n  !  "  ("  O, 
it  is  terrible  to  die  of  starvation  !")  Five  or  six  unspeakably 
dirty  little  scamps  clamoured  round  one  of  our  musketeers, 
who  was  carrying  a  loaf — they  bake  it  here  in  the  shape  of  a 
horseshoe — and  when  he  broke  off  a  large  piece  for  them,  they 
scuflled  for  the  alms  with  savage  cries.  The  stoppage  of  the 
manufactories  must  cause  dreadful  distress  among  the  manu- 
flicturing  classes  of  Reims,  and  the  authorities  of  the  town 
were  afraid  there  would  be  riots  when  we  took  our  departure. 


VI]  A  Ramble  through  the  Town.  129 

After   getting   home,    I  wrote   on    several  subjects ;   for 
instance,  an  explanation  of  the  attitude  of  Russia  towards 
the  war.       In  the  afternoon,  when  the  Chief  went   out,    I 
made,  with  Abeken,  a  long  excursion  to  see  the  principal 
sights  of  the  town,  which  is  very  large  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  its  inhabitants, — about  60,000 — most  of  the  houses 
being  only  one  or  two  stories  high.      As  people  who  had 
once  been  Latin  scholars,  we  went  first  to  the  Promenade 
to  see  the  Roman  triumphal  arch.  Except  for  its  age,  there 
is  not  much  to  boast  of.   It  has  only  a  few  ruined  pillars  and 
remains  of  sculpture,   and  the  top  of  it  is  quite   modern. 
We  then  went,  in  heavy  rain,  through  the  suburbs  to  the 
statue  of  Colbert,  past  the  Circus,  which  now  has  soldiers 
quartered  in  it,  to  the  Canal  de  Vesle  and  the  dock  in  the 
harbour,  full  of  great  heavy  barges.     On  a  post  is  put  up, 
'■'■Pkhe  inter dite'  ("  No  fishing  allowed"),  but  inter  anna  silent 
leges.      Just  below  the  notice,  three  men  in  blouses  were 
angling  unmolested,  and  further   on  there  must  have  been 
thirty  more  of  these  fishermen,  dangling  their  rods  over  the 
light-green  water.     We  then  went  through  a  poor  street  to 
the   left,   to    see  the    second    great   church   of   the   town. 
It  is  dedicated  to  St.   Remus,   and  belongs  to  the  period 
of  the   transition   from    the    Italian    to  the  German    style 
of  architecture.       By   its   enormous  depth,    its  noble  sim- 
plicity, and  its  massive  pillars,  it  makes  a  very  grand  im- 
pression.    The  saints'  tomb  behind  the  choir  reminds  one 
forcibly  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  in  Jerusalem.     It  is  a  little 
temple  under  the  cupola  of  the  apse,  open  on  all  four  sides. 
It   is   built   of  white   marble  and   has    red   veined    pillars 
in  the  style  of  the  Renaissance.     At  the  side  is  a  chape), 
where,  over  an  altar  of  exceptional,  perhaps  unique,  interest 
in  the  history  of  art,  hangs  a  crucifix,  in  which  the  Christ 
wears   a   golden   crown    and    is  clothed  in  a   purple   robe 

VOL.    I.  K 


130         Bismarck  in  tJie  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

glittering  with  gold  stars.  The  expression  of  the  face  and 
the  handling  of  the  drapery  argue  great  antiquity.  On  the 
other  side,  in  the  Sacristy,  the  sacristan  showed  us  several 
old  pictures,  which  are  done  in  needlework. 

T/iursday,  September  8. — I  bathed  this  morning  early  in 
the  Vesle,  with  Willisch,  in  a  cold  wind  with  bright  weather. 
In  the  evening  we  had  a  great  dinner,  at  which  the  here- 
ditary Grand  Duke  of  Mecklenburg-Schwerin,  his  adju- 
tant, Nettelblatt,  Stephan,  the  director  of  the  post-office, 
and  the  three  Americans  were  present.  .  .  .  They  spoke  of 
the  different  reports  about  the  incidents  at  Bazeilles.  The 
Minister  said  that  it  could  not  be  tolerated  that  peasants 
should  join  in  fighting  to  defend  places.  They  were  not  in 
uniform,  and  therefore,  when  they  throw  away  their  muskets 
unnoticed,  they  cannot  be  known  as  combatants.  The  chances 
ought  to  be  equal  for  both  sides.  Abeken  thought  the  fate 
of  Bazeilles  too  hard,  and  that  the  war  ought  to  be  carried 
on  more  humanely.  Sheridan,  to  whom  MacLean  had  ex- 
plained the  case,  took  a.  different  view.  He  thought  the 
severest  treatment  of  the  population  during  a  war  quite  justi- 
fied on  political  grounds.  "  The  main  thing  in  true  strategy," 
what  he  said  amounted  to,  is  this,  "  First  deal  as  hard 
blows  at  the  enemy's  soldiers  as  possible,  and  then  cause  so 
much  suffering  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  that  they 
will  long  for  peace,  and  press  their  Government  to  make  it. 
Nothing  should  be  left  to  the  people  but  eyes,  to  lament 
the  war!"  Rather  heartless,  I  thought  to  myself,  but 
perhaps  worth  consideration. 

Friday..  September  9. — In  the  forenoon  till  three  o'clock  I 
was  writing  atall  kinds  of  articles;  amongst  others,  some  on  the 
inexplicable  attachment  of  the  Alsatians  for  France  ;  on  their 
voluntary  Helotism,  and  the  infatuation  which  prevents  their 
seeing    and    feeling   that    a  Gaul    regards   them    only   as 


VI.]  A  mateurs  of  Battles.  1 3 1 

Frenchmen  of  the  second  class,  and  treats  them  in  many 
respects  accordingly.  The  news  comes  that  Paris  is  not 
to  be  defended,  but  is  to  be  declared  an  open  city,  which 
is  doubtful,  as  according  to  other  accounts  they  have  still 
regular  soldiers  at  their  command,  though  not  many  now. 

I  saw  Hofrath  Freitag,  and  spoke  to  him  for  a  moment 
near  the  house  where  the  Crown  Prince  is  lodged.  He 
and  one  of  our  messengers  go  home  to-day,  since,  as  he 
said  to  Keudell,  there  is  nothing  for  him  to  do  here — 
a  very  praiseworthy  recognition  of  facts,  and  a  sensible 
resolution,  to  which  some  other  gentlemen,  who  have  at- 
tached themselves  to  certain  headquarters  as  mere  amateurs 
of  battles,  ought  to  have  come  long  ago. 

Saturday,  September  lo. — The  Chief  drove  out  early  with 
Hatzfeld  and  Bismarck-Bohlen  to  Chalons,  where  the  King 
also  was  going.  They  came  back  about  half-past  five  in 
the  afternoon.  Meantime,  after  four  o'clock.  Minister  Del- 
briick  arrived  :  he  had  come  by  Hagenau  and  Bar-le- 
Duc,  and  had  had  many  unpleasant  experiences.  He 
had  travelled  with  General  Boyen,  who  brought  Napoleon 
— or,  as  he  now  calls  himself,  Count  Pierrefonds^without 
accident  as  far  as  Cassel.  He  complained  that  he  had  not 
been  able  to  bring  with  him  a  box  of  very  old  Nordhausen, 
which  had  been  intrusted  to  him,  I  forget  where,  for  head- 
quarters. Further,  he  said  that  Napoleon  had  declared 
to  Boyen  that  he  had  been  forced  into  the  war  by  public 
opinion,  and  that  he  had  praised  our  troops  very  highly, 
especially  the  Uhlans  and  the  artillery. 

The  Chief  dined  to-day  with  the  King,  but  for  half  an  hour 
came  back  to  us  at  table,  where  Bohlen,  who  had  visited  the 
imperial  castle  of  Mourmelon,  near  Chalons,  had  previously 
told  us  how  the  people  there  had  destroyed  all  the  furniture, 
mirrors,  &c.  After  the  dinner,  at  which  Boyen  and  Delbriick 

K    2 


132         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

were  present,  the  Chancellor  talked  a  long  time  alone  with 
these  two  gentlemen.  Afterwards  he  sent  for  me  to  com- 
mission me  to  make  a  communique  for  the  two  papers  which 
are  published  here,  the  Courrier  de  la  Champagne,  and  the 
Indcpendant  Remois,  to  this  effect :  From  the  fact  of  the 
journals  which  appear  in  Reims  acknowledging  the  Repub- 
lic in  France,  and  recognising  the  new  fomi  of  Govern- 
ment by  printing  its.  decrees,  the  inference  might  be 
drawn  that  the  action  of  these  journals  is  taken  with  the- 
approval  of  the  German  Governments,  as  the  town  is 
occupied  by  German  troops.  This,  however,  is  not  the 
case.  The  German  Governments  respect  the  freedom 
of  the  press  here,  as  at  home,  but  in  France  they  have  not 
hitherto  recognised  any  other  Government  than  that  of  the 
Emperor  Napoleon.  They  are  unable,  therefore,  for  the 
present  to  consider  any  but  the  Imperial  Government  as 
authorised  to  enter  into  national  negotiations.  Then  he 
asked  me  (I  extract  the  following  from  my  journal,  only  to 
show  the  remarkable  kindheartedness  and  simple  natural 
affabihty  of  our  Chief),  "You  looked  wretchedly  ill  this 
morning  ;  what  is  the  matter  ?  "  "A  slight  attack  of  dys- 
entery, your  Excellency,"  said  I.  "And  fever?  headache?" 
"  Yes,  a  little,  your  Excellency."  "Have  you  seen  a  doctor  ?" 
"  No,  I  prescribed  something  for  myself  and  got  it  from  the 
druggist's  shop."  "  What  was  that  ?  "  I  told  him.  "That 
is  no  good,"  he  answered.  "  You  are  your  own  doctor, 
then  ?  Do  you  not  think  much  of  the  doctors  ?  "  "I  have  not 
consulted  one  for  many  years."  "  Well,  they  often  cannot 
help  one  much ;  sometimes  make  one  much  worse.  But 
this  is  more  than  a  joke.  Send  to  Lauer,  he  is  a  clever  fellow. 
I  really  don't  know  what  I  shall  not  have  to  thank  him  for,  in 
the  matter  of  health,  before  I  get  home  again.  And  now  go  to 
bed  for  two  days,  that  is  the  best  cure ;  otherwise  you  may 


VI.J  The  Men  of  Israel  at  Beth-car.  133 

have  relapses,  and  not  be  able  to  get  up  again  for  three  weeks. 
I  often  suffer  myself  from  something  of  the  kind,  and  there 
on  the  chimney-piece,  you  see  my  little  bottle,  wrapped  up — 
thirty  to  thirty-five  drops,  on  a  piece  of  sugar.  Take  it,  but 
give  it  me  back  again.  And  if  I  send  for  you,  only  say  that 
you  cannot  come.  I  will  then  come  to  you,  if  I  have  any- 
thing for  you  to  do.     You  can  perhaps  write  in  bed  ?  " 

Sunday,  September  11. —  The  Chiefs  little  bottle  was  a 
capital  cure.  In  the  morning  I  got  up  quite  well,  and 
could  work  swimmingly.  The  substance  of  the  commtiniqiie 
was  sent  to  the  journal  in  Nancy,  and  to  German  news- 
papers. In  reference  to  certain  arguments  in  the  papers, 
we  pointed  out  that  Prussia  concluded  the  Peace  of  Prague, 
not  with  France,  but  with  Austria,  and  that  consequently 
France  had  no  more  right  to  complain  of  the  5  th  article  than 
of  any  other  article  of  that  treaty. 

About  twelve  o'clock  Abeken  and  I  went  to  the  Protestant 
church,  or,  as  they  call  it  here,  the  Protestant  temple,  on 
the  Boulevard,  in  wliich  there  is  a  high  oratory,  with  gal- 
leries, chancel,  and  a  small  organ,  but  without  towers. 
The  service,  which  was  conducted  by  the  military  chap- 
lain, Frommel,  and  which  the  King,  Prince  Karl,  the 
Grand  Duke  of  Weimar,  the  Hereditary  Grand  Duke  of 
Mecklenburg,  Bismarck,  and  Roon,  as  well  as  some  Prussian 
and  many  Wiirtemberg  officers  and  soldiers  attended, 
began  with  military  music,  instead  of  organ  playing. 
First,  the  psalm,  "  Praise  the  Lord,"  the  soldiers  singing 
from  their  Psalm  Books.  Instead  of  the  Epist'e,  another 
psalm  followed,  and  then  the  Gospel  for  the  Thirteenth 
Sunday  after  Trinity.  The  preacher  took  his  text  from 
I  Samuel  vii.  11  and  12  :  '"And  the  men  of  Israel  went 
out  of  Mizpeh,  and  pursued  the  Philistines,  and  smote  thern, 
until  they  came  under  Beth-car.    Then  Samuel  took  a  stone, 


134         Bis7narck  7Ji  the  Franco- German  War.    [Chap. 

and  set  it  between  Mizpeh  and  Shen,  and  called  the  name  of  it 
Eben-ezer,  saying,  Hitherto  hath  the  Lord  helped  us."  The 
last  words  were  his  principal  subject ;  the  subordinate  heads 
dwelt  on  gratitude  for  the  help  of  the  Lord,  and  the  vow 
sworn  on  the  altar-stone  Eben-ezer  not  to  act  like  those 
whom  the  Lord  had  condemned,  and  the  hope  that  the  Lord 
would  grant  His  help  still  further,  especially  for  the  permanent 
unity  of  Germ.any.  The  discourse  was  not  unsuitable.  Many 
good  thoughts  were  well  expressed ;  but  Clovis  came  in 
for  somewhat  undeserved  honour  because  he  was  baptised 
(it  took  place,  as  every  one  knows,  in  Reims),  although  every 
student  nowadays  knows  that  he  was  none  the  better  of  it, 
as  after  baptism  he  continued  to  be  a  crafty  and  sanguinary 
tyrant.  What  the  preacher  said  about  St.  Louis  was  equally 
awkward. 

Later  in  the  day,  again  in  company  with  Abeken,  I  at- 
tended the  Catholic  service  in  the  cathedral,  the  bells  of 
which,  large  or  small,  had  been  ringing  all  day.  The 
choir  was  full  of  priests  of  all  sorts  and  kinds.  Priests  in 
violet,  in  black  and  white,  or  black ;  priests  in  red  collars, 
purple  drapery,  black  bands  with  white  borders  ;  priests  in 
silk  or  cloth  or  linen  vestments,  all  passed  before  us,  the 
archbishop,  with  a  long  train,  walking  first ;  two  other 
priests  of  high  rank  behind  him,  and  his  pages,  the  chorister 
boys,  in  white  and  red.  As  he  rustled  out,  he  bestowed  his 
blessing  from  the  door  of  the  screen,  with  the  two  uplifted 
dingers  of  his  right  hand,  on  the  pious  women  assembled. 
From  the  place  where  I  was,  I  came  in  for  a  share  of  it. 

In  the  course  of  the  day  a  M.  Werle  was  with  the 
Chief,  a  thin  old  gentleman  with  shaking  head  and  the 
inevitable  red  ribbon  in  his  buttonhole,  which  seems  to  be 
universal  among  well-dressed  Frenchmen.  He  is  a  member 
of  the  legislative  body,   and  projjrietor  or  partner   in   the 


VI.]         The  German  Soldiers  and  Communism.       1 3  5 

firm  Veuve  Clicquot,  and  it  is  said  that  he  wishes  to  consult 
the   Minister  on  the  means  of  meeting  the  distress  which 
prevails  in    the  town,   and   averting   a   rising  of  the   poor 
against  the  rich.       The  latter  fear  that  the  Red  Republic 
may  be  declared  by  the   workmen,  who  seem  to  be  in  a 
state  of  ferment ;  and  as  Reims  is  a  manufacturing  town, 
having  ten  to  twelve  thousand  ouvriers  within  its  walls,  the 
danger  may  well  be  serious  when  our  soldiers  have  to  leave 
the  town.     No  one  could  have  dreamt  of  this  a  month  ago  : 
German  troops   the    defenders   of  the  French  from   Com- 
munism— truly  a  miracle   of  miracles  !      M.  Werle  speaks 
German,  too ;  indeed  he  is,  by  birth  they  say,  a  countryman 
of  ours,  like  many  of  the  proprietors  of  the  great  Champagne 
manufactories  here  and  in  the  neighbourhood.     Then  there 
came  other  people    from  the  town  with  one  petition    and 
another   to    the    Bureau,  and    wished    to    speak   with   the 
Chancellor.     Amongst  others,   a   woman   who  complained 
that  the  soldiers  had  taken  away  several  sacks  of  potatoes, 
and  she  wanted  to  get  back  her  property.     We  directed  her 
to  the  police,  who  would  see  her  righted.     But  she  refused, 
and  repeated  that  we  must  help  her.     "  Quoi,  je  suis  mere 
defamilkr  ("Am  I  not  the  mother  of  a  family?")     But 
we   did  not  repeat  the  little  farce   of  Faulquemont,   where 
we  paid  for  the  cow. 

At  dinner  Knobelsdorf  was  with  us  again.  Afterwards 
I  was  sent  for  several  times  to  receive  the  Chief's  orders. 
The  Belgians  and  Luxemburgers  have  behaved  unkindly  to 
our  wounded,  and  there  is  probably  some  foundation  for 
the  idea  that  Ultramontane  instigation  is  at  the  bottom  of  it. 
The  mitrailleuse  balls  seem  to  be  alloyed  with  some  poison- 
ous substance,  for  they  cause  gangrenous  wounds.  Favre, 
"  who,  for  us,  has  no  existence,"  has  asked  us  in  a  round- 
about way,  through  London,  whethor  we  are  inclined  for  an 


136         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

armistice  and  negotiations.  He  appears  eager  for  it — the 
Chancellor  not. 

In  the  evening,  after  ten  o'clock,  the  Chief  came  down 
to  tea.  He  wanted  a  "  cheap  light  cigar,"  with  which  I  was 
able  to  supply  him,  as  my  case  now  contains  only  such 
weeds.  We  spoke  first  of  Rogge's  sermon,  and  the  Minister 
had  his  fling  both  at  the  unhistorical  Clovis  and  the  much- 
glorified  St.  Louis.  Then  he  spoke  of  his  son,  whose 
wound  in  the  thigh  had  become  worse,  and  showed  gan- 
grenous edges.  The  doctor  had  conjectured  that  the  ball 
miglit  contain  some  poisonous  substance. 

At  last  the  conversation  turned  on  the  politics  of  the  last 
few  years,  when  the  Chancellor  said,  "  I  am,  after  all,  proudest 
of  our  successes  in  the  Schleswig-Holstein  business,  out  of 
which  a  play  representing  the  intrigues  of  diplomacy  might 
be  written  for  the  stage.  ...  I  expressed  what  I  wished 
immediately  after  the  death  of  the  King  of  Denmark  in  a 
long  speech  at  a  sitting  of  the  Siaaisrath.  .  .  .  The  person 
who  drew  up  the  protocol  left  out  the  chief  passage  .... 
he  thought,  indeed,  that  I  had  indulged  too  much  at  the 
dejeiiner,  and  that  it  would  be  agreeable  to  me  if  it  were  left 
out.  I  took  very  good  care,  however,  that  it  should  be 
inserted  again.  My  idea  was,  I  admit,  very  difficult  to  carry 
out.  Every  one  was  against  it — the  Austrians,  the  English,  the 
liberal  and  not  liberal  smaller  states,  the  opposition  in  the 
Diet,  the  influential  people  at  court,  and  the  majority  of  the 
newspapers.  .  .  .  Yes,  indeed,  there  were  then  hard  battles 
to  be  fought,  for  which  better  nerves  than  mine  were 
required.  At  the  Frankfort  Fiirstctitag  (Diet  of  princes) 
it  was  the  same,  when  the  King  of  Saxony  was  present.  .  .  . 
When  I  left  the  room  my  nerves  were  so  excited  and  I 
was  so  exhausted  that  I  could  scarcely  stand  on  my  legs, 
and  in  closing  the  door  of  the  adjutant's  room   I  tore  off 


VI.]  The  French  and  the  Belgians.  137 

the  latch.  The  adjutant  asked  me  if  I  was  unwell.  '  No,' 
said  I ;  '  I  am  all  right  again  now.' "  We  went  on  talking  of 
the  particulars  of  these  events  till  it  got  late,  and  the  Chief 
took  leave  of  us,  saying:  "Yes,  gentlemen,  a  finely-strung 
nervous  system  has  much  to  suffer.  So  I  shall  now  go  to 
bed.     Good  night." 

Monday,  September  12. — I  was  writing  different  articles 
till  midday.  In  Laon  the  French — though  it  may  have 
been  the  act  of  a  single  individual  person — have  been 
guilty  of  a  wicked  treachery.  Yesterday,  after  the  conclusion 
of  the  capitulation  and  after  the  entry  of  our  troops,  they 
blew  the  citadel  into  the  air,  by  which  explosion  about  a 
hundred  men  of  our  4th  battalion  of  rifles  have  been  killed 
or  wounded.  In  the  German  papers  we  read,  that  the 
Chief  said  that  in  the  battle  of  Sedan  the  allies  of  Prussia 
had  done  best.  In  fact,  he  said  that  they  co-operated  in 
the  best  manner.  Under  certain  circumstances  we  might 
do  a  good  turn  to  the  Belgians,  who  exhibit  such  hatred 
to  us,  and  such  ardent  love  to  France.  It  may  be  hinted 
to  public  opinion  there  that  arrangements  are  not  entirely 
out  of  the  question  even  with  the  present  French  govern- 
ment through  which  some  satisfaction  might  be  given  to 
this  leaning  of  the  Belgians  towards  France.  The  Bavarian 
Count  Luxburg,  who  is  at  Kuhlwetter,  has  distinguished 
himself  by  his  talent  and  zeal.  He  is  to  be  invited  in 
future  for  the  discussion  of  important  questions. 

There  is  a  report  that  America  has  offered  to  mediate 
between  us  and  the  new  French  Republic.  We  shall  not 
decline  this  mediation,  we  prefer  it  to  others,  of  course.  It 
is  not  credible  that  in  Washington  they  can  think  of  disturb- 
ing the  military  operations  necessary  on  our  side.  The  Chief 
appears  to  have  been  for  a  long  while  back  favourably 
disposed  to  the  Americans,  and  the  rumour  went  abroad 


138         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chai 

lately  that  he  hoped  to  get  permission  in  Washington  for 
us  to  arm  ships  in  American  harbours,  with  which  to  injure 
the  French  marine.  At  present  there  is  certainly  no  intention 
of  such  a  thing. 

The  following  is  the  view  which  the  Chancellor  takes  of 
the  general  position,  if  I  understand  him  rightly.  Peace 
seems  yet  to  be  far  away,  as  there  is  no  government  in 
Paris  which  promises  durability.  When  the  time  for  nego- 
tiation comes,  the  King  will  invite  his  allies  to  come  to  a 
common  understanding  as  to  the  terms  which  we  ought 
to  demand.  Our  main  object  is  and  will  continue  to  be, 
the  security  of  the  South-West  German  frontiers  against 
the  centuries'  old  danger  of  a  French  invasion.  A  new 
neutral  intermediate  state,  like  Belgium  or  Switzerland, 
would  be  of  no  use  to  us,  since  such  a  state  would  certainly 
lean  to  France,  if  another  war  broke  out.  Metz  and  Strass- 
burg,  with  as  much  of  their  surroundings  as  is  necessary 
to  us,  must  become  our  frontier  territory  and  belong  to 
all  Germany.  A  partition  of  this  district  amongst  our 
separate  states  is  not  to  be  thought  of  Carrying  on  war 
in  common  wUl  not  be  without  a  salutary  influence  upon 
the  demand  for  the  unity  of  Germany.  Prussia  will  as  a 
matter  of  course,  after  the  war,  respect  the  free  will  of  the 
South,  as  she  has  hitherto  done,  and  will  avoid  even  the 
suspicion  of  any  pressure.  A  great  deal  will  depend  on  the 
personal  feeling  and  decision  of  the  King  of  Bavaria. 

The  proclamation  of  the  Republic  in  Paris  is  approved 
of  in  Spain,  as  it  may  probably  also  be  in  Italy.  The 
monarchical  governments  must  see  a  da.iger  in  this  which 
should  warn  them  to  draw  closer  to  each  other  and  to 
maintain  a  firm  alliance.  Every  one  of  them  is  threatened, 
even  Austria.  This  must  be  recognised  in  Vienna,  though 
nothing   is  to    be  expected   from    Beust,    whose   rancorous 


VI.]  Moltke  and  Blunienthal.  1 39 

hatred  of  Germany  and  Russia  makes  him  coquette  with 
the  Poles  and  even  with  the  Red  Repubhcans.  The 
Emperor  Franz  Josef  will  not  perhaps  refuse  to  hsten  to 
explanations.  He  will  allow  himself  to  be  convinced  that 
the  interests  of  his  own  monarchy  are  really  gravely  im 
perilled  by  the  Republic,  which  may  very  easily  take  a 
socialistic  form.  This  Republic  is  propagandist  among 
its  neighbours,  and  would  gain  followers  even  in  Germany, 
if  the  wishes  of  the  people  came  not  to  be  respected  by  the 
princes.  In  return  for  their  great  sacrifices  both  in  money 
and  in  men,  they  demand  an  effectual  security  against 
France  and  an  enduring  peace. 

To-day,  before  dinner.  Prince  Leopold  of  Bavaria  had  a 
conversation  with  the  Chief,  at  which  the  Prince  gave  him 
some  of  these  "historical  and  political  views." 

Tuesday,  September  13, — Early  this  morning  a  military 
band  of  troops  from  Wiirtemberg  gave  the  Chief  a  morning 
serenade,  which  must  have  delighted  him  very  much.  If 
the  gentlemen  of  the  Stuttgart  Observer  hear  of  it  !  In 
the  course  of  the  forenoon  the  Chancellor  summoned  me 
six  times,  and  I  wrote  as  many  as  six  articles  for  the  press, 
among  which  were  two  for  the  French  newspapers  here, 
which  had  also  received  news  from  us  on  previous  days. 
Further  measures  were  taken  to  secure  for  General  von 
Blumenthal  the  place  which  is  due  to  him,  when  his  portrait 
and  biography  are  given,  in  the  friendly  illustrated  journals. 
"  The  newspapers  do  not  mention  him  at  all,  so  far  as  we 
see,  although  he  is  chief  of  tlie  staff  of  the  Crown  Prince  \ 
and,  after  Moltke,  has  up  to  this  time  been  of  the  greatest 
service  in  the  conduct  of  the  war." 

On  the  \\tJi  September,  a  little  before  ten  in  the  morning,  we 
left  Reims,  the  cathedral  of  whicli  continued  visible  for  a  long 
time  across  the  level  country,  and  went  to  Chateau  Thierry. 


140         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gennafi  War.     [Chap. 

We  first  crossed  a  broad  plain  with  cultivated  fields  flanked 
by  a  ridge  of  hills  with  vineyards  and  villages  on  their  sides, 
with  woods  at  the  top  ;  and  then  drove  over  this  high  ground 
down  into  an  undulating  country  full  of  all  sorts  of  little 
valleys  and  dells.  In  the  little  town  of  Dormans  on  the 
Marne,  which  we  twice  crossed  here,  we  made  a  short  halt. 
The  river  is  about  as  broad  again  as  the  Moselle  at  Pont- 
a-Mousson,  and  the  water  is  of  a  clear,  bright  green.  The 
sky  was  full  of  drooping  grey  clouds,  and  we  were  twice 
overtaken  by  heavy  showers.  The  road  went  close  by 
the  railway  to  the  left  of  us,  which  had  been  put  out  of 
gear  by  the  retreating  enemy,  and  not  far  from  the  river. 
On  the  right  hand  were  vineyards,  on  the  left  on  the  hillsides 
mostly  greenwood,  out  of  which  a  pretty  little  mansion  occa- 
sionally peeped.  We  passed  three  or  four  villages  with  old 
churches  and  picturesque  side-streets^  where  houses  built  of 
grey  flag-stones  looked  out  at  us  half  hidden  among  the  vines. 
As  we  went  on,  vineyard  after  vineyard  followed  us,  far  and 
wide,  the  vines  being  very  low,  and  the  grapes  blue.  They 
say  that  these  vines  yield  the  must  from  which  they  make 
champagne  in  Reims  and  Epernay. 

All  the  villages  were  full  of  Wiirtembergers,  and  they 
had  stationed  outposts,  both  of  infantry  and  cavalry,  along 
the  road  for  our  protection.  It  must  still  be  somewhat 
dangerous  here,  for  the  peasants  who  went  hobbling  about 
with  their  wooden  shoes,  or  stood  before  their  houses, 
looking  quite  harmless  and  unintelligent,  are  capable  ot 
very  wicked  tricks.  To  speak  plainly,  their  faces  are  ex- 
tremely simple-looking,  but  perhaps  the  nightcaps  which 
most  of  them  wear  give  them  that  sleepy,  weak  appearance. 
They  had,  without  exception,  their  hands  in  their  long 
trousers  pockets,  but  it  might  possibly  not  be  mere  apathetic 
indifterence  which  made  them  clench  their  fists  inside. 


V^I.]  Saint  Crispin^ s  Church.  I41 

About  five  o'clock  we  arrived  at  Chateau  Thierry,  where 
we  all  found  comfortable  accommodation  together  in  the 
handsome  house  of  a  M.  Sarimond  in  the  square  fronting 
the  Church.  The  host  was,  so  the  Minister  informed  us, 
a  pleasant  man,  with  whom  one  could  talk  about  all  sorts 
of  things.  Chateau  Thierry  is  a  charming  little  town. 
It  lies  rather  raised  above  the  banks  of  the  Marne  below  the 
moss-covered  ruins  of  an  old  castle.  It  is  spread  over  a 
large  space  of  ground  and  has  many  gardens.  Only  the 
one  long  street  in  the  heart  of  the  town  which  leads  up 
to  the  church,  and  a  few  of  the  side  streets  opening  on  it, 
have  houses  standing  close  to  each  other.  The  old  church 
is  dedicated  to  Saint  Crispin  the  Cobbler — who  was  so 
benevolent  as  even  to  steal  leather  to  make  shoes  for  the 
poor  —  in  French,  Cre'pin,  —  perhaps  an  allusion  to  the 
fact  that  before  the  tanneries  which  still  flourish  here,  the 
industry  of  shoemaking  may  formerly  have  provided  food 
for  a  great  part  of  the  inhabitants. 

In  the  evening  at  dinner,  the  Chief  was  unusually  cheerful 
and  good-humoured.  Afterwards  we  enjoyed  a  wonderful 
moonlight  on  the  terrace  of  the  garden  behind  the  courtyard. 

The  next  day  {Sept  15)  we  set  out  at  noon,  after  break- 
fasting at  the  Hotel  Nogeant,  for  Meaux,  about  30  English 
miles  from  Chateau  Thierry,  and  only  about  the  same  dis- 
tance from  Paris.  On  the  way  we  again  passed  for  hours 
by  vineyards  of  enormous  extent.  We  crossed  the  Marne 
and  drove  through  coppices,  and  over  the  spurs  of  the 
hills  on  the  left  side  of  the  valley.  At  the  village  of 
Lusancy  we  halted  for  half  an  hour.  Our  carriage  was  now 
drawn  partly  by  horses  captured  at  Sedan.  The  nearer 
we  approached  to  Paris  the  closer  together  were  the  sen- 
tries posted,  especially  in  the  woods,  and  where  there  were 
alleys  of  trees.      They  now  consisted  of  Prussian  infantry 


142         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

(with  yellow  shoulder-straps).  We  could  see  very  little  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  villages  as  we  passed  through.  Only 
the  landlords  and  the  old  people  seemed  to  have  been  left 
behind.  Girls  and  young  wives  were  not  to  be  seen,  nor 
young  children.  In  Lusancy  we  saw  written  in  chalk  over 
one  house-door,  "  111  with  small-pox." 

Shortly  before  coming  to  the  little  town  of  Trillport  we 
crossed  the  Marne  again,  by  a  bridge  of  red  Prussian  pon- 
toons, as  the  fine  new  bridge  over  which  the  railway  ran, 
as  well  as  that  not  far  from  it,  over  which  the  high  road 
went,  had  been  destroyed  by  the  French.  The  rails  with 
the  sleepers  still  fastened  to  them  were  hanging  sadly  about 
the  pillars  of  the  bridge  among  the  ruined  arches,  or  resting 
on  the  masses  of  shattered  masonry  lying  in  the  river-bed. 
A  little  way  farther  on  we  crossed  the  river  again  by  a 
temporary  wooden  bridge,  and  farther  on  by  another  over 
the  canal,  the  original  footways  over  which  had  also  been 
rendered  impassable.  All  this  seemed  a  very  useless  ' 
cutting  into  their  own  flesh,  for  the  advance  of  our  people 
could  not  be  delayed  more  than  an  hour  by  all  this  de- 
struction, especially  at  the  smaller,  watercourses. 

Meaux  is  a  town  of  about  12,000  inhabitants,  and  stands 
in  a  pleasant,  well-wooded  neighbourhood.  It  has  beautiful 
shady  promenades,  with  large  green  gardens.  The  streets 
in  the  older  part  of  the  town  are  mostly  narrow  and  poor. 
The  Chief  lived  in  the  Rue  Trouchon,  in  the  splendid  house 
of  the  Vicomtes  de  la  Motte,  which  had  an  extensive  garden 
behind  it.  I  was  quartered  just  opposite,  in  the  house  of  a 
Baron  Vandeuvre,  an  old  gentleman,  who  had  fled,  and  at 
whose  writing-table  I  could  work  most  comfortably.  I  had 
the  choice  also  of  two  different  bed-rooms,  and  of  a  four- 
poster  bed  with  silk  and  another  with  linen  or  cotton 
hangings.      Then  the  view   from    the    Baron's    study,    the 


VI.]  Mcaux.  143 

windows  of  which  look  out  on  a  little  garden  with  old 
trees  and  creepers,  is  of  the  kind  that  soon  makes  one  feel 
at  l^ome,  and  the  library  would  be  most  welcome  if  we 
were  here  for  amusement.  It  is  very  well  chosen.  I  find, 
for  instance,  Sismondi's  '  Histoire  des  Fran^ais,'  Thierry's 
collected  works.  Cousin's  '  Philosophical  Essays,'  Renan's 
'  Histoire  Religieuse,'  Rossi's  '  Economic  Nationale,'  and 
other  works  on  history  and  national  economy.  The  house 
has  a  number  of  little  side-rooms,  alcoves,  tapestry-covered 
recesses,  and  concealed  closets,  and  there  is  now  no  one 
living  in  it  but  me,  except,  on  the  ground-floor,  the  two 
body-servants  who  have  to-day  arrived  from  Berlin,  and  who, 
from  this  time,  are  to  follow  the  Minister  in  plain  clothes 
whe^'iever  he  walks  out  Walks  out — but  what  if  he  rides  ? 
At  dinner  we  were  told  that  a  man  had  arrived  from 
Paris,  bearing  a  flag  of  truce,  and  they  pointed  out  a  thin 
dark-liaired  young  fellow,  standing  in  the  court  in  front  of 
the  Chief's  house.  This  was  the  person;  and  from  his 
talk  he  seemed  to  be  an  Englishman.  At  dinner  to-day 
both  the  Counts  York  were  our  guests.  They  explained  to 
us  why  we  had  seen  so  few  men  in  the  villages.  They  had 
found  great  crowds  of  peasants  in  the  woods,  who  had  fled 
there  with  some  of  their  belongings,  especially  with  their 
cattle,  and  highly  delighted  they  were  when  they  were  told — 
they  were  mostly  unarmed — that  they  might  go  back  without 
fear  or  anxiety  to  their  villages.  On  hearing  this,  the 
Chief  said,  "  If  I  were  a  soldier  and  had  to  order  things, 
I  know  what  I  should  do.  I  should  treat  all  who  remained 
at  home  with  every  possible  attention  and  respect.  But 
I  should  consider  the  houses  and  furniture  of  those  who 
have  run  away,  as  found  property.  And  if  I  caught  them 
I  would  take  away  their  cows  and  whatever  else  they  had 
with  them,  declaring  that  they  had  stolen  them  and  hidden 


144         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

them  in  the  wood.  It  would  be  well  if  they  could  first 
be  made  aware  that  the  different  sauces  with  which  we  cook 
little  French  children  are  all  lies." 

Friday,  September  i6. — A  splendid  bright  sunny  morning, 
with  a  deep  blue  sky  over  Bossuet's  city.  Early  in  the 
morning  I  translated  for  the  King  a  letter  sent  to  him 
by  James  Parkinson,  an  English  prophet,  who  predicted 
that  if  the  King  did  not  put  a  stop  to  this  shedding  of  blood, 
the  vengeance  of  Heaven,  of  which  the  Emperor  Napoleon 
would  be  the  instrument,  would  overtake  him  for  the 
"  Slaughter  of  the  Danes,"  and  the  "  Blood  of  Austria's 
sons."  This  warning  was  dated  August  29.  Three  days 
later  the  telegraph  would  have  prevented  it.  The  officious 
fool  who  sent  this,  and  some  other  English  fools  in  high 
places  who  meddle  in  our  affairs,  would  have  done  better 
to  remember  that  England  has  her  own  door-step  to 
sweep  clean,  that  we  are  defending  ourselves  against  the 
most  outrageous  arrogance  m  a  just  war ;  that  we  have  not 
yet  thought  of  wantonly  burning  peaceful  villages,  or  of 
blowing  men  from  the  mouths  of  cannon,  as  they  have 
done  in  wars  ten  times  less  justifiable. 

The  young  black-haired  gentleman  of  yesterday,  who  was 
supposed  to  have  come  with  a  flag  of  truce,  and  who  had 
a  long  talk  with  the  Chief  in  the  evening,  over  a  bottle  of 
Kirschwasser  (cherry  cordial),  is  Sir  Edward  Mallet,  an 
attache  of  the  English  Embassy  in  Paris.  He  had  brought 
a  letter  from  Lord  Lyons,  in  which  he  asked,  whether  the 
Count  would  confer  with  Favre  on  the  conditions  of  an 
armistice.  The  Chancellor  is  said  to  have  answered  him : 
"  On  the  conditions  of  a  Peace,  yes ;  on  the  conditions  of 
an  Armistice,  no."  * 

*  He  cannot  well  have  done  so,  if  we  compare  this  with  vvha» 
liappencd  later. 


VI.J  What  is  to  be  done  with  the  Provinces.  I45 

From  the  letters  of  Berlin  friends,  I  see  that  many  well- 
meaning  people  cannot  get  into  their  heads  that  the  pro- 
vinces of  France  to  be  retained  are  not  to  be  joined  to 
Prussia.  An  epistle  from  a  good  patriot  in  Baden  fears 
that  Elsass  and  German  Lothringen  may  be  given  to  Bavaria, 
and  sees  in  this  the  germ  of  a  new  Dualism.  He  says,  in  a 
memoir  addressed  to  the  Chief,  "  It  is  quite  too  obvious  that 
Prussia  alone  possesses  the  power  to  re-Germanise  the 
German  provinces  of  France."  He  calls  attention  to  the 
fact,  too  little  considered  in  the  North,  that  all  sensible 
men  in  the  South  wish  to  see  Elsass  in  the  hands  of  Prussia, 
and  he  declares  that  it  "  is  a  gross  mistake  if  people  in  the 
North  imagine  that  the  South  must  be  rewarded  with  terri- 
tory and  people."  Whence  he  has  his  idea  about  the 
mistake  in  the  North,  I  don't  know;  no  one  with  us,  as  far 
as  I  know^  makes  it  for  a  moment.  I  believe  the  feeling 
here  to  be,  that  South  Germany  will  be  amply  rewarded 
by  being  finally  secured  against  the  French  lust  of  conquest. 
Other  ideas  of  the  writer's  might,  under  certain  circum- 
stances, be  correct.  Undoubtedly  juster  and  more  in 
harmony  with  actual  relations,  is  our  Chief's  idea,  which  I 
have  before  noted — to  make  these  provinces  Imperial  terri- 
tory, not,  therefore,  an  object  of  envy  and  bitter  feeling 
among  the  allies  of  Prussia,  but  a  bond  of  union  between, 
and  a  common  point  for,  both  North  and  South. 

There  was  some  talk  about  the  King  not  going  to  Paris, 
but  of  his  awaiting  the  course  of  events  at  Ferri^res,  the  seat 
of  Rothschild,  lying  about  half-way  between  Meaux  and 
Paris. 

At  dinner,  Prince  Hohenlohe  was  a  guest.  The  Chief, 
after  returning  from  dining  with  the  King,  was  also  present. 
We  learnt  that  Reims  was  to  be  the  centre  of  administra- 
tion of  the  French  provinces  occupied  by  our  army,  outside 

,       VOL.    I.  L 


146         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap 

Elsass  and  Lothringen  ;  that  the  Grand  Duke  of  Mecklen- 
burg was  to  have  the  supreme  control  as  Governor-General, 
and  that  Hohenlohe  was  to  take  office  under  him. 

In  conversation,  the  Chief  said  to  his  Cousin,  who  was 
complaining  of  not  feeling  very  well :  "  When  I  was  thy 
age  "  (his  cousin  was  about  thirty-eight)  "  I  was  quite  intact, 
and  everything  agreed  with  me.  It  was  at  St.  Petersburg 
that  I  got  my  first  shake." 

Someone  turned  the  conversation  to  Paris,  and  the  French 
in  connection  with  the  Alsatians ;  and  the  Chief  expatiated 
on  this  theme,  telling  me  afterwards — giving  me  leave,  or 
a  hint  at  least,  to  report  his  words,  or  the  sense  of  them, 
to  the  newspapers.  "  The  Alsatians  and  German-Lor- 
rainers,"  he  said,  "  supplied  the  French  with  many  clever 
people,  especially  in  their  army.  But  they  were  little  es- 
teemed among  them,  seldom  advanced  to  the  higher 
offices  of  the  state,  and  ridiculed  by  the  Parisians  in 
all  manner  of  anecdotes  and  caricatures.  It  is  the  same," 
so  he  continued,  "  with  the  other  French  provincials,  but 
not  so  much  so.  France  breaks  up,  in  a  sense,  into  two 
nations :  Parisians  and  Provincials,  and  the  latter  are  the 
willing  helots  of  the  former.  France  may  now  be  eman- 
cipated from  the  domination  of  Paris.  The  man  who  feels 
himself,  as  a  provincial,  out  in  the  cold,  and  wants  to 
come  to  something,  settles  in  Paris,  is  there  received  into 
the  ruling  caste,  and  shares  their  power.  Might  we  not 
force  the  Emperor  back  on  them  as  a  punishment  ?  At  any 
rate  it  is  possible  ;  for  the  peasants  do  not  want  the  tyranny 
of  Paris.  ,  France  is  a  nation  of  ciphers — a  mere  crowd  ; 
they  have  money  and  elegance,  but  no  individual  men,  no 
feeling  of  individuality  ;  tliey  act  only  in  the  mass.  They  are 
tliirty  millions  of  obedient  Kaffres,each  without  a  native  'ring' 
or  a  personal  value.     It  would  be  easy  to  get  sixty  people 


VI.]  Tke  German  Republicans,  147 

together  capable  of  holding  down  all  the  rest  of  these  people 
who  are  without  character  or  personality,  so  long  as  they 
are  not  united." 

In  the  evening  several  articles  were  written ;  in  which  I 
had  to  point  out  that  "  the  partisans,  in  Germany,  of  the 
Republic,  the  people  who  take  their  tone  from  Jacoby,  the 
socialistic  democrats  and  their  allies,  are  refusing  to  listen  to 
any  cessions  of  territory  from  France  to  us ;  because  they 
are,  in  the  first  instance,  republicans  and  only  afterwards  a 
little  German.  The  security  of  Germany  by  the  acquisition 
of  Strassburg  and  Metz  is  odious  to  them,  as  a  security 
against  the  Republic  they  wish  so  ardently,  as  a  crippling 
of  the  propaganda  for  this  form  of  government,  as  an 
injury  to  the  prospects  of  its  extension  across  the  Rhine. 
Their  party  is  higher  than  their  country.  They  supported 
the  Avar  against  Napoleon  as  an  opponent  of  their  doctrine  ; 
since  the  Republic  has  taken  his  place,  they  are  French  in 
their  proclivities."  Another  article  treated  of  the  wish 
Russia  has  expressed  for  a  revision  of  the  treaty,  which  was 
the  result  of  her  defeat  in  the  Crimean  war.  The  alteration 
of  certain  points  of  this  treaty,  which  Russia  had  in  view, 
seemed  founded  on  reason.  With  respect  to  the  Black  Sea, 
the  Treaty  of  Paris  contained  unjust  stipulations,  as  its 
coast-line  really  belongs  for  the  most  part  to  Russia. 

Saturday,  September  17. — I  went  early  for  an  hour's  walk 
with  Willisch  along  the  green  Marne,  where,  at  a  great  public 
washing  establishment,  women  were  beating  shirts  and  bed- 
linen  in  the  river,  down  to  the  old  bridge,  over  the  one  half 
of  which  stand  the  buildings  of  a  mill  several  stories  high, 
and  then  on  to  the  subitrb  on  the  left  bank  of  the  stream. 
At  the  end  of  the  Rue  Corillon  another  bridge,  which  has 
been  blown  up,  crossed  a  gorge  or  deep  cutting,  at  the 
bottom  of  which  there  is- a  canal.    The  interruption  of  traffic 

L  a 


148         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

caused  by  the  destruction  of  this  bridge  has  been  already 
so  far  remedied  by  our  pontooners,  that  not  far  from  the 
ruins  which  block  up  the  canal  they  have  made  a  temporary 
bridge  for  single  horsemen,  over  which  a  squadron  of 
Bavarian  cuirassiers  happened  to  be  just  passing  one  behind 
the  other. 

On  the  way  back  we  met  a  long  train  of  waggons,  with 
military  stores,  which  reached  from  the  ruined  bridge  quite 
to  the  middle  of  the  town.  At  one  corner  of  a  street  we 
saw  several  placards,  amongst  them  an  address  yards  long 
from  Victor  Hugo  to  the  Germans,  very  piteous  and  high- 
flown,  at  once  sentimental  and  pompous  j  a  whipped-up 
trifle,  with  fine  phrases  stuck  in  it  for  plums,  thoroughly 
French.  What  can  the  queer  man  take  us  for,  if  he  thinks 
that  our  Pomeranians  and  East  Prussians,  with  their  sound, 
manly  intelligence,  can  like  such  stuff  as  this  ?  A  man  in 
a  blouse  near  me,  who  was  reading  it  hah"  aloud,  said  to  me, 
'  Cest  Hen  fait,  Monsieur,  liest-ce  pas  ?  "  ("  Well  written, 
sir,  is  it  not  ?")  I  answered  that  it  grieved  me  to  the  soul 
to  be  obliged  to  say  that  it  was  utter  nonsense.  What  a 
face  he  pulled ! 

We  visited  the  church,  which  is  a  fine  old  building,  with 
four  rows  of  Gothic  pillars.  In  the  passage  of  the  chapel 
behind  the  choir,  there  must  have  been  a  large  annexe  in 
a  similar  style.  At  the  side  of  the  choir,  on  the  right 
hand,  immediately  on  entering  the  great  door,  is  a  marble 
monument  of  Bossuet,  who  was  bishop  of  this  place,  and 
probably  preached  from  the  pulpit  of  this  church.  The 
celebrated  author  of  the  four  articles  of  the  Gallican  Church 
is  represented  sitting. 

At  dinner  the  Chief  was  absent,  and  he  did  not  appear 
till  the  evening.  Then  we  heard  that  he  had  ridden  to  see 
his  son  Bill,  who  was  with  his  regiment  ten  miles  away  from 


VI.]  VcB  Victis?  149 

Meaux,  and  had  found  him  well  and  bright.  He  spoke 
of  the  young  Count's  courage  and  strength,  some  instances 
of  which  we  have  already  mentioned.  During  the  attack 
at  Mars-la-Tour,  Count  Bill's  horse  stumbled  with  him  at 
a  dead  or  wounded  Gaul,  lying  before  him,  within  fifty 
feet  of  the  French  square.  "  But,"  said  the  Chief,  "  after 
a  few  moments  he  shook  himself  together  again,  jumped 
up,  and  not  being  able  to  mount  led  the  brown  horse 
back  through  the  shower  of  bullets.  Then  he  found  a 
wounded  dragoon,  whom  he  set  upon  his  horse,  and  cover- 
ing himself  thus  from  the  enemy's  fire  on  one  side,  he  got 
back  to  his  own  people."  The  horse  fell  dead,  after  shelter 
was  reached. 

To-day,  according  to  instructions  received  yesterday,  I 
worked  much,  both  morning  and  afternoon,  and  threw  into 
an  article  the  following  ideas  characteristic  of  the  Chan- 
cellor's mode  of  reasoning : 

"  The  morning  edition  of  the  National  Zeitimg  of  Sep- 
tember II  contains  a  paper  '  At  Wilhelmshohe,' which,  while 
it  complains  especially  in  its  first  paragraph,  of  the  respect- 
ful treatment  of  the  captive  of  Sedan,  encourages  a  wide- 
spread error.  '  Nemesis,'  says  the  author  of  this  article, 
'  should  have  been  less  courteous  to  the  man  of  the  2nd 
December,  the  author  of  the  Mexican  tragedy,  the  insti- 
gator of  this  horrible  war.  The  conqueror  has  been  far  too 
chivalrous.'  Popular  sentiment,  which  the  author  seems  to 
approve,  is  of  that  opinion.  We  do  not  at  all  share  this  view. 
Public  opinion  is,  indeed,  only  too  much  inclined  to  view 
political  relations  and  events  as  it  views  matters  of  private 
right  and  wrong,  and  to  demand  that  in  conflicts  between 
states  the  victor  should  sit  in  judgment  on  the  vanquished 
with  the  moral  code  in  his  hand,  and  punish  him,  not  only 
for  offences  against  himself,  but,  if  possible,  even  for  acts 


150         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

committed  against  others.  Such  a  demand  is  entirely  with- 
out justification.  To  make  it  is  quite  to  misunderstand 
the  nature  of  poHtical  affairs,  to  which  the  notions  of  punish- 
ment, reward,  vengeance  do  not  belong.  To  respond  to 
it  would  be  to  falsify  the  very  essence  of  politics.  Politics 
must  leave  the  punishment  of  the  sins  of  princes  and  nations 
against  the  moral  law  to  Divine  Providence,  to  the  Ruler 
of  Battles.  It  has  neither  the  right,  nor  is  it  its  duty,  to 
usurp  the  ofifice  of  judge  ;  it  has,  under  all  circumstances, 
to  ask  solely  and  merely,  what  is  for  the  advantage  of  my 
country  in  this  matter  ?  And  how  can  I  best  and  most 
profitably  utilise  the  advantages  I  may  gain  ?  Feelings 
and  sentiments  have  as  litde  place  in  politics  as  in  com- 
merce. Politics  ought  not  to  avenge  what  has  taken  place, 
but  to  take  care  that  it  shall  not  happen  again. 

"  Applying  these  principles  to  our  own  case,  to  the  pro- 
cedure against  the  vanquished  and  captive  Emperor  of  the 
French,  let  us  ask  the  question,  Why  should  we  punish  in 
him  the  2nd  December,  the  laws  of  public  safety,  the 
events  in  Mexico,  however  much  we  might  disapprove  of 
them  ?  The  law  of  politics  does  not  entitle  us  to  think  even 
of  vengeance  for  thi?  war  which  he  has  conjured  up  on  us, 
and  if  it  did  permit  the  thought,  vengeance  ought  to  be 
taken,  not  merely  on  Napoleon,  but  on  every  individual 
Frenchman,  in  the  Bliicher-like  manner  suggested  by  the 
National ;  for  all  France,  with  its  thirty-five  millions  of 
inhabitants,  hailed  the  Mexican  expedition,  and  even  the 
present  war,  with  the  greatest  enthusiasm.  Germany  has 
simi)ly  to  ask  herself  the  wider  question,  Which  is  best  for 
us  in  present  circumstances,  a  badly-treated  or  a  well-treated 
Napoleon  ?  We  think  the  question  not  very  dithcult  to 
answer. 

"These  were  the  principles  on  which  we  acted  in  1866. 


VI.]  Which  French  Government  is  Peace  ?  151 

Had  we  aimed,  in  certain  measures  of  diat  year,  in  some 
of  the  stipulations  in  the  Peace  of  Prague,  at  vengeance  for 
previous  injuries,  at  punishment  for  the  sins  which  brought 
about  the  war  of  that  time,  those  who  would  have  suffered 
from  those  measures  and  stipulations  would  not  really  have 
been  those  whose  crimes  called  most  for  vengeance  and 
"vvho  deserved  the  severest  punishment." 

Sunday,  Sepiember  18. — Early  in  the  morning  articles  were 
Avritten  for  Berlin,  Hagenau  and  Reims.  Among  other 
things  they  dealt  with  the  phrase  of  Favre  :  "  La  repiiblique 
c'est  lapaix  "  ("The  Republic  is  peace ").  The  line  of  thought 
which  I  followed  was  mainly  this :  France  has,  for  the  last 
forty  years,  always  pretended  to  be  peace,  and  has  always 
and  under  all  forms  been  the  exact  opposite.  Twenty  years 
ago,  the  empire  said  it  was  "  peace,"  the  Republic  now  says 
the  same  thing.  In  1829,  Legitimacy  was  "peace,"  and  at 
that  very  time  a  Russian  and  French  league  was  formed 
which  was  only  prevented  by  the  Revolution  of  1830  from 
fulfilling  its  object,  an  aggressive  war  against  Germany.  It 
is  notorious  that  the  "  peaceful "  government  of  the  Citizen 
King  wanted,  in  1840,  to  take  the  Rhine  from  us,  and  it 
can  never  be  forgotten  that  the  Second  Empire  has  carried 
on  more  wars  than  all  the  preceding  forms  of  government. 
We  may  infer  what  we  have  to  expect  from  Favre's  as- 
severation with  respect  to  the  Republic.  To  all  such 
illusions  Germany  has  to  oppose  the  words,  "  La  France 
c'est  la  guerre  "  ("  France  is  war  "),  and  it  is  in  accordance 
with  this  conviction,  that  we  demand  the  cession  of  Metz 
and  Strassburg. 

If  accounts  from  America,  which  appear  to  have  been 
anticipated  by  a  telegram,  are  not  the  result  of  a  hoax, 
intentional  or  otherwise,  an  attempt  on  the  life  of  the 
Chancellor  seems  to  have  been  or  still  to  be  intended.     A 


152         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Ger7nan  War.      [Chap. 

very  respectable  person  of  the  better  classes  in  Baltimore  says 
that  he  heard  in  a  beer-house  there  that  a  man  whom  he  can 
distinctly  describe,  and  who,  to  judge  from  his  language,  must 
have  been  an  Austrian,  said  to  another  that  in  the  event  of 
the  war  breaking  out  he  would  shoot  Bismarck.  The  account 
goes  on  to  say,  that  this  person  at  first  gave  no  heed  to 
the  expression.  Shortly  afterwards  he  again  saw  the  fellow 
on  board  a  Bremen  steamer  bound  for  Europe,  and  he 
has  twice  dreamt  of  seeing  the  villain  in  the  act  of  dis- 
charging a  pistol  at  an  officer  in  a  tent,  who,  according  to 
photographs,  must  be  Bismarck.  In  consequence  of  this 
it  is  as  well  that  the  personal  attendants  have  been  ordered 
here,  and  the  most  careful  precautions  must  be  taken, 
unless,  indeed,  the  story  is  a  pious  fraud,  meant  to  put  the 
Chancellor  more  on  his  guard. 

The  Chief  was  at  breakfast  to-day,  and  two  dragoons  of 
the  Guard  were  present.  Both  had  the  Iron  Cross.  The 
Minister  kis  ed  one,  and  called  him  "Thou."  I  hear  that 
he  is  Lieutenant  Philipp  von  Bismarck,  a  brother's  son  of 
the  Chief  The  other  was  the  Adjutant  von  Dachrdden. 
The  Chancellor's  nephew,  who  is  employed  in  time  ol 
peace  in  the  High  Court  of  Justice,  impresses  one  as  an 
unassuming  and  excellent  man.  When  the  Minister  was 
rejoicing  in  his  having  obtained  the  Iron  Cross  on  the 
proposition  of  his  comrades,  he  replied  that  he  had  it 
merely  by  seniority. 

At  tea  the  Chief  asked  about  the  Prince  of  Hohenzollern, 
who  is  with  his  regiment,  "  Is  he  a  soldier,  or  merely  a 
Prince  ?"  The  answer  being  favourable,  the  Minister  re- 
plied, "  I  was  delighted  with  his  first  reporting  his  election 
as  King  of  Spain  officially  to  his  commander."  It  was 
mentioned  that  a  General  Ducrot,  who  had  been  taken 
prisoner  at  Sedan,  by  way  of  return  for  the  greater  freedom 


VI.]  Mr.  Weale  of  Jenley.  1 53 

which  he  was  allowed,  has  disgracefully  broken  his  parole 
on  his  road  to  Germany — I  think  at  Pont-k-Mousson. 
The  Chief  remarked,  "  If  we  lay  hold  again  of  such 
scoundrels  who  have  given  their  parole — others  who  escape 
are  not  to  be  blamed — we  ought  to  hang  them  in  their 
red  trousers,  and  write  upon  one  leg  parjure,  and  on  the 
other  infame.  Meanwhile  this  must  be  represented  properly 
in  the  press."  When  they  spoke  of  the  cruel  manner  in 
which  the  French  are  carrying  on  the  war,  the  Minister 
said,  "  If  you  strip  off  the  white  skin  of  such  a  Gaul,  you 
have  a  Turco  before  you." 

I  find  this  addition  to  my  journal :  To-day  the  Wiirtem- 
berg  War  Minister,  von  Suckow,  was  for  a  considerable 
time  upstairs  with  the  Chief.  He  reported  that  in  Swabia 
the  cause  of  Germany  was  all  right ;  that  things  look&d  less 
promising  in  Bavaria ;  and  that  Bray,  the  Minister,  had 
been  as  unnational  as  he  well  could  be  under  the  circum- 
stances. 

In  the  afternoon  a  M.  B.  appeared  at  my  house,  who 
took  up  his  quarters,  with  his  two  boxes,  quite  coolly  down 
below  with  the  guards.  He  had  afterwards  some  conver- 
sation with  the  Chief;  and  from  his  passport  appeared  to 
be  a  merchant  travelling  for  Count  Pierrefonds. 

Monday,  September  19. — In  the  morning  I  prepared  for 
the  Military  Cabinet  an  extract  in  German  from  an  English 
letter  addressed  to  the  King.  The  author,  who  claims  to 
be  descended  from  the  Plantagenets,  is  named  Weale,  of 
Jenley,  in  Pembrokeshire,  formerly  an  engine-driver.  Like 
Mr.  Parkinson,  who  some  days  ago  obtruded  himself  with 
his  prophecies,  he  has  evidently  a  bee  in  his  bonnet,  but  is 
at  the  same  time  a  good  sort  of  fellow.  With  many  pious 
reflections,  horribly  spelt,  he  warns  us  of  pits  and  traps 
which  are  laid  for  the  Prussians  in  the  woods  of  Meudon. 


154    Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.    [Chap.  VI. 

Marly,  and  Bondy,  on  the  ground  of  a  conversation  between 
an  Irishman  and  a  Frenchuian,  which  he  says  he  heard. 
He  winds  up  with  blessing  the  King,  his  family,  and  all 
his  subjects. 

We  hear  for  certain  that  Jules  Favre  will  be  here  to-day 
at  twelve  o'clock  to  treat  with  the  Chief.  The  fine  weather 
seems  to  favour  him.  About  ten  o'clock  Count  Bismarck- 
Bohlen  comes  down  from  the  Chancellor.  "  We  are  to  be 
off  at  once,"  to  the  Chateau  of  Ferriferes,  fifteen  miles  away. 
We  have  to  pack  up  and  be  off  immediately.  With  great 
difficulty  Theiss  gets  my  clothes  from  the  washerwoman. 
Then  we  learn  that  Abeken  and  I  are  to  remain  with  one 
carriage  and  a  servant  and  to  follow  at  a  later  hour.  At 
last,  about  eleven  o'clock,  we  have  breakfast  with  the  Chief, 
at  which  there  was  some  rare  old  white  Bordeaux,  which 
the  owner  of  the  house,  a  Legitimist  lady  by  the  way, 
honoured  the  Minister  with,  as  it  appeared,  because  we  had 
done  no  mischief  to  her  or  to  hers.  The  Chief  had  guessed 
the  Legitimist  feeling  of  the  old  lady  from  the  Lucerne  lion 
over  his  bed. 


(     155    ) 


CHAPTER  VII. 

BISMARCK    AND   FAVRE    IN   HAUTE-MAISON. — A   FORTNIGHT 

IN  Rothschild's  chateau. 

At  twelve  o'clock  on  September  19,  Jules  Favre  had  not 
yet  arrived,  and  they  did  not  wait.  The  Minister,  however, 
left  a  letter  for  him  at  the  Mairie,  and  told  the  servant  of  our 
Viscountess  to  inform  him  of  it  if  he  came.  To-day  the 
Chief  and  the  Councillors  went  round  the  estate  of  the  great 
Parisian  money-broker,  and  for  some  time  they  rode  before 
the  carriages,  in  the  second  of  which  I  sat  by  myself.  We 
first  drove  past  the  house  where  the  King  is,  which  is  a 
fine  mansion  on  the  Promenade,  and  then  out  of  the  town 
along  the  canal  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  till  we  were 
able  to  cross  the  latter  by  means  of  a  temporary  bridge.  At 
the  village  of  Mareuil  the  road  slightly  ascended,  running 
along  the  first  steps,  so  to  speak,  of  the  chain  of  hills  which 
on  this  side  run  parallel  to  the  river  and  the  canal,  through 
a  well-cultivated  country,  with  vegetable  gardens,  orchards, 
and  vineyards  of  blue  grapes. 

Here,  between  the  villages  of  Mareuil  and  Montry,  at  a 
place  where  the  high-road  made  a  sharp  descent,  under  fine 
shady  trees,  we  met  a  carriage  and  pair,  close  shut,  in  which 
were  three  gentlemen  in  ordinary  dress  and  a  Prussian 
officer.  One  of  the  civilians  was  an  oldish  grey-bearded 
gentleman,  with  a  protruding  under-lip.  "  That  is  Favre," 
I  said  to  Kriiger,  who  was  sitting  behind  me ;  "  where  is 
the  Minister  ?"  He  was  not  to  be  seen,  but  was  probably 
on  before,  hidden  from  our  sight  by  a  long  train  of  waggons, 


156         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

some  of  them  piled  high  with  baggage.  I  made  them  drive 
quickly,  and  after  a  time  met  the  Chief  with  Keudell 
riding  back  to  us,  in  a  village  called,  I  believe,  Chessy, 
where  some  peasants  had  covered  a  dead  horse  with  straw 
and  chaff,  and  then  set  fire  to  it,  causing  a  most  dreadful 
odour. 

"  Favre  passed  us,  your  Excellency,"  said  I ;  "  and  is  up 
there." 

"  I  know  it,"  answered  he,  smiling,  and  trotted  on. 

The  day  after  Count  Hatzfeld  told  us  some  particulars  of 
the  meeting  of  the  Chancellor  with  the  Parisian  Advocate 
and  Regent.  The  Minister,  the  Count,  and  Keudell  were  a 
good  mile  and  a  half  before  us  on  the  road,  when  Hofrath 
Taglioni,  who  was  with  the  King's  carriages,  had  told  him 
that  Favre  had  driven  by.  He  had  come  by  another  road, 
and  reached  the  spot  where  it  joined  this  one,  after  the  Chief 
and  his  companions  had  passed.  The  Chief  was  indignant 
that  he  had  not  been  told  of  it  before.  Hatzfeld  spurred 
after  Favre  and  turned  back  with  him.  After  a  time  Count 
Bismarck-B.ohlen  met  them,  and  galloped  back  to  tell  the 
Minister,  who  was  still  a  good  bit  off  with  Keudell.  At  last 
they  met  near  Montry.  The  Minister  himself  thought  of 
going  with  the  Frenchman  into  a  house  here ;  but  as  the 
high-lying  chateau  of  Haute-Maison  was  only  about  ten 
minutes'  walk  distant,  and  was  considered  a  more  suitable 
place,  they  went  there. 

Here  they  met  with  twoWiirtemberg  dragoons,  one  of  whom, 
with  his  carbine,  was  posted  as  guard  at  the  door.  A  French 
peasant  also  was  there,  whose  face  looked  as  if  he  had  had 
a  severe  beating,  and  whom  they  asked  if  there  was  anything 
to  be  had  to  eat  and  drink.  Whilst  they  were  speaking  to 
him,  Favre,  who  had  gone  into  the  chateau  with  the  Chan- 
cellor, came  out  and  had  a  discourse  with  his  countryman 


VII.]  Guards  against  a  Surprise.  157 

full  of  pathos  and  fine  feeling.  "Surprises  might  be  attempted : 
this  must  not  be.  He  was  no  spy,  but  a  member  of  the  new 
Government,  who  had  taken  the  weal  of  the  country  in 
hand,  and  was  responsible  for  its  honourable  conduct ;  and 
he  called  upon  this  peasant,  in  the  name  of  the  rights  of 
nations  and  the  honour  of  France,  to  see  that  this  house 
was  held  sacred.  His,  the  Regent's,  honour,  and  the 
peasant's  honour  peremptorily  demanded  this;"  and  such 
like  fine  phrases.  The  worthy  but  somewhat  stupid  peasant 
lad  listened  to  this  flood  of  words  with  a  very  simple  look, 
evidently  understood  as  little  of  it  as  if  it  had  been  Greek, 
and  made  such  a  face,  that  Keudell  said,  "  If  that  fellow  is 
to  protect  us  against  a  surprise,  I  had  much  rather  depend 
on  the  soldier  there." 

I  learnt  from  another  source  in  the  evening  that  Favre 
had  been  accompanied  by  M.  Rink  and  M.  Hell,  formerly 
secretaries  of  Benedetti,  as  well  as  by  Prince  Biron,  and 
that  quarters  had  been  found  for  him  in  the  village  near 
Ferrieres,  where  he  hoped  to  have  another  interview  with 
the  Chief.  Keudell  said,  "  When  the  Chancellor  left  the 
room  where  he  and  Favre  had  been  talking,  he  asked  the 
dragoon  at  the  door  where  he  came  from."  "  From  Hall  in 
Swabia."  "  Well,  you  may  boast  hereafter  that  you  were  on 
guard  at  the  first  peace  negotiation  in  this  war." 

The  rest  of  us,  meanwhile,  had  to  wait  a  long  time  at 
Chessy  for  the  Chancellor,  and  took  occasion,  probably 
with  his  leave,  to  drive  on  towards  Ferrieres,  which  was 
about  six  miles  off.  On  the  road  we  crossed  the  line  of  the 
zone  round  Paris,  within  which  the  French  have  diligently 
destroyed  everything.  But  here  the  destruction  was  only 
partial.  The  inhabitants  of  the  villages  which  we  visited 
seemed  to  have  been  mostly  driven  away  by  the  Gardes 
Mobiles.     So  far  as  I  know,  we  did  not  see  one  dog,  but 


158         Bismarck  i7i  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

in  some  yards  there  were  a  few  hens.  On  most  of  the 
doors  which  we  passed  there  was  written  in  chalk  "  The 
Corporal's  Guard  N.,"  or  "  One  officer  and  two  horses,"  or 
something  of  that  kind.  In  the  villages  one  comes  occa- 
sionally to  town-like  houses,  and  outside  of  them  there  were 
villas  and  mansions  with  parks,  showing  the  proximity  of 
the  great  city.  In  one  of  the  villages  through  which  we 
passed  lay  several  hundred  empty  wine  bottles  in  the  ditch 
and  on  the  field  near  the  road.  A  regiment  had  disco- 
vered here  a  good  source  whereat  to  quench  its  thirst, 
and  had  halted  for  that  purpose.  There  was  no  sign  to 
be  seen  on  the  road  of  the  guards,  or  the  other  prudential 
measures  which  had  been  observed  at  Chateau  Thierry  and 
Meaux,  which  might  have  been  hazardous  for  the  Chief 
when  he  returned  late  in  the  evening  and  with  only  a  small 
escort. 

At  last,  as  it  began  to  grow  dusk  we  drove  into  the 
village  of  Ferriferes,  and  soon  after  into  Rothschild's  pro- 
perty, which  is  situated  close  by,  in  the  castle  of  which  the 
King,  and  with  him  the  higher  division  of  the  great  head- 
quarters, took  up  their  abode  for  some  time.  The  Minister 
was  to  have  his  quarters  in  the  last  three  rooms  of  the  right 
wing  on  the  first  floor,  where  he  looked  out  on  the  meadows, 
the  lake,  and  the  castle  park ;  while  the  Bureau  took  posses- 
sion of  one  of  the  larger  rooms  of  the  ground  floor,  and  a 
smaller  room  in  the  same  corridor  was  used  as  a  dining- 
room.  Baron  Rothschild  had  fled,  and  was  in  Paris,  and 
had  left  behind  only  a  house-steward  or  castellan,  who 
looked  a  person  of  the  highest  consequence,  and  three  or 
four  women  servants. 

It  was  dark'when  the  Chief  arrived  last  of  all,  and  he  soon 
after  sat  down  with  us  to  dinner.  While  it  was  going  on 
Favre  sent  to  enquire  when  he  could  come  to  continue  the 


VII.]  First  Negotiations  for  Peace.  159 

negotiations,  and  from  half-past  nine  till  after  eleven  he  had 
a  conference  alone  with  the  Chancellor  in  our  Bureau. 
When  he  left  he  looked — as  my  journal  remarks — perhaps 
he  had  not  quite  laid  aside  the  part  he  had  been  playing  so 
as  to  act  on  our  feelings — crushed  and  depressed,  almost 
despairing.  Tlie  conversation  appeared  to  have  led  to  no 
result :  the  gentlemen  in  Paris  will  have  to  become  more 
pliable.  Their  emissary  and  representative  was  rather  a  big 
man,  with  grey  whiskers  coming  round  under  his  chin,  a  some- 
what Jewish  type  of  countenance,  and  a  hanging  under  lip. 

At  dinner,  ct  propos  of  the  King  having  gone  to  Clayes 
as  a  precaution  against  an  attack  from  outside,  the  Chief 
said  that  many  of  our  generals  "  much  abused  the  devotion 
of  the  troops  in  order  to  win  victories.  .  .  .  The  hard- 
hearted villains  in  the  general  staff,"  he  continued,  "  may  be 
right  when  they  say  that  even  if  the  five  hundred  thousand 
men  whom  we  now  have  in  France  were  used  up,  that 
would  but  be  oiir  first  stake  in  the  game,  if  we  ultimately  win. 
But  to  take  the  bull  by  the  horns  is  poor  strategy.  .  .  .  The 
1 6th  at  Metz  was  all  right,  for  the  French  had  to  be  held 
where  they  were  at  whatever  sacrifice ;  but  the  sacrifice 
of  the  Guard  on  the  i8th  was  unnecessary.  They  should 
have  waited  at  Saint-Privat  till  the  Saxons  had  completed 
their  flank  movement." 

During  dinner  we  had  to  admire  an  illustration  of  the 
hospitality  and  sense  of  decency  of  the  Baron,  whose  house 
the  King  was  honouring  with  his  presence,  and  whose  pro- 
perty, therefore,  was  spared  in  every  way.  Baron  Rothschild, 
the  hundredfold  millionaire,  who,  'besides,  had  been  till  a  very 
recent  date  Consul-General  of  Prussia  in  Paris,  insolently 
refused  us,  through  his  steward,  the  wine  which  we  wanted, 
although  I  may  remark  that  this  and  every  other  requisition 
was  to  be  paid  for.     When  cited  before  the  Chief,  the  man 


i6o         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap 

impudently  persisted  in  his  refusal,  positively  denied  that  he 
had  any  wine  in  the  house,  though  he  afterwards  admitted 
that  he  had  in  the  cellar  a  few  hundred  bottles  of  '■'■petit 
Bordeaux " — in  fact,  there  were  more  than  seventeen  thou- 
sand bottles — but  declared  that  he  could  not  let  us  have 
any.  The  Minister,  however,  explained  his  point  of  view 
to  the  man  in  a  very  forcible  manner,  insisting  that  it  was 
a  most  uncourteous  and  niggardly  way  in  which  his  master 
was  returning  the  honour  which  the  King  had  shown  him 
by  putting  up  in  his  house;  and,  when  the  burly  fellow 
looked  as  if  he  intended  to  give  us  a  little  more  insolence, 
asked  him  sharply  if  he  knew  what  a  '■'•  Strohbund"  was? 
Our  friend  appeared  to  guess,  for  he  became  pale,  though 
he  said  nothing.  It  was  then  explained  to  him  that  a 
"  Sti'ohbund  "  is  a  truss  of  straw  upon  which  refractory  and 
insolent  house-stewards  are  laid,  back  uppermost,  and  he 
might  easily  imagine  the  rest.  Next  day  we  had  what  we 
wanted,  and,  as  far  as  I  know,  afterwards  had  no  cause  of 
complaint.  But  the  Baron  received  for  his  wine  not  only  the 
price  that  was  asked,  but  something  over  and  above  for 
the  good  of  the  house ;  so  that,  on  the  whole,  he  made  a 
pretty  good  thing  out  of  us. 

Whether  things  went  on  in  this  way  after  we  left,  was  to 
me  for  a  long  time  more  doubtful  th^n  the  answer  to  the 
question,  whether  they  should  have  been  allowed  to  do  so. 
To  speak  more  plainly,  I  never  could  see  any  rational  ground 
why  the  millionaire  Rothschild  should  be  exempted  from 
requisitions,  even  requisitions  corresponding  with  his  vast 
wealth,  when  no  more  needed  to  be  said  but  that  they  were 
required  for  the  King  and  his  retinue.  There  was  a  story 
afterwards  in  Versailles  that  on  the  verj'  day  of  our  depar- 
ture, half-a-dozen  men  with  requisition  orders  appeared  at 
Ferrieres  and  carried  off  a  quantity  of  eatables  and  drink- 


VII.]  Baron  Rothschild  at  Ferrieres.  i6i 

ables,  and  that  even  the  deer  in  the  preserves  by  the  lake 
had  been  eaten  up  by  our  soldiers  to  their  great  satisfaction. 
To  my  deep  distress  I  learned  from  very  authentic  sources, 
that  this  was  not  the  case.  These  tales  were  only  pious 
wishes  transformed  into  myths,  as  so  often  happens.  The 
exceptional  respect  for  Rothschild's  seat  was  in  every  respect 
maintained  till  the  conclusion  of  the  war.  The  greater  was 
our  annoyance,  therefore,  at  learning  that  Rothschild  had 
spread  in  Parisian  society  a  report  exaggerating  and  falsi- 
fying the  words  of  our  Chief,  saying  that  the  Prussians  had 
wished  to  flog  his  house-steward  at  Ferriferes,  because  the 
pheasants  which  he  set  before  them  had  not  been  truffled. 

The  morning  next  but  one  the  Minister  came  into  the 
"  Chambre  de  Chasse"  of  the  mansion,  a  room  fitted  up  with 
beautifully  carved  oak  furniture,  and  ornamented  with  precious 
china  vases,  which  we  had  transformed  into  our  bureau, 
and  inspecting  the  game-book,  which  was  lying  on  the  table 
in  the  middle  of  the  room  he  showed  me  the  page,  dated 
November  3rd,  1856,  which  recorded  that  on  that  day  he 
himself,  with  Gallifet  and  others,  had  shot  here,  and  that 
he  had  killed  forty-two  head  of  game,  fourteen  hares,  one 
rabbit,  and  twenty-seven  pheasants,  "  Now,"  he  said,  "  along 
with  Moltke  and  others,  I  am  after  nobler  game,  the  wolf 
of  Grand  Pre."  At  that  date  he  had  no  presentiment  of  it, 
and  his  fellow  sportsmen  assuredly  and  even  less. 

About  eleven  o'clock  he  had  a  third  meeting  with  Favre, 
subsequent  to  which  a  council  was  held  with  the  King,  at 
which  Moltke  and  Roon  were  present.  After  some  letters 
had  been  written  to  Berlin,  Reims,  and  Hagenau,  I  had 
two  hours  on  hand  to  make  myself  acquainted  with  our 
new  abode.  I  used  this  time  in  looking  over  the  mansion, 
so  far  as  it  was  open  to  us,  and  in  rambling  about  through 
the  park,  which  lay  on  the  south  side  of  the  house,  and  a 

VOL.    1,  M 


1 62         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

flower  garden  on  the  north.  About  400  paces  to  the  west 
of  the  mansion  are  the  stables  and  farm  buildings,  and 
opposite  these,  on  the  other  side  of  the  carriage  drive,  a  very 
large  fruit  and  vegetable  garden,  with  rows  of  fine  green- 
houses and  hot-houses.  I  saw  also  in  the  park  a  Swiss 
cottage,  fitted  up  to  accommodate  some  servants,  and  to  be 
used  as  a  laundry. 

About  the  castle  itself  I  will  be  brief.  It  is  a  square 
building,  of  two  stories,  and  at  each  of  the  four  corners  a 
three-storied  tower,  with  a  rather  flat  roof  The  style  is  a 
mixture  of  different  schools  of  the  Renaissance,  which  do 
not  produce  a  very  effective  whole.  The  edifice  does  not 
look  so  large  as  it  really  is.  The  south  front,  with  its  flight 
of  steps  ornamented  with  stately  vases,  leading  to  a  terrace, 
upon  which  are  orange  and  pomegranate  tress  in  tubs, 
looks  the  best.  The  chief  entrance  is  on  the  north  side, 
having  a  vestibule,  with  busts  of  Roman  emperors,  which 
are  very  handsome,  though  it  is  not  easy  to  see  what  they 
have  to  do  in  the  house  of  the  Croesus  of  modern  Judaism. 
From  this  a  somewhat  narrow  staircase,  the  walls  of  which 
are  lined  with  marble,  leads  to  the  chief  room  of  the 
house,  round  which  runs  a  gallery,  supported  by  gilded 
Ionic  columns.  The  walls  above  these  are  hung  with 
Gobelin  tapestry,  and  among  the  pictures  of  this  gorgeously- 
furnished  room  there  is  an  equestrian  portrait  by  Velasquez. 
Amid  so  many  beautiful  objects,  the  eye  wanders  first  to 
one  and  then  to  another,  but  the  whole  gives  one  the  im- 
pression that  the  possessor  thought  less  of  beauty  or  comfort 
than  of  bringing  together  the  costliest  articles. 

If,  however,  the  mansion  leaves  one  somewhat  cold,  the 
gardens  and  park  deserve  tlie  highest  praise.  This  applies 
not  only  to  the  flower-garden  in  front  of  the  north  facade, 
with  its  statues  and  fountains,  but  in  a  still  higher  degree 


vn.]  Croesus  at  home.  163 

to  the  more  remote  parts  of  the  park,  which  end  in  forest, 
and  through  which  there  are  straight-Uned  carriage  drives  and 
paths,  some  of  them  leading  to  a  large  manor-farm.  Here 
there  are  beautiful  foreign  trees,  both  singly  and  in  tasteful 
groups,  and  there  is  a  charming  variety  of  wood,  meadow, 
and  water,  with  occasional  lovely  glimpses  through  the  trees 
and  shrubberies.  In  front  of  the  mansion  lie  smooth  grass 
plats,  with  gravel  walks  winding  through  them  to  a  lake, 
with  black  and  white  swans,  Turkish  ducks,  and  other 
bright-coloured  water-fowl.  Beyond  this  water,  to  the  right, 
rises  an  artistically-planted  hill,  where  winding  paths  lead 
through  shrubberies,  fir  woods,  and  leafy  trees,  to  the  sum- 
mit. On  the  left  of  the  lake  is  a  small  deer-park,  and 
further  on,  on  the  same  side,  a  little  stream,  which  runs 
murmuring  at  the  edge  of  a  clearing  through  a  wood  of  tall 
forest  trees.  On  the  grass  in  front  of  the  steps  were  sheep 
and  poultry,  and  among  them  a  few  pheasants,  which  were 
running  in  great  troops  on  the  more  distant  sward.  Of  these 
birds,  there  are  as  maiiy  as  four  or  five  thousand  in  the  park. 
Our  soldiers  acted  towards  all  these  good  things  as  if  they 
were  not  made  to  be  enjoyed ;  but  they  took,  doubtless, 
another  view  of  them,  pre-eminent  in  which  was  a  healthy 
hunger.  "  Tantalus  in  uniform,"  said  one  with  a  mythological 
turn  of  mind,  when  we  saw  three  of  those  dainty  birds,  which 
are  unconimonly  good,  even  without  sauer  kraut  a  la  Roth- 
schild— that  is,  boiled  in  champagne — walk  past  a  sentry, 
so  close  that  they  might  have  been  spitted  with  his  bayonet. 

Another  of  us  wondered  whether  one  of  the  Mobiles 
would  have  shown  the  same  self-restraint  ? 

On  the  hill  close  by  the  lake  we  sought  and  found, 
directed  to  it  by  Abeken's  love  of  art,  a  statue,  with  which  the 
master  of  the  mansion  has  been  pleased  to  decorate  this 
portion  of  his  estate.  It  seems  to  be  one  of  his  tutelary  deities, 

M  2 


164         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

Placed  on  the  top  of  the  rising  grounds,  made  of  red  terra- 
cotta, this  statue  represents  a  lady  with  a  spear  in  her  hand 
and  a  mural  crown  on  her  head,  about  half  as  large  again  as 
life.  Probably  to  guard  against  any  misconception,  and  to 
prevent  our  suspecting  that  the  Prussian  consul-general  had 
placed  a  Borussia  in  his  park,  "  AUSTRIA,"  in  large  letters, 
is  inscribed  on  the  pedestal  of  this  statue.  It  occurred  to  me 
that  this  was  perhaps  a  memorial  of  the  Baron's  gratitude 
that  he  had  made  so  much  out  of  Austria's  financial  diffi- 
culties. A  visitor  full  of  ill-regulated  sentiments,  seeing 
the  inscription,  and  desiring  to  warn  people  against  mis- 
understanding, had  written  on  the  lady's  garment,  in  pencil : 
"  Heil  dir,  Germania !  Deine  Kinder  sind  einig  "  ("  Hail 
to  thee,  Germania  !  thy  children  are  at  one.")  A  friend 
of  Kladderadatsch  had  written  beneath  this  :  "  Det  war  doch 
friiher  nich.  Ein  Berliner  Kind  "  ("  That  they  were  not  a 
little  while  since.  A  lad  of  Berhn") — a  gloss  suggested  to 
him  by  a  second  expression  of  dithyrambic  feeling  which 
another  enthusiast  had  scrawled  on  the  shield  of  the  terra- 
cotta Mamsell :  "  Deine  Kinder  sind  auf  ewig  vereint,  Du 
grosse  Gottin  Deutschland  ! "  ("  Thy  children,  O  great 
goddess  Germany,  are  now  for  ever  united  ! ") 

Upstairs  in  the  Swiss  cottage  there  was  a  miserable  state 
of  confusion ;  doors  broken  open,  the  servants'  things  all 
strewed  about.  On  the  floor  there  lay  scattered  about  linen 
for  the  wash,  women's  gowns,  papers  and  books,  among 
them,  Liaisons  dangcrcuscs,  charming  reading  no  doubt  for 
washerwomen  and  maid-servants. 

When  we  returned  from  our  travels  of  discovery  we  learned 
that  the  house  steward,  who  had  at  first  been  so  insolent, 
had  come  at  last  to  regard  us  as  not  altogether  unwelcome 
guests.  He  had  an  uncommon  dread  of  the  frajics-voleurs, 
as  XhQ/rancs-tircurs  were  now  often    called    by  people   of 


VIL]  The  Steward  and  the  Francs-tireicrs.  165 

property  in  the  country,  and  this  fear  had  won  from  him 
the  admission  that  our  presence  had  a  pleasant  as  well  as  a 
vexatious  side.  He  said  to  one  of  us  that  those  gentlemen, 
who  rivalled  the  Mobiles  and  the  Chasseurs  d'Afrique  in 
plundering  and  devastating  the  neighbourhood,  had  destroyed 
everything  in  the  country  houses  at  Clayes,  and  had  forced 
the  peasants  sword  in  hand  to  leave  their  houses  and  fly  into 
the  woods.  They  might  have  taken  it  into  their  heads,  had 
we  not  been  at  Ferrieres,  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  chateau, 
The  possibility  had  presented  itself  to  his  sorrow-stricken 
mind,  that  they  might  have  considered  it  advisable  to  burn 
it  down.  Probably  in  consequence  of  these  reflections  he 
had  bethought  himself  that  the  Baron's  cellar  contained 
champagne,  and  that  he  might  cede  to  us  a  number  of 
bottles  at  a  good  price,  without  committing  a  deadly  sin. 
In  consequence  of  this  change  of  mood  we  began  now  to 
feel  more  at  home. 

At  breakfast  we  heard  that  the  news  had  arrived  at  the 
general  staff"  that  Bazaine,  who  must  have  been  completely 
surrounded  and  shut  in  in  Metz,  had  asked  Prince  Frederick 
Karl  by  letter  whether  the  news  of  the  defeat  at  Sedan,  and 
of  the  proclamation  of  the  Republic,  which  he  had  received 
through  exchanged,  prisoners,  was  correct,  and  that  the 
Prince  had  answered  him  in  the  affirmative,  both  by  letter 
and  with  the  corroboration  of  Parisian  newspapers. 

In  the  evening  I  was  summoned  to  the  Chief,  who  did 
not  appear  at  table,  and  who,  it  was  said,  was  not  very  well. 
A  narrow  winding  stone  staircase,  which  was  honoured  with 
the  name  of  the  ''■Escalier  partiadier  de  Monsieur  le  Baron" 
took  me  up  to  an  elegantly-furnished  room.,  where  the  Chan- 
cellor lay  on  a  sofa  in  his  dressing-gown.  I  was  to  tele- 
graph that  the  day  before  the  French — ^we  had  heard  the 
cannonade  but  had  not  known  what  it  was — had  made  a 


1 66         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

sortie  with  three  divisions  in  a  southern  direction,  but  had 
been  utterly  routed  and  driven  back.  We  had  taken  seven 
guns  and  more  than  two  thousand  prisoners  in  the  affair. 

Wednesday^  September  21. — When  the  Chief  had  recovered 
from  his  indisposition,  there  was  again  more  to  be  done. 
These  labours,  both  in  their  matter  and  intention,  are 
not  meant  for  publicity,  like  many  other  excellent  things 
then  done,  heard,  or  experienced.  I  say  this  once  for  all, 
solely  to  obviate  the  suspicion  that  I  take  part  in  this 
campaign  more  as  a  pleasure-loving  Phaeacian  than  in  the 
spirit  of  a  true  "  soldier  of  the  pen." 

The  following  passage  may  now  be  given  from  my 
journal  : — 

"  The  Imperial  emigrants  in  London  have  established  an 
organ  for  the  representation  of  their  interests,  La  Situation. 
The  journals  established  by  us  in  the  East  of  France  will  com- 
nmnicate  its  contents  to  the  world,  specifying  the  sources  of 
their  information,  so  that  our  opinions  may  not  be  identified 
with  the  views  of  that  party ;  that  is,  our  journals  are  not 
intended  to  prepare  the  way  for  our  reseating  the  Emperor 
on  the  throne.  Our  only  object  is  to  perpetuate  the  differ- 
ences which  exist  among  the  French  parties  all  of  which, 
without  exception,  are  hostile  to  us,  to  which  end  the  reten- 
tion of  the  Imperial  emblems  and  formulae  for  the  transaction 
of  business  will  contribute.  Otherwise,  Napoleon  is  perfectly 
indifferent  to  us ;  and  the  Republic  equally  so.  Chaos  in 
France,  for  the  present,  is  useful.  The  future  of  the  French 
in  no  way  concerns  us ;  it  is  their  own  affair  to  see  that  it 
shapes  itself  favourably  for  them.  For  ourselves  its  import- 
ance is  only  so  far  as  our  interest  is  affected  by  it,  for 
self-interest  must  be  the  guiding-star  in  politics." 

When  the  Chief  had  gone  out  and  his  orders  had  been 
attended  to,  we  again  made  an  excursion  into  the  park, 


VII.]  The  Mobiles  and  the  Regulars.  167 

where  the  pheasants  seemed  to-day  also  not  to  have  mas- 
tered the  fact  that  there  are  sportsmen  and  shot  guns  here 
with  no  ill-will  towards  them.  Count  Waldersee  was  a 
guest  at  dinner ;  he  comes  from  Ligny,  not  far  off,  where 
the  second  division  of   the  great  headquarters   is  lodged. 

He  tells  us  that  the  circle  of  troops  which  has  been 
gradually  drawing  round  Paris  for  some  days  is  now  com- 
plete, and  that  the  Crown  Prince  is  at  Versailles.  Officers 
who  have  been  prisoners  in  that  Babel  on  the  Seine, 
report  that  the  Mobile  Guard  is  very  odious  to  the  regular 
troops,  who  reproach  them  with  having  behaved  in  a 
cowardly  manner  in  the  last  action,  and  even  with  having 
fired  upon  one  another.  They  also  mentioned  that,  in  three 
stone-quarries,  peasants  had  been  found  who  had  taken 
refuge  there.  In  a  wood,  our  people  had  stumbled  on 
Mobile  Guards,  or  Francs-tireurs,  who  were  driven  out  with 
shells,  and  who  were  all  killed  because  they  had  shot  down 
our  officers,  with  the  exception  of  one,  whom  the  soldiers 
allowed  to  run  away  in  order  to  give  the  fact  of  the  punish- 
ment a  wider  circulation.  This  was,  apparently,  a  specimen 
of  the  sort  of  fables  which  sprout  up  in  a  time  of  excitement, 
which  are  always  woven  of  the  same  worthless  stuff — such 
as  we  often  came  across.  Lastly,  in  Sfevres,  which  lies  between 
Paris  and  Versailles,  the  inhabitants  were  said  to  have  asked 
a  Prussian  garrison  so  as  to  be  protected  against  the  plun- 
dering and  ill-treatment  which  they  have  received  from  the 
JPrancs-voleurs  and  Moblots. 

At  tea  we  heard  something  more  about  the  last  negotia- 
tion of  the  Chancellor  with  Jules  Favre.  The  attention  of 
the  latter  is  said  to  have  been  drawn  to  the  fact,  that  the  pre  ■ 
cise  conditions  of  a  peace  could  not  be  communicated  to  him 
until  they  had  been  settled  in  a  meeting  of  the  German 
powers  immediately  concerned ;  but  that  peace  would  not 


1 68         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gennan  War.     [Chap. 

be  concluded  without  a  cession  of  territory,  as  it  was  a 
matter  of  absolute  necessity  that  we  should  obtain  a  better 
frontier  against  French  attacks.  There  was,  however,  less 
discussion  in  this  conference  about  peace  and  our  require- 
ments in  connection  with  peace,  than  about  the  concessions 
from  the  French  side  on  which  we  could  grant  a  truce. 
When  the  forfeiture  of  territory  was  mentioned,  Favre  had 
been  very  much  excited,  sighing  and  raising  his  eyes  to 
Heaven,  and  shedding  many  patriotic  tears.  The  Chief 
does  not  expect  that  he  will  come  again.  It  is  as  well,  and 
this  was  the  answer  sent  to  the  Crown  Prince,  who  had 
telegraphed  this  morning  to  inquire.  I  wrote  these  last 
words  early  on  the  22  nd. 

Thursday,  September  22,  ez'ening. — The  French  are  never 
tired  of  denouncing  us  to  the  world  as  tyrants  and  barbarians, 
and  the  English  press,  especially  the  Standard,  notoriously 
very  hostile  to  us,  eagerly  lends  its  help.  Almost  without 
intermission  that  journal  pours  out  upon  the  breakfast- 
tables  of  its  readers  the  bitterest  calumnies  as  to  our  conduct 
to  the  French  population  and  to  the  ])risoners  we  have 
taken.  It  is  always  asserting  that  eye-witnesses,  or  people 
otherwise  well-informed,  drawing  what  they  say  from  the 
best  sources,  furnish  these  lies,  or  these  perversions  and 
exaggerations  of  the  facts.  Thus  within  these  last  few  days 
the  Duke  of  Fitzjames  has  drawn  a  horrible  picture  of  our 
atrocious  cruelties  in  Bazeilles,  which  he  pretends  to  have 
depicted  only  in  its  true  colours ;  and  in  the  same  spirit  a 
M.  L.,  who  plays  the  part  of  an  ill-treated  French  officer 
taken  prisoner  at  Sedan,  laments,  in  lugubrious  tones,  the 
inhuman  conduct  of  the  Prussians.  We  might  leave  this  to 
answer  itself,  but  a  duke  makes  an  impression  even  upon 
those  on  the  other  side  of  the  Channel  who  are  more  favour- 
ably disposed   to  us,  and  with  calumnies  sufficiently  auda- 


VII.]  The  Duke  of  Fitzjanies.  169 

cious  something  always  will  stick.  Therefore  a  refutation  of 
these  aspersions  goes  off  to-day  to  the  London  journals 
favourably  disposed  to  us.     To  this  etfect : 

"  In  this  war,  as  in  every  other,  a  great  number  of 
villages  have  been  burned  down  mostly  by  artillery  fire, 
German  as  well  as  French.  In  these,  women  and  children 
who  have  taken  refuge  in  the  cellars,  and  who  have  not  had 
time  to  escape,  have  perished  in  the  flames.  This  is  true 
also  of  Bazeilles,  which  was  taken  by  discharges  of  musketry, 
and  retaken  several  times.  The  Duke  of  Fitzjames  was 
an  eye-witness  merely  of  the  ruins  of  the  village,  which  he 
saw  after  the  battle,  as  thousands  of  others  have  seen,  and 
deplored  them.  Everything  else  in  his  account  is  derived 
from  the  stories  of  unfortunate  and  embittered  people.  In  a 
country  where  even  the  government  developes  an  unex- 
ampled and  systematic  capacity  for  lying,  it  is  scarcely  to 
be  expected  that  angry  peasants,  with  the  ruins  of  their 
burnt  houses  before  their  eyes,  should  have  any  great  incli- 
nation to  speak  the  truth  about  their  enemies.  It  has  been 
established  by  official  inquiry  that  inhabitants  of  Bazeilles, 
not  in  uniform,  but  in  blouses  and  shirt-sleeves,  fired  upon 
wounded  and  unwounded  German  troops  in  the  streets, 
and  that  whole  rooms  full  of  wounded  men  were  murdered 
in  the  houses.  In  like  manner  it  has  been  proved  that 
women,  armed  with  knives  and  guns,  committed  the  greatest 
cruelties  against  mortally  wounded  soldiers,  and  that  other 
women,  certainly  not  in  the  uniform  of  the  National  Guards, 
took  part  in  the  battle  along  with  the  male  inhabitants, 
loading  their  companions'  guns,  and  even  themselves  firing, 
and  that  while  thus  engaged  they  were  wounded  or  killed 
like  other  combatants.  These  circumstances  were  of 
course  not  told  to  the  Duke  by  his  informants,  but  they 
would  have  perfectly  justified  our  setting  fire  to  the  village, 


I/O         Bismarck  ill  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap, 

even  if  it  had  been  done  designedly  to  drive  the  enemy  from 
his  position.  But  an  intentional  setting  fire  to  the  village 
has  not  been  proved.  That  women  and  children  were 
driven  back  into  the  fire  is  one  of  the  malignant  lies  with 
which  the  French  alarm  the  population,  and  goad  them  to 
hatred  against  us.  They  thereby  cause  the  flight  of  the 
people,  who  usually  return  to  their  villages  a  few  days  after 
the  advance  of  the  Germans,  quite  astonished  that  they  have 
been  better  treated  by  the  latter  than  by  French  troops. 
Where  fear  does  not  suffice  to  drive  the  inhabitants  to 
flight,  the  Government  sends  hordes  of  armed  men  in 
blouses,  supported  sometimes  by  African  troops,  to  drive 
the  peasants  from  their  dwellings  with  sabre  cuts,  and  to 
lay  waste  their  homes  as  a  punishment  for  their  want  of 
patriotism." 

As  for  the  letter  of  a  "  Captive  Officer  "  (Bouillon,  Sep- 
tember 9),  that  too  contains  more  lies  than  truth.  With 
respect  to  the  treatment  of  the  prisoners,  Germany  can 
appeal  to  150,000  better  witnesses  than  this  anonymous  and 
lying  officer,  whose  whole  letter  is  but  the  expression  of  the 
love  of  revenge,  which  is  the  vain  and  arrogant  element  in  the 
French  character,  and  which  will  probably  animate  them  for 
a  long  time  to  come.  From  this  spirit  of  revenge  results  the 
certainty  of  a  new  attack  to  which  Germany  will  be  exposed, 
and  this  certainty  constrains  us  to  aim  at  nothing  less,  in 
concluding  peace,  than  the  strengthening  of  our  frontiers. 
What  is  said  in  the  letter  of  this  pretended  officer- — this 
"  Monsieur  L." — that  there  was  a  want  of  provisions  after 
the  surrender  of  Sedan  is  quite  true ;  not  merely  for  the 
prisoners,  but  for  the  conquerors  too,  who  shared  wliat 
they  had  with  the  others.  But  when  they  themselves  had 
nothing,  they  could  give  nothing.  When  this  M.  L.  com- 
plains that   he  had  to  bivouac  in  the  rain  and  mire,  it  is 


VII.]  What  Campaigning  is.  171 

the  best  proof  that  he  is  no  officer,  and  that  he  has  not 
been  engaged  in  this  war.  He  is  some  hired  scribbler,  who 
has  never  left  his  room.  His  complaint  leads  us  to  infer 
that  everything  the  man  tells  us  of  his  being  taken  prisoner 
is  mere  invention.  Had  he  been  an  officer  in  active  service, 
he  would  have  known  that  most  of  his  comrades — certainly 
it  holds  good  of  the  Germans— have  spent  at  least  thirty 
out  of  the  forty  nights  since  the  war  began  in  similar  cir- 
cumstances. When  it  rained  at  night,  they  lay  down  in  the 
rain ;  and  when  the  place  where  they  bivouacked  was  miry, 
they  lay  in  the  mire.  Only  one  who  had  not  been  present 
in  this  campaign,  could  be  in  any  doubt  about  this,  or  could 
be  surprised  at  it. 

M.  L.  congratulates  himself  on  preserving  his  leathern 
purse.  This  is  the  strongest  proof  that  he  was  not  plun- 
dered ;  for  there  is  no  soldier  who  does  not  carry  money  in 
such  a  purse  next  to  his  skin  at  the  present  day,  just 
as  they  did  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  If  the  Ger- 
man soldiers  had  meant  to  have  the  money  of  M.  L., 
they  knew  very  well  from  their  own  experience  where  to  find 
it  on  him.  The  few  Germans  who  were  taken  prisoners 
by  the  French  can  tell  how  quickly  the  hands  of  their 
opponents  tore  open  the  uniform  of  the  captives,  and,  when 
the  leather  purse  stuck  too  closely,  cut  into  it  with  sword  or 
knife,  without  troubling  about  the  skin.  We  declare  the 
assertions  of  the  ill-treatment  of  prisoners  taken  at  Sedan 
to  be  shameless  and  unfounded  lies.  A  great  number  of  the 
French  prisoners — perhaps  a  fourth  of  them — were  beastly 
drunk,  having  plundered  as  they  did  in  the  last  hours 
before  the  capitulation,  all  the  stores  of  wine  and  brandy  in 
the  town.  That  drunken  men  are  more  difficult  to  manage 
than  sober  ones,  is  intelligible  enough  ;  but  acts  of  ill-treat- 
ment such  as   are  related  in    that  article  occurred  neither 


1/2         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gerniaii  War.     [Chap. 

at  Sedan  nor  anywhere  else,  from  the  disciphne  which  pre- 
vails among  Prussian  troops.  It  is  notorious  that  this 
discipline  excited  the  admiration  of  the  French  officers. 

We  cannot,  alas,  speak  as  favourably  of  the  troops  of 
the  enemy  in  this  respect  as  of  their  bravery  under  fire. 
Often  the  French  officers  were  unable  to  restrain  their 
men  from  murdering  the  severely  wounded  as  they  lay  on 
the  ground,  and  this  was  true,  not  merely  of  the  African 
troops,  but  happened  even  when  officers  of  higher  rank 
attempted  to  defend  the  wounded  Germans  against  the 
attacks  of  their  own  men.  It  is  well  known  that  the 
German  prisoners  who  were  brought  to  Metz  were  led 
through  the  streets,  were  spat  upon,  beaten,  and  stoned ;  and 
when  they  were  discharged,  that  the  African  troops  formed 
a  lane  and  made  them  run  the  gauntlet,  amid  blows  from 
sticks  and  whips. 

We  can  show  these  to  be  filets  by  official  protocols,  which 
are  of  a  very  different  character  from  the  anonymous  letters 
of  M.  L.  But  such  things  are  not  to  be  wondered  at 
when  the  journals  of  a  city  like  Paris,  which  asks  to  be 
treated  with  special  consideration,  under  the  hypocritical 
pretext  of  civilisation,  demand,  without  raising  any  protest, 
that  the  wounded  who  cannot  be  removed  should  be  knocked 
on  the  head,  and  give  it  as  their  advice  to  treat  Ger- 
mans like  wolves  to  manure  the  fields  with.  The  essential 
barbarism  of  the  French  nation  overspread  with  a  thin 
layer  of  culture,  has  been  fully  developed  in  this  war. 
French  insolence  used  to  say,  "  Grattez  Ic  Russe  et  vous 
trouverez  le  Barhare"  (Scratch  a  Russian  and  you  will  find  a 
Tartar).  No  one  who  is  able  to  compare  the  conduct  of  the 
Russians  to  their  enemies  in  the  Crimean  war  with  that 
of  the  French  in  the  present  will  be  in  any  doubt  about 
the  description  recoiling  on  the  French  themselves. 


VII.]  The  Crown  Princes  Quarters.  173 

I  note  once  for  all — First,  it  is  held  in  England  that  the 
razing  of  the  French  fortresses  in  the  East  is  sufficient  for  our 
security,  but  the  obligation  to  demolish  fortifications  con- 
stitutes a  servitude  which  is  always  more  grating  than  their 
cession.  Second,  they  pretend  to  infer  in  England  that  the 
fact  of  Strassburg  defending  itself  so  long  against  us,  proves 
the  devotion  of  its  inhabitants  to  France.  But  the  fortress  of 
Strassburg  is  defended  by  French  troops,  not  by  the  German 
inhabitants.  The  obstinate  defence,  therefore,  is  no  display 
of  German  fidelity. 

Just  as  we  are  at  the  soup  one  of  the  Royal  servants 
comes  and  announces  that  the  Crown  Prince  proposes  to 
dine  and  stay  the  night,  and  he,  the  secretary,  Fourier,  or 
whoever  it  was,  adds  the  request  that  the  Bureau  and 
the  large  room  upstairs  next  to  the  Chancellor's  room  should 
be  given  up  to  the  five  gentlemen  in  attendance  on  his 
Royal  Highness.  The  Chief  answers,  "  The  Bureau  ?  cer- 
tainly not;  that  won't  do.  It  is  needed  for  business."  He 
then  places  at  their  disposal  his  own  dressing-room,  and 
offers  to  take  Blumenthal  or  Eulenberg  into  his  bedroom. 
He  requires  the  drawing-room  for  the  reception  of  the  French 
negotiators,  and  when  princes  come  to  him.  The  quarter- 
master retired  with  a  long  face.  He  had  expected  an 
unconditioned  yes,  as  a  matter  of  course. 

Count  Lehndorf  was  present  at  dinner,  and  the  conver- 
sation was  lively.  When  mention  was  made  of  the  covering 
old  Fritz  in  the  Linden  with  black,  red,  and  yellow  colours, 
the  Minister  disapproved  Wurmb  having  allowed  the  con- 
troversy about  colours  to  be  raised.  "  For  myself,"  says 
he,  "  when  the  North  German  colours  were  accepted  the 
question  was  settled.  Otherwise  the  discussion  about  colours, 
is  a  matter  of  indiff"erence  to  me,  green  and  yellow,  or 
the  colours  of  Mecklenburg-Strelitz  ;  only  the  Prussian  troops 


1/4         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Germajz  War.     [Chap 

will  have  nothing  to  do  with  black,  red,  and  yellow."  Rea- 
sonable people  will  not  take  it  amiss  in  him,  when  they 
remember  the  March  days  in  Berlin  and  the  badge  of  their 
opponents  in  the  Mainfeld  campaign  in  1866. 

The  Chief  afterwards  said,  that  peace  was  still  far  off. 
"  If  they  go  to  Orleans  we  shall  follow  them,  even  if  they  go 
further  still,  to  the  sea."  He  then  read  out  the  telegrams 
which  had  been  received,  and  among  them  the  lists  of 
the  troops  in  Paris;  "  they  are  said  to  amount  to  180,000 
men,  but  there  are  scarcely  60,000  real  soldiers  among  them. 
'I'he  Mobile  Guards  and  National  Guards,  with  their  snuff- 
boxes, are  not  worth  counting."  The  conversation  then 
turned  for  a  time  on  matters  of  the  table,  and  it  was  said 
among  other  things  that  Alexander  von  Humboldt,  the  ideal 
man  of  our  democracy,  was  "  an  enormous  eater,  who,  at 
Court,  heaped  on  his  plate  whole  mountains  of  lobster  salad 
and  other  indigestible  delicacies  and  then  swallowed  them 
down."  At  the  last  course  we  had  roast  hare,  and  the  Chief 
remarked,  "This  French  thing  is  not  to  be  compared  with 
our  Pomeranian  hare ;  it  has  no  game  flavour.  How 
different  is  our  hare,  which  gets  its  fine  flavour  from  the 
heath  and  thyme  on  which  it  feeds." 

About  half-past  ten  he  sent  to  inquire  whether  any  cue 
was  still  at  tea.  He  was  told,  "  Doctor  Busch."  He  came, 
drank  two  cups  of  tea,  with  a  little  cognac,  which  he 
rightly  considered  wholesome  when  it  is  good,  and  ate,  con- 
trary to  his  usual  habit,  some  cold  meat.  He  afterwards  took 
away  with  him  a  bottle  of  cold  tea,  which  he  seems  to  like 
to  drink  in  the  night,  for  I  have  often,  during  the  campaign, 
seen  it  in  the  morning  on  his  night-table.  He  remained 
till  after  midnight,  and  for  the  first  time  we  were  alone. 
After  a  time  he  asked  where  I  was  born.  I  answered, 
in  Dresden.     Which  town  did  I  like  best  ?     Of  course  mjr 


VII.]  Shooting  in  the  Park.  175 

native  town  ?  I  replied  rather  decidedly  in  the  negative, 
and  said  that,  next  to  Berlin,  Leipzig  was  the  town  which 
suited  me  best.  He  answered,  smiling,  "  Really ;  I  should 
not  have  thought  that;  Dresden  is  such  a  beautiful  city." 
I  then  told  him  the  chief  reason  why,  in  spite  of  that,  it  did 
not  please  me.     He  was  silent  for  a  little. 

I  asked  whether  I  should  telegraph  that  some  here  think 
they  have  heard  the  firing  of  cannons  and  rifles  in  the  streets 
of  Paris.  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  do  so."  "  But  not  about  the 
conference  with  Favre  ?  "  "  Surely,"  and  then  he  continued, 
"  Haute  Maison,  near— what  do  you  call  it  ?  Montry  the 
first  time,  then  at  Ferrieres  the  same  evening,  the  second, 
then  a  third  interview  the  next  day  but  one,  but  with  no  result, 
either  as  regards  an  armistice  or  peace.  Negotiations  with 
us  have  also  been  attempted  on  the  part  of  some  of  the 
other  French  parties,"  to  which  he  added  some  remarks 
leading  me  to  infer  that  he  was  alluding  to  the  Empress 
Eugenie. 

The  Chief  praised  the  red  wine  standing  on  the  table, 
from  the  Baron's  cellars,  and  drank  a  glass  of  it.  He  then 
again  complained  of  the  behaviour  of  Rothschild,  and  thought 
the  old  baron  had  better  manners.  I  spoke  of  the  crowds 
of  pheasants  in  the  park.  Could  we  not  have  a  shot  at 
them  ?  "  H'm,"  he  said  ;  "  it  is  forbidden  to  shoot  in  the 
park  ;  but  what  can  they  do  if  I  go  out  and  get  some  ? 
They  can't  arrest  me,  for  they  would  have  no  one  to  see  after 
the  peace."  He  afterwards  talked  of  hunting :  "  I  hunt 
sometimes  with  the  King  at  Letzlingen,  the  old  forest  of 
our  family.  Burgstall,  too,  was  taken  away  from  us  three 
hundred  years  ago,  simply  on  account  of  the  hunting.  At 
that  time  there  was  nearly  twice  as  much  wood  as  now.  It 
was  then  worth  nothing  but  for  the  hunting ;  now  it  is  worth 
millions.  .  .  .    The  indemnification  given    us  was  trifling, 


1/6        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

not  a  fourth  part  of  the  value,   and   almost   all   of  it  has 
vanished  like  smoke." 

Another  time,  speaking  of  dexterity  in  shooting,  he 
said  that  when  he  was  a  young  man  he  was  such  a  good 
shot  that  he  could  hit  pieces  of  paper  at  a  hundred  paces, 
and  had  shot  the  heads  off  the  ducks  in  the  pond. 

He  remarked,  on  a  subject  to  which  he  often  recurred, 
"  If  I  am  to  work  well  I  must  be  well  fed.  I  can  make  no 
proper  peace  if  they  don't  give  me  proper  food  and  drink. 
That  is  part  of  my  pay." 

The  conversation  turned — I  no  longer  remember  how — ■ 
on  the  ancient  languages.  "  When  I  was  in  the  highest  form 
at  school,  I  wrote  and  spoke  Latin  very  well.  Now  it  has 
become  difficult  to  me,  and  I  have  quite  forgotten  my  Greek. 
I  don't  understand  why  people  spend  so  much  labour  on 
them.  Perhaps  merely  because  scholars  do  not  like  to 
lessen  the  value  of  what  they  themselves  acquired  with  so 
much  difficulty."  I  took  the  liberty  of  reminding  him  of  the 
"  mental  discipline,"  and  remarked  that  the  twenty  or  thirty 
meanings  of  the  particle  dv  must  be  quite  delightful  to  those 
who  have  them  at  their  fingers'  ends.  The  Chief  replied, 
"  Yes,  but  if  it  is  contended  that  Greek  gives  the  '  mental 
discipline,'  Russian  does  so  in  a  still  higher  degree.  People 
might  introduce  Russian  at  once  instead  of  Greek ;  there 
would  be  immediate  practical  use  in  that.  It  has  innumerable 
niceties  to  make  up  for  the  incompleteness  of  its  conjugation, 
and  the  eight-and-twenty  declensions  they  used  to  have  were 
capital  for  the  memory.  Now,  indeed,  they  have  only  three, 
but  then  the  exceptions  are  all  the  more  numerous.  And 
how  the  roots  are  changed ;  in  many  words  only  a  single 
letter  remains." 

We  spoke  of  the  treatment  of  the  Schleswig-Holstein 
question    in  the  Diet  in  the    years   about    1850.      Count 


VII.]  The  Cigar  Story.  177 

Bisraarck-Bohlen,  who  had  joined  us,  remarked  that  it  must 
have  been  good  to  produce  sleep.  "  Yes,"  said  the  Chief, 
"  in  Frankfort  they  slept  over  negotiations  with  their  eyes 
open.  Generally  a  sleepy,  insipid  set,  only  supportable  when 
I  came  among  them  like  so  much  pepper."  He  then  told 
an  amusing  story  of  Count  Rechberg,  at  that  time  ambassador 
of  the  Diet. 

I  asked  about  the  "famous"  cigar  story.  "Which  do 
you  mean  ?"  "  When,  your  Excellency,  Rechberg  kept  on 
smoking  a  cigar  in  your  presence,  and  you  took  one  your- 
self" "  You  mean  Thun.  Well,  that  was  simple  enough. 
I  went  to  him,  and  he  was  working  and  smoking  at  the 
same  time.  He  begged  me  to  wait  a  moment.  I  did  wait  ; 
but  when  it  seemed  too  long,  and  he  offered  me  no  cigar,  I 
took  out  one,  and  asked  him  for  a  light,  which  he  gave  me 
with  a  rather  astonished  look.  But  there  is  another  story  of 
the  same  kind.  At  the  sittings  of  the  military  commission 
when  Rocliovv  was  the  Prussian  representative  at  the  Diet, 
Austria  alone  smoked.  Rochow,  who  was  a  furious  smoker, 
would  certainly  have  liked  to  do  it,  but  did  not  venture. 
When  I  succeeded  him,  I  too  hankered  after  a  cigar ; 
and  as  I  did  not  see  why  I  should  not  have  it,  I  asked  the 
Power  in  the  President's  chair  to  give  me  a  light,  which 
seemed  to  give  him  and  the  other  gentlemen  both  astonish- 
ment and  displeasure.  It  was  evidently  an  event  for  them. 
That  time  only  Austria  and  Prussia  smoked.  But  the  other 
gentlemen  obviously  thought  the  matter  so  serious  that  they 
reported  it  to  their  respective  Courts.  The  question  required 
mature  deliberation,  and  for  half  a  year  only  the  two  Great 
Powers  smoked.  Then  Schrenkh,  the  Bavarian  envoy, 
asserted  the  dignity  of  his  position  by  smoking.  Nostitz, 
the  Saxon,  had  certainly  also  a  great  wish  to  do  so,  but 
had  not  received  authority  from  his  minister.     When,  how- 

VOL.  I.  N 


178         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

ever,  he  saw  Bothmer,  the  Hannoverian,  indulging  himself, 
at  the  next  sitting,  he  must — for  he  was  intensely  Austrian, 
having  sons  in  the  army — have  come  to  some  understanding 
with  Rechberg ;  for  he  also  look  out  a  cigar  from  his  case 
and  puffed  away.  Only  Wiirtemberg  and  Darmstadt  were 
left,  and  they  did  not  smoke  themselves.  But  the  honour 
and  dignity  of  their  states  imperatively  required  it,  so  that 
next  time  we  met,  Wiirtemberg  produced  a  cigar — I  see  it 
now ;  it  was  a  long  thin  light  yellow  thing — and  smoked  at 
least  half  of  it,  as  a  burnt-offering  for  the  Fatherland." 

Friday^  September  23. — This  morning  the  weather  is  glo- 
rious ;  and  after  eleven  o'clock  exceedingly  hot.  Before  the 
Chief  rose  I  took  a  ramble  in  the  park,  where,  on  the  left 
of  the  stream,  I  saw  a  large  herd  of  roe-deer  ;  and  further  on 
a  splendid  aviary,  in  the  spacious  wire-cages  of  which  there 
were  a  number  of  foreign  birds,  Chinese,  Japanese,  New 
Zealand  birds,  rare  pigeons,  gold  pheasants,  and  so  on, 
and  a  quail-house.  When  I  returned  I  met  Keudell  in  the 
passage.  "  War !"  he  cried.  "  x\  letter  from  Favre,  who 
rejects  all  our  demands."  We  shall  prepare  this,  with  com- 
mentaries on  it,  for  the  press,  and  at  the  same  time  hint 
that  the  present  inhabitant  of  Wilhelmshohe  is  after  all  not 
so  bad,  and  that  he  may  be  of  some  use  to  us  yet 

After  breakfast  I  receive  a  number  of  English  letters  from 
Paris,  which  have  been  seized,  the  contents  of  which  I  am  to 
make  use  of  mostly  for  the  newspapers.  There  is,  however, 
very  little  of  interest  for  our  press.  Lamentations  on  the 
diinage  done  to  the  beautiful  boulevards,  on  the  attacks 
of  the  people  upon  the  generals  of  the  Empire,  e.g.  Vaillant ; 
the  publication  of  a  letter  from  Jules  Favre,  and  the  like. 

At  dinner,  when  Tauffkirchen,  who  is  to  be  stationed 
at  Reims,  and  Stephan,  chief  director  of  the  post-office,  were 
guests  of  the  Chief,  the  latler  mentioned  that  the  villages 


VII.]  The  Desertion  of  Houses.  179 

nearer  Paris,  and  all  their  mansions  and  villas  were  abandoned, 
and  most  of  them  frightfully  damaged.  ,  At  Montmorency, 
where  there  was  a  fine  library  and  a  collection  of  coins  and 
antiquities,  the  gold  and  silver  coins  have  been  stolen,  the 
copper  ones  being  left  behind  ;  and  everything  else  has 
been  scattered  about  and  damaged.  The  Chief  said  :  "  There 
is  nothing  wonderful  in  this.  The  Government  have  driven 
away  with  the  sabres  of  the  Mobile  Guard  or  tlie  Chasseurs 
d'Afrique,  people  who  would  have  run  off  for  a  day  and 
then  returned,  and  have  wrecked  their  houses  as  a  punish- 
ment for  their  unpatriotic  desire  to  be  allowed  to  stay  there. 
Our  soldiers  steal  no  coins  and  tear  no  books.  This  is  the 
work  of  the  Mobiles,  among  whom  are  many  vagabonds. 
When  people  do  not  give,  our  soldiers  take  what  is  neces- 
sary for  them  to  eat  and  drink,  as  they  have  a  right  to  do ; 
and  if,  in  their  search  for  food,  they  break  open  a  door  or  a 
cupboard,  nothing  is  to  be  said  against  it.  Who  told  the 
householders  to  run  away?" 

In  the  evening,  by  the  Minister's  directions,  we  telegraphed 
that  Toul  has  surrendered  under  the  same  conditions  as 
Sedan. 

Saturday^  September  2 \. — The  Minister  was  led  to  speak  at 
dinner,  of  the  show  things  in  the  great  saloon  upstairs  which 
he  had  just  seen,  for  the  first  time.  Among  them,  we  heard, 
that  there  was  a  throne  or  table  which  had  casually  stuck 
to  the  fingers  of  some  French  marshal  or  general  in  China — 
or  was  it  in  Cochin  China? — and  which  had  been  afterwards 
sold  to  our  Baron,  a  remarkable  object  which  in  our  visit  to 
the  room  I  had  stupidly  not  observed.  The  opinions  of 
the  Chief  on  this  display  of  luxury  were  almost  the  same  as 
those  which  I  recorded  in  my  journal  two  days  ago  :  "  Every- 
thing dear,  but  little  that  is  beautiful,  and  still  less  comfort- 
able."  He  then  went  on  :  "A  property  like  this  finished  and 

N    2 


i8o         Bismarck  hi  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

complete,  could  never  give  me  any  satisfaction.  Not  I  but 
others  would  have  made  it.  There  is  indeed  much  that  is 
beautiful,  but  the  satisfaction  of  creating  and  transforming  is 
wanting.  It  is  quite  different  when  I  have  to  ask  myself. 
Can  1  spend  five  or  ten  thousand  dollars  upon  this  or  that 
improvement  ?  to  what  it  must  be  when  one  has  not  to  think 
about  money.  To  have  always  enough  and  more  than  enough 
must  at  last  be  wearisome."  To-day  we  had  pheasants  (not 
truffled),  and  our  wine  proved  that  the  enlightenment  and 
improvement  of  the  house-steward's  inner  man  had  made 
considerable  progress.  Further,  the  chief  purveyor  of  the 
mobilised  Foreign-office — which  honourable  post  was  filled  by 
Count  Bismarck-Bohlen — announced  that  some  benevolent 
Berlin  friend  had  sent  the  Chief  a  present  of  four  bottles  of 
curagao,    of  which    a  trial   was    made.       The    Chancellor 

asked  :  "  Do  you  know ?"  I  did  not  catch  the  name. 

"  Yes."  "  Well,  telegraph  to  him  :  '  Old  Nordhauser  quite  in- 
dispensable at  headquarters,  two  jars  immediately.'  "  After- 
wards the  subject  of  conversation  at  table  was,  the  posi- 
tion of  owners  of  estates  ;  when  the  Minister  spoke  of  the 
former  and  present  condition  of  an  estate  at  Schmoldin,  and 
expressed  himself  warmly  as  to  the  care  the  landlords 
ought  to  show  for  the  people  under  them. 

In  the  evening  it  was  again  thought  advisable  to  make 
some  communication  in  an  article  to  our  good  friends  the 
French  Ultramontanes,  who  in  war,  as  formerly  in  peace, 
put  forth  all  their  strength  against  the  German  cause, 
exciting  the  people  against  us,  spreading  abroad  lies  about 
us  in  the  newspapers,  and  stirring  up  the  peasants  to  join 
in  the  war,  as  they  did  at  Beaumont  and  Bazeilles. 

Sunday,  September  25. — Quite  an  off  day.  Nothing  of 
importance  to  record.  The  Chief  went  to  church  in  the 
morning  with  the  King,  and  in  the  afternoon  he  did  not 


VII.]  The  Honesty  of  the  J eivs.  i8i 

appear.  Perhaps  he  has  some  important  thing  specially  on 
hand.  We  had  letters  from  Berlin  telling  us  that  they  had 
received  in  good  condition  the  biscuits  which  we  sent  from 
Reims  in  the  despatch  bags  of  the  messengers,  and  that  they 
had  no  taste  of  Leverstrom's  oiled  boots  with  which  they 
had  travelled.  One  return  despatch-bag  had  been  very  un- 
lucky. When  Bolsing  opened  it,  it  gave  out  a  strong  smell 
of  port  wine,  and  the  contents  of  the  broken  bottle  had 
stained  with  a  deep  blush  red  the  accompanying  papers,  as 
if  they  would  protest  against  such  company  in  future.  The 
messengers  had  possibly,  when  the  bottle  was  packed  up, 
taken  it  for  an  innocent  red  ink. 

At  dinner  there  was  some  talk  about  the  Jews.  "  They 
have  still  really  no  true  home,"  said  the  Chief;  "  but  are 
a  sort  of  universal-European,  cosmopolitan  nomads.  Their 
fatherland  is  Zion,"  (to  Abeken)  "  Jerusalem.  Otherwise 
they  belong  to  the  whole  world,  and  hang  together  through- 
out the  whole  world.  It  is  only  the  Jew  child  that  has  a  little 
home  feeling.  But  there  are  good  honest  people  amongst 
them.  There  was  one  near  us  in  Pomerania,  who  dealt 
in  skins  and  such-like  articles.  But,  for  once,  this  did  not 
succeed,  and  he  was  bankrupt.  Then  he  came  to  me 
and  begged  me  to  help  him,  and  not  bring  forward  my 
claim ;  he  would  repay  me  as  soon  as  he  could,  bit  by  bit. 
For  old  acquaintance'  sake,  I  agreed,  and  he  really  paid  me. 
Even  when  I  was  at  Frankfort  as  Envoy,  I  had  remittances 
from  him,  and  I  believe  that  I  lost  less  than  the  others. 
Perhaps  there  are  not  many  such  Jews  now.  But  they  have 
their  virtues ;  respect  for  their  parents,  fidelity  in  marriage, 
and  charitableness." 

Monday,  September  26. — Early  this  morning  I  worked  for 
the  press  on  different  lines  on  the  following  theme :  It 
is  asserted  that  Paris,  with   its   collections,  fine   buildings 


1 82         Bismarck  m  the  Franco-German  War.     [Cuai 

and  monuments,  must  not  be  bombarded,  that  it  would  be 
a  crime  against  civilisation.  Why  not  indeed  ?  Paris  is  a 
fortress.  That  there  are  within  it  treasures  of  art,  splendid 
palaces,  and  other  fine  things,  does  not  alter  its  character. 
A  fortress  is  an  apparatus  of  war,  which  must  be  rendered 
harmless,  without  reference  to  what  is  involved  in  doing 
so.  If  the  French  wish  to  keep  their  monuments,  and 
their  collections  of  books  and  pictures  safe  from  the  risks 
of  war,  they  should  not  surround  them  with  fortifications. 
For  the  rest,  the  French  themselves  did  not  for  a  moment 
hesitate  to  bombard  Rome,  which  contains  monuments 
of  quite  another  kind,  some  of  which  could  never  be  re- 
placed. Then,  an  article  on  the  desire  for  war  of  the  French 
Left  before  the  declaration  of  war,  to  be  made  use  of  in  our 
newspapers  in  Elsass. 

At  dinner,  the  King's  physician.  Dr.  Lauer,  was  present. 
The  conversation  turned  for  some  time  on  culinary  and 
gastronomical  matters.  In  the  course  of  this  we  learnt  that 
cherries  are  the  Chancellor's  favourite  fruit,  and  next  to 
them  large  blue  plums,  called  "  Baiienipflamne."  The  four 
carp,  which  formed  one  of  the  courses  at  dinner,  led  the 
Chief  to  speak  of  the  carp's  place  among  eatable  fish, 
on  which  point  he  expressed  himself  very  fully.  Among 
freshwater  fish  he  gave  the  first  place  to  Alarcincn,  not  to  be 
confounded  with  iI/?/;w/^'«,  and  to  trout,  of  which  last  he  had 
some,  very  fine,  in  the  streams  about  Varzin.  Of  the  large 
trout  which  are  so  prominent  in  banquets  at  Frankfort-on- 
the-Main,  he  thought  very  little.  He  preferred  sea-fish, 
and  among  them  all  he  placed  the  cod  first.  "  A  good 
smoked  flounder  is  not  at  all  bad,  and  even  tlie  common 
herring  is  not  to  be  despised  when  it  is  perfectly  fresh." 
Oysters  were  discussed,  and  he  said,  "  In  my  young  days, 
when  I  lived  at  Aachen,   I  conferred   a  benefit  on  the  in- 


VII.]  Oysters  and  Mushrooms.  183 

habitants  such  as  Ceres  did  when  she  revealed  the  art  of 
agriculture  to  mankind ;  in  fact,  I  taught  them  how  to  roast 
oysters."  Lauer  begged  for  the  recipe,  and  he  got  it.  If  I 
understood  rightly,  the  fish  was  strewn  with  bread  crumbs 
and  Parmesan  cheese,  and  roasted  in  its  shell  on  a  coal  fire. 
I  stuck  quietly  to  my  own  opinion  that  the  oyster  and 
cooking  have  nothing  to  do  with  each  other.  Fresh  and 
nothing  with  them,  that  is  the  only  true  recipe.  The 
Chief  then  spoke  as  a  thorough  connoisseur  of  wild  fruits, 
bilberries,  whortle-berries,  and  moss-berries,  and  of  the  nume- 
rous tribe  of  mushrooms,  of  which  he  had  eaten  many  in 
Finland,  of  kinds  not  known  among  us,  but  excellent.  Then 
he  spoke  of  eating  in  general,  and  said  jocularly,  "  In  our 
family  we  are  all  great  eaters.  If  there  were  many  in  the 
country  with  such  a  capacity,  the  state  could  not  exist.  I 
should  emigrate."  I  remembered  that  Frederick  the  Great 
had  done  great  things  in  the  same  line. 

The  conversation  then  turned  on  military  matters,  and 
the  Minister  said  that  the  Uhlans  were  still  the  best  cavalry. 
The  lance  gave  the  man  great  confidence.  It  is  said  that 
it  is  troublesome  among  trees,  but  that  is  a  mistake.  It 
is  very  useful  in  moving  aside  the  branches.  He  knew  this 
from  his  own  experience,  having  served  first  with  the  rifles 
and  afterwards  with  the  Landwehr  Lance  Cavalry.  The 
abolition  of  the  lance  in  all  the  cavalry  of  the  Landwehr 
was  a  mistake.  The  bent  sabre,  especially  when  it  is 
badly  ground,  is  of  very  little  use.  The  straight  cut-and- 
thrust  sword  is  much  more  practical. 

After  dinner  there  came  in  a  letter  from  Favre^  in  which 
he  asked,  first,  that  due  notice  should  be  given  of  the  bom- 
bardment of  Paris,  in  order  that  the  diplomatic  body  might 
have  time  to  get  away ;  secondly,  that  correspondence  with 
the  outer  world  should  be  permitted  them  by  means  of  letters. 


184         Bismayck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

When  he  came  down  from  the  Chief  with  the  letter,  Abeken 
said,  that  he  meant  to  answer  it  by  way  of  Brussels. 
"  Then,"  said  Keudell,  "  the  letter  will  reach  its  destination 
late,  or,  perhaps  not  at  all  :  it  will  come  back  to  us,"  "That 
does  not  matter,"  replied  Abeken.  .  .  .  The  King  wishes  to 
see  newspapers,  and  the  most  important  things  are  to  be 
marked  for  him.  The  Chief  proposed  to  him  the  Nord- 
Deiitsche  Allgemeifie  Zeitung,  and  I  am  to  attend  to  the 
marking  and  to  send  up  the  numbers  to  the  Minister. 

In  the  evening  I  am  several  times  called  up  to  the  Chief 
to  receive  my  orders,  I  learn  that  "  Favre's  account  of 
his  conversations  with  the  Chancellor  shows  an  anxiety  to 
be  truthful,  but  at  the  same  time  is  not  quite  exact,  which, 
under  the  circumstances,  and  considering  that  it  is  a  report 
of  three  conversations,  is  not  to  be -wondered  at."  In  par- 
ticular the  question  of  an  armistice  is  put  in  the  bark- 
ground,  whereas  in  reality  it  was  the  prominent  question. 
There  was  no  talk  of  Soissons,  but  of  Saargemiind. 
Favre  was  prepared  for  a  considerable  pecuniary  indemnity. 
The  question  of  a  truce  hung  upon  two  alternatives ;  either 
the  surrender  to  us  of  the  portion  of  the  fortifications  of 
Paris  dominating  the  city,  the  Parisians  having  free  inter- 
course with  the  outer  world  :  or  the  surrender  of  Strassburg 
and  Toul.  We  claimed  the  latter  because  in  the  hands 
of  the  French  it  threatens  our  supplies.  Upon  the  cession 
of  territory,  on  the  conclusion  of  peace,  the  Chancellor 
spoke  to  tlie  effect  that  he  could  only  explain  himself  on 
the  question  of  the  frontiers  after  the  principle  was  accepted. 
Then,  when  Favre  asked  for  some  indication  at  least  of  our 
demands  in  this  respect,  it  was  remarked  to  him  that  we 
needed  Strassburg,  "the  key  to  our  house,"  and  the  Depart- 
ments of  the  Upper  and  Lower  Rhine,  also  Metz  and  a 
part  of  the   Moselle    Department  for   our  securit}'  in  the 


VJI.]    Diplomatic  Papers  to  be  zvritten  in  Gennaji.    185 

future.     The  Armistice  was  to  enable  the  French  National 
Assembly  to  be  consulted. 

After  dinner  great  news  arrives  :  Rome  is  occupied  by 
the  Italians,  while  the  Pope  and  the  diplomatists  remain  in 
the  Vatican. 

Tuesday,  September  27. — Bolsing  slip  wed  me,  by  order 
of  the  Chief,  his  answer  to  Favre's  letter,  which  he  had  re- 
written and  made  shorter  and  firmer.  It  said  with  respect 
to  the  first  point :  A  notice  beforehand  is  not  the  usage  of 
war ;  and  as  to  the  second,  a  beleaguered  fortress  does  not 
appear  to  be  an  appropriate  position  for  diplomatists.  We 
shall  allow  open  letters,  containing  nothing  objectionable,  to 
pass  through.  In  this  view  of  things  we  hope  to  have  the 
concurrence  of  the  diplomatic  corps.  This  body  may  indeed 
go  to  Tours,  where  we  hear  that  the  French  Government  in- 
tends to  go.  The  answer  was  written  in  German,  a  practice 
which  Bernstorff  had  begun,  but  which  Bismarck  has  carried 
out  more  persistently.  In  earlier  days,  so  Bolsing  says,  most 
of  the  secretaries  in  the  foreign  office  belonged  to  the  French 
colony,  of  which  Roland  and  Delacroix  still  survive,  and 
almost  every  business  was  transacted,  even  by  the  coun- 
cillors, in  French.  Even  the  registers  of  exports  and 
imports  were  kept  in  French.  Ambassadors  usually  sent  in 
their  reports  in  French.  Now  the  language  of  those  "  vile 
Gauls,"  as  Count  Bohlen  calls  the  Frencli,  is  only  used 
exceptionally — for  instance,  to  those  Governments  and 
ambassadors  whose  mother-tongue  we  cannot  read  fluently 
^but  the  registers  for  years  past  have  been  kept  in 
German. 

Abeken  is  not  to  be  seen  to-day  in  the  Bureau,  and  we 
hear  that  he  has  had  an  apoplectic  attack,  and  that  Lauer 
has  been  summoned.  It  does  not,  however,  seem  to  be  very 
serious.     The  Chief  is  at  work  unusually  early — by  eight 


1 86         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

o'clock.  He  has  again  not  been  able  to  sleep.  I  got  from  him 
several  commissions  which  I  finished  in  the  course  of  the 
forenoon — articles  about  the  hostile  conduct  of  the  Luxem- 
burgers  ;  on  the  Chiefs  conference  with  Favre  \  upon  Eng- 
land and  America.  We  now  receive  an  abundance  of  news- 
papers, and  letters  from  Germany  have  been  arriving 
earlier  for  some  days  past.  B.  has  left  Hagenau,  because 
among  the  Bureaucrats  whom  he  met  there  it  was  too 
confining  and  uncomfortable.  He  had  worked  for  three 
weeks  with  great  zeal,  and  with  acknowledged  talent,  and 
attained  what  was  attainable  under  very  difficult  circum- 
stances, and  had  set  everything  going.  With  many  others, 
he  feels  disturbed  by  the  idea  that  we  may  be  thinking  of 
the  restoration  of  Napoleon,  though  he  considers  it  a  moral 
impossibility,  and  is  therefore  inclined  to  suppose  that  the 
intimations  in  the  press,  in  which  that  restoration  is  sug- 
gested as  possible,  are  only  intended  to  put  pressure  upoa 
the  Provisional  Government  in  Paris. 

At  dinner  Prince  Radziwill,  and  Knobelsdorff"  of  the 
general  staff,  were  present.  We  were  speaking  of  the  pas- 
sage in  Favre's  account  of  his  negotiations  with  the  Chief, 
where  he  is  said  to  have  wept.  "  It  is  true,"  said  the  Minis- 
ter. "  He  seemed  crying,  and  I  endeavoured  in  a  fashion 
to  console  him ;  but  when  I  looked  a  little  closer,  I  posi- 
tively believe  that  he  had  not  shed  a  tear.  He  intended, 
probably,  to  work  upon  my  feelings  with  a  little  theatrical 
performance,  as  the  Parisian  advocates  work  upon  their 
public.  I  am  almost  convinced  that  at  Ferrieres,  too,  he  was 
painted  white,  especially  the  second  time.  That  morning 
in  his  part  of  the  injured  and  much-suffering  man  he  looked 
much  greyer  than  he  (hd  before.  It  is  possible,  of  course, 
that  he  feels  all  tliis  \  but  he  is  no  politician.  He  ought 
to  know  that   bursts  of  feeling  are  out   of  place  in  poll- 


VII.]  General  Burnside.  187 

tics."  After  a  little  while  the  Minister  went  on  :  "  When  I 
dropped  a  word  about  Strassbura^  and  Metz,  he  made  a  face 
as  if  he  thought  I  were  joking.  I  should  like  to  have  told 
him  what  the  great  Kiirschner  once  said  to  me  in  Berlin. 
I  went  to  his  shop  with  my  wife  to  ask  the  price  of  a  fur 
cloak,  and  when  he  mentioned  a  high  price  for  one  that 
pleased  me,  I  said,  '  You  are  joking !'  '  No,'  he  rephed ; 
'in  business,  never.'" 

Later  in  the  evening  the  American  General  Burnside  was 
announced.  The  Chief  answered  that  he  was  now  at  dinner 
and  wished  the  General  would  be  so  kind  as  to  call  again — 
"  In  an  hour  or  two  ?  "  "  Ah  !  as  far  as  I  am  concerned,  in 
half  an  houi-."  Then  he  asked  me,  "  Now,  Doctor  Busch, 
who  is  this  man?"  I  said,  "A  very  prominent  General  in 
the  Civil  War,  and,  after  Grant  and  Sherman,  leaving  the 
Confederate  generals  out  of  account,  the  most  important." 

We  then  spoke  of  the  occupation  of  Rome  and  of  the 
Pope  in  the  Vatican;  and  the  Chief  said  of  the  Pope,  "Yes; 
sovereign  he  must  remain,  only  we  are  obliged  to  ask  how. 
We  should  be  able  to  do  much  more  for  him  if  the  Ultramon- 
tanes  were  not  always  so  active  against  us.  It  is  my  custom 
to  pay  people  back  in  their  own  coin."  "I  should  like  to 
know,  too,  how  our  Harry  (von  Arnim,  the  North-German 
Ambassador  at  the  Papal  Court)  finds  himself  now  ? 
Probably  to-day  so,  in  the  evening,  so,  and  in  the  morning 
again  something  quite  different,  like  his  reports.  He  would 
be  too  much  of  an  ambassador  for  a  small  sovereign,  but 
the  Pope  is  not  merely  the  Prince  of  the  States  of  the 
Church ;  he  is  the  head  of  the  Catholic  Church." 

After  dinner,  as  we  were  having  our  coffee,  Burnside  came 
with  an  older  gentleman,  who  wore  a  red  flannel  shirt  and  a 
paper  collar.  The  general  is  a  rather  tall,  well-made  man, 
with  thick  bushy  eyebrows,  and  singularly  line  white  teeth. 


1 88         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     LChap, 

With  his  precisely-trimmed  short  cropped  King  Wilham's 
beard,  he  might  have  been  taken  for  an  elderly  Prussian 
major  in  plain  clothes.  The  Chief  sat  with  him  on  the  sofa 
to  the  left  of  the  window  in  the  dining-room,  and  had  an 
animated  conversation  with  him  in  English  over  a  glass  of 
Kirsch-wasser  (cherry  cordial),  which  was  replenished  after  a 
little.  Meantime  Prince  Radziwill  talked  with  the  other 
gentleman.  When  the  Minister  remarked  to  his  visitor  that 
he  was  rather  late  in  coming  to  see  the  campaign,  and  Burn- 
side  had  explained  why,  the  Minister  told  him  that  in  July 
we  had  not  had,  neither  the  King  nor  the  people,  the 
slightest  intention  of  war,  and  when  we  were  surprised 
with  the  declaration  of  war,  had  not  a  thought  of  conquests. 
Our  army  is  excellent  for  a  war  of  defence,  but  not  easy  to 
use  for  plans  of  conquest,  for  the  army  is  the  people,  and 
the  people  are  not  desirous  of  glory.  They  need,  and  they 
wish,  peace.  That  is  why  the  press,  which  is  the  voice 
of  the  people,  now  demands  a  better  frontier.  For  peace' 
sake  we  must  now,  in  presence  of  an  ambitious  people, 
greedy  of  conquest,  think  of  our  security  for  the  future,  and 
we  can  only  find  it  in  a  better  defensive  position  than  we 
have  at  present.  Burnside  appeared  to  see  this,  and  was 
emphatic  in  praising  our  excellent  organisation  and  the 
heroism  of  our  troops. 

In  the  evening,  after  nine  o'clock,  I  had  telegraphed,  by 
the  Chiefs  direction,  that  the  Mobile  Guards  were  deserting 
in  great  numl)ers,  and  that  they  were  shooting  a  number 
of  them.  While  we  were  sitting  at  tea  Kriiger  brought  the 
news  that  Strassburg  had  fallen.  Keudell  asked  how  he 
came  to  know  it.  Bronsart  had  just  been  with  the  Chief  to 
announce  it,  and  Krausnick  then  told  us  that  Podbielski  had 
also  arrived  with  the  news.  Somewhat  later  Bronsart  himself 
came  into  the  Bureau  to  say  that  a  telegram  announcing  the 


VII.]  The  Imperialist  Mediator.  1 89 

capitulation  had  arrived,  and  he  added  that  the  Chancellor 
had  said  that  if  he  had  been  a  younger  man  he  would  have 
had  a  bottle  of  champagne  on  the  head  of  the  good  news, 
but  he  must  not,  or  he  would  be  unable  to  sleep. 

Wednesday,  September  28. — The  King  has  forbidden  all 
sporting  and  shooting  in  the  park.  To-day  he  drove  early 
to  a  great  review  of  the  troops  in  the  cantonments,  near 
Paris.  About  twelve  o'clock  I  wished  to  see  the  Minister, 
in  order  to  ask  him  a  question.  In  the  ante-room  I  was  told 
that  he  was  not  at  home.  "  Has  .he  ridden  out,  then  ? " 
"  No  ;  the  gentlemen  are  shooting  a  few  pheasants.  Engel 
was  to  go  after  them."  "Have  they  taken  their  guns?" 
"  No,  but  Podbielski  sent  them  on  before."  The  Chief 
came  back  about  two  o'clock,  and  he  and  Moltke  and 
Podbielski  had  been  shooting,  not  in  the  park,  but  in  the 
woods  to  the  north  and  north-east  of  it,  but,  as  it  seemed, 
with  little  success.  Abeken  was  now  better,  and  appeared 
once  more  in  the  Bureau,  but  not  yet  at  dinner. 

While  the  Minister  was  away,  an  elderly  gentleman  in  a 
grey  overcoat  and  grey  hat,  with  snow-white  hair,  verj^  sharply 
aquiline  nose,  grey  moustache  and  chin  tuft,  was  having 
breakfast.  He  was,  as  we  afterwards  heard,  the  Reynier  so 
much  spoken  of  by  the  newspapers  after  the  war,  who,  about 
the  end  of  September,  half  on  his  own  responsibility,  and 
half  not,  played  the  part  of  mediator  between  the  Empress 
Eugenie  and  Bazaine.  He  now  wanted  an  audience  of 
the  Chancellor.  Burnside  also  asked  to-day,  by  telegraph, 
whether  he  could  wait  upon  him  again,  and  at  what  houi. 
It  looked  as  if  he  also  Avished  to  come  and  mediate  as  a 
confidential  person.  I  answered  him,  by  order  of  the  Chief: 
"  The  Chancellor  will  be  happy  to  receive  you  this  evening, 
at  any  hour  you  please." 

At  dinner,  when  Count  Lehndorff,  and  Landrath  Count 


190         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

Fiirstenstein,  in  the  uniform  of  a  light-blue  dragoon,  with 
yellow  collar,  and  a  Herr  von  Katt  were  our  guests — of 
whom  the  two  latter  were  to  be  prefects  in  the  conquered 
French  districts — the  Chief  told  us  that  the  sport  in  the 
morning  had  not  been  very  successful,  which  he  attributed 
to  some  fault  in  the  cartridges.  He  had  killed  only  one 
pheasant,  and  had  wounded  three  or  four  others,  but  had 
not  got  them.  He  said,  that  when  he  had  been  here  before 
he  had  done  better,  at  least  with  the  pheasants ;  with  the 
other  game,  however,  it  had  not  been  so.  With  Dietze,  in 
Magdeburg,  he  had  once,  in  five  or  six  hours,  shot  a  hundred 
and  sixty  hares.  After  the  sport  was  over,  he  had  been  with 
Moltke,  where  he  had  tasted  a  new  kind  of  drink,  a  sort  of 
punch  made  with  champagne,  hot  tea,  and  sherry,  which,  if 
I  heard  rightly,  was  an  invention  of  the  great  general, — 
the  man  who  thinks  battles. 

Graver  ccTnversation  followed.  The  Chancellor  complained 
first,  that  Voigts-Rhetz  had  said  nothing  in  his  report  about 
[he  brilliant  charge  of  the  two  regiments  of  dragoon-guards 
;i  Mars-la-Tour,  which  he  himself  suggested,  and  which  had 
saved  the  Tenth  Army  Corps.  "  It  was  a  necessity,  I  must 
admit,  but  he  should  not  have  passed  it  over  in  silence." 
He  then  began  a  longer  discourse  suggested,  as  to  the  image 
which  started  him  off,  by  a  spot  of  grease  on  the  table- 
cloth, and  which  at  last  assumed"  the  character  of  a  dialogue 
between  the  Minister  and  Katt.  After  remarking  that  the 
feeling  that  it  is  noble  to  die  for  honour  and  the  Fatherland, 
even  without  recognition,  is  among  us  Germans  spreading 
through  the  nation  more  and  more,  Katt  went  on  to  say  : 
"  The  non-commissioned  officer  has  essentially  the  same 
view  and  the  same  feeling  of  duty  as  the  lieutenant  and  the 
colonel.  With  us  this  runs  through  e\ery  stratum  of  the 
nation."     "  1  he  French  are  a  mass  easily  brought  under  the 


Mi.J  The  Chancellor's  Faith.  191 

influence  of  one  leader,  and  are  then  very  powerful.  With 
us,  every  one  has  his  own  opinion  ;  and  with  Germans  it  is 
a  great  step  gained  when  any  considerable  number  of  them 
hold  the  same  opinion — if  they  all  did  so,  they  would  be 
omnipotent."  "  The  feeling  of  duty  in  a  man  who  submits 
to  be  shot  dead,  alone,  in  the  dark  "  (he  meant,  no  doubt, 
without  thinking  of  reward  and  honour  for  steadfastly  sticking 
without  fear  and  without  hope  to  the  post  assigned  to  him), 
"  the  French  have  not.  It  is  due  to  what  is  left  of  belief  in 
our  people  ;  from  the  fact,  that  I  know  that  there  is  Some 
One  who  sees  me,  when  the  lieutenant  does  not  see  me." 
"  Do  you  believe,  your  Excellency,  that  they  really  reflect 
on  this  ?"  asked  Fiirstenstein.  "  Reflect — no,  it  is  a  feeling, 
a  tone,  an  instinct,  I  believe.  If  they  reflect,  they  lose  it. 
Then  they  talk  themselves  out  of  it."  ..."  How,  without 
faith  in  a  revealed  religion,  in  a  God,  who  wills  what  is  good, 
in  a  Supreme  Judge,  and  a  future  life,  men  can  live  together 
harmoniously — each  doing  his  duty  and  letting  every  one 
else  do  his — I  do  not  understand."  "  If  I  were  no  longer  a 
Christian  I  would  not  remain  for  an  hour  at  my  post.  If  I 
could  not  count  upon  my  God,  assuredly  I  should  not  do  so 
on  earthly  masters.  Of  course  I  should  have  to  live,  and  I 
should  be  in  a  good  enough  position."  "  Why  should  I  disturb 
myself  and  work  unceasingly  in  this  world,  exposing  myself 
to  all  sorts  of  vexations,  if  I  had  not  the  feeling  that  I  must 
do  my  duty  for  God's  sake  ?  If  I  did  not  believe  in  a 
divine  order  which  has  destined  this  German  nation  for 
something  good  and  great,  I  would  at  once  give  up  the 
business  of  a  diplomatist,  or  I  would  not  have  undertaken 
it.  Orders  and  titles  have  no  charm  for  me."  ..."  I  owe 
the  firmness  which  I  have  shown  for  ten  years  against  all 
possible  absurdities  only  to  my  decided  faith.  Take  from 
me  this  faith  and  you  take  from  me  my  Fatherland.     If  I 


192         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

were  not  a  good  believing  Christian,  if  I  had  not  the  super- 
natural basis  of  religion,  you  would  not  have  had  such  a 
Chancellor.  .  .  .  Get  me  a  successor  on  the  same  basis 
and  I  give  up  at  once — but  I  live  among  heathens.  When 
I  say  this  I  don't  want  to  make  proselytes,  but  I  am 
obliged  to  confess  my  faith."  "  But  the  ancients,"  said 
Katt ;  "  surely  the  Greeks  displayed  self-denial  and  devotion, 
surely  they  had  a  love  for  their  country,  and  did  great  things 
with  it ;"  and  he  was  convinced  "  that  many  people  now  do 
the  same  thing  from  patriotic  feeling  and  the  consciousness 
of  belonging  to  a  great  unity."  The  Chief  replied,  "  This 
self-denial  and  devotion  to  duty,  to  the  State,  and  to  the 
King,  is  only  the  survival  of  the  faith  of  our  fathers  and 
grandfathers  transformed — indistinct  and  yet  active;  faith 
and  yet  faith  no  longer."  ..."  How  willingly  I  should  be 
off.  I  delight  in  country  life,  in  the  woods  and  in  nature. 
.  .  .  Take  from  me  my  relation  to  God,  and  I  am  the  man 
who  will  pack  up  to-morrow  and  be  off  to  Varzin  to  grow 
my  oats."    iyide  note  at  end  of  chapter.) 

After  dinner  the  Grand  Uuke  of  Weimar  was  upstairs 
with  the  Chancellor,  then  Reynier,  and  lastly  Burnside,  with 
his  companion  of  the  day  before. 

Thursday,  September  29, — Early  in  the  morning  I  wrote 
an  article  upon  the  folly  of  some  German  newspapers,  which 
oppose  our  claiming  Metz  and  the  neighbourhood,  because 
French  is  the  language  there,  and  another  against  Ducrot's 
inexcusable  escape,  while  he  was  being  conveyed  to  Ger- 
many.    The  second  article  is  to  be  sent  also  to  England. 

In  the  newspapers  there  is  a  statement  regarding  the 
feeling  in  Bavaria,  v»'hich  appears  to  be  derived  from 
authentic  sources,  the  substance  of  which  accordingly  I 
note  here  in  its  essential  points.  The  accounts  given  in 
it  are  for  the  most  part  good,  though  some  might  be  better. 


VII.]  Feeling  in  Bavaria.  193 

The  German  idea  has  evidently  spread  and  gained  in  strength 
through  the  war,  but  the  specifically  Bavarian  self-conscious- 
ness has  also  grown.  The  participation  of  the  army  in 
the  victories  of  the  German  host  at  Worth  and  Sedan,  and 
the  great  losses  it  has  sustained,  have  naturally  spread  en- 
thusiasm for  the  war  with  France  through  all  classes  of 
the  people,  and  filled  them  with  pride  in  the  deeds  of 
their  sons.  People  are  convinced  that  the  King  hopes  for 
the  victory  of  the  German  arms,  and  is  thoroughly  in 
sympathy  with  all  the  efforts  made  for  securing  it.  Those 
immediately  about  him  are  equally  well  disposed.  This 
is  not  supposed  to  be  the  case,  however,  with  all  his 
ministers.  The  Minister  of  War  is  certainly  earnestly 
anxious  for  the  successful  issue  of  the  war,  and  he  does 
all  that  is  possible  for  it.  Confidence,  therefore,  may  be 
placed  in  him,  and  we  may  assume  that  in  the  conditions 
of  peace  he  will  be  on  the  right  side. 

With  regard  to  the  re-arrangement  of  the  future  relations 
of  Germany,  which  may  be  developed  in  peace  through  per- 
manent closer  connections  originating  in  the  common  action 
begun  in  the  war,  no  conclusion  can  be  drawn  from  the  tone 
of  the  Bavarian  press,  which  is  very  sanguine  on  the  point. 

Many  persons  of  great  influence  regard  the  vigorous  co- 
operation of  the  Bavarians  in  the  German  victories  less  as 
a  means  to  a  greater  unity  of  Germany  than  as  a  proof  of 
the  power  of  Bavaria,  and  a  security  for  its  complete  in- 
dependence. The  Particularists,  not  of  the  Ultramontane 
party,  take  almost  the  same  view.  They  are  delighted  at 
our  successes,  and  proud  of  the  share  which  the  Bavarians 
have  had  in  them.  They  admire  the  Prussian  conduct  of 
the  war,  and  desire,  as  we  do,  the  security  of  Germany 
against  further  attacks  from  the  West ;  but  they  show  no 
wish  for  a  union  of  Bavaria  with  the  North  German  Con- 

VOL.    I.  0 


194         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

federation  in  its  present  form.  In  these  circles  also  there 
is  much  discussion  on  the  distribution  of  the  conquered 
French  territory.  They  would  like  to  see  Elsass  united 
with  Baden,  provided  that  the  Baden  Palatinate  were  ceded 
to  Bavaria.  Sagacious  men  see  ground  to  fear  that  after 
the  peace  Baden  and  probably  Wiirtemberg  will  desire  union 
with  the  Northern  Confederation.  The  Ultramontanes  are 
still  the  same  as  before,  though  they  do  not  express  their 
thoughts.  Happily,  they  have  lost  all  confidence  in  Austria, 
so  that  they  are  without  support,  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  Bavarians  in  the  field  have  a  very  different  opinion  of 
the  Prussians  from  what  they  had  before  the  war.  They  are 
full  of  praise  for  their  comrades  of  the  north,  not  merely 
for  their  military  qualities  and  deeds,  but  their  readiness  to 
help  with  their  own  stores,  when  they  happen  to  be  sooner 
or  more  amply  provided  than  the  Bavarians.  More  than 
one  has  written  home  that  their  priests  have  deceived  them 
about  the  Prussians ;  that  it  is  not  true  that  they  are  all 
Lutherans — many  are  Catholics,  and  they  have  even  seen 
Catholic  chaplains  among  them.  As  the  officers  think  in 
the  same  way,  the  army  on  its  return  home  will  be  an 
effective  propaganda  against  Ultramontanism,  and  indeed 
against  extreme  Particularism.  We  may  suppose  that  the 
National  German  party  in  Bavaria  feel  themselves  stronger 
than  ever,  and  they  would  do  their  utmost  for  the  cause  : 
but  they  have  not  the  majority  in  the  Second  Chamber, 
and  in  the  Upper  House  scarcely  more  than  two  or  three 
think  with  them. 

At  dinner,  when  Count  Borck,  the  proprietor  of  a  large 
estate  in  Pomerania  (in  military  uniform),  and  Ensign  von 
Arnim-Krochlendorf,  a  cuirassier  and  nephew  of  the  Chief, 
dined  with  us,  very  littfe  passed  which  was  worth  relating. 
They  talked  of  the  Grand  Duke  of  Weimar  and  such  like. 
Then  the  Minister  said  that  some  one  had  asked  him  what 


VII.]  TJie  German  Press  on  Clemency.  195 

they  were  going  to  do  with  the  Mobile  Guards  taken  prisoner 
at  Strassburg.  "  Are  they  to  be  sent  home  ?"  somebody 
asked.  "God  forbid,"  said  I,  "they  should  be  sent  to 
Upper  Silesia." 

Friday,  September  30. — Another  letter  received  from  B. 
in  B.,  who  continues  to  employ  his  talent  and  influence  to 
express  the  Chancellor's  views  in  the  papers.  He  was 
asked  in  answer  to  make  a  stand  against  the  absurdity 
some  German  journalists  are  falling  into,  who  while  we  are 
at  war,  and  scarcely  out  of  the  very  thickest  of  it,  prate  so 
zealously  about  moderation.  These  gentlemen  are  very  free 
with  their  advice  as  to  how  far  we  Germans  may  go  in 
our  demands,  and  plead  in  favour  of  France,  when  they 
would  show  far  more  wisdom  by  pitching  our  demands  high. 
"  By  doing  this,"  said  the  Minister,  when  he  complained  of 
these  articles,  "  we  shall  get  at  least  what  is  fair,  though  not 
everything  we  want.  They  will  force  me  yet  to  demand  the 
Line  of  the  Meuse." 

The  great  people  are  having  a  feast  to-day.  They  keep, 
it  is  said,  the  Queen's  birthday.  We  have  again  heard  shots 
from  the  neighbourhood  of  Paris,  and  in  the  evening  the 
Chief  allowed  me  to  telegraph  the  news  with  the  addition 
that  a  sortie  had  taken  place,  and  that  the  P'rench  had  been 
driven  with  great  loss  and  in  wild  disorder  back  into  the  city. 

Saturday,  October  i. — I  wrote  two  articles,  one  for  Berlin 
and  the  others  for  Hannover.  At  breakfast  there  were  the 
Bern  Professor  of  National  Economy,  Dr.  Jannasch,  and  a 
companion.  These  gentlemen  have  gone  through  many 
difficulties  and  fatigues  in  getting  here.  At  dinner,  where 
the  Minister  was  not  present,  we  had  Count  Waldersee  as 
our  guest.  He  wishes  Paris,  as  a  Sodom  which  corrupts  the 
vvorld,  to  be  thoroughly  humbled. 

Sunday,  October  2. — Count  Bill  came  to  visit  his  father. 

o  2. 


ig6         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gei'man  War.     [Chap. 

Early  in  the  morning  I  despatched  a  telegram,  and  in  the 
evening  two  articles.     Not  much  else  to  be  noted  to-day. 

But — at  tea  Hatzfeld  mentioned  that  he  had  visited  our 
neighbour  at  Guernant  on  the  road  to  Lagny,  and  that  the 
proprietor,  the  Marquis  Tolosan  or  d'Olossan,  a  comfortable, 
paunchy  gentleman,  had  complained  of  the  people  quartered 
on  him.  The  Prussians,  he  said,  were  charming,  but  the 
Wiirtembergers  were  quite  too  familiar.  No  sooner  had 
they  entered  his  house  than  they  had  slapped  him  on  the 
stomach,  saying,  "  A  splendid  corporation."  They  made 
continual  demands.  He  had  given  them  four  thousand 
bottles  of  Bordeaux  and  the  keys  of  his  cellar,  and  yet 
they  were  always  looking  about  as  if  more  were  concealed. 
He  had  given  them  two  out  of  the  three  carriages  in  his 
coach-house,  and  only  wanted  to  keep  quite  a  little  one  for 
himself,  which  he  much  needed  as  it  was  difficult  for  him  to 
get  about.  But  they  had  taken  even  that  carriage  out  for 
the  whole  day,  and  when  he  remonstrated  they  laughed,  and 
said  it  was  always  the  way  in  war. 

This  led  some  one  to  remark  that  a  poor  man  had 
relatively  more  to  endure  than  the  rich  and  people  of  rank. 
The  Chief  said,  recalling  a  speech  of  Sheridan's  in  Reims, 
that  this  did  not  signify,  as  there  are  more  poor  people 
than  very  rich  ones ;  we  must  keep  in  view  the  end  of  war, 
which  is  an  advantageous  peace.  "The  more  French  people 
who  had  to  suffer,  the  more  would  they  long  for  peace^ 
whatever  conditions  we  made."  "  And  as  for  their  treache 
rous  Francs-tireurs,  who  stand  about  at  one  moment  in  their 
blouses  with  their  hands  in  their  pockets,  and  next  moment, 
when  the  soldiers  are  past,  whip  out  their  guns  from  the 
ditch  and  fire  at  us,  it  will  come  to  this,  that  we  shall  have 
to  shoot  every  male  inhabitant.  This  really  would  not  be 
worse  than  in  battle  where  they  kill  each  other  at  2000  paces, 
when  they  cannot  distinguish  each  other's  faces." 


VII.]  Russian  Life.  197 

The  conversation  then  turned  upon  Kussia  and  the  com- 
munistic partition  of  land  which  exists  there  among  the 
village  communities,  and  upon  the  families  of  the  smaller 
nobility,  who  used  to  lay  out  their  savings  in  buying  serfs, 
extorting  rent  from  them  in  the  shape  of  obrok*  and  of  the 
incredible  riches  of  many  of  the  old  Boyard  families.  The 
Chief  quoted  many  examples,  and  spoke  at  length  of  the 
Jussupows,  whose  property,  although  it  had  been  several 
.times  half  confiscated  in  punishment  for  their  conspiracies, 
was  yet  far  greater  than  that  of  most  German  princes,  and 
had  borne,  without  noticing  the  fact,  two  serfs  who  acted  as 
managers,  draining  three  millions  from  it  during  their  time  of 
service.  The  palace  of  the  prince  in  St.  Petersburg  contains 
a  large  theatre,  a  ball  room  in  the  style  of  the  White  drawing- 
room  in  the  palace  at  Berlin,  and  magnificent  halls  in 
which  three  or  four  hundred  persons  can  comfortably  dine." 
Old  Jussupow,  twenty  years  ago,  kept  open  house  every 
day.  A  poor  old  retired  officer  had  dined  for  many  years 
in  the  house  daily  without  their  knowing  who  he  was.  Once 
he  stayed  away  a  longer  time  than  usual  and  they  inquired 
after  him  from  the  police,  when  they  learned  the  name  and 
condition  of  their  guest  of  many  years'  standing. 

Monday,  October  3. — Except  for  my  journal,  to-day  was 
for  me  a  dies  sitie  liftea,  for  the  Minister  was  invisible  both 
before  and  after  dinner.  At  dinner,  at  which  were  Marshal  of 
the  Household  Perponcher  and  a  Herr  von  Thadden,  who 
was  designated  as  a  member  of  the  administration  in  Reims, 
the  Chief  told  several  good  anecdotes  of  old  Rothschild  in 
Frankfort.  On  one  occasion  he  had  spoken  in  his  presence 
with  a  corn  merchant  about  a  sale  of  wheat,  when  the 
merchant  said  to  Rothschild  that  being  so  rich  a  man  he 


'& 


*  The  obrok  was  a  rent  levied  by  the  proprietor,  not  on  the  tenants 
individual  farms  but  on  the  whole  communities.     The  institution  was 
common  between  1830  and  1863,  when  the  serfs  were  emancipated, 


198         Bismarck  iti  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

would  never  think  it  necessary  to  put  the  highest  price  on 
his  wheat.  "  What  rich  man  do  you  mean  ?"  replied  the  old 
gentleman.  "Is  my  wheat  worth  less  because  I  am  a  rich 
man  ?"  "  He  used  to  give  dinners  sometimes  which  were 
quite  worthy  of  his  great  riches.  I  remember  once  when 
the  present  King  was  in  Frankfort  I  invited  him  to  dinner. 
Later  in  the  same  day  Rothschild  also  asked  his  Majesty 
to  dine  with  him,  to  which  the  King  replied,  that  he  must 
settle  matters  with  me,  that  for  his  own  part  he  did  not 
care  with  w^hich  of  us  he  dined.  The  Baron  now  came  and 
proposed  that  I  should  cede  his  Royal  Highness  to  him  and 
that  I  should  join  them  at  dinner.  I  refused  this,  but  he 
had  the  fta'ivete  to  suggest  that  his  dinner  might  be  sent  to 
my  house,  although  he  could  not  eat  with  us,  as  he  only 
partook  of  strictly  Jewish  fare.  This  proposal  also  I  begged 
leave  to  decline — naturally,  though  his  dinner  doubtless  was 
better  than  mine."  Old  Metternich,  who,  by  the  way,  was 
very  kind  to  me,  told  me  that  once  when  he  had  been 
visiting  Rothschild,  the  Baron  gave  him  some  luncheon  to 
eat  on  the  way  back  to  Johannisberg,  with  which  there  were 
packed  six  bottles  of  Johannisberg  wine.  When  they 
reached  Johannisberg  (Metternich's  estate)  these  bottles 
were  taken  out  unopened.  The  Prince  then  sent  for  his 
wine  steward,  and  inquired  hov/  much  that  wine  cost  him  a 
bottle.  "  Twelve  gulden,"  was  the  answer.  "  Well,  take 
those  bottles,  and  the  next  order  you  get  from  Baron 
Rothschild  send  them  back  to  him,  but  charge  him  fifteen 
gulden,  for  they  will  then  be  older." 

Tuesday,  October  4. — Again,  to-day,  the  Chief  did  not  call 
for  me.  After  breakfast,  Legations-Rath  Bucher  and  Secre- 
tary Wiehr,  a  cipherer,  came  to  us.  The  former  seems  to 
have  been  summoned  to  replace  Abeken,  who  was  to  have 
gone  home,  but  has  now  recovered,  and  is  only  ordered  to 
live  very  carefully.      No  one  could  have    filled   his    place 


VII.]  Moltke  as  a  War  Weather-glass.  199 

better  than  B.,  who  is  undoubtedly  the  most  learned,  in- 
telligent, and  laborious  of  all  the  higher  workers  who  surround 
the  Chief,  and  give  expression  to  his  thoughts.  The  gentle- 
men had  travelled  by  rail  to  Nanteuil,  and  had  stayed  the 
night  in  La  Ferte,  where  the  ruins  caused  by  the  explosion 
had  not  been  cleared  away.  They  dined  with  us  in  the 
evening.  With  that  the  Chancellor  came  to  speak  about 
Moltke,  and  how  he  had  held  out  bravely  over  the  sherry 
punch-bowl,  and  been  pleasanter  than  ever.  Some  one 
remarked  that  the  General  looked  wonderfully  well.  "  Yes," 
said  the  Chief,  "and  I,  too,  have  not  been  so  well  for  a 
long  time  as  now.  That  is  the  war — and  especially  with 
him.  It  is  his  business.  I  remember  when  the  Spanish 
was  the  burning  question  that  he  looked  at  once  ten  years 
younger.  When  I  told  him  the  Hohenzollern  prince  had 
given  the  thing  up,  he  became  all  at  once  quite  old  and 
worn-looking;  but  when  the  French  made  difficulties, 
Moltke  was  fresh  and  young  again  immediately." 

Whilst  we  were  dining,  a  ktter  came  to  the  Minister  from 
Bancroft,  the  ambassador  of  the  United  States  in  Berlin, 
which  he  gave  me  to  translate  into  German  for  the  good 
of  the  company,  and  in  which  the  American  thinks  him- 
self fortunate  to  live  in  an  age  including  men  like  King 
Wilhelm  and  our  Count.  Before  this,  when  I  went  into  the 
dining-room,  where  the  Chief  and  his  visitors  the  two  dra- 
goon officers  were  at  first  alone,  he  presented  me  to  these 
two  gentlemen  as  "  Doctor  Busch,  from  Saxony,"  and  then, 
with  his  friendliest  look,  called  me,  "  Biischlein  (my  little 
Busch)."  Our  secretaries  have  for  some  time  been  longing  for 
a  uniform.  To-day  this  was  spoken  of  at  dessert  by  Bdlsing 
and  behold,  a  good  word  brought  a  good  deed.  "  Why 
not  ? "  said  the  Chief.  "  Only  send  me  a  little  statement 
on  the  subject,  and  I  will  soon  arrange  it  with  the  King." 
This  evening  there  was  much  joy  in  the  tents  of  Israel. 


200  Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.    [Chap.  vil. 

In  the  morning  we  are  to  start  betimes.  We  have  a  long 
journey  before  us;  our  next  night  quarters  will  be  at 
Versailles. 

Note. — Compare  the  discourse  of  Herr  von  Bismarck  on  June  15, 
1847,  in  the  United  Diet.  He  said,  "  I  am  of  opinion  that  the  idea  of 
the  Christian  state  is  as  old  as  the  ti-dei'ant  Holy  Roman  Empire,  as 
old  as  the  whole  group  of  European  states,  that  it  is  the  very  ground 
in  which  these  states  struck  their  roots,  and  that  every  state  which 
wishes  to  secure  its  own  permanence,  or  to  justify  its  existence,  must 
rest  on  a  religious  basis.  The  words,  'By  the  grace  of  God,'  which 
Christian  sovereigns  usually  put  after  their  names,  are,  for  me,  no 
empty  words.  I  see  in  them  the  confession  that  these  princes  are  to 
bear  the  sceptre  put  into  their  hands  on  earth  by  God,  in  accordance 
with  His  will.  I  can  only  recognise  as  God's  will  what  is  revealed  in 
the  Christian  Gospels,  and  I  believe  myself  justified  in  calling  a  state 
Christian  when  it  imposes  on  itself  the  mission  of  realising  the  teach- 
ing of  Christianity.  We  can  recognise  nothing  but  Christianity  as  the 
religious  principle  of  the  state.  Take  it  away,  and  the  state  is  nothing 
better  than  a  casual  aggregate  of  rights,  a  sort  of  bulwark  against  a 
war  of  everyone  against  everyone  else,  a  conception  familiar  to  ancient 
philosophy.  Its  legislation  will  not  derive  a  regenerating  power  from 
the  fountain  of  eternal  truth.  It  will  fashion  itself  according  to  the 
vague  and  uncertain  conception  of  Humanity  as  it  is  found  in  the  minds 
of  the  men  at  the  head  of  affairs.  I  cannot  see  how  such  states  can 
combat  the  ideas — e.g.,  of  the  Communists  on  the  immorality  of  pro- 
perty, or  the  high  moral  value  of  theft,  as  an  attempt  to  restore  the 
inborn  right  of  the  individual  man  to  make  himself  something,  when 
he  feels  conscious  of  the  power  to  do  so.  These  ideas  are  considered  by 
those  who  hold  them  not  merely  humane,  but  as  the  first  flower  of 
Humanity.  Let  us  not,  therefore,  gentlemen,  humiliate  the  Christianity 
of  the  people  by  showing  that  we  do  not  think  it  necessary  for  their 
lawgivers — let  us  not  take  the  conviction  away  from  them  that  our 
legislation  comes  from  Christianity  as  its  source — that  the  state  aims  at 
the  realisation  of  Christianity,  though  it  never  attains  its  aim  When  I 
think  of  a  Jew  as  a  representative  to  me  of  the  consecrated  Majesty  of 
the  King,  whom  I  am  to  obey,  I  must  confess  that  I  feel  myself  deeply 
humiliated  and  depressed,  and  that  the  delight  and  the  honourable  self- 
respect  with  which  I  now  fulfil  my  duties  to  the  state  have  a  heavy 
burden  laid  on  them." 


(      201      ) 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE   JOURNEY   TO   VERSAILLES THE    HOUSE    OF    MADAME 

JESSfi — OUR    USUAL    LIFE   THERE. 

We  left  Ferriferes  on  the  ^th  of  October  about  seven  o'clock  in 
the  morning.  At  first  we  drove  by  country  roads,  in  capital 
condition,  through  a  great  wood  and  a  number  of  pretty 
villages,  Avhich  seemed  to  be  quite  deserted  by  their  inhabi- 
tants, and  occupied  only  by  German  soldiers,  past  parks  and 
castles.  Everything  looked  uncommonly  rich  and  well-to-do 
— as  rich  as  Brie  cheese,  in  the  native  county  of  which  I 
believe  we  now  are.  In  these  villages  we  found  first 
Wiirtemberg  and  farther  on  Prussian  soldiers  quartered. 

It  was  after  ten  when  we  reached  the  upper  edge  of  the 
valley  of  the  Seine,  where  we  got  down  through  a  vineyard 
to  the  low  country  on  the  banks  of  the  river  to  a  new  and 
dreadfully  steep  road,  so  steep  that  everyone  had  to  get 
out  of  the  carriage,  which  was  only  kept,  by  careful  tacking, 
from  upsetting  and  breaking  to  pieces.  Then  we  drove 
through  the  charming  town  of  Villeneuve  Saint-George,  the 
villas  in  which  have  been  shockingly  devastated.  In  several 
of  them  which  I  visited  whilst  our  horses  were  resting  after 
their  fatigue,  the  mirrors  were  broken,  the  furniture  des- 
troyed, and  the  linen  and  papers  scattered  about.  When  we 
started  again,  our  road  took  us  over  a  canal  or  tributary 
water  out  into  the  open  country,  and  then  to  a  pontoon 
bridge  across  the  Seine,  at  the  ends  of  which  great  black 
and  white  flags  were  waving.     The  water  of  the  river  was 


202         Bismarck  in  the  Fratico-Germaii  War.     [Chap. 

clear  and  green,  so  that  one  could  distinctly  see  the  many 
weeds  at  the  bottom,  and  its  breadth  seemed  much  the 
same  as  that  of  the  Elbe  at  Pirna.  On  the  other  side  we 
were  met  by  the  Crown  Prince  and  his  retinue.  He  had 
ridden  out  to  meet  the  King,  who  mounted  his  horse  here 
as  he  was  going  to  review  the  troops.  The  Chancellor 
accompanied  him,  and  we  drove  on  alone. 

Not  far  from  this  our  way  opened  into  the  high  road 
leading  up  a  little  farther  on  to  Villeneuve-le-Roi,  where 
some  peasants,  mostly  old  people,  had  remained  behind, 
and  where  we  halted  in  a  farm  building  in  front  of  manure 
heaps  to  eat  the  cold  breakfast  we  had  brought  with  us. 
Out  of  the  wall  of  the  house  flows  a  clear  stream  of  water, 
and  a  tablet  above  it  says  that  on  such  and  such  a  day 
Sieur  X.  and  his  wife  found  this  water,  and  made  it 
accessible  to  the  public  by  means  of  a  pipe.  Just  below  it 
is  a  tablet  which  states :  "  The  doers  of  good  deeds  are 
forgotten,  their  good  deeds  remain."  An  old  man  in  the 
blouse  common  to  the  country,  and  the  high,  grey,  night- 
cap of  the  French  country  people,  who  was  shuffling  about 
in  wooden  shoes,  tapped  me  on  the  shoulder  and  asked 
whether  it  was  not  a  pretty  saying.  I  then  learnt  from 
him  that  he  himself  was  the  male  half  of  the  pair  of 
benefactors  whom  the  tablet  recommends  to  the  thankful 
remembrance  of  a  forgetful  world.  One  ought  not  to  hide 
one's  light  under  a  bushel,  says  the  Frenchman,  when  he 
puts  up  a  tablet  to  himself. 

We  passed  a  second  village  where  there  was  a  camp  of 
straw  barracks.  The  guards  on  the  roadside  had  sentry 
boxes,  which  were  made  of  two  doors  taken  oiT  their  hinges, 
a  white  Venetian  blind  for  the  back,  and  a  bundle  of  straw 
for  a  roof,  Prussian  infantry  massed  in  battalions  on  the 
road,  waited  for  their  royal  commander-in-chief,  and  further 


VIII.]  First  Sight  of  Paris.  203 

on — encamped  in  a  field  near  a  wood — was  a  division  of 
cavalry  —  green,  brown,  and  red  Hussars,  Uhlans,  and 
Cuirassiers. 

For  a  long  time  I  kept  hoping  to  see  Paris  come  in  sight. 
But  on  the  right  hand,  where  it  must  lie,  the  view  was 
bounded  by  a  rather  high  wooded  line  of  hills,  on  the  sides 
of  which  a  village  or  little  town  could  be  seen  here  and 
there.  At  last  there  was  a  depression  in  the  ridge,  a  narrow 
valley,  over  which  a  yellowish  elevation  with  sharp  edges, 
perhaps  a  fort,  could  be  seen,  and  to  the  left  of  it,  over 
an  aqueduct  or  viaduct,  amid  the  columns  of  smoke  rising 
from  factory  chimneys,  the  bluish  outlines  of  a  great  dome- 
shaped  building.  The  Panthe'on !  Hurrah,  we  are  in 
front  of  Paris  !  It  can  hardly  be  more  than  seven  miles 
from  here. 

Soon  afterwards  we  came  to  the  point  on  the  great  paved 
Imperial  road,  where  it  was  crossed  by  the  high  road  into 
Paris.  A  Bavarian  picket  was  stationed  there ;  on  the  left 
was  a  wide  plain,  on  the  right  a  continuation  of  the  wooded 
hills,  and  half-way  up  them  a  white  town,  Villejuif  or 
Sceaux  ?  Then  down  again,  past  two  more  villages,  where 
the  inhabitants  have  not  fled,  but  await  us  in  considerable 
numbers.  At  last  we  drive  through  iron  gates  with  gilded 
spikes  into  a  broad  street,  through  more  streets  full  of  life, 
across  a  straight  avenue  of  old  trees,  through  a  short  street 
with  three-storied  houses,  fine  shops,  and  a  cafe,  and  up 
a  second  avenue  and  another  street  which  drops  down  into 
it.     We  are  at  our  allotted  quarters  in  Versailles. 

On  the  dth  of  October,  the  day  after  our  arrival  in  the  old 
royal  city  of  France,  Keudell  wagered  me  that  our  stay  here 
would  probably  extend  to  three  weeks — and  this  seemed  to 
me  quite  possible,  for  we  had  been  accustomed  to  rapid  suc- 
cesses during  this  war.     In  fact,  as  the  Minister  anticipated, 


204         Bismm'ck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

according  to  a  note  which  will  be  found  in  the  next  chapter, 
we  remained  five  whole  months.  As  the  house  where  we 
found  shelter  was  the  theatre  of  most  important  events,  a 
detailed  description  of  it  will  probably  be  welcome. 

The  house  which  the  Chancellor  occupied  belonged  to  a 
Madame  Jesse,  the  widow  of  a  prosperous  cloth  manufac- 
turer, who,  with  her  two  sons,  had  fled  shortly  before  our 
arrival,  to  Picardy  or  Sologne,  and  had  left  behind,  as  the 
protectors  of  their  property,  only  the  gardener  and  his  wife. 
It  stands  in  the  Rue  de  Provence,  which  connects  the 
Avenue  de  Saint-Cloud,  near  its  upper  end,  with  the  Boule- 
vard de  la  Reine,  and  is  numbered  14.  The  street  is  one 
of  the  quietest  in  Versailles,  and  in  only  a  part  of  it  do  the 
houses  stand  close  together.  The  gaps  between  the  others 
are  gardens,  separated  from  the  street  by  high  walls,  over 
which  the  tops  of  trees  show  here  and  there.  Our  house, 
which  was  to  the  right  hand  of  a  person  coming  from  the 
avenue,  has  a  tolerably  wide  open  space  on  both  sides.  It 
lies  rather  back  from  the  street,  above  which,  in  front, 
rises  a  little  terrace  wdth  a  balcony,  ending  with  the  wall 
enclosing  the  whole.  The  entrance  is  through  this  wall  on 
the  left  hand  by  a  gate  of  open  ironwork,  in  which  there  is 
a  small  door.  During  the  last  months  of  our  stay  there 
waved  over  it  a  flag  of  black,  white,  and  red.  On  the  right 
a  noble  pine  shades  the  whole  building,  which  is  a  villa 
plastered  yellow,  with  five  windows  in  front  fitted  with 
white  blinds.  Above  the  raised  ground  floor  is  a  second 
story,  and  above  that  an  attic  story,  with  Mansard  windows, 
which,  as  well  as  the  sloping  roof,  is  covered  with  slates. 
The  house  is  approached  from  the  entrance  through  a 
court  by  means  of  stone  steps  leading  up  to  the  main  door, 
which  opens  into  an  entrance  hall.  On  the  right  of  this 
is  the  chief  staircase  ;   on  the  left  is  the  door  to  a  little 


VIII.]  Madame  Jesse's  House.  205 

back  staircase,  and  two  large  folding-doors.  These  lead 
into  a  middle-sized  room,  looking  on  the  garden,  which 
was  made  into  our  dining-room.  A  third  folding-door 
opposite  the  entrance  opens  into  the  drawing-room,  a  fourth 
to  the  right  of  that  into  the  billiard-room,  from  which  we 
step  into  a  winter-garden,  a  long  room  built  of  glass  and 
iron,  with  all  kinds  of  plants  and  trees  and  a  little  fountain, 
whilst  on  the  opposite  wall  is  a  door  which  leads  to  a  small 
room  containing  the  library  of  the  late  M.  Jesse.  Under 
the  main  staircase,  a  passage  leads  to  the  kitchen,  which  lies 
below  the  terrace. 

In  the  drawing-room  is  a  cottage  piano,  a  sofa,  easy  chairs, 
and  two  mirrors.  In  front  of  one  of  them  is  a  little  table, 
on  which  stood  an  old-fashioned  timepiece,  surmounted  by 
a  demon-like  bronze  figure,  with  great  wings,  and  biting  its 
thumbs,  perhaps  a  model  of  the  family  spirit  of  Madame 
Jesse,  who  afterwards  showed  herself  to  be  anything  but  an 
amiable  person.  He  watched  with  a  sardonic  grin  the  ne- 
gotiations which  led  to  the  treaties  with  the  South  German 
States,  to  the  proclamation  of  the  German  Emperor  and 
Empire,  and  later  to  the  surrender  of  Paris  and  the  settle- 
ment of  the  conditions  of  peace — treaties,  all  of  which  were 
signed  in  this  drawing-room,  which  is  therefore  a  world- 
famous  place.  On  the  little  table  in  front  of  the  other  mirror 
lay,  on  the  day  after  our  entrance,  a  small  map  of  France, 
upon  which  the  movements  of  the  French  army  were  marked 
by  pins  with  different  coloured  heads.  "  Probably  it  belongs 
to  Madame,"  said  the  Chief,  as  I  was  contemplating  it ; 
"  but  you  see  it  is  not  marked  after  Worth." 

The  billiard-room  was  fitted  up  as  the  Bureau  for  tlie 
Councillors,  the  despatch  secretaries,  and  the  cipherers. 
A  part  of  the  winter  garden,  when  the  severe  frost  began 
in  January,  was  occupied  by  a  detachment  which  furnished 


2o6         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap 

sentries  for  the  entrance,  and  which,  at  first,  consisted 
of  infantry  of  the  Une,  and  afterwards  of  Green  Rifles. 
The  hbrary  was  appropriated  by  orderhes  and  chancery 
messengers,  and  now  and  then  a  corpulent  leather  despatch- 
bag,  which  sometimes  was  so  obUging  as  to  carry  things 
not  official,  like  our  winter  clothes — and,  for  some  days,  by 
a  heap  of  French  letters  which  had  formed  the  freight  of 
a  balloon  captured  by  our  soldiers. 

On  ascending  the  main  flight  of  stairs  another  fore-hall 
was  reached  which  had  a  square  opening  above,  and  over 
that  a  flat  window  in  the  roof  which  admitted  a  kind  of 
twilight.  Two  doors  led  from  it  into  the  apartments  of 
the  Minister,  two  little  rooms  communicating,  neither  more 
than  ten  paces  long  and  seven  broad.  One,  the  windows 
of  which  occupied  the  right  side  of  the  main  front  and 
looked  out  on  the  garden,  served  both  as  his  study  and 
sleeping-room,  and  was  rather  barely  furnished.  To  the 
right  by  the  wall,  opposite  the  window,  stood  the  bed, 
and  farther  on  in  a  sort  of  alcove  the  washhand-stand.  On 
the  other  side  was  a  mahogany  commode,  with  brass 
handles  to  pull  out  the  drawers  by,  on  which,  during  the 
last  months,  stood  the  boxes  of  cigars  sent  to  the  Minister 
by  his  friends  in  Bremen.  The  window-curtains  were  of 
flowered  woollen  stuff  on  a  dark  ground.  On  the  fourth 
wall  was  the  fireplace.  A  sofa,  which  was  latterly  some- 
times drawn  up  to  the  fire,  a  table  in  the  middle  of  the 
room,  at  which  the  Minister  worked  with  his  back  to  tlie 
window,  and  on  which  there  was  no  lack  of  maps  of  the 
country,  and  a  few  chairs  completed  the  extremely  simple 
furniture. 

The  other  room,  which  was  furnished  somewhat  better 
but  by  no  means  luxuriously,  was,  as  well  as  the  drawing- 
room    on    the    ground   floor,    to    serve   for    the   reception 


VIII.]  Our  Rooms  and  Furniture.  207 

of  strangers.  It  was,  if  I  remember  rightly,  the  room 
of  the  elder  son  of  the  proprietress,  and,  during  the  nego- 
tiations for  the  capitulation  of  Paris,  it  was  devoted  to 
Jules  Favre,  for  his  meditations  and  his  correspondence. 

It  had  only  one  window  looking  out  on  that  side  of  the 
house  where  the  pine-tree  stood,  with  curtains  of  green 
woollen  stuflf.  There  was  a  figured  grey  carpet.  The  fur- 
niture consisted  of  a  writing-table,  on  which  were  two  globes 
and  a  tellurium ;  a  large  commode  with  marble  top,  a  sofa 
covered  with  chintz,  with  black  and  grey  birds  of  paradise 
sitting  on  branches,  on  a  red  ground,  a  large  and  a  small 
arm-chair  covered  with  green,  two  cane-chairs,  and  a  round 
table  in  the  middle,  on  which  stood  writing-materials,  and 
lastly,  a  small  mirror  over  the  mantel-piece.  All  the  fur- 
niture was  of  mahogany.  Before  the  sofa  lay  a  small  green 
rug  with  red  arabesque  patterns.  On  the  chimney-piece 
there  stood  an  old-fasliioned  clock  with  warlike  emblems, 
two  obelisks  wiih  burning  shells,  chainshot,  trophies,  and  a 
warrior  in  Roman  costume  drawing  his  sword.  Over  the 
clock  were  two  little  vases  with  gold  stripes.  The  walls 
were  hung  with  various  pictures  :  an  oil-painting,  in  an  oval 
gold  frame,  of  a  pretty  young  woman  in  a  dark  dress,  another 
of  a  gentleman  dressed  in  the  fashion  of  twenty  years  ago, 
a  steel  engraving  after  Raphael's  Madonna  della  Sedia, 
photographs  of  an  old  lady  and  gentleman,  a  landscape ; 
lastly,  a  lithograph,  the  inscription  on  which  told  us  that 
Gustav  Jesse  took  his  first  communion  in  June  i860,  in 
such  and  such  a  church.  Gustav  was  the  eldest  son  of 
the  family ;  the  lady  in  black,  probably  his  mother  in  her 
better  days :  the  other  portrait  appeared  to  be  Gustav's 
father,  and  the  two  old  people  were  probably  his  grandfather 
and  grandmother. 

In  the  room,  the  door  of  which  opens  on  the  left  of  that 


2o8         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

leading  to  the  Chancellor's,  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen  lived, 
also  with  a  look-out  to  the  park  and  garden.  Opposite  to 
him  was  Abeken,  with  a  view  into  the  street.  Near  the 
back  stairs  Secretary  Bolsing  had  a  little  room,  whilst  I  was 
lodged  on  the  second  floor,  above  Bohlen's  room. 

I  had  a  good  bed,  two  chairs,  one  for  myself  and  another 
for  any  visitor  that  might  turn  up,  a  washhand-stand,  a  large 
commode,  and  a  table  at  which  I  could  work  quite  comfort- 
ably, although  it  had  been  made  by  no  carpenter,  but  had 
been  improvised  by  our  ever-helpful  and  skilful  Theiss.  It 
consisted  merely  of  two  trestles  on  which  was  laid  a  torn-off 
window-shutter.  For  my  artistic  nature  M.  Jesse,  sen.,  a 
devoted  sketcher  and  painter,  according  to  the  account 
of  the  gardener's  wife,  had  provided  some  of  his  artistic 
work,  a  Discobolus,  and  two  landscapes  in  chalk,  which 
hung  right  and  left  over  the  chimney-piece,  and  showed  the 
hand  of  a  not  unskilful  amateur.  My  love  of  nature 
found  abundant  satisfaction  for  its  wants  in  the  park — at 
first  brilliant  in  its  autumn  colouring,  and  then  shining  in 
the  snow  and  silvery  rime  of  winter.  As  protection  against 
the  goblin  of  tlie  house,  nightmare,  and  other  spectres,  a 
consecrated  twig  of  boxwood  was  fastened  on  the  wall 
behind  my  bed.  To  warm  the  room  there  was  a  marble 
fireplace,  the  heating  power  of  which,  when  it  became  cold 
— we  had  sometimes  twenty-two  degrees  below  freezing- 
point — left  much  to  be  desired. 

The  park  behind  the  house  is  not  large,  but  very  pretty, 
with  winding  paths  running  under  old  trees  covered  with 
ivy  and  evergreens,  and  in  the  background  between  thick 
bushes  and  shrubberies.  From  the  wall  on  the  right,  to 
which  it  is  brought  by  a  pipe,  a  spring  of  water  bubbles  out 
among  stones  covered  witli  moss  and  overgrown  with  ferns 
and  broad-leaved  plants.     It  forms  a  rivulet   and  a  httle 


VIII.]  Night  Watchers  in  the  Park.  209 

pond  for  the  ducks.  On  the  left,  .by  the  wall,  rows  of 
espalier  fruit-trees  ran  out  from  a  coach-house,  over  which 
the  gardener's  people  live,  and  in  front  of  them  beds  of 
flowers  and  vegetables,  partly  open,  partly  covered  with 
glass. 

In  the  bright  autumn  nights,  we  used,  in  our  walks  in 
the  park,  to  see  the  tall  form  and  the  white  cap  of  the 
Chancellor  issue  from  the  shadow  of  the  bushes  into  the 
moonlight,  and  walk  slowly  up  and  down.  What  was  the 
unsleeping  man  thinking  of?  What  ideas  were  revolving  in 
the  head  of  the  solitary  wanderer  ?  What  plans  germinated 
or  ripened  in  the  still  midnight  hours  ?  Another  friend  of 
the  park  inspired  us  with  less  reverential  feelings,  that  ever- 
young  disciple  of  the  Muses,  Abeken,  as  we  heard  him 
reciting  in  the  evening,  with  no  melodious  voice,  strophes 
from  the  Greek  tragedians,  or  the  Wanderer  s  Nachtlied.  It 
looked  almost  comical  when  the  old  man's  feelings  made 
him  search  in  the  morning  under  the  dry  leaves  for  violets 
to  send  to  his  wife,  the  "  Frau  Geheime-Legations  Rathinn" 
in  Berlin.  But  it  was  not  pretty  in  me  to  laugh  inwardly  at 
him,  for  I  must  confess  that,  instigated  by  him,  I  afterwards 
sent  some  myself  to  my  own  "  Frau  Doctorinn,"  to  give  hei 
pleasure. 

Of  course  not  all  of  the  mobilised  Foreign  Office  were 
quartered  in  the  house  of  Madame  Jesse.  Lothar  Bucher 
occupied  a  handsome  abode  in  the  Avenue  de  Paris,  Keudell 
and  the  cipherers  were  lodged  in  houses  rather  farther 
up  the  Rue  de  Provence  than  ours,  and  Count  Hatz- 
feld  was  not  far  from  opposite  them.  More  than  once  it 
was  proposed  to  move  the  Chancellor's  quarters,  and  to 
give  him  a  more  roomy  and  better-furnished  house.  But 
the  matter  dropped,  perhaps  because  he  himself  did  not  feel 
much  need  of  a  change,  perhaps  also  because  he  liked  the 

VOL.   I.  P 


2IO         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

quiet  which  reigned  in  the  comparatively  lonely  Rue  de 
Provence. 

In  the  daytime  this  calm  and  repose  was,  however,  not 
so  idyllic  as  many  newspaper  correspondents  then  re- 
presented it.  I  do  not  mean  on  account  of  the  drumming 
and  fifing  of  the  battalions  marching  out  and  in,  which  we 
heard  every  day,  even  as  far  off  as  we  were,  nor  of  the  dis- 
turbance occasioned  by  the  sorties,  two  of  which  were  made 
by  the  Parisians  in  our  direction  ;  nor  even  of  the  fury  of  the 
hottest  days  of  the  bombardment,  to  which  we  became  as 
much  accustomed  as  the  miller  to  the  sound  of  his  clattering 
mill-wheels.  I  refer  especially  to  the  many  visits  of  every 
conceivable  kind,  in  these  eventful  months ;  and  among 
which  some  were  unwelcome  ones.  For  many  hours  of 
the  day  our  house  was  like  a  dove-cot, — so  many  acquaint- 
ances and  strangers  went  in  and  out.  From  Paris  there 
were  at  first  only  non-official  people  who  came  to  hear  or  to 
bring  news  ;  afterwards,  as  official  negotiators,  Favre  and 
Thiers  occasionally,  with  a  more  or  less  numerous  retinue. 
From  the  Hotel  des  Reservoirs  came  princes,  the  Crown 
Prince  several  times,  and  the  King  himself  once.  The 
Church  too  was  represented  among  the  visitors  by  persons 
of  gi-eat  dignity.  Archbishops  and  other  prelates.  Berlin  sent 
deputations  from  the  Reichstag,  single  leaders  of  parties, 
bankers  and  high  officials.  From  Bavaria  and  the  other 
South  German  States  came  Ministers  to  assist  in  the  settle- 
ment of  the  treaties.  American  generals,  members  of  the 
foreign  diplomatic  bodies  in  Paris,  amongst  them  a  gentle- 
man in  black — an  envoy  of  the  Imperialists,  all  wished  to 
speak  to  the  busy  statesman  in  his  little  room  upstairs. 
That  the  curiosity  of  English  reporters  should  tiy  to  intrude 
itself  on  him  was  a  matter  of  course.  Then  field  messengers 
with  despatch  bags  full,  or  waiting  to  be  filled,  Chancery 


VIII.]  Afternoon  Relaxations.  2 1 1 

messengers  with  telegrams,  orderlies  with  news  from  the 
general  staff;  and  besides  all  these,  work  in  abundance 
equally  difficult  and  important.  Weighing,  inquiring,  and 
acting  were  necessary  when  obstacles,  vexatious  annoy- 
ances and  troubles  occurred.  Expectations  were  deceived 
which  seemed  to  be  well  grounded.  Now  and  then  we  were 
not  supported  or  our  views  were  not  met  halfway.  There 
were  the  foolish  opinions  of  the  German  newspapers,  which 
grumbled  in  spite  of  our  unheard-of  successes,  and  the 
agitation  of  the  Ultramontanes.  In  short,  it  was  very  diffi- 
cult to  understand  how  the  Chancellor  amid  all  this,  with 
all  these  claims  on  his  powers  of  work  and  patience,  and 
ail  these  disturbances  and  vexations  about  serious  matters 
and  about  trifles,  preserved  his  health — he  was  only  once 
seriously  unwell  in  Versailles  for  three  or  four  days — and 
the  freshness  of  spirits,  which  he  often  displayed  even  late 
at  night  in  talk  both  grave  and  gay. 

Of  recreation  the  Minister  allowed  himself  very  little.  A 
ride  between  three  and  four  o'clock,  an  hour  at  dinner, 
half  an  hour  afterwards  for  coffee  in  the  dra^mg-]pom,  and 
sometimes  later,  about  ten  o'clock  a  little  rest  for  tea  and 
a  talk,  sometimes  long  and  sometimes  short,  with  those  who 
happened  to  be  there;  a  io.'N  hours'  sleep  after  the  day 
began  to  dawn.  With  these  exceptions  the  whole  day  was 
given  to  study  or  production  in  his  own  room,  or  to  con- 
ferences and  negotiations,  unless  when  a  French  sortie  or 
some  rather  important  military  business  took  him  out  to  the 
side  of  the  King,  or  to  some  point  of  observation  where  he 
could  be  alone. 

The  Chancellor  had  guests  at  dinner  nearly  every  day, 
and  in  this  way  we  came  to  know  by  sight  almost  all  the 
persons  whose  names  were  famous  or  became  celebrated 
in  the  course  of  the  war,  and  often  heard  their  conversation. 

P    2 


212         Bisviarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

Favre  dined  with  us  repeatedly,  first  with  hesitation,  "  be- 
cause his  countrymen  were  starving  inside,"  then  hstening 
to  sound  advice,  and  doing  justice  as  heartily  as  the  rest 
of  us  to  the  many  good  things  which  the  kitchen  and  tlfe 
cellar  provided.  Thiers,  with  his  acute  and  clever  face, 
dined  with  us  once.  On  another  occasion  the  Crown  Prince 
did  us  the  honour  of  dining  with  us,  when  the  fellow- 
workers  of  the  Chief,  with  whom  he  had  not  been  hitherto 
acquainted,  were  presented  to  him.  Prince  Albrecht  also 
once  dined  with  us  as  a  guest.  Of  the  other  guests  of  the 
Minister,  I  mention  here  the  President  of  the  Chancellery, 
Delbriick,  who  remained  several  times  for  weeks  in  Ver- 
sailles ;  the  Duke  of  Ratibor,  Prince  Putbus,  von  Ben- 
ningsen,  Simson,  Bamberger,  von  Friedenthal,  and  von 
Blankenburg,  then  the  Bavarian  ministers,  Count  Bray,  and 
von  Liitz,  the  Wiirtembergers,  von  Wachter  and  Mittnacht, 
von  Roggenbach,  Prince  Radziwill ;  and,  lastly,  Odo  Russell, 
the  English  ambassador  to  the  German  Court.  The  con- 
versation when  the  Chief  was  present  was  always  animated 
and  varied ;  often  very  instructive  as  to  his  mode  of  viewing 
men  and  things,  or  to  certain  episodes  and  passages  in  his 
past  life.  Home  furnished  some  of  the  material  good  things, 
as  presents  and  offerings,  which  arrived  in  the  shape  of  solids 
or  fluids  sometimes  in  such  excess  that  the  store-rooms 
could  scarcely  contain  them.  A  present  of  the  best  wine  of 
the  Palatinate,  if  I  remember  right,  Deidesheimer  Kirchen- 
stiick  and  Forster  Hofstiick,  wliich  Jordan,  or  perhaps  it 
was  Buhl,  supi)lied  to  us,  and  gigantic  trout  pasty,  sent  by 
Frederick  Schultze,  the  landlord  of  the  Leipzig  garden  in 
Berlin,  whose  patriotic  benevolence  at  the  same  time  pro- 
vided us  plentifully  with  excellent  beer,  were  among  the 
noblest  of  these  presents.  Among  the  most  touching,  I 
reckon  a  dish  of  mushrooms  which  some  soldiers  had  found 


VIII.]  Madame  Jess^.  2 1 3 

in  a  hollow  or  cellar  in  the  town,  and  reserved  for  the 
Chancellor.  Even  more  precious  and  poetical  was  a  bunch 
of  roses,  which  other  soldiers  had  gathered  for  him  under 
the  enemy's  fire. 

We  were  waited  on  mainly  by  our  Chancery  servants. 
What  had  to  be  left  to  women  was  done  by  a  hired  char- 
woman and  the  gardener's  wife ;  the  latter  of  whom  was 
always  a  flaming  French  patriot.  She  hated  the  Prussiens 
with  her  whole  heart,  and  considered  that  Paris  could  not  be 
taken,  even  after  Favre  had  already  sigr>ed  the  Capitulation. 
Bazaine,  Favre,  Thiers,  were  three  traitors ;  of  the  ex- 
Emperor  she  spoke  only  as  of  a  "  cochon,"  who  if  he  ever 
put  his  foot  in  France  again  would  be  sent  to  the  scaifold. 
When  she  said  so,  the  black  eyes  of  the  little  thin  hectic 
woman,  blazed  so  fearfully  and  so  cruelly  that  one  might  well 
have  feared  for  him. 

Madame  Jesse  showed  herself  only  on  the  last  days  before 
our  return  home,  and  made,  as  I  have  remarked,  not  a 
very  pleasing  impression.  She  spread  abroad  all  manner  of 
stories  about  our  pillaging,  which  were  repeated  with  pleasure 
by  the  French  press,  and  indeed  even  by  those  journals 
which  generally  in  other  respects  exercised  some  discretion 
and  showed  some  sense  of  decency  in  what  they  stated. 
Among  other  things,  we  were  said  to  have  packed  up  her 
plate  and  table  linen  and  carried  them  off.  Count  Bismarck, 
too,  had  wanted  to  extort  from  her  a  valuable  clock.  The 
first  assertion  is  a  simple  impertinence,  as  the  house  con- 
tained no  silver  plate,  or  if  it  did,  it  must  have  been  de- 
posited in  a  walled-up  corner  of  the  cellar  which,  at  the 
express  order  of  the  Chief,  was  never  opened.  The  history 
of  the  clock  was  rather  different  from  what  Madame  repre- 
sented it  to  be.  The  clock  was  the  one  in  the  drawing-room 
with  the  little  bronze  demon.      Madame  Jesse   offered  this 


214  Bismarck  ht  the  Franco-German  War.    [Chap.  VIII. 

piece  of  furniture,  of  no  great  value  in  itself,  to  the  Chan- 
cellor, at  an  exorbitant  price,  un^er  the  idea  that  he  would 
value  it  as  a  memento  of  important  transactions.  I  believe 
she  asked  5000  francs  (^200)  for  it.  She  did  not  get 
them,  as  the  offer  of  a  woman,  who  showed  no  gratitude 
in  her  greed  for  our  exceedingly  considerate  usage  of  her 
house,  was  rejected.  "  I  remember,"  the  Minister  said  after- 
wards, in  Berlin,  "  that  I  made  the  remark  at  the  time,  that 
the  Kobold-like  figure  on  the  clock,  with  its  grimaces,  might 
perhaps  be  valuable  to  herself  as  a  family  portrait,  and 
that  I  would  not  deprive  her  of  it." 


(      215      ) 


CHAPTER  IX. 

AUTUMN    DAYS    IN    VERSAILLES. 

On  the  day  of  our  arrival  at  Versailles,  a  thick  white  fog, 
which  filled  the  air  till  close  on  ten  o'clock,  warned  us  that 
autumn  was  about  to  show  us  its  rough  side,  although  the 
trees  were  still  quite  green  in  the  avenues  and  gardens,  as 
well  as  on  the  wooded  heights  round  Paris. 

With  respect  to  the  noise  which  the  German  press,  and 
that  not  merely  of  the  Democratic  and  Fortschritt  parties, 
the  latter  of  which  always  judges  even  political  and  military 
matters  from  the  point  of  view  of  private  rights,  made  over 
Jacoby's  imprisonment,  the  following  exposition  of  the 
character  of  the  measure,  written  in  the  sense  of  the  Chief, 
was  sent  off  to-day. 

"  We  still  constantly  hear  it  said  that  law  has  been  violated 
by  the  imprisonment  of  Jacoby.  The  measure  may  have  been 
inopportune.  Less  importance  should,  perhaps,  have  been 
attributed  to  his  Demonstration ;  but  it  was  not  a  violation 
of  law,  for  we  are  living  in  a  state  of  war,  when  civil  law 
necessarily  gives  place  to  military  necessity.  The  interning 
of  Jacoby  is  a  measure  which  belongs  to  the  conduct  of  a 
war ;  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  police  or  penal  action. 
It  is  by  no  means  a  question  of  judicial  punishment,  for 
Jacoby  is  simply  a  prisoner  of  war,  like  the  spies  captured  in 
Germany,  with  whom,  of  course,  in  other  respects,  we  have 
no  intention  of  comparing  him.  He  is,  in  other  words,  one 
of  those  powers  which  render  difficult  the  attainment  of  the 
objects  of  war,  and  which,  therefore,  must  be  disabled. 


2i6         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

"  A  glance  at  the  numerous  cases  where  the  powers  of  the 
State,  entrusted  with  the  conduct  of  war,  are  compelled  to 
invade  the  rights  of  persons  and  of  property  as  recognised 
by  the  constitution,  will  make  this  clear.  For  the  purposes 
of  a  successful  defence,  private  property  may  be  destroyed, 
houses  may  be  burned  down,  trees  may  be  felled,  private 
houses  may  be  entered,  street  traffic  stopped,  and  every 
other  measure  of  constraint  adopted,  without  any  claim  to 
future  compensation  being  admitted.  With  the  same  object, 
ships  and  carriages,  for  example,  may  be  confiscated  or 
destroyed  without  the  consent  of  the  owner,  and  this  holds 
as  good  of  home  as  of  abroad.  To  the  same  category,  of 
the  rights  of  a  country  in  a  state  of  war,  belongs  also  the 
removal  of  persons  who  render  moral  or  material  assistance 
to  the  enemy,  or  even  excile  the  suspicion  that  they  are 
doing  so. 

"  So  far  as  they  apply  to  the  immediate  theatre  of  war, 
these  principles  are  undisputed,  but  the  idea  on  which  they 
are  founded  is  not  affected  by  locality.  The  State  must 
exercise  the  rights  and  duties  assigned  to  it  by  the  objects 
of  war,  without  respect  to  the  question  whether  the  hin- 
drances of  which  we  have  spoken  actually  occur  in  the 
place  where  war  is  being  carried  on.  The  State  is  bound 
to  make  even  occurrences  at  home  impossible  which  im- 
pede the  attainment  of  peace.  We  are  now  carrying  on  a 
war  to  extort  conditions  whicli  shall  prevent  the  enemy 
from  attacking  us  in  future  ;  the  enemy  is  struggling  to 
resist  these  conditions,  and  is  essentially  encouraged  and 
strengthened  by  the  views  of  Germans  who  denounce  these 
conditions  as  unnecessary  and  unjust.  The  manifesto  of 
the  Brunswick  artisans,  and  the  resolution  of  the  Konigs- 
bergers,  have  been  turned  to  the  best  advantage  l)y  the 
newspapers  of  France,  and  have  evidently  confirmed  the 


IX.]  The  Palace  of  Versailles.  217 

Republicans  who  are  now  at  the  helm  in  Paris,  in  the 
opinion  that  they  are  rightly  apprehending  the  state  of 
things  when  they  reject  our  conditions,  for  these  French 
Republicans  measure  the  influence  of  their  German  sympa- 
thisers upon  the  policy  of  German  governments  by  their 
own  circumstances  and  experiences.  The  influence  which 
these  demonstrations  have  had  in  Brunswick  and  Konigs- 
berg  is  probably  very  little,  but  the  influence  of  these  move- 
ments upon  Paris  is  another  question.  It  is  such  that 
further  revelations  of  this  kind  must  be  made  impossible, 
and,  in  short,  that  the  authors  of  them  must  be  removed." 

Before  dinner  I  paid  a  visit  to  the  Palace.  The  town 
front  of  this  very  handsome  building  is  too  much  broken 
in  detail;  towards  the  park  it  is  much  more  simple.  The 
greater  part  of  it  is  now  turned  into  a  hospital.  We  looked 
into  the  galleries  filled  with  pictures,  the  lower  rows  of  which 
are  boarded  over ;  the  beds,  full  of  the  sick  and  wounded, 
being  placed  close  in  front  of  them.  The  statues  of  gods 
and  the  groups  of  nymphs  by  the  great  basin,  between  the 
park  and  the  Palace,  are  wonderfully  beautiful.  The  second 
basin  in  front  of  the  broad  staircase  below,  which  may  be 
about  a  mile  long,  and  the  one  which  stretches  away  beyond, 
are  similarly  ornamented.  More  to  my  taste  are  some  of 
the  marble  columns  on  the  walks  leading  from  the  second 
basin  to  the  third.  The  park  is  very  large,  and  not  so 
stiffly  and  architecturally  laid  out  as  I  had  imagined  from 
descriptions.  But  the  trees  and  bushes  cut  into  cones  and 
pyramids  near  the  staircase  are  exceedingly  artificial  and 
unpleasing. 

At  dinner  Count  Bismarck-Bohlen  did  not  appear,  and 
different  reasons  were  given  for  his  absence.  In  the  morning 
Keudell  said  to  me  that  our  stay  in  Versailles  might  last 
three  weeks ;    that  Metz  must  soon  capitulate,  as  they  had 


21 8         Bismarek  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap 

only  horseflesh  there,  and  no  salt  with  it.  In  Paris  greater 
confidence  prevailed,  although  many  animals  were  dying,  the 
cattle  being  chiefly  fed  on  compressed  hay,  a  statement  which 
Burnside,  who  meantime  had  been  in  Paris,  confirmed  in 
the  Bureau.  The  views  of  the  Minister  are  not  now  so 
sanguine. 

The  question  of  the  uniform  for  the  secretaries  again 
came  up,  and  the  Chief  thought,  in  connection  with  this, 
that  the  war  might  last  perhaps  till  Christmas,  possibly  till 
Easter,  and  that  part  of  the  army  might  even  have  to  remain 
in  France  for  years.  They  ought  to  have  stormed  Paris 
on  the  1 8th  September.  He  then  said  to  his  servant,  "Look 
here,  Engel ;  send  to  Berlin  for  my  fur  coat — or  better,  for 
both  of  them;  the  rough  fur,  and  the  light  thin  one."  The 
conversation  then  turned  to  the  life  led  by  their  Highnesses 
of  the  different  headquarters  in  the  Hotel  des  Re'servoirs, 
and  to  the  question  whether  the  expenses  of  their  mainte- 
nance should  be  paid  by  the  King,  by  themselves,  or  by  the 
town. 

In  the  Daily  Telegraph,  "An  Englishman  at  the  headquarters 
at  Meaux  "  relates  that  the  Chief  said,  at  the  close  of  his 
conversation  with  Mallet,  "  What  I  and  the  King  most  fear 
is  the  influence  of  a  French  Republic  upon  Germany.  We 
know  well  what  influence  Republicanism  in  America  has 
had  upon  Germany;  and  if  the  French  fight  us  with  a 
Republican  propaganda,  they  will  do  us  more  damage  by 
that  than  by  their  arms."  The  Minister  has  written  on  the 
margin  of  this  quotation,  "  Absurd  lie," 

Friday,  October  7. — This  morning,  soon  after  daybreak,  I 
heard  several  shots  from  heavy  artillery,  which  appeared 
not  much  more  than  a  couple  of  miles  from  here.  Later 
in  the  day  I  was  enabled  to  announce  to  Berlin  that  our 
losses  in  the  last  action  had  not  been,  as  the  French  falsely 


IX.]         A  Government  to  treat  with,  necessary.         219 

asserted,  much  greater,  but  far  less  than  those  of  the  French. 
The  French  were  said  to  have  had  about  400,  and  we 
500  killed  and  wounded.  In  fact  they  left,  in  front  of  the 
1 2  th  Division  alone,  450,  and  upon  the  whole  field,  about 
800  men  ;  whilst  we  had  only  eighty-five  killed. 

The  Greek  ambassador  in  Paris  has  come  out  to  us, 
Hatzfeld  told  us  at  breakfast,  with  a  "family"  of  twenty- 
four  or  twenty-five  persons,  on  his  way  to  the  Delegation 
of  the  Government  of  National  Defence  in  Tours.  The 
Ambassador's  boy  told  the  Count  he  was  not  at  all  pleased 
with  Paris,  and  when  asked  why  not,  answered,  because  he 
got  so  little  meat  to  eat  there. 

The  following  ideas  were  developed  into  articles  for  the 
press  :  "  We  are  not  carrying  on  the  war  in  order  to  occupy 
France  for  ever,  but  to  achieve  a  peace  on  our  own  con- 
ditions. It  is  a  first  necessity,  therefore,  that  we  should  treat 
with  a  Government  which  represents  the  will  of  France, 
by  whose  concessions  and  declarations  she  can  bind  herself 
and  satisfy  us.  The  present  is  not  such  a  Government.  It 
must  be  confirmed  by  a  National  Assembly  or  replaced 
by  another.  General  elections  are  necessary  for  this,  and 
we  are  quite  ready  to  permit  these  in  the  parts  of  the 
country  occupied  by  us,  so  far  as  strategical  considerations 
allow.  The  present  authorities  in  Paris,  however,  appear 
to  have  no  inclination  for  it.  They  thus  damage,  in  their 
own  interests,  the  interests  of  their  country,  which  has  in 
consequence  to  bear  the  miseries  of  war  for  a  longer 
period." 

In  the  afternoon  I  again  walked  in  the  park  at  the 
Palace,  taking  on  this  occasion  not  the  way  by  the  Avenue  de 
Saint-Cloud  and  the  Place  d'Armes,  but  by  the  Boulevard 
de  la  Reine,  towards  the  basin  of  Neptune,  over  which  this 
god,  with  his  wife  and  all  manner  of  grotesque  water  deities, 


220        Bismarck  in  the  Franco- Germa^i  War.     [Chap 

is  enthroned.  At  some  distance  from  this  spot,  in  a  very 
lonely  place,  we  met  the  Chancellor  and  Hatzfeld  on  horse- 
back— no  escort  to  be  seen.     What  are  they  here  for  ? 

At  dinner  Hatzfeld  complained  that  the  Greeks,  who 
wanted  to  get  away,  tormented  him  with  lamentations.  From 
what  he  afterwards  said,  it  was  evident  that  they  and  other 
visitors  from  Paris  had  excited  suspicions  as  to  their  in- 
tentions. A^er  this  the  talk  turned  upon  the  exhausted 
condition  of  the  town  of  Versailles,  which  had  been  put  to 
great  expense  during  the  last  two  weeks.  The  new  mayor 
of  the  town.  Monsieur  Rameau,  had  asked  and  obtained  an 
audience  with  the  Chief,  about  which  the  Chief  went  on 
to  speak.  "I  told  him  that  they  should  raise  a  loan.  'Yes,' 
he  replied,  '  that  would  be  very  well ;  but  then  he  must  ask 
to  be  allowed  to  travel  to  Tours,  because  for  such  a  measure 
he  needed  the  authority  of  his  Government.  This,  how- 
ever, I  could  not  promise  him.  He  might  not  get  the 
permission  he  was  going  there  to  ask — probably  they  thought 
in  Tours  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  people  in  Versailles  to 
starve,  so  that  we  might  starve  with  them.  But  they  do  not 
consider  that  we  are  the  stronge:,  and  will  take  what  we 
want.  They  have  not  the  least  notion  what  war  is."  The 
assembly  of  a  Constituent  French  Assembly  in  Versailles  was 
afterwards  discussed,  and  its  possibility  was  doubted — there 
was  no  hall  here  large  enough  for  the  purpose,  the  Palace 
being  occupied  with  the  wounded.  The  Assembly  of  1789 
first  met  as  a  whole  in  a  church,  and  then  in  different 
places,  according  to  its  Three  Estates.  Ultimately,  the 
gentlemen  had  all  met  together  in  a  ball-room — which, 
however,  no  longer  exists.* 

The  Minister  then  spoke  of  the    Palace,  with  its  park, 

*  A  mistake  (see  below)  ;  but  this  place  would  not  hold  any  very 
great  number  of  people. 


IX.]         The  Presbyterians  and  Thomas  Paine.  221 

praising  the  beautiful  Orangery  on  the  terrace  with  the  two 
great  flights  of  steps.  He  said,  however,  "  What  are  these 
trees  in  tubs  to  the  orange-groves  of  Italy  ?" 

Some  one  now  brought  up  the  subject  of  Toleration,  and  the 
Chancellor  expressed  himself  as  he  had  done  before  ia  Saint- 
Avoid.  He  declared  himself  very  decidedly  for  toleration 
in  matters  of  faith ;  but,  he  continued,  the  "  illuminatl " 
"  are  not  tolerant ;  they  persecute  those  who  believe,  not, 
indeed,  with  the  scaffold,  for  that  is  not  possible;  but 
with  contempt  arid  insolence  in  the  press.  And  among  the 
people,  so  far  as  they  belong  to  the  unbelieving  party,  Tole- 
ration has  made  but  little  way.  I  should  not  like  to  see  how 
delighted  they  would  be  here  to  have  Pastor  Knak  hanged." 

It  was  mentioned  that  the  old  Protestantism  itself  taught 
nothing  of  Toleration,  and  Bucher  pointed  out  that,  according 
to  Buckle,  the  Huguenots  were  zealous  reactionaries,  and 
that  this  was  true  of  the  Reformers  of  those  days  generally. 
"  Not  exactly  reactionaries,"  replied  the  Chief,  "  but  little 
tyrants.  Every  pastor  was  a  little  Pope."  He  cited  Calvin's 
persecution  of  Servetus,  and  added,  "  even  Luther  was  the 
same."  I  ventured  to  remind  them  of  his  treatment  of 
Carlstadt,  and  of  the  disciples  of  Miinzer,  as  well  as  what 
the  Wiirtemberg  theologians  after  him  had  done,  and  of 
Chancellor  Krell.  Bucher  said  that  the  Scottish  Presbyte- 
rians, at  the  end  of  last  century,  condemned  anyone  who 
only  lent  Thomas  Paine's  book  on  the  "  Rights  of  Man  " 
to  banishment  for  twenty -one  years.  I  again  referred  to  the 
Puritans  of  the  New  England  States,  with  their  strong  in- 
tolerance to  those  who  differed  from  them  in  opinion,  and 
to  their  tyrannical  liquor  law.  "  And  the  '  keeping  holy  the 
Sabbath  day,'  "  said  the  Chief,  "  that  is  a  perfectly  horrible 
tyranny.  I  remember,  when  I  first  went  to  England,  and 
landed  in  Hull,  that  I  began  to  whistle  in  the  street.     An 


222         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

Englishman,  whom  I  had  got  acquainted  with  on  board, 
told  me  that  I  must  not  whistle.  '  Pray,  sir,  do  not  whistle.' 
'  Why  not ;  is  whistling  forbidden  here  ?'  '  No,'  said  he,  '  it 
is  not  forbidden  ;  but  it  is  the  Sabbath.'  This  so  disgusted 
me  that  I  at  once  took  my  ticket  by  another  steamer  going 
to  Edinburgh,  as  I  did  not  choose  not  to  be  able  to  whistle 
when  I  had  a  mind  to.  Before  I  started  I  had  made  ac- 
quaintance with  something  exceedingly  good — toasted  cheese, 
— Welsh  rabbit,  for  we  had  gone  into  an  inn."  When  Bucher 
remarked  that  Sunday  in  England  is  in  general  not  so  bad, 
and  that  for  himself  he  had  always  delighted  in  its  quiet,  after 
the  noise  and  bustle  of  the  week-days  in  London,  where 
the  theatre  is  not  over  till  the  early  morning  :  "  I,  too," 
Bismarck  went  on  to  say,  "  am  not  at  all  against  the  obser- 
vance of  the  Sunday ;  on  the  contrary,  I  do  all  I  can,  as  a 
landed  proprietor,  to  promote  it,  only  I  will  not  have  people 
constrained.  Each  man  must  know  best  how  to  prepare 
himself  for  a  future  life.  On  Sunday  no  work  should  be 
done  ;  not  so  much  because  it  is  against  the  commandment 
of  God,  as  on  man's  account,  who  needs  some  repose.  This, 
of  course,  does  not  apply  to  the  service  of  the  state,  espe- 
cially not  to  the  diplomatic  service,  for  despatches  and 
telegrams  arrive  on  Sunday,  which  must  be  attended  to. 
Nor  is  anything  to  be  said  against  our  peasants  bringing  in 
their  hay  or  corn  on  a  Sunday  in  the  harvest  after  long 
rain,  when  fine  weather  begins  on  a  Saturday.  I  could  not 
find  in  my  heart  to  forbid  this  to  my  tenants  in  the  contract, 
although  I  should  not  do  it  myself,  being  able  to  bear  the 
possible  damage  of  a  rainy  Monday.  It  is  thought  by  our 
proprietors  rather  improper,  to  let  their  people  work  on  a 
Sunday  even  in  such  cases  of  necessity." 

I  mentioned  that  pious  folk  in  America  allow  no  cooking 
on  the  Sunday,  and  that  in  New  York  I  was  once  asked  to 


IX.]  Sunday  in  Germany.  223 

dinner  and  got  only  cold  meat.  "  Yes,"  replied  the  Chief, 
"  in  Frankfurt,  where  I  was  still  freer,  we  always  dined  more 
simply  on  Sunday,  and  I  have  never  used  my  carriage,  for 
the  sake  of  my  servants."  I  allowed  myself  one  remark  more, 
that  in  Leipzig  during  the  Sunday  all  business,  with  the 
exception  of  the  bakers  and  many  cigar  shops,  were  closed. 
"  Yes,  and  so  it  should  be  ;  but  I  would  have  no  one  con- 
strained. I  could,  perhaps,  manage  in  the  country  to  buy 
nothing  from  the  baker;  but,  then,  everything  must  be  par- 
ticularly good,  otherwise  I  do  not  know  if  I  could  get  on. 
But  care  should  be  taken  that  noisy  work,  as  in  black- 
smiths' shops,  &c.  &c.,  should  not  be  carried  on  too  near 
the  churches  on  Sunday." 

In  the  evening  I  was  summoned  to  him.  "  There  !  Some 
one  writes  to  me  that  there  is  in  the  Kord-Detitsche  Zcitung 
a  terrible  article  against  the  Catholics.  Is  it  yours  ?"  "  I 
do  not  know  which  it  may  be,  your  Excellency,  I  have 
lately  several  times  directed  attention  to  the  activity  of  the 
Ultramontanes."  He  sought  and  found  the  cutting,  read 
about  half  of  it  aloud,  saying,  "  H'm,  this  is  all  quite  true 
and  right ;  yes,  quite  good,  but  the  best  parts  are  just  those 
passages  marked  by  Savigny.  He  is  beside  himself  that 
we  have  not  helped  the  Pope." 

Saturday,  October  8. — In  the  morning,  before  the  Minister 
rose,  I  walked  to  the  Palace  of  the  Bourbons,  over  the  centre 
of  which  the  black  and  white  Prussian  colours  were  waving, 
and  close  beside  them  the  flag  with  the  red  cross.  I  find 
that  the  French  heroes  in  marble  in  the  court  in  front  of  it, 
when  they  are  more  closely  inspected,  are  mostly  very 
moderate  performances.  Among  them  are  Bayard  and 
Duguesclin,  Turenne,  Colbert,  Sully,  and  Tourville.  The 
naval  heroes  attitudinise  like  second-rate  actors,  and  one 
fears  that  they  may  fall  from  their  pedestals  and  come  to 


224         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

grief  on  the  pavement.  The  bronze  Louis  XIV,  is  much 
finer,  but  I  prefer  the  Great  Elector  in  Berhn  by  Schliiter. 
The  morning  is  dull  and  cold,  and  autumn  begins  to  be 
more  apparent.  The  leaves  on  the  tree-tops  in  the  avenue 
are  growing  red  and  yellow,  and  we  shall  soon  be  able  to 
bear  a  fire. 

I  was  sent  for,  several  times  to-day  by  the  Chief,  and  four 
articles  were  again  despatched  to  Germany.  At  breakfast  I 
said  that  the  sentimental,  and  occasionally  lachrymose  tone 
in  Favre's  account  of  Haute  Maison  and  Ferriferes  was  mere 
acting.  "  Oh,  no  !"  replied  Keudell,  "it  is  nature,  and  he 
really  felt  it.  This  is  the  ministry  of  honnetes  gens  (respect- 
able people),  which,  with  the  French,  always  implies  a  slight 
flavour  of  soft-heartedness."  The  Chancellor  dined  to-day 
with  the  King,  and  the  conversation  at  dinner  was  con- 
sequently of  little  interest  to  me. 

Sunday,  October  9.— Bad  weather,  cold,  and  rainy.  The 
leaves  fall  fast.  A  sharp  north-west  wind  sweeps  over 
the  plateau.  In  spite  of  this  I  take  a  walk  through  the 
town,  which  must  be  gradually  explored,  by  the  Rue  Saint- 
Pierre  to  the  prefecture  in  the  Avenue  de  Paris,  where 
King  William  lives,  and  then  down  another  street  to  the 
monument  erected  to  the  teacher  of  the  deaf  and  dumb. 
Abbe  I'Epee.  On  the  way  back  I  meet  Keudell,  whom  I  ask 
whether  he  has  heard  nothing  as  yet  of  the  commencement  of 
the  bombardment  of  Babylon.  He  thought  that  next  week, 
probably  on  the  i8th,  our  heavy  artillery  would  make  itself 
heard.  In  the  course  of  the  forenoon  I  was  three  times  with 
the  Chief;  and  had  his  commands  executed  by  the  after- 
noon. At  breakfast  Delbriick  was  again  present,  and  the 
Minister  seemed  to  be  highly  delighted  with  his  appearing. 
We  drink,  among  other  excellent  things,  very  old  corn- 
brandy,  on  which  the  President  of  the  Chancery  pronounced 


IX.]         A  Clai7n  by  the  Foreign  Diplomatists.  225 

an  intelligent  panegyric,  for  in  the  science  of  what  tastes 
well,  he  has  evidently  made  successful  studies.  It  was  said 
that  a  squadron  of  Fiensburg  Hussars,  the  same  regiment 
which  had  dismounted  at  Vonc  and  carried  by  storm  a 
position  defended  by  infantry,  had  had  the  misfortune  to  be 
surprised  at  Rambouillet  by  Francs-tireurs  and  cut  to  pieces. 
They  are  said  to  have  lost  sixty  horses. 

We  were  to-day  thirteen  persons  at  dinner,  amongst 
whom  was  Dr.  Lauer.  Late  yesterday  evening  an  officer 
arrived  with  a  despatch,  whereupon  I  went  to  fetch  the  Chief, 
who  had  gone  to  walk  in  the  garden.  To-day  we  learnt 
that  it  was  a  letter  from  Paris,  in  which  the  foreign  diplo- 
matists who  remained  there  claimed  the  right  of  carrying 
on  a  correspondence  through  our  lines.  The  Chancellor, 
from  what  he  said  on  the  matter,  appears  to  refuse  to 
recognise  the  right.  He  has  lately  given  consolatory  assur- 
ances to  the  mayor  of  Versailles,  and  the  contribution  of 
400,000  francs  imposed  on  the  town  is  to  be  remitted. 

Monday,  October  10. — This  morning,  between  seven  and 
eight  o'clock,  about  a  dozen  shots  were  heard,  and  Willisch 
thought  he  also  heard  at  the  same  time  musketry  fire.  I 
was  summoned  this  morning  twice  to  the  Chief  Some- 
what later  he  went  to  the  Crown  Prince,  with  whom  he 
remained  to  breakfast.  At  table  they  spoke  particularly  of 
the  conversation  of  the  King  with  Napoleon  in  the  Maison 
Bellevue,  near  Sedan,  of  which  Russell  has  given  a  circum- 
stantial account  in  the  Times,  although  no  one  was  present 
at  it  but  the  King  and  the  Emperor,  and  even  the  Chancellor 
knew  only  so  much  of  it  that  the  King  had  assured  him  that 
not  a  word  of  politics  had  been  spoken.  Then  some  one,  I 
do  not  know  why  or  how,  turned  the  conversation  on  danger- 
ous and  sensational  travelling  adventures,  and  the  Ministe/ 
told  us  of  several  rash  exploits  of  his  under  this  head. 

VOL.    I  •  Q 


226         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

"  I  remember,"  said  he,  "  I  was  once  at  Pont  du  Gard,  in 
South  France,  with  some  people,  among  whom  were  the 
Orloffs.  There  is  there  an  old  Roman  aqueduct,  which  is 
carried  across  a  valley  by  several  tiers  of  arches.  Princess 
Orloff,  a  lively  lady,  proposed  that  we  should  walk  along  the 
top  of  it.  There  was  a  very  narrow  footway  by  the  side  of 
the  conduit,  only  about  a  foot  and  a  half  broad,  then  the 
deep-cut  conduit,  and  on  the  other  side  again  a  wall  with  stone 
slabs  at  the  top  "  "  It  looked  rather  serious,  but  I  could 
not  be  outdone  in  courage  by  a  lady.  So  we  both  made 
the  venture.  Orloff,  however,  went  with  the  others  in  the 
valley  below.  For  some  time  we  walked  on  the  slabs, 
and  then  we  got  on  very  well  along  a  narrow  ledge,  from 
which  we  looked  down  more  than  a  hundred  feet ;  then  we 
came  to  a  place  where  the  slabs  had  fallen,  and  we  had  to 
walk  on  the  bare  narrow  wall  itself.  Further  on  were  slabs 
again,  but  soon  only  the  dangerous  wall  with  its  small 
stones.  Then  I  plucked  up  courage,  stepped  quickly  up 
to  the  lady,  seized  her  with  one  arm,  and  jumped  with  her 
down  into  the  conduit,  some  four  or  five  feet  down.  But 
our  friends  below,  who  suddenly  lost  sight  of  us,  were  thrown 
into  the  greatest  anxiety,  till  we  came  out  again  at  the  end." 

Another  time  he  had  made  a  tour  with  some  companions 
in  Switzerland — if  I  mistake  not,  it  was  an  excursion  to 
the  Rosenlaui  glacier.  A  narrow  ridge  had  to  be  passed. 
A  lady  and  one  of  her  two  guides  were  already  on  it.  Next 
to  them  came  a  Frenchman,  then  Bismarck  and  the  other 
guide.  "  In  the  middle  of  the  ledge  the  Frenchman  called 
out,  '■  Jc  ne  paix  phis^  and  would  not  go  a  step  farther.  I 
was  close  behind  him,  and  asked  the  guide,  '  What  are  we  to 
do  now?'  'Climb  over  his  back,  and  when  you  are  over 
we  will  slip  our  alpenstocks  under  his  arms  and  carry  him 
across.'     'Very  fine,'  said  I.  '  but  I  shall  not  climb  over  his 


IX.]  A  Alaiivais  Pas.  227 

back  ;  for  the  man  is  ill,  and  in  his  desperation  he  will  lay 
hold  of  me,  and  we  shall  both  go  to  the  bottom.'  '  Well, 
then,  turn  round.'  That  was  difficult  enough,  but  I  managed 
it,  and  then  the  guide  carried  out  his  manoeuvre  of  the 
alpenstocks,  with  the  help  of  the  other  guide." 

I  told  the  story  of  my  dangerous  passage  across  the 
tnauvais  pas  on  the  Kaki  Scala,  between  Megara  and 
Corinth.  He  had  done  something  still  more  hazardous,  I 
forget  where,  but  it  was  somewhere  in  the  mountains. 
They  came  to  a  narrow  ledge,  running  along  the  front  of 
a  precipice,  so  that  the  rock  formed  a  wall  on  one  side, 
and  on  the  other  you  looked  down  into  the  deep  gult 
below.  "  I  and  my  wife  had  to  cross  this  by  a  path 
scarcely  an  ell  broad.  At  one  place  the  ground  had  partly 
fallen  away,  and  partly  was  unsafe.  I  said,  '  I  will  go  on 
before,  and  try  whether  the  bushes  on  the  wall  at  the  side 
will  hold  firm.  When  I  am  well  over,  do  you  come  after 
me.'  I  was  trying  them  just  at  the  most  anxious  point, 
when  she  came  along  the  wall  behind  and  threw  her  arms 
around  me.  I  was  dreadfully  startled,  but  happily  the 
shrubs  did  not  give  way,  and  we  got  to  firm  ground. 
Nothing  annoys  me  more  than  when  people  startle  me." 

In  the  evening  the  Chief  had  me  called  to  his  room  to 
give  me  something  to  do  with  regard  to  Garibaldi,  who, 
we  learnt  by  telegraph,  had  arrived  at  Tours  and  had 
offered  his  services  to  the  French  Republic.  Then  the 
Chancellor  continued :  "  But  tell  me  now  why  you  have 
lately  been  so  clumsy,  I  mean,  in  what  you  have  been 
writing.  I  do  not  mean  merely  about  text  of  the  telegram, 
but  what  you  said  lately  about  the  Ultramontanes  was  very 
strong  in  its  expressions."  I  took  leave  to  reply  that  I 
could  also  be  civil,  and  that  I  thought  I  was  rather  good 
at  fine  malice.     "  Well  then,"  said  he,  '■  be  fine,  but  without 

Q  2 


228         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap 

malice.  Write  diplomatically ;  even  in  declaring  war  people 
are  quite  polite." 

At  half-past  nine  o'clock  Burnside  and  his  companions 
came  again  and  staid  till  half-past  ten  with  the  Chancellor, 
who  then  gave  me  another  commission.  Later  still 
we  saw  him  walking  up  and  down  the  garden  in  the  bright 
moonlight  till  the  ghostly  hour  of  midnight,  whilst  from 
the  direction  of  Paris  there  came  the  thunder  of  guns,  and 
once,  too,  a  heavy  report  as  of  an  explosion. 

Tuesday^  October  ii. — In  the  morning  it  was  said  that 
the  explosion  of  the  foregoing  night  was  caused  by  the 
blowing  up  (on  our  side  ?)  of  two  bridges. 

Not  merely  in  England,  but  at  home,  private  persons  feel 
a  vocation  to  busy  themselves  with  advice  about  procuring 
peace.  This  morning  there  came  to  the  Bureau  a  complaining 
letter  from  NorderJlitmarsch,  in  which  a  Herr  R.  requested 
the  Minister  "most  humbly,  and  with  the  deepest  respect," 
to  put  an  advertisement  into  the  Tijues  to  persuade  the 
French  from  "any  further  insurrection,"  for  which  purpose 
he  enclosed  thirty  thalers,  ten  silver  groschen  (^4  i\s.). 
At  ten  o'clock  I  was  again  permitted  to  telegraph  news  of 
a  victory.  The  day  before,  von  der  Tann  had  fought  with 
French  regulars,  and  taken  three  guns.  He  had  made, 
when  the  news  was  despatched,  about  a  thousand  prisoners, 
and  was  following  hard  upon  the  enemy  in  the  direction  of 
Orleans. 

In  the  afternoon,  when  the  Chancellor  had  ridden  out, 
I  paid  a  flying  visit  to  the  great  picture-galleries  on  the  side 
of  the  Palace,  where  the  church  is,  and  beheld,  immortalised 
by  pencil  and  chisel,  the  "Famous  deeds  of  France"  {Toufrs 
Ics  gloires),  to  which,  according  to  the  inscription  over  the 
entrance-hall,  this  wing  of  the  building  is  dedicated.  On  the 
ground-floor  are  mostly  pictures  of   scenes  in  the  ancient 


IX.]  A  Congress  of  German  Princes.  229 

history  of  France,  amongst  them  some  very  good  things, 
some  ordinary  pictures  of  the  time  of  Napoleon  I.  and 
Louis  XIV.,  battle-pieces,  sieges,  and  such-like.  Upstairs  are 
the  gigantic  canvases  on  which  Horace  Vernet  has  depicted 
the  '■'■  gloires"  of  his  countrymen  in  Algeria,  as  well  as 
more  modern  pictures  from  the  wars  in  the  Crimea 
and  in  Italy,  with  marble  busts  of  the  generals  who  com- 
manded there.  The  days  of  Worth,  Metz,  and  Sedan  will 
probably  not  make  their  appearance  here.  We  will  look 
at  these  again  more  at  our  leisure,  but  even  in  our  hasty 
visit  to-day,  we  observe  that  there  is  a  system  in  these 
galleries,  and  that  on  the  whole  they  are  more  like  the 
hatching  oven  of  an  ambitious  Chauvinist,  swollen  with 
insolence,  than  a  museum  for  the  triumphs  and  delights  of 
art. 

According  to  the  talk  at  table,  there  has  been  an  inten- 
tion for  some  time  of  assembling  a  congress  of  German 
Princes  at  Versailles.  It  is  hoped  that  the  King  of  Bavaria 
may  come  ;  and  Delbriick  thinks  that  some  of  the  historical 
rooms  of  the  Palace  should  be  appropriated  and  furnished 
as  a  suitable  residence  for  his  Majesty.  He  was  told,  how- 
ever, that,  unhappily,  this  could  not  be  done,  as  the  greater 
part  of  the  Palace  was  now  turned  into  a  hospital  full  of 
typhus.  The  Chief  dined  to-day  with  the  Crown  Prince, 
and  did  not  come  home  till  ten  o'clock,  when  he  had  an 
interview  with  Burnside. 

Wednesday,  October  12. — A  damp  disagreeable  day.  In 
the  morning,  two  letters  from  an  English  general  of  hussars 
were  translated  and  extracts  made  from  them  for  the  King. 
In  these  we  were  advised  to  employ  the  bridge  at  Sevres 
to  dam  up  the  Seine,  and  in  this  way  to  flood  Paris.  Then 
I  prepared  an  abridgment  of  a  report  of  a  German  Com- 
panion of  St.   John,  very  gratefully  recognising   the   kind 


230         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

treatment  of  our  wounded  soldiers  in  Bouillon  by  the  people 
of  Belgium.  Lastly,  I  wrote  a  paper  on  the  hostile  position 
which  the  Ultramontanes  had  taken  up  towards  us  in  this 
war.  Wlien  I  read  it  over  to  the  Chief,  he  said,  "Still  you 
do  not  write  politely  enough  for  me  ;  and  yet  you  told  me 
you  were  a  master  of  fine  malice.  Here  there  is  more 
malice  than  fineness.  You  must  reverse  this.  You  must 
write  like  a  politician  ;  and  in  politics  it  is  not  one's  object 
to  affront  people," 

In  the  evening  a  gentleman  came  to  beg  admittance  to 
the  Chancellor.  He  was  a  Spanish  diplomatist  who  had 
come  out  of  Paris,  and,  like  other  gentlemen,  could  not  get 
hack  again.  He  remained  a  long  time  with  him.  Some  of  us 
think  his  coming  rather  suspicious.  While  we  were  at  tea, 
Burnside  came  in.  He  is  going  from  here  to  Brussels,  to 
settle  his  wife  there,  who  is  now  at  Geneva.  We  hear  from 
him  that  Sheridan  also  is  travelling  in  Switzerland  and  Italy. 
There  is  indeed  nothing  more  for  the  Americans  to  do  here. 
The  general  wished  to  visit  the  Chief  this  evening  once 
more.  I  represented  to  him,  and  persuaded  him,  that  though 
the  Chancellor,  in  his  predilection  for  Americans,  would 
receive  him  if  he  were  announced,  one  ought  to  remember 
the  little  time  he  has  at  his  command.  He  needs  five  or 
six  hours  more  than  the  twenty-four  for  his  daily  business,  so 
that  he  is  forced  to  sit  up  late  into  the  night  and  to  curtail 
as  much  as  possible  conversations  even  with  Crowned  Heads. 

Thursday,  October  13. — A  \ery  clear,  but  windy  morning 
which  stripped  the  last  leaves  from  the  trees.  I  read  and 
used  an  account  from  Rome  which  draws  the  conclusion, 
from  the  result  of  the  voting,  that  there  is  no  Papal  party  in 
Rome.  We  may  say,  the  writer  remarks,  that  the  whole 
political  organisation  of  the  Papal  Constitution  has  crumbled 
to  dust,  like  a  corpse  which  is  kept  for  a  thousand  years  frora 


IX.]  The  Germans  in  America.  231 

the  open  air,  and  then  suddenly  comes  in  contact  with  it, 
when  nothing  is  left,  neither  a  memory  nor  an  empty  space. 
The  voting  which  is  necessary  according  to  the  constitu- 
tional principles  of  Italy  is  valuable  in  so  far  as  it  shows  the 
feelings  of  the  nation,  for  which  feelings  few  or  no  sacrifices 
have  been  made,  except  by  the  emigrants.  So  far  as  these 
feelings  express  opposition  to  the  Temporal  government 
of  the  Popes,  no  reaction  is  to  be  feared.  With  respect, 
however,  to  the  wish  of  the  Romans  to  be  and  to  remain 
subjects  of  the  King  of  Italy,  its  duration  will  depend  upon 
the  way  in  which  his  government  is  carried  on. 

If  we  may  judge  from  a  letter  dated  fiom  St.  Louis, 
September  13,  of  the  tone  of  the  Germans  in  tlie  United 
States,  a  satisfactory  and  increasing  national  feeling,  a  con- 
sequence of  the  war  and  its  results,  flir  outweiglis  Repub- 
licanism with  them.  "  A  German  living  here  for  twenty 
years,  who  was  formerly  her  deadly  enemy,  and  whose 
ideal  he  now  is,  greets  the  Chancellor  enthusiastically, 
not  blinded  by  the  Republican  form  into  which  the  French 
character  has  just  been  moulded.  Forward,  Bismarck ! 
Hurrah  for  Germany  !  Hurrah  for  Wilhelm  I.,  Emperor  of 
Germany  ! "  It  seems  that  our  Democrats  must  go  abroad 
before  they  can  feel  as  they  ought  to  do. 

French  people,  too,  come  to  our  Chancellor  with  good 
advice  and  prayers,  in  order  to  move  him  in  the  direction 
of  peace.  Only  these  petitions  are  not  of  the  right  sort, 
and  their  offers  do  not  agree  with  our  wants.  "  Ujt  Licgcois  " 
implores  the  Chief,  "  au  7iom  de  r kutnanite,  mi  notn  des , 
veuves  et  des  petits  enfants  de  France  et  d'  Allemagne,  victinies 
de  cette  affreuse  guerre''''  (in  the  name  of  humanity  and  of 
the  widows  and  children  in  France  and  Germany  who  are 
victims  of  this  frightful  war),  to  call  Jules  Favre  back,  and  to 
crown  his  own  fame  by  concluding  a  peace  on  the  ground  of  a 


232         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap, 

compensation  for  the  costs  of  the  war,  and  the  levelling  of 
the  fortresses.  "  Eh  !  que  ne  peut-oti  les  renverser  toiites  et 
aneantir  tons  les  canons  !  "  &c.  (Ah  !  that  one  could  destroy 
every  one  of  them  and  break  up  all  the  cannon  !) 

At  breakfast  a  lieutenant  of  hussars,  von  Uslar,  was 
introduced  to  us  by  Hatzfeld.  He  came  from  the  outposts, 
and  told  us  that  where  he  was,  every  time  that  a  single 
rider  or  the  head  of  one  of  our  men  was  seen  by  them, 
half-a-dozen  of  the  iron  sugar-loaves  from  the  Paris  forts 
were  hurled  at  him,  but  almost  always  without  doing  any 
damage.  They  appeared,  at  any  rate,  not  to  be  suffering 
from  want  of  ammunition. 

Rain  about  one  o'clock.  After  this  I  was  in  the  Petit 
Trianon.  Hundreds  of  thrushes  were  sitting  on  the  tops 
of  the  trees,  on  the  right  of  the  great  avenue  leading  to  it. 
We  visited  the  sitting-room  of  Marie  Antoinette.  Difterent 
pictures  represent  her  as  a  child,  in  a  group  with  her  sisters, 
and  as  a  queen.  There  is  a  portrait  of  her  husband,  some 
old  rococo  furniture  which  she  used,  and  her  sleeping-room, 
with  its  bed  and  other  articles  which  the  conscientious  French 
guide  submitted  to  our  inspection,  with  friendly  explanations. 

In  the  evening  I  was  sent  for  to  the  Minister  five  times, 
so  that  I  was  fully  occupied. 

Erutay,  October  14. — Busy  up  till  noon  for  the  post.  Later 
I  telegraphed  to  London  and  Brussels  in  reference  to 
Ducrot's  false  assertions  in  La  Liberie.  It  was  announced 
in  the  same  way  that  General  Boyer,  Bazaine's  first  adjutant, 
had  arrived  from  Metz  at  Versailles  as  a  negotiator.  The 
Chief  appears,  however,  to  wish  to  undertake  nothing  serious 
v.'ith  him  to-day.  He  said  in  the  Bureau,  "  What  is  to-day  ?  " 
"  The  14th,  your  Excellency."  "  Well,  that  was  Hochkirch 
and  Jena  (both  on  14th  October).  A  bad  day  for  settling 
any  business."   No  doubt  he  reflected  it  was  Friday,  too. 


IX.]  The  Authors  of  the  War.  233 

During  dinner,  the  Chief,  after  thinking  for  a  moment, 
smiled  and  said,  "  I  have  a  charming  idea  ready  for  the  time 
when  peace  is  concluded.  It  is  this,  to  establish  an  Interna- 
tional tribunal,  to  try  those  who  instigated  this  war — news- 
paper writers,  deputies,  senators,  ministers,"  Abeken  added, 
Thiers,  too,  indirectly,  and  indeed  especially  for  his  Chau- 
vinistic '  History  of  the  Consulate  and  the  Empire.'  "  "  The 
Emperor,  too,  who  is  not  so  innocent  as  he  pretends  to  be," 
added  the  Minister.  "I  thought  of  an  equal  number  of  judges, 
from  each  of  the  great  Powers,  England,  America,  Russia, 
&c.  &c.,  and  that  we  should  be  the  accusers."  "The  English 
and  the  Russians  would,  of  course,  not  enter  into  this  pro- 
posal ;  and  then  we  might  form  the  Court  from  the  nations 
who  have  most  suffered  from  the  war ;  from  French  and 
German  representatives."  He  said,  further,  "  I  have  read 
the  article  of  the  Independance,  which  is  said  to  be  Gra- 
mont's.  He  blames  us  for  not  letting  Napoleon  go  after 
Sedan,  and  he  is  not  pleased  that  we  marched  upon  Paris 
instead  of  merely  occupying  Elsass  and  Lothringen  as  ma- 
terial guarantees.  I  thought  at  first  that  the  article  was  by 
Beust  or  some  other  good  friend  in  Austria,  but  I  am  quite 
persuaded  that  the  author  is  a  Frenchman."  He  gave  his 
reasons  for  this  opinion,  and  then  went  on  :  "  He  would  be 
right  if  his  assumption  were  correct,  that  we  really  did  not 
wish  for  Elsass  but  only  for  a  money  indemnity.  It  will 
be  much  better  if,  besides  Elsass,  we  have  Paris  also  as  a 
guarantee.  When  a  specific  object  is  wanted,  the  guarantee 
cannot  be  too  great." 

Mention  was  made  of  Boyer,  who  has  excited  much 
notice  in  Versailles  in  his  French  general's  uniform, 
which  has  not  been  seen  here  for  a  long  time,  and  which 
was  saluted  by  the  masses  with  loud  cries  of,  "  Vive 
la  France  P'     It  is  said  that  he  has  expressed  himself  to 


234         Bismarck  m  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap 

this  effect :  "  That  the  army  in  Metz  adheres  to  the  Em- 
peror and  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  Republic 
of  the  Paris  advocates."  This  is  what  the  Chancellor 
himself  said,  and  he  added  :  "  The  General  is  one  of 
those  men  who  suddenly  grow  thin  when  anything  ex- 
cites them ;  he  can  turn  red  too."  He  then  said : 
"  Let  us  remember  that  Gambetta  meanwhile  urges  war 
a  outrance ;  that  the  Parisian  press  almost  daily  recommends 
some  new  infamous  action  ;*  that  recently,  various  horrible 
deeds  of  these  bands  of  Francs-tireurs  have  been  brought  to 
light ;  and  let  us  not  forget  the  proverb,  '  When  the  hunter's 
horn  is  heard  in  the  wood  it  will  soon  be  heard  outside  it.' 
The  idea  of  letting   those    treacherous  Francs-tireurs  off! 

*  The  following  was  not  the  worst  of  them,  in  the  Petit  journal  of 
the  14th  September.  Thomas  Grimm,  after  complaining  that  the 
Prussians  knew  how  to  plunder  methodically,  and  wreck  by  rule  ; 
that  they  had,  everywhere,  at  Nancy,  Bar-le-Duc,  Reims,  Chalons, 
and  Troyes,  left  a  desert  behind  them  ;  that  they  murdered  husbands 
and  shot  down  fathers  to  be  able  to  dishonour  their  wives  and  daughters, 
concluded  his  peroration  with  the  following  tirade:  "  Rise  workmen  ! 
peasants  !  citizens  !  Let  the  Francs-tireurs  be  armed  and  organised, 
and  understand  what  they  have  to  do.  Let  them  gather  in  crowds, 
or  in  little  groups,  to  weary  out  and  exhaust  the  enemy.  Let  them 
imitate  those  who  track  out  wild  animals,  lying  in  wait  for  them  at 
the  edge  of  the  wood,  in  the  ditches,  behind  the  hedges  ;  let  the 
narrowest  footpath  and  the  darkest  corner  serve  for  their  meeting- 
place.  All  means  are  good,  for  it  is  a  holy  war.  The  rifle,  the  knife, 
the  scythe,  and  the  club,  are  permitted  weapons  against  the  enemy 
who  falls  into  our  hands.  Let  us  place  wolf-traps  for  them  ;  let  us 
tumble  them  down  wells,  throw  them  to  the  bottom  of  cisterns,  burn 
them  in  the  woods,  drown  them  in  the  rivers,  burn  the  huts  they  are 
sleeping  in  over  their  heads.  Let  us  have  everything  which  can  kill, 
in  whatever  way  it  can  do  it.  Be  on  the  watch  !  Make  ready  to  fly 
at  them  !" 

The  Cotnbat,  the  organ  of  Citizen  Felix  Pyat,  wishes  to  collect  sub- 
scriptions for  a  presentation  rifle  to  be  given  to  the  man  who  re- 
nM>ves  the  King  of  Prussia  out  of  the  way  by  assassination. 


IX.]  Vengeance  on  Villages.  235 

There  is  criminal  negligence  in  not  taking  them  out  and 
shooting  them,  and  it  is  treason  to  the  country.  Our  people 
are  all  ready  to  fire  at  them  in  the  field,  but  not  to  shoot 
them  down  in  cold  blood  afterwards.  .  .  .  All  villages  where 
treachery  is  practised  should  be  at  once  burned  down,  and 
all  the  male  inhabitants  hanged." 

Count  Bismarck-Bohlen  thereupon  told  us,  that  the  village 
of  Hably,  where  the  Schleswig  Hussars  had  been  attacked 
eight  days  ago  by  Francs-tireurs,  acting  in  concert  with  the 
inhabitants,  and  had  come  back  with  only  eleven  horses, 
had  been  utterly  burned  down,  and  the  Chief,  as  was  reason- 
able, praised  this  energy.  At  the  end  some  one  said  that 
quite  recently,  in  the  twilight,  two  shots  had  been  fired 
quite  close  to  our  house,  and  that  one  of  the  men  on  guard 
had  been  sent  out  to  ascertain  the  cause.  "  It  was  a  sentry, 
perhaps,"  said  the  Chief ;  "perhaps  some  suspicious  fellow 
had  been  seen.  I  remember,"  he  said,  "  that  the  night  before 
last,  when  I  was  taking  a  turn  in  the  garden,  late,  I  found  a 
ladder  and  at  once  felt  an  irresistible  impulse  to  mount  the 
wall.     Suppose,  now,  a  sentry  had  been  standing  there  ?" 

"  I  had  some  conversation  with  the  sentinel  at  the  door. 
He  had  served  in  the  campaign  of  1866,  and  was  thoroughly 
up  in  it.  I  asked  him  whether  he  thought  that  we  should 
get  into  Paris.  He  said,  yes,  we  could  if  it  were  not  for 
the  great  fort  on  the  left  of  Saint-Cloud.  I  told  him  that 
it  would  not  help  them  much  if  hunger  should  appear  in 
the  city." 

In  the  evening,  the  body-guard  with  the  long  beard,  told 
me  in  the  anteroom  below,  "We  have  got  that  Spaniard, 
Doctor."  "Ah,"  said  I;  "what  Spaniard  do  you  mean?" 
"  The  man  who  was  with  his  Excellency  yesterday  or  the 
day  before,  and  his  sei"vant  too.  He  is  a  spy ;  he  has  been 
seized,  and  a  plan  of  the  position  of  our  troops  found  on 


236         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

him."     I  heard  afterwards  that  the  man's  name  was  Angelo 
de  Miranda. 

About  ten  o'clock,  Moltke  and  another  high  officer,  the 
War  Minister,  I  think,  came  to  the  Chief  to  confer  with 
him,  probably  on  the  mission  of  Boyer. 

Saturday,  October  15. — In  the  morning  I  wrote  an  article 
on  the  destruction  of  the  Palace  of  Saint-Cloud,  which  was  set 
on  fire  by  the  French  without  any  rational  cause,  whilst  our 
soldiers  busied  themselves  in  saving  the  works  of  art  and 
other  valuables.  Then  a  second  on  Jacoby's  imprison- 
ment, in  much  the  same  sense  as  the  former  article  on  that 
subject,  but  with  this  addition,  that  in  carrying  out  these 
general  principles,  no  judgment  ought  to  be  passed  on  the 
timeliness  of  the  action  in  taking  this  particular  case. 

About  half-past  two  o'clock,  Boyer  had  another  audience 
of  the  Chief.  Outside,  in  front  of  the  open  ironwork  gates, 
a  number  of  people  waited  for  him,  and  when  he  came 
out,  about  four  o'clock,  they  took  off  their  caps  and  hats 
and  cried  "  Vive  la  France!"  which  the  Minister,  when  this 
was  mentioned  at  dinner,  "  could  not  blame  them  for."  I 
had  meantime  made  a  tour  through  the  park  round  the 
Palace,  where  I  saw  on  one  of  the  marble  vases  the  following 
poetical  effusion  by  an  angry  Gaul  on  the  unity  of  feeling 
among  the  Germans  : — 

"Badois,   Saxons,  Bavarois, 
Dupes  d'un  Bismarck  plein  d'astuce, 
Vous  le  faits  bucher  tous  trois 
Pour  le  Roi  de  Prusse. 

"J'ai  grand  besoin,  mes  chers  amis, 
De  mourrir  Empereur  d'Allemagne, 
Que  vos  manes  en  graissant  la  campagne 
Mais  que  mes  voeus  sont  accomplis."  * 


I  copied  this  exactly,  errors  included. 


IX.]  The  Worry  of  Advisers.  237 

The  same  sort  of  thing  was  to  be  found  on  a  marble  seat 
close  by,  for  the  custom  of  scribbling  on  walls,  benches, 
pedestals,  with  pencils  or  chalk,  seems  to  have  found  many- 
friends  here.  On  more  than  ten  walls  in  the'  town  I  have 
read  during  the  last  few  days,  "  A  bas  les  Priissiens  "  (Down 
with  the  Prussians)  and  worse. 

At  four  o'clock,  a  slight  and  well-dressed  negro  called 
on  the  Minister.  On  his  card  was  "  General  Price,  Envoy 
of  the  Republic  of  Hayti."  The  Chief  regretted  that  he 
could  not  receive  him,  on  account  of  pressing  business 
(Moltke  and  Roon  were  again  upstairs  with  him) ;  would 
he  be  good  enough  to  write  what  he  wanted  ?  About  five 
o'clock  the  Crown  Prince  came  to  join  the  confei^ence  of 
the  Chancellor  with  the  generals.  There  seems  to  be  con- 
siderable difference  of  opinion  between  the  people  here  and 
at  Metz. 

On  other  sides,  too,  there  were  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  carrying  out  what  the  Chancellor  had  in  view  as  a  politi- 
cian. As  he  said  at  table,  "It  is  very  annoying  that  every 
plan  I  have  must  be  first  talked  over  with  five  or  six  persons, 
who  understand  very  little  about  the  matter,  and  yet  whose 
objections  I  must  listen  to  and  meet  politely.  Thus  I  have 
lately  had  to  give  up  three  whole  days  to  settle  a  matter 
which  under  other  circumstances  I  could  have  finished  in 
three  minutes.  It  is  just  as  if  I  were  to  give  my  advice 
about  the  placing  of  a  battery  here  or  there,  and  as  if  the 
embarrassed  officer  had  to  give  an  explanation  to  me  who 

know  nothing  of  his   business."     " has  an  excellent 

head,  and  I  am  convinced  that  whatever  he  might  have 
undertaken  he  would  have  become  something  exceedingly 
respectable  in  it.  But  having  occupied  himself  for  years, 
only  with  one  and  the  same  thing,  he  has  now  feeling 
and   interest  for  that  alone."     He  did  not  allow  a  single 


238         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

word  to  escape  him  about  the  negotiations  with  Boyer,  or 
what  was  likely  to  result  from  them.  Hatzfeld  and  Keudell 
too,  knew  nothing  about  them,  and  only  guessed. 

Sunday,  October  16. — In  the  morning  another  letter  was 
received  from  B.  in  L.  He  disapproved  of  our  proceedings 
against  Jacoby,  ana  thought  that  Bismarck  could  do  what 
he  liked  if  he  was  only  sound  in  German  politics,  that 
is  if,  at  this  moment,  the  Unity  of  the  German  Confederate 
State  at  least  should  be  secured  and  completed.  He 
went  on  to  say,  "  We,  in  Germany,  are  so  firmly  per- 
suaded that  the  solution  of  this  difficulty  lies  in  the  hands  of 
the  Chancellor,  that  every  opposition  is  laid  at  his  door 
by  public  opinion.  It  is  said  that  if  Count  Bismarck  did 
not  secretly  encourage  this  opposition  it  would  not  venture 
to  be  active,  at  such  a  momentous  time."  He  ended 
with  asking  whether  he  should  come  here.  In  com- 
pliance with  B.'s  wish,  I  laid  the  chief  parts  of  the  letter 
before  the  Minister,  who  said  that  the  coming  of  B.  would 
be  very  agreeable  to  him,  as  his  local  knowledge  would  be 
exceedingly  useful  in  Paris  when  we  were  once  in.  "  He 
might  also,  after  his  return,  give  information  and  explanations 
in  his  own  circles,  which  it  is  not  easy  to  give  by  writing. 
It  is  comical  that  they  should  think  that  I  do  not  wish  the 
unity  of  Germany.  It  is  for  very  different  reasons  that 
the  cause  does  not  advance.  ...  It  will  be  for  the  same 
reasons,  that,  if  we  ever  do  attain  that  position,  they  will 
have  to  regret  the  omission  of  some  things  here  and  there." 

This  morning,  in  the  Avenue  de  Saint-Cloud,  I  met  Borck 
just  arriving,  in  the  uniform  of  a  major.  He  told  me  that 
Soissons  had  fallen,  and  that  the  bombardment  of  Paris 
was  to  begin  on  the  28th.  Almost  the  whole  of  the  park 
of  artillery  has  arrived,  and  in  three  days  they  hoped  (that 
is,  he  did)  to  destroy  it.     The  stout  gentleman  thinks  that 


IX.]  Music.  239 

we  shall  be  back  in  Berlin,  at  the  latest,  by  the  ist  of 
December.  He  said,  too,  that  a  congress  of  princes  in 
Versailles  was  under  serious  consideration,  and  that  they 
were  getting  the  Trianon  ready  for  the  King  of  Bavaria. 

We  learn  that  discord  reigns  in  Paris.  The  Reds,  under 
Blanqui  and  Flourens,  do  not  like  to  see  the  Blue  Repub- 
licans at  the  helm — they  attack  them  violently  in  their 
papers,  and  on  the  9th  the  mob  had  uttered  cries  of 
''  Vive  la  Cofiimime !"  in  front  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville.  We 
hear  that  Seebach,  who  was  once,  I  think,  Saxon  ambas- 
sador in  Paris,  and  who  is  acquainted  with  Leflo  and 
Trochu,  intends  to  offer  the  Chancellor  his  assistance 
towards  procuring  an  understanding  with  the  Parisians. 

While  we  were  taking  our  coffee  Keudell  played  some 
soft  music  to  the  Minister  on  the  piano.  In  answer  to* 
my  enquiry  whether  the  Chief  was  musical,  he  said,  "  Cer- 
tainly, although  he  does  not  play  himself.  You  must  have 
remarked  that  he  sings  softly  when  I  play.  It  is  good  for 
his  nerves,  which  are  much  affected  to-day." 

In  the  evening  die  Nuncio  Chigi  came  with  a  companion 
also  in  clerical  costume.  He  had  a  long  conversation  with 
the  Chancellor,  and  will  go  on  to-morrow  to  Tours.  Of 
ambassadors,  there  are  now  in  Paris,  they  say,  only  the 
Belgian,  the  Dutch,  the  Portuguese,  the  Swiss,  one  from 
the  United  States,  and  some  from  South  America.  The 
Spaniard  lately  arrested  here  is,  to  give  him  his  full  title, 
Angelo  de  Vallejo-Miranda,  and  he  was  arrested,  not  for 
the  reason  given  by  the  man  on  guard,  but  because,  in 
Versailles,  he  only  gave  his  first  name,  and  represented 
himself  as  a  Spanish  secretary  of  legation,  whereas  he 
belongs  to  the  Spanish  Debt  Commission.  His  companion, 
who  passed  as  his  servant,  was  one  Oswald,  a  joint  editor 
of  the  Gaulois,  which  is  very  hostile  to  us.     By  all  these 


240         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

lies  and  misrepresentations  the  gentlemen  had  managed 
to  get  themselves  suspected  of  being  spies.  He  is  said 
to  be  a  friend  of  Prim,  which  is  very  compatible  with  what 
Stieber  said  of  him  yesterday  in  the  Bureau.* 

After  eleven  o'clock  two  important  telegrams  arrived. 
Bourbaki,  who  had  gone  from  Metz  to  London,  does  not 
return  to  Metz,  but  places  himself  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Government  of  National  Defence ;  and  next  Wednesday, 
Bray  and  Pranckh,  with  the  approval  of  King  Louis  of 
Bavaria,  will  start  for  Versailles. 

Monday y  October  17. — Two  articles  written  in  the  forenoon. 
Before  dinner  an  excursion  to  the  Grand  Trianon,  where  there 
is  a  beautiful  marble  group  in  the  great  reception  room. 
Italy  is  represented  as  thanking  France  for  the  assistance 
given  her  against  the  Austrians.  The  Milanese  presented 
it  to  Eugenie.  Delbriick  and  Lauer  dined  with  us.  The 
Chief  again  expressed  himself  very  energetically  in  favour  of 
the  inexorable  punishment  of  villages  which  had  been  guilty 
of  treachery.  They  must  be  made  responsible  if  a  traitorous 
attack  takes  place  in  them.  Otherwise  what  will  become 
of  our  poor  soldiers  ? 

The  discussion  now  turned  on  things  culinary,  when  it 
appeared  that  the  Chancellor  liked  good  mutton,  and  pre- 
ferred the  part  of  beef  called  in  Berlin  the  "  brisket."  He 
did  not  care  much  for  fillet  or  for  roast  beef. 

In  the  evening,  we  were  warned  to  pack  up  our  trunks, 
and  in  case  there  should  be  an  alarm  in  the  night  the 
carriages  were  to  be  drawn  up  in  the  Prefecture,  in  front  of 
the  King's  quarters.  A  sortie  has  been  expected  since 
yesterday. 

*  The  fellow  was  afterwards  taken  to  Mainz.  Here  he  gave  his  word 
of  honour  not  to  escape,  in  order  that  it  might  not  be  necessary  to 
resort  to  imprisonment.    But  after  a  few  days  he  nevertheless  ran  away, 


IX.]  Hard-boiled  Eggs.  241 

Tuesday,  October  18. — The  night  is  over  and  nothing  has 
happened.  A  splendid  autumn  morning.  I  sent  off  a  con- 
tradiction of  the  French  reports  that  our  troops  have  bom- 
barded Orleans.  This  is  the  birthday  of  the  Crown  Prince, 
and  the  Chief  and  the  Councillors  go,  about  12  o'clock,  to 
congratulate  him.  They  have  sent  us  a  number  of  the 
Kraj,  in  which  it  is  asserted  that  the  Minister  not  long  ago 
had  a  conversation  with  a  nobleman  of  Gallicia,  in  which 
he  advised  the  Poles  to  abandon  the  Austrians.  I  learned, 
on  inquiry,  that  this  is  untrue  \  that  for  a  long  time  he  has 
not  spoken  with  any  Gallician  and  certainly  with  no  Pole. 
I  contradict  the  story  in  the  press. 

The  Chief  breakfasted  with  us  for  once,  and  remarked 
(we  will  not  leave  even  such  little  traits  unnoticed)  "  that  he 
was  very  fond  of  hard-boiled  eggs ;  that  now  he  could  only 
manage  three,  but  the  time  was  when  he  could  make  away 
with  eleven."  Bohlen  boasts  of  having  once  eaten  fifteen 
plover's  eggs.  "  I  am  ashamed  to  say  what  I  have  done 
in  that  line,"  replied  his  cousin,  who,  in  conclusion,  recom- 
mended Delbriick  to  provide  himself  with  hard-boiled  eggs 
for  his  journey,  as  he  is  soon  going  back  to  Germany,  which 
Delbriick  declined  to  do,  as  he  cannot  endure  them  hard- 
boiled.  The  Chief  then  read  us  some  of  the  specially 
edifying  private  letters  to  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  which 
the  Provisional  Government  has  published,  with  commen- 
taries on  them  which  throw  side  lights  on  the  characters  of 
several  personages  in  Berlin. 

Afterwards  he  mentioned  the  notice  in  Kraj,  and  in  con- 
nection with  this,  spoke  of  the  Poles  generally.  He  dwelt 
for  some  time  on  the  victories  of  the  great  Elector  in  the 
East,  and  on  his  alliance  with  Charles  X.  of  Sweden,  wliich 
had  promised  him  great  advantages.  It  was  only  to  be 
regretted  that  his  relations   with    Holland   prevented  him 

VOL.    I.  R 


242         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

from  following  up  these  advantages,  and  turning  them  to 
proper  account.  Otherwise  he  had  good  prospects  of  ex 
tending  his  power  in  West  Poland.  When  Delbriick  said, 
"  Then  Prussia  would  not  have  remained  a  German  state," 
the  Chief  replied,  "I  don't  think  it  would  have  been  so  bad 
as  that ;  but  after  all  no  great  harm  might  have  been  done. 
It  would  have  become  in  the  North  what  Austria  is  in  the 
South.  What  Hungary  is  to  Austria,  Poland  might  have 
been  to  us,"  a  remark  with  which  he  connected  the  state- 
ment he  had  made  once  before,  that  he  had  advised  the 
Crown  Prince  to  teach  his  son  the  Polish  language ;  but 
that  this,  to  his  regret,  had  not  been  done. 

Wednesday,  October  19. — Dull  weather  in  the  morning; 
afterwards  it  cleared  up.  I  wrote  to  the  editor  of  the 
Nouvelliste  de  Versailles,  a  little  journal  which  has  been 
established  by  the  German  correspondents  of  the  Cologne 
Gazette  and  the  Allgemeine  Zeitimg,  who  have  been  driven 
from  Paris,  and  is  connected  with  Brauchitsch.  It  should 
also  be  brought  into  relation  with  us,  and  receive  infor- 
mation, &c.  In  the  forenoon  and  afternoon  I  was  several 
times  with  the  Chief  He  appears  to  be  in  excellent  humour. 
He  showed  me  a  French  telegram,  according  to  which  the 
heroes  in  Lutetia  have  performed  the  most  tremendous 
exploits  against  us.     If  such  swaggering  had  any  object ! 

At  dinner,  where  Count  Waldersee  was  present,  the  Chief 
remarked :  "It  would  be  a  very  good  thing,  in  those 
districts  where  they  have  fired  from  the  bushes  upon  our 
trains,  loosened  the  sleepers,  and  placed  stones  on  the  rails, 
to  carry  off  the  inhabitants  of  a  good  many  square  miles, 
transport  them  to  Germany,  and  settle  them  there,  where 
tliey  could  be  well  looked  after."  When  Bucher  related, 
that  on  his  journey  here  an  officer  had  taken  out  his 
revolver,  in  order  to  play  with  it  in  a  demonstrative  manner 


JX.]  WAy  not  summon  the  Electors  f  243 

before  a  bridge  from  which  the  French  rufhans  were  used 
to  spit  down,  the  Chief  replied  :  "  Why  play  ?  He  should 
have  waited  till  they  spat  and  then  fired  at  once."  .  .  . 
In  the  evening  comes  L.  with  a  somewhat  confused  Herr  H., 
who  had  been  joint  editor  of  the  NouvelUste  as  far  as  No.  4, 
and  says  he  gave  it  up  at  that  point  because  it  wished  to 
treat  the  Parisians  with  too  much  consideration.  He  de- 
clares that  he  will  gladly  accept  our  ofifers.  In  the  morning 
he  is  going  to  publish  a  letter  to  this  effect  : 

"  The  chiefs  of  the  National  Defence  in  Paris  will  not 
summon  the  electors.  Why  not  ?  Jules  Favre  and  his 
colleagues  owe  their  position  to  that  kind  of  patriotic  frenzy 
which  possessed  a  part  of  the  population  of  Paris  after  the 
fatal  day  of  Sedan.  They  are  subject  to  the  general  law  for 
political  authorities,  set  forth,  in  the  well-known  words  of 
the  Latin  historian :  '  A  government  rests  on  the  principle 
from  which  it  issues.'  From  the  very  beginning  the  Parisian 
government  has  found  it  necessary,  in  respect  to  the  con- 
ditions of  peace,  to  betake  itself  to  the  region  of  the 
impossible.  To-day,  when  they  have  sown  destruction  all 
around  them,  and  used  every  means  to  work  Paris  and  its 
defenders  into  excitement,  and  have,  in  the  most  frightful 
way,  armed  the  Revolution,  both  in  the  city  and  outside,  it  is 
less  possible  than  ever  for  them  to  escape  from  the  circle  of 
perplexities  in  which  they  have  shut  themselves  up.  Feeling 
in  the  provinces,  on  the  contrary,  and  especially  in  the  flat 
country,  has  not  been  able  to  soar  to  this  heroic  standpoint. 
They  are  experiencing  the  bitterest  evils  of  the  war ;  they 
begin  to  doubt  the  success  of  a  prolonged  resistance  ;  they 
fear  the  advance  of  social  disintegration ;  they  look  for 
deeds,  and  listen  no  longer  to  fine  phrases.  Many  pro- 
vincial papers  have  already  had  the  courage  to  utter  the  cry 
for  peace.    It  is  not  probable,  then,  that  the  majority  of  the 

R  2 


244         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap 

French  voters  will  agree  with  M.  Gambetta,  that  they 
'  ought  to  bury  themselves  beneath  the  ruins  of  their  father- 
land ;'  or  that  they  have  any  fancy  for  what  he  says  in  his 
proclamation  :  '  Mourotis  pliitbt  que  de  subir  la  inert  du 
demembretnent  r  (Let  us  die  rather  than  submit  to  the 
death  of  dismemberment.)  This  is  the  reason  why  the 
Paris  government  will  not  and  cannot  hold  the  elections. 
These  people  who  have  spent  their  lives  in  appealing  to  the 
Rights  of  the  people  and  the  Sovereignty  of  the  people,  are 
now  condemned  to  exercise  and  maintain  a  Dictatorship  of 
the  Public  Welfare  without  any  commission  from  their 
country,  and  they  will  bring  about  her  ruin." 

Thursday,  October  20. — Both  morning  and  afternoon  I 
was  very  diligent,  and  worked  at  different  articles  and  tele- 
grams. At  table  the  conversation  again  turned  on  the  im- 
prisonment of  Jacoby  by  the  military  authorities,  and  the 
Chief  said,  as  before,  that  he  had  strong  doubts  whether  the 
measure  had  been  well  timed.  One  of  the  gentlemen 
expressed  his  delight  that  "  the  lazy  babbler  was  shut  up." 
But  the  Chancellor  answered,  quite  in  keeping  with  his  usual 
feeling,  "  I  do  not  rejoice  at  it  in  the  very  least.  A  party 
man  may  do  so  because  his  zeal  for  vengeance  is  satisfied. 
The  politician  may  not,  for  in  politics  he  knows  no  such 
feelings.  He  asks  only  whether  it  is  useful  that  political 
adversaries  should  be  ill-used." 

In  the  evening  L.  was  again  here.  The  NouvelUste  will 
to-morrow  contain  a  letter  which  a  Parisian  has  sent  to  some 
one  in  Versailles,  in  which  he  thus  speaks  of  the  condition 
of  things  in  Babylon  ; 

"  The  Clubs  already  assume  to  govern  in  the  name  of  the 
Commune  of  Paris,  and  red  hand-bills  are  posted  up  in  its 
name,  summoning  the  National  Guard  to  the  election  of 
the   Parisian   MunicipaUty.      If  this   election   takes  place, 


IX.]  TJie  Comimme  and  the  Terror.  245 

we  shall  see  an  armed  demonstration  with  the  view  of  insti- 
tuting the  Commune  in  Paris — that  is,  the  Reign  of  Terror. 
The  Commune  already  reigns  and  governs  in  Belleville, 
the  headquarters  of  the  party  of  terror ;  and  its  members 
are  resolved  to  depose  the  mayor  of  the  19th  arrondisse- 
ment  from  his  office,  and  to  supply  his  place  by  one  of  their 
own  friends.  This  Club  has  decreed  the  imprisonment  of 
M.  Godillot,  a  manufacturer  of  military  equipments,  and  the 
confiscation  of  his  goods,  and  ordered  the  closing  of  his 
establishment,  on  the  charge  of  high  treason."  The  letter 
further  says  :  "While  the  journals  maintain  that  a  formidable 
attack  of  the  Prussian  masses  is  to  be  expected  within  the 
next  few  days,  the  friends  of  General  Trochu  assert  that  he 
is  positively  assured  that  the  enemy  have  renounced  the 
idea  of  attempting  to  storm  Paris,  and  that  in  Versailles 
they  have  adopted  the  plan  of  reducing  the  city  by 
hunger.  The  Prussian  army,  divided  into  dense  masses, 
occupies  strong  positions  at  different  points  round  Paris. 
Their  very  numerous  cavalry  serve  both  to  connect  these 
positions  with  each  other,  and  to  prevent  any  supplies 
or  assistance  being  brought  in  from  the  provinces.  The 
population  of  Paris,  increased  by  the  poor  and  needy  popu- 
lation of  the  Banlieue,  will  soon  suffer  hunger,  and  before 
eight  days  are  over,  will  prepare  for  the  Government  in- 
surmountable difficulties,  by  which  the  enemy  will  profit." 
"  The  bolder  the  party  of  Terror  becomes,  the  weaker  does 
the  Government  show  itself,  and  it  will  not  be  long  before 
it  is  thrown  overboard  and  swallowed  up  by  those  savage 
brutes,  unless  it  soon  takes  energetic  decisions.  The  leaders 
of  the  party  of  terror  are  resolved  to  remove  Generals 
Trochu  and  Leflo,  Admiral  Fourichon,  and  Jules  Favre, 
Thiers,  Jules  Simon,  and  Keratry,  who  are  all  suspected 
of  being  Royalists.      If  General  Trochu  does  not  soon 


246        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

interfere  vigorously,  the  Reign  of  Terror  will  take  his  place 
in  Paris." 

The  German  Liberal  press  is  unable  as  yet  to  satisfy  itself 
about  the  imprisonment  of  Jacoby  ;  but  the  Chief  thinks 
that  much  depends  on  their  clearly  understanding  the  view- 
he  takes  of  the  case,  and  on  their  adopting  his  view=  The 
IVcser  Zeitung  of  October  16,  which  has  arrived  to-day, 
contains  the  following  article  : 

"  The  Chancellor  justifies  the  imprisonment  of  Dr.  Jacoby 
and  of  Herbig,  the  merchant,  though  at  the  same  time  he 
declares  that  it  is  illegal.  The  instruction  which  the  Chan- 
cellor has  sent  us  on  this  occasion,  througli  von  Horn,  the 
magistrate  at  Konigsberg,  has  an  exceedingly  practical  inte- 
rest for  all  Germans  on  this  side  the  Maine  ;  for  it  is  obvious 
from  it  that  the  fate  of  Dr.  Jacoby  may  be  that  of  any 
one  who,  according  to  the  opinion  of  a  military  tribunal, 
utters  any  expression  which  may  possibly  strengthen  the 
French,  either  mediately  or  immediately,  in  continuing  their 
resistance,  without  his  being  able  to  appeal  to  the  law  for 
protection.  Apart  from  this,  this  instruction  possesses,  in  the 
views  which  it  sets  forth,  the  interest  of  complete  novelty. 

"  In  the  first  place  the  Chancellor  declares  that  the  opinion, 
hitherto  probably  shared  by  all,  that  the  measure  had  been 
adopted  by  the  Governor-General  on  the  authority  of  the 
law  on  the  State  of  Siege  as  a  war  measure,  is  erroneous. 
According  to  this  law  the  measure,  he  admits,  would  be 
unjustifiable — which  indeed  is  evident.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  considers  it  not  inapplicable  as  a  measure  of  actual 
warfare.  The  question  is  not  one  of  a  penal  measure,  but 
of  an  effectual  displacement  of  all  those  powers,  the  activity 
of  which  might  render  diflicult  the  attainment  of  the  objects 
of  the  war. 

"  In  this  definition  we  can  find  no  other  meaning  than 


IX.]  Inter  Anna  Silent  Leges  ?  247 

this,  that  the  same  rights  belong  to  military  authorities  at 
home  as  to  mihtary  persons  in  an  enemy's  country.  We  at 
least  do  not  see  what  wider  scope  could  be  given  to  them 
than  the  '  displacement  of  all  those  powers,  the  activity  of 
which  might  render  difficult  the  attainment  of  the  objects 
of  the  war.'  The  decision  what  powers  are  to  be  displaced, 
and  by  what  measures,  is  left,  in  an  enemy's  country,  and 
especially  on  the  theatre  of  actual  hostilities,  absolutely  to 
the  military  authorities.  Their  powers  are  perfectly  un- 
limited. If  the  military  authorities  have  the  same  prero- 
gatives at  home,  the  words  inter  arma  silent  leges  receive  a 
fearful  meaning  never  before  dreamt  of.  It  cannot  logically 
be  denied  that  the  military  governor  in  Hannover  would  be 
as  able  as  his  colleague  in  Nancy  to  condemn  men  to  be 
hanged  or  shot  without  trial.  The  Chancellor,  although 
he  does  not  draw  this  extreme  inference,  appears  expressly 
to  point  in  that  direction.  He  enumerates  a  series  of 
exceedingly  unpleasant  operations  in  which  a  Government 
is  justified  in  the  theatre  of  war :  such  as  burning  down 
houses,  confiscating  private  property,  and  rendering  merely 
suspected  persons  incapable  of  doing  mischief,  &c.  &c., 
and  he  adds,  that  '  the  just  idea  which  lies  at  the  basis  of 
these  exceptional  rights  is  independent  of  locality,  indepen- 
dent of  the  distance  from  the  place  where  the  more  manifest 
actions  of  war  take  place.'     That  is  plain  enough. 

"  We  must  ^y,  then,  if  Count  Bismarck's  theory  be  the 
right  one,  that  we  do  not  see  the  object  of  any  special  law 
on  the  state  of  war,  or  why  we  proclaim  the  application  of 
this  law  in  the  Baltic  provinces,  in  Hannover,  and  the 
Hanse  towns.  If  the  military  authorities  have,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  a  power  during  war  above  the  law,  independent 
of  locality,  an  authority  for  all  measures  which  appear  to 
them  serviceable  for  carrying  it  on,  there  is  evidently  no 


248         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

sense  in  proclaiming  a  law  to  place  this  power  under  certain 
limitations.  We  cannot,  therefore,  persuade  ourselves  that, 
any  such  supreme  and  all-absorbing  power  is  given  by  the 
State  law  of  North  Germany  or  Prussia,  to  the  military 
authorities  by  the  outbreak  of  war. 

"  According  to  our  view  two  cases  are  to  be  distinguished, 
according  as  we  are  dealing  with  the  theatre  of  actual 
hostilities  or  with  territories  beyond  it.  In  the  first  case, 
common  law  is  extinct,  and  the  martial  law,  pur  et  simple, 
as  the  Chancellor  explains  very  forcibly,  comes  into  opera- 
tion. In  the  other  case,  the  military  authorities  either 
maintain  their  usual  powers,  or  where  a  state  of  war  is 
proclaimed,  invest  themselves  with  those  exceptional  rights 
which  the  law  on  the  state  of  war  gives  them  in  that  event. 
It  is  the  latter  position  in  which  East  Prussia  now  stands. 
If  the  interning  of  Dr.  Jacoby  is  not  admissible  according 
to  the  law  upon  the  state  of  war,  it  is  not  admissible  at  all, 
and  the  statement  that  the  manifestations  of  Dr.  Jacoby 
inspired  the  French  with  fresh  courage,  even  if  it  were 
better  founded  than,  from  the  daily  and  tolerably  extensive 
study  we  have  made  of  the  French  journals,  it  appears  to 
us  to  be,  does  not  alter  the  question.  For  if  it  were  actually 
the  case,  there  is  no  want  of  legal  ways  of  preventing  such 
manifestations.  The  law  upon  the  state  of  war  and  of 
siege  expressly  prescribes  that  freedom  of  speech,  freedom 
of  the  press,  and  the  right  of  meeting  may  be  suspended, 
and  under  what  formalities.  But  in  Konigsberg  none  of 
these  rights  had  been  legally  suspended,  as  they  certainly 
should  have  been,  before  proceeding  against  an  individual, 
all  whose  guilt  consisted  in  the  exercise  of  the  Consti- 
tutional right  of  expressing  his  opinions  in  public.  We 
do  not  of  course  mean  to  say  that  it  would  have  been  wise 
to  do  so.     The  French  would  have  had  just  as  many  wrong 


IX.j  Dr.  Jacoby.  249 

ideas  put  into  their  heads  by  such  a  measure,  more  perhaps 
than  by  the  interning  of  Dr.  Jacoby ;  certainly  far  more 
than  they  ever  could  have  had  by  the  speeches  and  resolu- 
tions of  the  Konigsberg  apostle  ot  the  future. 

"  In  general  we  are  not  inclined  to  take  cases  of  the  kind 
now  under  discussion  too  seriously.  We  do  not  believe,  that 
we  are  practically  so  much  without  law  as  we  should  be, 
according  to  the  theory  of  the  Chancellor,  or  that  the  danger 
of  being  marched  off  under  martial  law  is  greater  in  North 
Germany,  than  that  of  being  eaten  by  a  crocodile.  We  are 
not  idolaters  of  the  letter  of  the  law ;  we  can  easily  imagine 
cases  where  we  should  heartily  vote,  not  only  indemnity 
but  even  thanks  for  the  somewhat  illegal  interning  of  a 
profitless  disturber  of  this  sacred  war.  We  have  a  very 
lively  respect,  notwithstanding,  for  the  sections  of  the  Act, 
and  we  are  profoundly  distressed  to  see  them  ignored, 
without  a  manifestly  overpowering  necessity.  This  feeling 
is  moreover  strengthened  by  the  consideration  that  Dr. 
Jacoby  has  been  imprisoned  for  the  expression  of  an 
opinion  which  at  the  time  that  he  expressed  it,  no  one  knew 
to  be  opposed  to  the  Government's  Programme  of  Peace. 
An  official  declaration,  that  we  meant  to  keep  Elsass  and 
Lothringen  did  not  then  exist.  The  question  was  an  open 
one,  and  it  is  no  secret  that  even  very  Conservative  people 
in  Berlin  were  then  vehemently  opposed  to  the  Annexation 
of  those  '  dangerous  elements.'  In  short,  we  must  insist, 
that  wrong  was  done  to  Dr.  Jacoby,  and  although  we  do 
not  fear  any  terrible  consequences,  we  regret  this  episode 
in  a  very  glorious  history,  all  the  more  deeply  the  more 
glorious  the  history  is." 

The  answer  to  this  was  to  the  following  effect : 
"The  Weser  Zeitung  oi  \}i\Q.  i6th  instant  contains  a  lead 
ing   article,  on   the  instruction  which  the   Chancellor  has 


250         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 


addressed  through  President  von  Horn  to  the  Magistrate 
of  Konigsberg  in  the  affair  of  Jacoby.  Permit  me  to  say 
a  few  words  in  reference  to  that  criticism.  The  Weser 
Zeitufig,  in  this  article,  touches  upon  two  different  things. 
The  statement  of  the  Chancellor  in  the  communication  to 
von  Horn  is  a  purely  theoretical  one  upon  the  possibility, 
that  when  war  has  broken  out  the  military  authorities  may, 
in  the  interest  of  military  operations,  permit  themselves  to 
do  things  which  in  peace  would,  under  all  circumstances,  be 
inadmissible.  Almost  the  same  thing  is  said  there,  as  the 
Weser  Zeitimg  must  mean  when  it  remarks  :  '  We  can  easily 
imagine  cases  where  we  should  heartily  vote,  not  only 
indemnity,  but  thanks  for  the  somewhat  illegal  interning 
of  a  profitless  disturber  of  this  sacred  war.'  This  is  exactly 
the  Chancellor's  view  of  the  law,  and  if  this  be  considered 
absolutely  inadmissible,  it  would  be  quite  impossible  to 
fight  a  battle  on  home  soil  in  an  invasion  of  North  German 
territory,  even  if  we  succeeded  in  finding  an  extensive 
and  utterly  uninhabited  heath  as  a  battlefield ;  for  even 
then  the  proprietor  would  be  able  to  prove  the  violation 
of  his  rights. 

"  Either  the  military  authority  is  bound  by  the  forms  of 
the  law  or  the  Constitution  in  spite  of  the  breaking  out  of 
war,  or  it  is  entitled  in  a  reasonable  way,  adapted  to  the  end 
of  the  exclusive  prosecution  of  the  war,  to  devote  itself  to  its 
military  task.  To  this  question  one  must  in  theory  either 
say  Yes  or  No.  If  we  say  No,  it  must  be  remembered, 
by  how  many  officials  of  the  law,  every  body  of  troops 
fighting  in  its  own  country  must  be  accompanied,  and  what 
legal  formalities  it  would  have  to  go  through,  with  respect 
to  individual  houses  and  men,  before  it  would  be  constitu- 
tionally entitled  to  begin  any  military  operation.  If  we  say 
Yes,  we  must  admit,   that  it  is  impossible  to  codify  suffi- 


IX.]  Extoit  of  Military  Power.  251 

ciently  directions  to  the  discretionary  power,  which  must 
rest  with  a  commander  in  time  of  war,  in  such  a  way,  that 
the  general  or  soldier  shall  be  able  to  cite  the  article  of  the 
constitution  or  the  local  law,  justifying  every  military  act 
which  he  does  in  his  own  country. 

"  To  deduce,  theoretically,  anything  different  from  the  pre- 
ceding, on  which  of  course  there  may  be  differences  of 
opinion,  cannot  have  been  the  aim  of  the  Chancellor. 
According  to  the  present  Constitution,  it  is  not  competent 
for  the  Prussian  Ministry  of  State  to  judge  whether  a 
military  commander  has  done  well  in  any  particular  case 
in  using  his  power  to  the  extent  which  he  has  done.  The 
General  Governorships  instituted  before  the  outbreak  of 
the  war  were  not  established  at  the  recommendation  or 
under  the  authority  of  the  Minister,  but  for  military  reasons  • 
and  in  the  plenitude  of  military  autliority,  as  in  all  other 
military  offices,  without  consulting  him.  The  Chancellor 
and  the  other  Ministers  of  State  are  not  the  superiors  of  the 
Military  Governors,  who,  though  they  would  not  obey  a 
ministerial  order,  would  obey  any  military  command  which 
came  to  them  without  the  Minister's  counter  signature. 

"  It  is,  therefore,  a  thoroughly  unpractical  proceeding, 
when  those  who  consider  themselves  injured  in  their  rights 
by  the  action  of  the  Military  power  in  its  conduct  of  the 
war,  appeal  to  Ministerial  action  for  redress.  They  should 
rather  look  to  the  military  superiors  of  those  of  whom  they 
complain.  We  may,  therefore,  suppose  that  the  Chancellor 
has  not  felt  himself  bound  to  express  his  opinion  officially 
about  the  appropriateness  of  the  time  chosen  in  a  particular 
case,  Jacoby's  for  example.  He  has  only  spoken  upon  the 
theoretical  question  whether,  during  war  and  in  the  interests 
of  war,  the  imprisonment  of  persons,  whose  proceedings 
were  prejudicial  in  the  judgment  of  the  military  authorities 


252         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

to  the  conduct  of  the  war  and  useful  to  the  enemy,  could 
be  temporarily  permitted. 

"  In  this  general  view,  politicians  and  soldiers  will  hardly 
say  No,  although  there  are  many  nice  and  difficult  points 
involved,  as  in  the  whole  subject  of  military  law.  But  the 
concrete  question — Whether  this  right  of  war  ought  to  have 
been  used  by  the  Government  in  the  case  of  Jacoby?  lies 
as  much  beyond  ministerial  competence,  as  the  question, 
whether  it  be  necessary  or  expedient  to  set  fire  to  a  village 
in  a  battle  in  one's  own  couniry,  or  to  intern,  a  couple  of 
hundred  miles  from  the  field,  a  private  individual,  who  is 
suspected  of  favouring  the  enemy,  though  there  is  no  legal 
evidence  to  convict  him.  In  what  way  a  miHtary  com- 
mander may  be  made  responsible  for  an  erroneous,  pre- 
cipitate, or  unjust  solution  of  this  question  is  foreign  to 
the  present  inquiry,  in  wliich  we  have  only  endeavoured  to 
show^  that  the  constitutional  authority  of  Ministers  does  not 
give  them  any  immediate  right  to  interfere  in  sucli  cases." 

Friday .1  October  21. — This  morning,  about  eight  o'clock, 
fi.ring  was  heard  from  the  heavy  artillery,  more  vigorous  and 
long-continued  than  usual ;  but  we  did  not  allow  ourselves  to 
be  disturbed  by  it.  Different  articles  were  prepared  ;  among 
them,  one  on  the  departure  of  the  Nuncio  and  the  other 
Diplomatists  from  Paris.  At  breakfast  Keudell  would  have 
it  that  the  French  had  battered  down  the  porcelain  manu- 
facture close  by,  in  Sevres.  Hatzfeld  told  us  that  his 
mother-in-law,  an  American  lady  wlio  remained  behind  in 
Paris,  had  sent  him  good  accounts  of  the  ponies,  of  which 
he  had  often  spoken  to  us.  They  were  exceedingly  fat. 
We  wondered  whether  they  would  be  eaten.  He  said,  for 
heaven's  sake,  let  them  do  it ;  but  he  reserves  the  right  to 
get  back  the  price  of  the  animals  when  the  terms  of  peace 
are  settled  with  the  French  Government. 


IX.]         The  Chancellor' s  Parliamentary  Jubilee.       253 

Meanwhile  the  artillery  fire  outside  continued,  and  be- 
tween one  and  two  it  seemed  as  if  an  action  were  going  on 
in  the  woods  to  the  North  of  the  city.  The  firing  became 
still  more  vehement  ;  the  cannon  shots  followed  each  other, 
bang  after  bang,  and  mitrailleuses  were  also  to  be  heard. 
It  seemed  as  if  a  regular  battle  had  developed  itself,  and 
was  drawing  nearer  us.  The  Chief  got  into  his  saddle  and 
rode  away.  The  rest  of  us  set  off  in  the  direction  where 
the  battle  appeared  to  rage.  On  the  left,  above  the  wood 
through  which  the  road  leads  to  Jardy  and  Vaucresson,  we 
saw  the  well-known  white  clouds  rise  and  burst  from  the 
shells.  Orderlies  galloped  up  the  street.  A  battalion 
marched  off  to  the  scene  of  action.  The  fighting  lasted  till 
past  four  o'clock.  Then  we  heard  only  a  few  single  shots 
from  the  great  fort  on  Mont  Valerien,  and  at  last  this  too 
was  silent.  We  now  learned  that  the  French  had  not  been 
so  near  us  as  they  seemed  :  their  sortie  had  been  directed 
against  our  positions  at  La  Celle  Saint-Cloud,  and  Bougi- 
val, — villages,  the  first  of  which  was  at  least  four  miles 
from  Versailles,  and  the  second  seven.  During  the  after- 
noon there  was,  of  course,  great  excitement  among  the 
French  in  the  town,  and  the  groups  which  formed  them- 
selves before  the  houses  expected  every  moment,  as  the 
noise  came  nearer  and  nearer,  to  see  our  troops  in  full 
flight  before  the  Red-breeches.  Later  in  the  afternoon, 
however,  they  made  long  faces  and  shrugged  their  shoulders. 

At  dinner  the  Chief  said  that  he  would  celebrate  his 
parliamentary  jubilee  either  to-day  or  one  day  soon. 
About  this  time  five-and-twenty  years  ago  he  had  become 
a  member  of  the  provincial  diet  of  Pomerania.  "  I  re- 
member," he  continued,  "  it  was  frightfully  tedious  there. 
I  had,  as  my  first  subject,  to  treat  of  the  excessive  con- 
sumption  of  tallow  in  the   poorhouse.     Only  to  think   of 


254         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

the  number  of  stupid  speeches  I  have  heard  there,  and 
afterwards  in  the  National  Diet,  and," — after  a  pause,  smiHng, 
— "  have  myself  made." 

We  spoke  of  the  magnificence  of  the  Prefecture  here,  and 
that  it  cost  two  million  francs.  "  None  of  our  public 
offices  in  Berlin  are  to  be  compared  with  it,"  remarked  the 
Chancellor,  "not  even  the  War  Office,  which,  however,  is 
rather  imposing.  The  office  of  the  Ministry  of  Commerce 
may  also  pass  ;  but  we  of  the  Foreign  Office — seldom  has 
a  Minister  been  so  poorly  housed.  Where  we  sleep,  the 
room  was  originally  about  twice  as  big  as  this,  and  out  of  it 
they  have  made  three ;  one  tolerable-sized  one  for  myself,  a 
little  one  for' my  wife,  and  one  where  my  sons  have  slept 
hitherto.  When  I  receive  people,  I  must  do  like  the  small 
country  gentry,  borrow  chairs,  and  turn  everything  about, 
even  my  study."  Some  one  joked  about  the  Chinese  carpet 
in  the  great  hall  at  Berlin.  "  Ah  !  you  may  laugh,"  said  the 
Chief ;  "  when  the  State  can  make  no  further  use  of  it,  I 
shall  buy  it  for  Schonhauseu.  It  is  an  old  friend  of  mine ; 
we  have  gone  through  a  good  deal  together,  and  it  is  really 
beautiful  in  its  way." 

Between  half-past  seven  and  half-past  eight,  the  mayor  of 
the  town  was  again  with  the  Minister.  Afterwards,  an  article 
upon  the  uncourteous  behaviour  of  our  host  at  Ferriferes  was 
sent  off  to  Germany.     It  was  to  the  following  effect : — 

"  In  a  letter  dated  Paris,  Place  de  la  Madeleine,  70,  some 
one  writes  to  the  Countess  Moustier  among  other  untruths 
the  following  :  '  The  Prussians  demanded  pheasants  from  us. 
Rothschild  tells  me  that  they  had  had  some  at  his  chateau, 
but  that  they  wanted  to  beat  the  steward  because  they  were 
not  truffled.'  To  every  one  who  saw  the  royal  housekeeping 
at  P'errieres,  the  impression  of  its  unusual  simplicity  and  of 
the  careful  regard  for  everything  belonging  to   Rothschild 


IX.]  The  French  Baron  Rothschild.  255 

so  predominated,  that  comparison^  on  the  treatment  of  the 
property  of  this  milUonaire,  who  was  protected  by  the  good 
fortune  of  the  King  Uving  in  his  house,  and  the  inevitable 
hardships  a  poorer  man  has  to  bear,  forced  themselves  upon 
him.  Considering  that  the  presence  of  the  King  constituted 
a  protection,  his  Majesty  did  not  even  permit  the  game  in 
the  park,  including  the  pheasants,  to  be  shot  so  long  as  he 
was  there.  Baron  Rothschild,  formerly  Prussian  consul- 
general,  who  resigned  that  office  in  an  uncourteous  way, 
when  he  still  hoped  for  the  victory  of  France,  had  not  even 
so  much  politeness  as  once  to  inquire  through  his  servants, 
during  the  whole  stay  of  the  King  in  Ferri^res,  about  the 
wants  of  his  royal  guest.  None  of  the  Germans  who  lived 
at  Ferribres  can  say  that  they  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  the 
possessor  even  to  the  extent  of  a  piece  of  bread,  and  yet 
the  preceding  proprietor  of  this  seat  notoriously  left  behind 
him,  according  to  the  computation  of  the  stamp  office, 
1700  millions  of  francs.  Should  Baron  Rothschild  really 
have  uttered  the  lying  complaint  against  any  one  quoted  in 
the  above  letter,  we  can  only  hope  that  troops  may  yet  be 
quartered  upon  him,  who  will  make  him  feel  the  difference 
between  the  modest  claims  of  the  Court  and  the  rights  of 
troops  in  quarters  in  war  time,  so  far  as  this  is  possible  for 
the  heir  of  1700  millions." 

Saturday,  October  22. — Different  telegrams  and  articles 
sent  off:  upon  the  sortie  of  yesterday,  upon  Keratry's 
mission  to  Madrid,  &c. 

The  attack  of  the  Parisians,  undertaken  with  some  twenty 
battalions  of  the  line  and  Mobile  guards,  protected  by  the 
fire  of  Mont  Valerien,  was  directed  chiefly  against  the  village 
of  Bougival-  on  the  Seine.  It  was  occupied  by  our  outposts, 
who  retired  upon  their  supports,  and  the  French  made 
themselves  masters  of  the  place,  but  were  soon  afterwards 


256        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap, 

attacked  and  driven  out  again  by  one  of  the  divisions  of  the 
fifth  German  army  corps.  In  this  action,  a  considerable 
number  of  prisoners  and  two  pieces  of  artillery  fell  into  the 
hands  of  our  people.  The  prisoners,  some  hundreds  in 
number,  passed  through  the  town  to-day,  which  led  to 
disturbances,  so  that  the  Yellow  Dragoons  were  forced,  it 
is  said,  to  charge  the  crowd  and  strike  them  with  the  flat  of 
their  swords. 

The  Chief  said,  yesterday  evening,  that  we  ought  not  to 
allow  groups  to  be  formed  in  the  streets  during  a  battle ; 
that  the  inhabitants  should  be  required  in  such  cases  to 
remain  in  their  houses,  and  that  the  patrols  must  be  ordered 
to  fire  at  once  on  those  who  offered  any  opposition,  which 
has  now  been  done.  To-day  the  commandant  of  Versailles, 
von  Voigts-Rhetz,  proclaimed,  that  after  the  alarm  signal  all 
inhabitants  of  the  town  are  to  go  home  without  delay,  and 
that  the  troops  have  been  ordered  to  use  their  arms  against 
those  who  disobey. 

Ke'ratry,  the  prefect  of  the  Paris  police,  has  appeared  in 
Madrid  to  submit  to  General  Prim  two  proposals,  of  which 
the  first  is  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance  between 
France  and  Spain,  in  virtue  of  which  Spain  would  send  an 
army  of  50,000  men  to  help  France.  The  object  of  this  league 
would  be  the  common  defence  of  the  interests  of  the  nations 
of  tl  e  Latin  race  against  the  supremacy  of  the  Teutonic. 
When  Prim  declined  this  strange  proposal  (strange;  for  it 
would  have  been  an  act  of  self  renunciation,  and  a  mistaking 
of  its  own  clear  interest,  without  a  parallel,  if  Spain  had 
supported  France,  when  only  three  months  ago  France 
sought  to  impose  her  will  on  Spain  in  the  most  presumptuous 
manner)  the  French  negotiator  demanded  that  Spain  should 
at  least  permit  the  export  of  arms  to  France.  To  this  also 
Prim  would  not  listen. 


IX.]  The  Condition  of  Met 3.  257 

Before  dinner,  accompanied  by  Bucher,  drove  through 
the  forest  of  Fausses  Reposes  to  the  little  town  Ville 
d'Avray,  pleasantly  situated  between  Sevres  and  Saint- 
Cloud,  to  visit  the  Villa  Stern,  whence  a  good  view  of  Paris 
is  to  be  had.  The  sentry  posted  there,  however,  did  not 
admit  us ;  but  we  found,  on  the  other  side  of  the  valley, 
close  to  a  park,  a  thatched  summer-house,  wnich  answered 
our  purpose.  Across  the  suburbs  of  Paris  we  saw  with  the 
naked  eye  a  great  part  of  the  city  itself  lying  in  the  yellowish 
evening  light,  with  the  straight  white  line  of  the  c?ueinte,  the 
dome  of  the  Invalides,  with  its  golden  ring,  the  low  towers 
of  Notre  Dame,  the  cupola  of  the  Panthe'on,  and,  quite  on 
the  right,  Val  de  Grace.  While  we  were  watching  the  scene, 
a  train  passed  over  the  viaduct  near  the  ramparts. 

On  starting  for  our  drive  to  Ville  d'Avray,  I  saw  Bennigsen 
coming  down  the  Rue  de  Provence,  and  when  we  returned 
we  found  that  he  had  left  his  card  on  the  Chief.  The 
latter  dined  to-day  at  four  o'clock  with  the  King,  and  then 
made  his  appearance  at  our  table  for  half  an  hour.  It 
was  mentioned  that  Metz  would  probably  surrender  in  the 
course  of  the  next  week.  Famine  had  appeared  in  the 
city,  which  suffered  also  from  a  want  of  salt.  "  Deserters 
eat  it  by  spoonfuls,  in  order  to  restore  the  necessary 
quantity  to  their  blood,"  said  the  Chief.  Prince  Friedrich 
Karl  desires  a  capitulation,  if  I  understand  rightly,  on  the 
conditions  of  Sedan  and  Toul,  but  the  Chancellor,  from 
political  motives,  is  disposed  to  a  milder  treatment  of  the 
garrison,  and  the  King  appears  to  hesitate  between  the 
two. 

The  Chief  said  yesterday  to  the  Mayor  of  Versailles,  "  No 
Elections,  no  Peace ;  but  the  gentlemen  in  Paris  will  not 
hear  of  them.  The  American  generals  who  went  into 
Paris  to  suggest  this  told  me  that  nothing  was  to  be  done 

vol..  I.  S 


258         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

with  them.  Trochu  had  only  said  they  were  not  yet  so  far 
reduced  as  to  be  obliged  to  negotiate,  while  the  others 
would  not  hear  of  any  elections,  or  of  the  country  being 
appealed  to."  '"  I  then  said  to  the  Mayor,  finally,  No 
other  course  will  be  left  to  us  but  to  come  to  terms  with 
Napoleon,  and  to  force  him  upon  them  again.  This  he 
thought  we  should  not  do ;  a  greater  insult  could  not  be 
offered  them.  I  replied  that  it  might  become  the  interest 
of  the  conqueror  to  leave  the  conquered  to  a  power  which 
could  only  support  itself  by  the  army,  for  in  that  case  they 
would  not  be  able  to  think  of  foreign  wars.  I  advised  him, 
in  conclusion,  not  to  give  way  to  the  mistaken  idea  that 
Napoleon  has  no  roots  in  the  country.  He  has  the  army 
on  his  side.  Boyer  treated  with  me  in  the  name  of  the 
Emperor  Napoleon,  and  it  is  still  a  question  how  far  the 
present  Government  has  really  struck  root.  In  the  flat 
country  districts  there  were  few  who  did  not  feel  that  they 
ought  to  think  of  peace.  The  Mayor  then  gave  me  his 
own  ideas  of  a  peace ;  the  razing  of  their  fortresses  and  of 
ours,  disarmament  on  both  sides,  in  proportion  to  the  popu- 
lation, and  so  forth.  These  people  have  not  yet,  as  I  told 
him  from  the  beginning,  any  sufficient  notion  of  what  the 
war  is." 

The  Nouvelliste,  as  it  is  now  the  only  newspaper  food  of 
the  people  of  Versailles,  and  naturally  does  not  ask  too 
much  of  them,  is  not  despised  here.  L.  reports  that  the 
number  of  the  copies  sold  varies  ;  that  of  some  numbers  no 
copies  remain  ;  of  others  from  thirty  to  fifty,  and  of  the 
number  before  the  last  a  hundred  and  fifty  are  left  in  his 
hands.  His  weekly  account,  however,  hitherto  shows  no 
loss. 

In  the  evening  I  wrote  an  article,  to  show  that  the  election 
of  a  body  representative  of  the  will  of  France  is  the  first 


IX.]  Garibaldi  and  France.  259 

condition  which  the  Chancellor  proposes  to  the  different 
parties  who  have  treated  with  him  on  the  subject  of  peace. 
He  has  made  the  same  demand  of  the  emissaries  of  the 
Republicans,  the  Imperialists,  and  of  a  third  party.  He 
will  facilitate  in  every  possible  way  such  an  appeal  to  the 
people.  The  form  of  Government  is  absolutely  indifferent 
to  us  ;  only  we  must  have  a  real  Government  to  deal  with, 
recognised  by  the  nation. 

Sunday,  October  23. — The  following  thoughts  will  appear 
in  a  French  dress  in  the  Nouvclliste  of  to-day  :  "  Things  are 
constantly  met  with  in  the  present  day  in  France  which  are 
flagrantly  opposed  to  sound  sense  and  moral  feeling.  People 
who  were  formerly  Papal  Zouaves,  not  merely  those  who 
by  their  nationality  are  French  become  at  once  soldiers  of 
a  republic  which  is  governed  by  Voltairians.  Garibaldi 
makes  his  appearance  in  Tours,  and  offers,  as  he  himself 
expresses  it,  what  is  left  of  him  to  the  service  of  France. 
He  has,  probably,  not  forgotten  that  this  same  France, 
twenty  years  ago,  crushed  the  Roman  Republic  by  force 
of  arms,  and  he  must  have  a  still  fresher  recollection 
of  the  strange  events  of  Mentana.  He  must  distinctly 
remember  that  Nice,  his  own  birthplace,  was  torn  by 
this  same  France  from  Italy,  and  that  the  State  of  Siege 
alone  keeps  it  at  this  moment  from  withdrawing  itself  from 
the  rule  of  France." 

About  one  o'clock  the  Ministers  of  Wiirtemberg,  Mittnacht 
and  Suckow,  paid  their  visit  to  the  Chancellor. 

I  had  seen  soldiers  brought  from  the  hospital  to  the  church- 
yard several  times  these  afternoons — three  the  day  before 
yesterday  ;  two  yesterday.  To-day  a  long  procession  came 
from  the  Palace  across  the  Place  d'Armes  into  the  Rue 
Hoche,  There  were  five  biers.  On  the  first,  under  a  black 
pall,  an  officer  of  the  47th  Regiment;  and  on  the  others, 

s  2 


26o        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

covered  with  white  sheets,  common  soldiers.  A  band  of 
music,  in  front,  played  a  chorale-;  then  followed  the  muffled 
drums.  There  was  a  minister  with  the  procession.  As  the 
coffins  passed  by  the  French  took  off  their  hats  and  caps — 
a  touching  custom  ! 

At  dinner  Delbriick  directed  attention  to  the  fact,  that  the 
Prussian  officials  here  felt  the  necessity,  very  soon  after  their 
institution,  of  devoting  themselves  seriously  to  the  duties 
committed  to  their  care,  to  discover  what  was  best  for  the 
inhabitants  placed  under  their  charge,  and  to  secure  the 
preservation  of  order  in  the  districts  assigned  to  them,  ex- 
cept where  our  interests  are  directly  concerned.  Thus,  for 
instance,  Brauchitsch  is  exceedingly  put  out  at  the  quite 
shameless  thieving  of  wood  carried  on  in  the  forests  here, 
and  wishes  to  take  vigorous  measures  against  these  malprac- 
tices, in  the  interest  of  the  French  Ministry  of  Woods  and 
Forests.  We  learned  that  Freydorff,  Jolly,  and  a  third, 
whose  name  escaped  me,  were  soon  to  be  expected  from 
Baden,  and  this  led  to  our  speaking  of  Usedom. 

Delbriick  mentioned  that,  in  the  preliminary  negotiations 
upon  a  new  organisation  of  Germany,  Bavaria  had  raised 
a  claim  to  a  kind  of  joint  representation  of  the  Bund  in 
foreign  countries,  of  such  a  character  that,  if  the  Prussian, 
or  rather  the  German,  ambassador  were  absent,  the  Bavarian 
might  transact  business.  The  Chief  said,  "  No ;  anything 
else  but  that;  for  unless  we  are  to  have  two  Ministers  of 
Foreign  Affairs  for  Germany,  everything  must  depend,  not 
on  the  ambassador,  but  on  the  instructions  he  receives." 
On  this  matter  he  dwelt  at  greater  length,  and  explained  it 
by  examples. 

Monday,  October  24. — In  a  telegram  from  England  in- 
tended for  Wilhelmshohe,  there  occurred  this  passage : 
"  Much  time  will  be  lost,  I  am  afraid."    "  Is  lost,"  the  Chief 


IX.]  -       The  Reds  in  Marseilles.  261 

wrote  on  the  margin  with  his  pencil.  I  sent  a  notice  to  be 
forwarded  to  the  Enghsh  newspapers  upon  the  murder,  in 
Rochefort,  of  Captain  Zielke,  of  the  German  ship  Flora. 

Strange  news  arrived  from  Marseilles.  The  Reds  appear 
to  have  got  the  upper  hand.  Esquiros,  the  resident  prefect 
of  the  Mouths  of  the  Rhone,  belongs  to  the  theatrical  section 
of  the  French  Republicans.  He  has  suppressed  the  Gazette 
du  Midi,  because  the  clubs  of  his  party  asserted  that  the 
paper  favoured  the  candidature  of  the  Comte  de  Chambord, 
whose  proclamation  it  had  printed.  He  has,  moreover, 
expelled  the  Jesuits.  A  decree  of  Gambetta  hereupon 
dismissed  the  prefect,  and  annulled  the  measures  against 
the  newspaper  and  against  the  Jesuits ;  but  Esquiros,  sup- 
ported by  the  working  men,  has  paid  no  attention  to  these 
orders  of  the  Government  in  Tours.  He  keeps  his  post, 
the  Gazette  du  Midi  remains  suppressed,  and  the  Jesuits 
are  still  expelled.  Nor  was  more  regard  paid  to  the  decree 
of  Gambetta  which  dissolved  the  Citizens'  guard,  recruited 
from  the  ranks  of  the  Red  Republicans  and  which  is  dis- 
tinct from  the  National  Guard  of  Marseilles.  The  Chief 
said,  "  Well,  civil  war  seems  already  to  have  begun  there, 
and  possibly  there  may  soon  be  a  Republic  of  the  South." 
I  worked  up  these  accounts  for  some  articles  written  in  the 
spirit  of  this  comment. 

About  four  o'clock,  a  M.  Gautier,  who  came  from  Chisle- 
hurst,  called  on  the  Chancellor.  .  .  .  We  have  to-day  Count 
Waldersee  at  dinner;  the  Chief  dines  with  the  King.  In 
the  evening,  between  seven  and  eight,  a  great  fire  must,  we 
think,  have  broken  out  in  Paris ;  the  whole  northern  heaven 
was  overspread  with  a  red  glare,  and  in  fact  I  see,  above 
the  woods  to  the  north  of  the  city,  the  reflection  of  an 
enormous  burning.  However,  gradually  it  was  evident  that 
we  were  deceived.     The  red  light  grew  into  shapes,  pillar- 


262         Bismarck  hi  the  Fra?ico-German  War.     [Chap. 

like  beams  shot  out  from  it,  and  at  last  we  became  aware 
that  it  was  the  Northern  Lights,  which  streamed  magni- 
ficently above  the  horizon.  This  is  a  sure  sign  that  we  shall 
soon  have  winter  and  dry  cold  weather. 

Simday,  October  25. — Good  news  received  and  sent  out. 
Yesterday  the  fortress  of  Schlettstadt  capitulated,  and  the 
day  before.  General  Wittich  with  the  22nd  division  occupied 
Chartres.  Among  the  fragments  of  the  French  Army  of  the 
Loire,  according  to  a  letter  from  Tours,  great  want  of  dis- 
cipline prevails.  Drunken  soldiers  are  said  often  to  refuse 
obedience  to  their  officers,  whom  they  accuse  of  incapacity 
and  treachery.  The  surrender  of  Metz  will  take  place  to- 
morrow or  the  day  after,  and  portions  of  the  German 
armies  detained  there  will  be  able  in  eight  days  to  sup- 
port the  troops  fighting  in  the  district  of  the  Loire.  This 
morning  the  Chief  said,  in  reference  to  the  article  in  the 
Pays,  which  placed  the  war  indemnity  at  one  and  a 
half  Milliards,  "  Nonsense,  I  will  require  much  more  from 
them." 

During  dinner  to-day,  the  conversation  turned,  I  cannot 
now  say  how,  upon  William  Tell,  and  the  Minister  confessed 
that  even  as  a  boy  he  could  never  endure  him,  first,  because 
he  had  shot  at  his  son ;  next,  because  he  had  killed 
Gessler  in  an  assassin-like  manner.  "  It  would  have  been 
far  nobler  and  more  natural,"  he  added,  "  if,  instead  of 
shooting  at  the  boy,  Avhom  the  best  of  marksmen  might  liave 
hit  instead  of  the  apple,  he  had  at  once  shot  the  Landvogt 
himself."  "  This  would  have  been  just  anger  at  a  cruel 
demand.  Tell's  hiding  himself  and  lying  in  wait  for  Gessler 
does  not  please  me.  It  is  not  becoming  in  a  hero,  not 
even  in  Francs-tireurs." 

Two  copies  of  the  Noiivelliste  are  stuck  up  at  different 
street  corners,  and  although  people,  when  they  stand    to 


IX.]  A  Tragedy  at  Bougival.  263 

read  it  in  groups,  criticise  it  when  the  Germans  are  passing, 
with  '■'■  Mensonge" — '■'^Impossible"  yet  they  read  it.  I'o-day 
some  one  had  written  on  the  copy  near  the  prefecture, 
" Blague"  but  Stieber's  people  or  other  watchers  had  seized 
the  fellow  in  the  act.  He  was  an  artisan,  and  it  is  said  that 
he  is  to  be  deported  to  Germany. 

We  heard  this  morning  at  breakfast  that  a  pendant  to 
the  tragedy  at  Bazeilles  is  said  to  have  occurred  in  Bougival 
in  the  recent  sortie.  When  our  advance  guards  left  the 
village,  several  of  its  inhabitants  imagined  that  the  German 
troops  at  the  place  were  meditating  a  retreat,  whereupon 
they  considered  it  their  patriotic  duty  to  fire  with  air  guns 
on  a  detachment  of  soldiers,  protecting  the  colours  of  the 
46th  Regiment.  Punishment  at  once  followed  this  trea- 
cherous conduct.  Our  people  dashed  into  the  houses  from 
which  the  shots  had  been  discharged  and  seized  nineteen 
peasants  who  were  brought  before  a  court-martial  next  day. 
Yesterday,  it  was  said,  those  who  were  guilty  were  shot. 
The  commune  had  to  pay  an  extraordinary  contribution  of 
50,000  francs  (^2,000).  The  houses  from  which  the  shots 
were  fired  were  burned  down,  and  all  the  inhabitants  were 
forced  to  leave  the  village. 

Wednesday,  October  26. — In  the  morning,  I  translated 
Granville's  despatch  for  the  King,  and  afterwards  extracted 
a  portion  of  it  for  the  press,  accompanying  it  with  the 
remark  that  we  had  already  twice  offered  a  truce  under 
favourable  conditions  through  Favre,  and  on  October  9 
through  Burnside,  but  that  they  had  refused  it,  simply 
because  we  offered  it.  I  then  telegraphed  to  London  that 
Thiers  had  received  a  free  pass  to  our  headquarters,  and 
the  permission  to  go  thence  to  Paris.  Further,  that  the 
Comte  de  Chambord  had  had  a  meeting  at  Coppet  with  the 
Comte  de  Paris. 


264         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

In  the  afternoon,  when  the  Chief  had  ridden  out,  I  went, 
accompanied  by  Bl.,  an  Enghshman,  who  writes  for  the 
Inverness  Courier,  and  an  American  war  correspondent  of 
a  paper  in  Chicago,  to  a  farm  near  the  Chateau  Beau- 
regard, in  order  to  visit  H.,  who  had  recovered  from  the 
wound  which  he  had  received  at  Worth,  and  rejoined  his 
regiment,  the  forty-sixth.  We  met  there  a  number  of  offi- 
cers, nice  bright  fellows,  with  whom  we  quickly  became  inti- 
mate and  had  much  pleasant  talk.  Bl.  meantime  drove  to 
Bougival  with  First-Lieutenant  von  H. ;  and  as  they  were 
later  in  returning  than  they  had  promised,  I  was  too  late 
for  dinner  at  home,  which  the  Chief  does  not  approve  of 
He  only  asked,  however,  at  table  :  "  Where  can  little  Busch 
be?"  {Wo  das Biischchen  set?)  And  when  he  returned  later 
from  the  King  he  again  asked  if  I  was  there,  and  expressed 
apprehension  that  the  sentries  might  fire  on  me. 

In  the  evening  I  wrote  an  article  to  the  following  effect : 
"  It  is  said  that  the  Diplomacy  of  Vienna  has  recently  taken 
steps  to  induce  the  Germans  to  grant  an  Armistice  to  the 
French.  We  can  hardly  believe  this  rumour.  An  armistice 
at  present  would  only  strengthen  the  French  in  their  resist- 
ance, and  perhaps  make  the  attainment  of  the  conditions 
of  peace  we  recognise  as  necessary  more  difficult.  Are  we 
to  believe  that  Austria,  in  taking  the  step,  has  the  end  in 
view?  The  following  reflections  may  help  us  to  answer. 
If  the  fruits  of  our  victory  disturb  them  in  Vienna,  if  they 
do  not  allow  us  to  secure  the  safe  frontier  on  the  West, 
which  is  the  object  of  our  aspirations,  there  cannot  fail  to 
be  a  new  war  against  France,  or  rather  a  continuation  of 
the  present  war,  after  an  interruption.  It  is  easy  to  see 
where  the  French  would  seek  and  probably  find  their  allies ; 
but  it  is  equally  clear  that  in  that  case  Germany  would  not 
wait  till  France  had  again  helped  herself  out  of  the  chaos 


IX.]  The  Fall  of  Metz.  265 

in  which  an  interruption  of  this  war  would  leave  her.  Ger- 
many must  and  would  anticipate  this  future  ally  of  France, 
and  seek  to  make  her  incapable  of  doing  harm,  and,  while 
she  remained  isolated,  would  make  her  pay  the  penalty  in- 
curred by  her  interference  with  our  attainment  of  the  objects 
we  have  in  view." 

Tuesday,  October  27. — The  capitulation  of  Metz  will  pro- 
bably be  signed  in  the  course  of  to-day.  The  whole  army 
there,  including  the  officers  of  all  grades,  will  be  sent 
prisoners  to  Germany,  whither  we  shall  then  have  transported 
— with  the  exception  of  about  60,000  men — the  entire  army 
of  Imperial  France.  In  the  morning  I  telegraphed  that  it 
was  observed  by  our  troops  before  Paris,  that  an  artillery  fire 
had  been  opened  from  Montmartre  upon  the  suburb  of  I.a 
Villette.  Musketry  fire,  lasting  for  hours,  had  also  been 
heard  in  the  streets  ;  perhaps  a  rising  of  the  Radicals.  I 
then  wrote  a  second  article  upon  the  interference  of  Beust 
in  our  affairs  with  France. 

In  the  evening,  Hatzfeld  told  us  that  he  had  been 
to-day  at  the  outposts,  where  a  number  of  American 
famihes  had  arrived  from  Paris,  determined  to  turn  their 
back  upon  the  besieged  city,  in  which  things  had  become 
uncomfortable.  There  were  a  dozen  carriages  of  them  with 
white  flags,  taking  the  road  to  Villejuif ;  the  members,  too, 
of  the  Portuguese  embassy  have  now  left  Paris  on  their  way 
to  Tours. 

Friday,  October  28. — In  the  course  of  the  afternoon  Moltke 
telegraphed  to  the  Chief,  That  the  capitulation  of  Metz 
had  been  signed  to-day  at  12.45.  The  French  army  thus 
captured  numbers  all  in  all  173,000  men,  of  whom  16,000 
are  sick  and  wounded.  Von  Bennigsen,  von  Friedenthal, 
and  von  Blankenburg,  the  last  a  friend  of  the  Chiefs  youth, 
dined  with  us.     From  the  French  officers  who  had  become 


266         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

our  prisoners  at  Metz,  and  their  deportation  to  Germany, 
the  conversation  turned  upon  General  Ducrot  and  his 
shameful  flight  from  Pont-k-Mousson,  "  Yes,"  said  the 
Minister,  "  he  has  written  me  a  long  letter  in  which  he 
explains,  that  the  reproaches  which  we  make  against  him  for 
his  treacherous  escape,  were  unfounded  ;  but  in  spite  of  this 
I  adhere  to  my  former  opinion."  He  then  related  that 
a  negotiator  from  Gambetta  had  been  with  him  recently, 
who  asked  him  at  the  end  of  the  conversation,  whether  he 
would  recognise  the  Republic.  "  Without  doubt  or  hesi- 
tation," I  replied  ;  "  not  merely  a  Republic,  but  if  you  like 
a  Gambetta  Dynasty,  only  that  dynasty  must  g.ve  us  a 
secure  and  advantageous  peace" — "and,  in  fact,  any  dynasty, 
whether  of  Bleichroder  or  of  Rothschild,"  he  added,  where- 
upon these  two  genriemen  became  for  a  short  time  the 
subject  of  conversation  with  his  guests. 

In  the  evening  comes  L.,  as  usual,  to  get  information  for 
himself.  I  heard  from  him  that  Legationsrath  Samwer, 
once  premier  of  Duke  Frederick  VIII.,  has  followed  his  late 
and  present  master  hither,  and  has  been  staying  here  for 
sometime.  He  provides  correspondents  of  newspapers  with 
news.  The  NouveUiste  is  to  depart  this  life.  A  journal 
of  more  imposing  form  will  take  its  place,  to  be  called  the 
Moniteur  Officiel  de  la  Scine-ei-Oise,  and  will  appear  at  the 
expense  of  the  Government. 

Saturday,  October  29. — In  the  transformation  of  the 
NouveUiste  to  the  Moiiiteitr  Officiel,  certain  preliminaries  do 
not  appear  to  have  been  well  arranged,  or  there  is  some 
intrigue  on  hand.  This  morning,  whilst  I  was  at  work,  a 
M.  Theodor  N.,  collaborateur  du  Aloniteur  Officiel  de  la  Seitie- 
et'Oist,  sent  in  his  card  to  me.  Following  his  card  came 
a  young  man,  who  said  he  had  been  sent  to  me  by  the  Pre- 
fect, and  wished  to  get  from  me  notes  for  leading  articles.    I 


IX.]  A   Whist  Party.  267 

remarked  to  him  that  L.  was  sufficient  for  this  object ;  that 
he  would  remain  with  the  journal  in  his  old  capacity,  and  that 
I  could  only  communicate  with  him  at  the  request  of  the 
Chancellor.  He  asked  whether  he  should  tell  the  Prefect 
that  he  might  converse  on  this  matter  with  Count  Bismarck. 
"The  Prefect  must  be  perfectly  aware  that  I  can  say  nothing 
to  such  a  request." 

At  breakfast  St.  Blanquart  said  he  knew  that  Thiers  would 
come  to  us  to-morrow,  and  Bolsing  afterwards  asserted  that 
preliminaries  of  peace  were  in  the  very  air.  We  shall  take 
the  liberty  to  doubt  it  till  the  Chief  intimates  the  good  news. 
We  hear  also  that  Moltke  has  been  made  a  "  Count,"  and 
that  the  King  has  made  the  Crown  Prince  and  his  nephew, 
the  conqueror  of  Metz,  field-marshals. 

At  dinner  the  Chief  asked,  when  we  were  about  to  attack 
the  soup,  whether  this  were  not  pease  sausage  soup,  and  when 
he  was  told  it  was  he  praised  it  as  quite  excellent,  an  opinion 
in  which  Delbriick  agreed.  Then  the  talk  was  of  the  great 
success  at  Metz.  "  This  just  doubles  the  number  of  our 
prisoners,"  said  the  Minister.  "  No,  it  does  more ;  we  have 
now  in  Germany  the  army  which  Napoleon  had  in  the  field 
at  the  date  of  Weissenburg,  Worth,  and  Saarbriicken,  with 
the  exception  only  of  those  who  have  been  killed.  Those 
whom  the  French  now  have,  have  been  brought  since  from 
Algiers  and  Rome,  or  are  new  levies.  To  these  may  be 
added  Vinoy,  who  escaped  before  Sedan  with  a  few  thousand 
men.     Their  generals  are  almost  all  prisoners." 

He  then  said  that  Napoleon  had  asked  for  Marshals 
Bazaine,  Leboeuf,  and  Canrobert,  who  were  in  Metz,  to 
be  sent  to  Wilhelmshohe.  "  If  this  is  a  whist  party,"  said 
he,  "  1  have  nothing  to  say,  and  will  recommend  it  to  the 
King."  Then  he  said  that  so  many  strange  things  happen, 
which  nobody  before  could  have  dreamt  of,  that  we  may 


268         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap 

consider  the  most  wonderful  things  as  possible.  "  It  might 
be  possible,  for  instance,  that  we  should  hold  the  German 
Imperial  Diet  at  Versailles,  whilst  Napoleon  assembled  the 
Corps  Ldgislatif  and  the  Senate  at  Cassel  to  consult  about 
peace.  Napoleon  has  the  conviction,  against  which  not 
much  is  to  be  said,  that  the  old  national  representation  still 
subsists  de  jure,  and  that  he  may  summon  it  to  meet  where 
he  will,  of  course  only  in  France.  About  Cassel  there  might 
be  some  dispute."  He  then  remarked  that  he  had  sum- 
moned hither  Friedenthal,  Bennigsen  and  Blankenburg,  the 
representatives  of  parties  with  whom  one  is  bound  to  consult, 
in  order  to  hear  their  opinion  about  the  meeting  of  our  Par- 
liament in  Versailles.  "The  '•  Fortschritt''  (Progress)  party 
I  must  disregard,  for  they  want  only  what  is  not  possible ; 
they  are  like  the  Russians,  who  eat  cherries  in  winter  and 
will  have  oysters  in  summer.  When  a  Russian  comes  into 
a  shop,  he  asks,  '  Kak  nje  budl  which  means,  '  What  is 
there,  out  of  season  ?' " 

After  the  first  course  Prince  Albrecht,  the  father,  with  his 
adjutant  was  introduced  and  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Chief,  in  the  first  place  to  drink  a  glass  of  Magdeburg 
beer  with  us  (a  present  to  the  Chief,  and  exceedingly  good), 
and  then  champagne.  The  old  gentleman  had  pressed  on 
even  as  far  as  Orleans  with  his  cavalry,  like  a  genuine 
Prussian  Prince,  ever  bold  and  true  to  duty.  The  battle 
at  Chateaudun  had  been,  he  said,  a  "  fearful "  one.  He 
praised  the  Uuke  of  Meiningen  warmly,  whom  no  dangers 
or  sacrifices  daunted.  "  May  I  ask,"  said  the  Prince, 
"how  the  Countess  is?"  "Oh,  she  is  quite  well,  now 
that  her  son  is  better,  only  she  suffers  still  from  her  bitter 
hatred  of  the  Gauls,  all  and  sundry  of  whom  she  would 
like  to  see  shot  and  stabbed,  even  the  little  children,  who 
are  not  responsible  for  having  such  horrible  parents."     He 


IX.]  Metz  in  Black  and  White.  269 

then  spoke  of  the  state  of  Count  Herbert,  whose  wound  on 
the  shoulder  had  at  first  gone  on  very  well,  but  had  then 
become  much  worse,  so  that  the  physician  thought  that  the 
ball  had  been  poisoned. 

In  the  evening  we  talked  in  the  Bureau  of  sending  a 
number  of  copies  of  No.  13  of  the  Nouvelliste,  ordered  by 
Abeken,  into  Paris,  "  in  order  that  they  might  have  the  news 
of  the  capitulation  of  Metz  in  black  and  white." 


2/0         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THIERS    AND    THE    FIRST   NEGOTIATIONS    FOR  AN    ARMISTICE. 

On  October  30,  as  I  took  a  walk  in  the  early  morning 
through  the  Avenue  de  Saint-Cloud,  I  met  Bennigsen,  who 
was  to  return  home  that  day  with  Blankenburg.  In  reply  to 
my  question  how  far  our  people  there  had  got  with  the  unity 
of  Germany,  he  said  they  had  got  well  on,  and  that  in 
Bavaria  the  only  point  on  which  there  was  any  difficulty  was 
the  separate  position  of  the  military  people.  The  feeling  of 
the  majority  of  the  public  was  all  that  could  be  wished. 

When  I  got  back,  perhaps  a  little  after  ten,  Engel  told  me 
that  Thiers  had  been  there  a  little  before,  but  had  at  once 
gone  away  again.  We  were  told  afterwards  that  he  came 
from  Tours,  and  wished  only  a  safe-conduct  to  enable  him 
to  pass  through  our  lines,  as  he  wanted  to  get  into  Paris. 
During  breakfast  Hatzfeld  told  us  that  he  had  breakfasted 
with  him  at  the  Hotel  des  Reservoirs,  and  had  afterwards 
brought  him  round  in  the  carriage,  which  was  to  take  him 
as  far  as  the  French  outposts  under  the  escort  of  Lieutenant 
von  Winterfeldt,  and  that  he  was  "  the  same  clever  and 
amusing  man  as  ever,  although  as  soft  as  a  baby."  He  had 
first  discovered  him  among  us  in  the  house,  and  told  him 
that  the  Chief  was  just  getting  up,  after  which  he  took  him 
below  into  the  salon,  and  reported  his  arrival  to  the  Minister, 
who  got  ready  at  once,  and  came  downstairs  very  soon 
after.  They  talked  together  only  a  couple  of  minutes,  of 
course  alone.  The  Chief  then  summoned  Hatzfeld,  and 
gave  him  directions  to  make  ready  what  was  necessary  to 


X.]  The  Breadth  of  the  German  Soldiers.  271 

enable  Thiers  to  pay  his  visit  to  Paris.  He  told  him  after- 
wards that  Thiers  had  at  once  said,  after  they  had  saluted 
each  other,  that  he  had  not  come  to  talk  to  him.  "  I  think 
that  quite  natural,"  said  Hatzfeld ;  "for  though  Thiers 
would  like  greatly  to  conclude  peace  with  us,  it  would  then, 
of  course,  be  M.  Thiers'  peace,  and  though  he  is  frightfully 
anxious  to  get  the  credit  of  it,  he  does  not  know  what  the 
people  in  Paris  would  say." 

In  the  meantime  the  Chief  went  with  his  cousin  to  the 
review  of  nine  thousand  Landwehr  Guards,  which  the  King 
held  this  morning.  While  we  were  still  at  breakfast,  he 
came  in  and  brought  with  him  a  little  round  gentleman  with 
smooth-shaven  face  and  black-striped  waistcoat,  who,  as  we 
heard  afterwards,  was  the  Saxon  Minister  von  Friesen. 

He  dined  with  us ;  and  as  Delbriick  was  present,  we  had 
the  honour  to  dine  with  three  Ministers.  The  Chief  spoke 
first  of  the  Landwehr,  wlio  had  arrived  to-day,  and  said  they 
were  broad-shouldered  fellows,  and  must  have  made  *an 
impression  on  the  Versaillese.  "  The  front  of  a  company," 
he  added,  "  is  at  least  five  feet  broader  than  a  French  com- 
pany, especially  in  the  Pomeranian  Landwehr."  Turning 
then  to  Hatzfeld,  he  said,  "  I  suppose  no  mention  of  Metz 
was  made  between  Thiers  and  you  ? "  "  No,  he  said 
nothing,  though  no  doubt  he  knew  about  it."  "  Certainly 
he  knew,  but  I  did  not  mention  it  either."  Hatzfeld  then 
said  that  Thiers  had  been  very  charming,  but  that  he  had 
lost  none  of  his  old  vanity  and  self-satisfiedness.  He  had  told 
him,  for  instance,  how  he  had  met  a  countryman  a  few  days 
ago,  whom  he  asked  whether  he  wished  for  peace.  "Yes, 
indeed,  badly."  Whether  he  knew  who  he  was? — "No." 
Well,  he  was  Monsieur  Thiers ;  did  he  not  know  about 
him?  The  man  said  "No"  to  that,  too.  Then  a  neigh- 
bour came  up,  and   the   old   countryman  asked  him   who 


272         BisniM'ck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

might  M.  Thiers  be  ?  and  was  told  that  he  must  be  '  one  of 
them  from  the  Chamber,'  Hatzfeld  added  that  "  Thiers 
was  obviously  vexed  that  they  knew  no  more  than  that 
about  him." 

His  Excellency  Friesen,  gave  us  a  good  illustration  of  the 
reckless  haste  with  which  some  of  the  Versailles  people  took 
to  flight  and  of  the  honesty  of  the  German  soldiers.  He 
told  us  that  he  had  found,  to-day,  in  his  quarters,  where,  at 
least,  three  or  four  sets  of  soldiers  had  been  quartered 
previously,  a  commode  unlocked,  in  which  he  discovered, 
besides  all  sorts  of  women's  finery,  caps,  linen,  and  ribbons, 
first  one  and  then  another  "rouleau"  of  50  napoleons  each. 
He  wanted  to  hand  over  these  2000  francs  to  the  porter, 
who  said  hoAvever  that  he  would  rather  that  he,  Friesen, 
should  take  them  himself.  The  money  was  then  sent,  I 
believe,  to  the  office  established  for  the  safe-keeping  of  such 
treasure-trove. 

The  Chief  went  out  of  the  room  for  an  instant  and  came 
back  with  the  case  in  his  hand  containing  the  gold  pen 
presented  to  him  by  a  jeweller  at  Pforzheim  to  sign  the 
treaty  of  peace  with.  He  admired  it  greatly,  especially  the 
feathers.  This  work  of  art  was  about  six  inches  long  and 
set  on  both  sides  with  small  brilliants.  After  it  had  gone 
round  the  table  and  been  sufficiently  admired  as  it  deserved, 
the  Chancellor  opened  the  drawing-room  door,  saying  to 
Delbriick  and  Friesen,  "  I  am  at  your  service  now,  gentle- 
men." "  Well,"  said  Friesen,  looking  at  Delbriick;  "  I  have 
been  discussing  the  matter  with  his  Excellency  in  the  mean 
time,"  and  they  went  into  the  salon.  The  rest  of  us  spoke 
of  Thiers  again,  and  Hatzfeld  said  that  he  would  come  back 
in  a  day  or  two,  and  that  he  had  not  wished  to  pass  through 
the  gate  on  the  road  from  Charenton  into  Paris.  "  He 
thinks  the  fellows  there  might  hang  him,"  said  Bohlen ;  " 


X.J  Lost  in  tlie  Wood.  273 

should  like  them  to  do  it."    "  What  for  ?"  we  asked  ourselves 
without  answering  him. 

In  the  afternoon  the  weather,  which  had  been  unsettled, 
cleared  up  and  there  was  blue  sky  to  be  seen  more  than 
once.  On  one  of  the  wooded  heights  above  La  Celle  Saint- 
Cloud  there  is  a  good  view  towards  Mont  Vale'rien,  the 
"  Baldrian "  or  "  Ballerjan "  of  our  soldiers.  When  the 
Minister  rode  out,  Bucher  and  I  settled  to  drive  there.  On 
ihe^road  beyond  Petit  Chesnay  we  came  at  different  points 
on  abattis  and  loopholes  cut  through  the  park  walls.  On 
the  right  of  the  long  stretching  stone  enclosure  wall  of 
the  Beauregard  estate,  a  small  battery  had  been  established 
in  a  high-lying  field.  Where  the  road  rises  a  little  way 
further  on,  there  was  an  alarm  post  with  a  park  of  artillery. 
An  officer  here  pointed  us  out  our  road  after  the  point,  at 
which  we  pass  the  outposts  beyond  La  Celle,  where  we  could 
see  the  fort,  but  we  missed  the  right  road  on  the  other  side 
of  the  park  of  the  Palace  under  the  village,  getting  into  the 
first  houses  of  Bougival  on  the  left,  and  finding  ourselves 
again,  half  an  hour  after,  at  the  artillery  park.  A  second 
attempt  to  get  to  the  place  met  no  better  success,  as  we  lost 
our  way  that  time  to  the  right.  We  drove  through  the  village 
of  La  Celle  ;  got  into  a  thicket  with  cross-roads  through  it, 
and  unfortunately  took  the  wrong  turning.  Nobody  at  the 
outposts  where  we  now  found  ourselves  could  advise  us,  so 
we  drove  on  at  a  venture,  past  a  second  alarm-post,  and 
down  into  a  little  wooded  valley  which  opens  out  after  passing 
Malmaison.  The  fort  was  nowhere  to  be  seen.  The  wood 
was  all  round  us ;  everything  was  quiet,  and  the  sun  was  be- 
ginning to  set.  At  length,  on  the  road  in  the  bottom  of 
the  valley,  which  was  broken  up  here  and  there  with  barri- 
cades, we  met  three  officers,  who  requested  us  to  go  back,  as 
a  shell  might  reacli  us  from  the  gunboats  in  the  Seine,  on 

VOL.    I.  T 


2/4         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap, 

which  account  it  was  not  allowed  for  any  one  to  show  him 
self  here  in  any  kind  of  conveyance.  They  pointed  out  the 
way  to  Vaucresson,  which  we  reached  by  a  road  dreadfully 
cut  to  pieces,  and  from  which  we  got  home  by  Glatigny, 
through  a  fine  beech  wood.  We  had  never  set  eyes  on  the 
fort,  but  we  had  seen  part  of  the  battle-field  of  October  21. 

At  dinner-time  the  Chief  again  discussed  fully  the  pos- 
sibility of  the  German  Reichstag  silting  in  Versailles,  and 
the  French  Corps  L^gislatif  at  the  same  time  in  Cassel. 
Delbriick  remarked  that  the  Hall  of  the  Estates  there  was 
scarcely  large  enough  for  so  numerous  an  assembly.  "  Well," 
said  the  Chancellor,  "  the  Senate  might  sit  somewhere  else 
then — at  Marburg,  or  Fritzlar,  or  some  such  place." 

Monday,  October  31. — I  wrote  several  articles  in  the 
morning,  one  of  them  in  approval  of  the  idea  of  establishing 
an  International  Court  to  sit  upon  the  crimes  of  those  who 
had  urged  on  the  war  against  us  ;  and  a  hue-and-cry  after 
M.  Hermieux,  a  French  commander  of  battalion,  who,  like 
Ducrot,  has  broken  his  word  of  honour  by  making  his  escape 
from  a  hospital,  and  is  now  being  pursued  by  warrant  of 
caption.  About  twelve  o'clock  Gauthier  appeared  again,  and 
had  a  long  talk  with  the  Chief.  At  breakfast  we  learned 
that  on  the  day  before  the  village  of  Le  Bourget,  on  the  east 
of  Paris,  which  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French  on  the  28th, 
had  been  recovered  by  storm.  It  must  have  been  a  severe 
struggle.  We  made  over  a  thousand  "  red-breeches  "  pri- 
soners, but  we  lost  some  three  hundred  men  killed  and 
wounded,  thirty  of  whom  were  officers.  Count  Walder- 
see's  brother  is  said  to  have  fallen.  We  then  spoke  of 
Thiers ;  and  Hatzfeld  and  Delbriick  wagered  with  Keudell 
and  Bismarck-Bohlen  that  he  would  be  back  in  Versailles 
before  twelve  o'clock  to-morrow  night.  Both  the  others 
believed  that  the  French  authorities  would  not  let  him  out. 


X.J  Disturbances  in  Pans.  275 

Hatzfeld  won  his  wager.  He  was  able  to  report  at  tea  that 
the  old  gentleman  had  arrived,  and  that  he  himself  had 
spoken  with  him.  He  had  told  him  that  he  had  been  dis- 
cussing matters  with  the  gentlemen  of  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, from  ten  last  night  till  three  this  morning ;  that  he  had 
got  up  at  six,  and  spent  his  time  till  two  this  afternoon  in 
paying  all  sorts  of  visits,  after  which  he  had  driven  back 
here.  He  wanted  a  conference  with  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Confederation  to-morrow  morning.  "  He  was  beginning  to 
mention,"  said  Hatzfeld,  "  that  there  had  been  disturbances 
in  Paris  yesterday,  but  an  incautiously  emphatic  '  indeed  ?' 
which  escaped  me,  made  him  break  off." 

A  few  days  after  we  heard  about  these  disturbances.  On 
the  30th  the  authorities  in  Paris  had  declared  the  report  of 
the  surrender  of  Metz  to  be  false,  but  had  admitted  it  to  be 
true  the  day  after.  They  had  further  announced  that  the 
neutral  powers  had  proposed  an  armistice,  and  the  public 
naturally  connected  the  arrival  of  Thiers  with  this  state- 
ment. All  these  things  had  made  bad  blood  in  the  city,  and 
when  the  news  of  our  recapture  of  Le  Bourget  came  in, 
and  the  government  organs  laboured  to  show  that  this  posi- 
tion, which  had  cost  the  Parisians  so  dear,  was  not  vital  for 
our  defence — there  was  more  of  it.  The  Radical  leaders 
took  advantage  of  this  feeling.  About  midday  on  the  31st, 
an  armed  crowd  collected  in  front  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville, 
and  about  two  o'clock  the  rioters  forced  an  entrance  into 
the  building,  when  they  demanded  the  resignation  of  the 
Government  and  the  proclamation  of  the  Commune. 
The  Government  were  saved  by  battalions  of  National 
Guards,  who  remained  true  to  them  ;  but  it  was  only  after 
a  struggle  of  ten  or  twelve  hours'  duration. 

Let  us  return  to  the  31st  October  and  Versailles.  I  was 
instructed  that  night  to  get  the  order  to  Vogel  von  Falken- 

T    2 


276         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

stein,  which  appeared  in  the  Staats  Afizeiger  on  the  27th, 
reproduced  by  our  other  journals.  I  was  also  to  commence  a 
collection  of  newspaper  statements  of  the  ill-treatment  of  the 
German  prisoners  by  the  French.  Finally,  I  began  a  second 
article  on  the  interference  of  Beust  in  our  struggle  with 
France,  which,  howfever,  was  not  used,  as  the  circumstances 
changed  before  it  was  ready  for  publication.  But  I  give  the 
article  as  indicating  the  position  of  affairs  at  the  time.    It  said  : 

"  In  a  struggle  between  two  powers,  when  the  one  has 
been  proved  manifestly  the  weaker,  and  is  at  the  very  point 
of  succumbing,  it  certainly  rather  argues  consideration  for  the 
weaker  party  than  an  equal  friendliness  for  both,  and  it  must 
be  regarded  as  a  distinct  interference  in  favour  of  it  when  a 
Third  power,  which  has  hitherto  remained  neutral,  urges  an 
armistice.  An  armistice  is,  of  course,  for  the  advantage  of 
the  power  which  is  on  the  point  of  being  defeated,  and  for 
the  disadvantage  of  that  which  has  got  the  upper  hand.  If 
the  third  power  goes  farther,  and  tries  to  induce  other 
neutrals  to  support  its  proposals  and  give  weight  to  its 
advice  by  their  adhesion,  it  is  stepping  more  and  more  com- 
pletely out  of  its  neutral  attitude.  Its  partisan  advice  be- 
comes partisan  interference;  its  action  becomes  conspiracy; 
its  conduct  is  something  very  like  a  threat  and  a  violence. 

"  Austro-Hungary  is  manifestly  in  this  position,  if,  as  the 
officious  newspapers  in  Vienna  report,  it  has  been  the  mover 
in  the  attempts  of  the  neutrals  at  the  mediation  of  an 
armistice  between  France,  which  is  at  the  point  of  succumb- 
ing, and  victorious  Germany.  The  attitude  of  Count  Beust 
becomes  even  more  dangerously  significant  when  we  know 
that  it  was  instigated  by  M.  Chaudordy,  Favre's  deputy  at 
Tours,  and  that  it  originated  in  a  previous  understanding 
between  the  Cabinet  of  Vienna  and  the  Delegation  of  the 
Provisional  Government.     This  action  of  Austro-Hungarian 


X.]  Austrian  Mediation.  277 

diplomacy  reveals  itself  in  its  true  light  still  more  clearly  as 
a  hostile  interference  in  our  settlement  with  France,  when  we 
know  the  language  in  which  its  representative  in  Berlin  sup- 
ported the  representations  of  England.  The  British  Foreign 
Office  took  pains  to  preserve  a  thoroughly  objective  attitude 
friendly  to  Germany.  Italy  did  the  same.  Russia  has  hitherto 
abstained  from  any  kind  of  intervention.  All  the  three 
powers  worked  together  earnestly  at  Tours  to  obtain  an  in- 
dulgent but  unprejudiced  consideration  of  the  facts.      But 

the  despatch  which  M.  von  Wimpffen  read  over  in  Berlin 

we  know  nothing  about  the  advice  given  by  Austro-Hungary 
at  Tours— is  expressed  in  a  way  which  is  not  at  all  friendly. 
It  accentuates  the  fact  that  in  Vienna  they  still  believe  in 
general  European  interests.  It  fears  that  History  will  con- 
demn the  neutrals,  if,  in  face  of  the  impending  catastrophe 
at  Paris,  they  offer  no  remonstrance.  It  permits  itself  what 
is  manifestly  a  bitter  and  invidious  taunt  when  it  says  that 
Humanity  requires  that  the  conditions  of  peace  should  be 
made  easier  to  the  vanquished,  but  that  Germany  wishes  to 
allow  no  measure  of  the  rights  of  the  conquered  except  the 
power  of  the  conqueror.  A  tone  of  irony  runs  through  the 
whole  despatch  which  contrasts  very  unfavourably  with  that 
of  the  English  document. 

"  It  is  as  clear  therefore  that  there  is  hostility  in  the  attitude 
of  Count  Beust  as  that  there  is  none  in  that  of  Lord  Granville. 
Has  the  Chancellor  of  the  Empire  at  Vienna  maturely  con- 
sidered the  possible  consequences  of  this  new  game  of  chess  ? 
Is  it  likely,  after  the  fall  of  Metz,  that  we  shall  tolerate  a  suc- 
cessful attempt  by  the  Vienna  people  to  prevent  Germany 
from  completely  securing  the  peace  we  need  for  the  future 
protection  of  our  frontier  towards  the  West  ?  If  we  did  we 
should  certainly  keep  a  note  of  such  an  interference  and 
obstruction.     The  good  impression  which  the  neutrality  of 


2/8         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

Austro -Hungary,  so  far,  has  made  on  public  opinion  in  Ger- 
many would  be  wiped  out.  The  friendly  advances  we  were 
ready  to  make  to  the  Dual  Empire  on  the  Danube  will  be 
interrupted,  in  all  probability,  for  a  long  tmie.  In  the  other 
event,  and  assuming  that  the  interference  of  Count  Beust 
really  deprives  us  of  some  part  of  what  we  are  entitled 
to  demand  from  France — if  we  are  actually  compelled  to 
remit  a  portion  both  of  the  old  and  the  new  debts,  which 
at  present  we  mean  to  make  her  pay — -does  the  Imperial 
Chancellor  fancy  that  it  would  not  some  time  occur  to  us  to 
force  our  unfriendly  neighbour  in  the  South-East  to  make  it 
up  on  the  first  opportunity  ?  Does  he  think  us  stupid  enough 
to  put  off  our  reckoning  with  a  neighbour  who  is  always 
manifesting  himself  as  our  enemy,  till,  in  recompense  for 
the  vital  service  that  is  now  to  be  done,  his  French  protege 
has  so  far  recovered  strength  as  to  be  a  valuable  ally  to 
him  against  Germany?" 

luesday,  November  i. — In  the  early  morning  twilight  there 
was  tolerably  active  firing  again  from  the  heavy  guns.  About 
eleven,  Deputy  Bamberger  paid  me  his  visit.  He  had  taken 
two  whole  days  in  travelling  from  Nanteuil  to  Versailles.  At 
breakfast  we  talked  of  the  battle  of  Le  Bourget,  and  some- 
body said  that  the  French  had  behaved  treacherously,  making 
as  if  they  wanted  to  surrender,  and  when  our  officers  came  up 
unsuspectingly,  shooting  them  down.  Somebody  spoke  of 
over  1 200  prisoners  we  had  taken,  and  it  was  mentioned 
that  some  of  them  were  Francs-tireurs ;  the  Chief  said 
"  Prisoners  !  That  they  should  ever  take  Francs-tireurs 
prisoners  !    They  ought  to  have  shot  them  down  by  files." 

At  dinner,  besides  Delbriick,  there  was  a  Count  Oriola  in 
a  red  Companion  of  St.  John  uniform^  with  a  great  black  beard 
and  strongly-marked  oriental  features.  This  afternoon  he 
bad  been  with  Bucher  at  the   aqueduct  of  Marly,  when 


X.]  IV/iaf  the  Chancellor  Eats.  279 

they  had  an  admirable  view  in  the  evening  hght  of  the 
fort  which  we  recently  attacked  unsuccessfully,  and  of  a 
section  of  Paris,  The  princely  personages  of  fhe  Hotel 
des  Re'servoirs,  the  Dukes  of  Weimar,  Coburg  and  so 
on,  had  also  been  there.  Some  one  mentioned  Friesen's 
treasure-trove,  and  the  order  of  the  War  Minister  or 
of  the  commandant  of  the  town  that  all  articles  of  value 
found  in  houses  abandoned  by  their  inhabitants  were  to  be 
publicly  advertised,  and  after  a  certain  time,  if  not  claimed 
by  their  owners,  to  be  confiscated  for  the  benefit  of  the 
military  chest.  The  Minister  thought  this  quite  right,  "  For," 
he  added,  "properly,  such  houses  would  be  burned  down, 
but  that  would  be  an  injury  to  the  rational  people  who 
have  stayed  at  home,  so  that  unfortunately  it  does  not 
suit."  He  told  us  that  Count  Bray  intended  to  pay  him  his 
intended  visit  this  evening.  After  a  while  he  mentioned 
that  Thiers  had  been  with  him  about  midday  for  more  than 
three  hours  to  negotiate  an  armistice,  but  that  they  could  not 
agree  on  the  conditions.  During  the  conversation  Thiers  had 
begun  once  to  speak  of  the  amount  of  provisions  still  left  in 
Paris.  He  had  interrupted  him  there,  saying,  "  '  Pardon  me, 
but  we  know  better  about  that  than  you  do.  You  have 
been  only  a  day  in  the  city.  They  have  provisions  till 
the  end  of  January.'  What  a  look  of  astonishment !  I  had 
only  been  feeling  his  pulse,  but  his  amazement  betrayed 
that  there  was  not  so  much." 

At  dessert  he  spoke  of  the  amount  he  had  eaten.  "  To-day 
a  beefsteak  and  a.half,  and  two  slices  of  pheasant.  It  is  a' 
good  deal,  but  not  too  much,  as  it  is  my  only  meal.  I 
breakfast,  certainly  ;  but  only  on  a  cup  of  tea  without  milk, 
and  a  couple  of  eggs ;  after  that  nothing  till  the  evening.  If 
I  eat  too  much  then,  I  am  like  the  boa  constrictor,  but  I 
can't  sleep."    "  Even  as  a  child,  and  always  since  then,  I  have 


28o         Bismarck  i?t  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap 

gone  late  to  bed,  seldom  before  midnight.  Then  I  usually 
fall  over  quickly,  but  I  waken  up  soon  after  to  discover  that  it 
is  hardly  more  than  one  or  half-past,  and  all  sorts  of  things 
come  into  my  brain,  especially  if  any  injustice  has  been  done 
me.  I  have  to  turn  them  all  over.  I  then  write  letters  and 
despatches,  naturally  without  getting  up,  in  my  head. 
Formerly,  shortly  after  I  was  first  made  Minister,  I  used  to 
get  up  and  write  them  down.  When  I  read  them  over  in 
the  morning,  they  were  worthless,  mere  platitudes,  trivial 
confused  stuff,  as  you  might  find  in  the  Vossische.  I  don't 
want  to  do  this,  and  would  much  rather  sleep.  But  think- 
ing and  speculating  keep  going  on  in  my  brain.  When 
the  first  grey  dawn  begins  to  shine  on  my  bed,  I  fall  over 
again,  and  sleep  straight  on  till  ten  o'clock  and  sometimes 
later." 

During  the  night  the  French  artillery  were  again  very 
active ;  they  made  a  great  disturbance,  their  discharges 
J'ollowing  hard  upon  each  other,  especially  about  the  spirits' 
hour  of  midnight.  These  nocturnal  disturbers  of  the  peace 
were  probably  Mont  Valerien  and  the  gunboats  on  the 
Seine. 

Wednesday,  November  2, — Engel  tells  me  that  the  Chief 
j^ot  up  during  the  furious  cannonade  last  night,  which,  how- 
ever, is  nothing  unusual  with  him.  In  the  morning,  before 
nine,  I  take  a  run  out  through  Montreuil  on  the  Sevres  road 
as  far  as  the  railway  viaduct  with  the  five  arches  which  crosses 
it  at  Viroflay.  While  I  was  out,  the  Minister,  who  was  still  in 
bed,  had  wanted  me.  When  I  got  home,  about  ten,  Bronsart, 
an  officer  of  the  general  staff,  was  with  him  to  take  him  back 
to  the  King.  After  he  returned  he  told  me  to  telegraph 
to  Berlin  and  London  that  Thiers  had  spent  three  hours 
with  him  yesterday,  that  what  was  discussed  in  the  course  of 
the  conversation  had  been  considered  at  a  military  council 


X.]  M.  Thiers.  281 

at  which  his  Majesty  had  been  present,  this  morning,  and 
that  Thiers  was  to  come  back  to  him  this  afternoon. 

About  two  o'clock  I  saw  him  below  in  the  entrance  hall. 
He  is  below  the  middle  height,  with  grey  hair  and  no  beard, 
an  intelligent  face  which  suggests  sometimes  a  merchant  and 
sometimes  a  professor.  As  he  was  likely  to  remain  a  good 
while,  and  there  was  nothing  for  me  to  do,  I  repeated 
my  morning's  excursion,  and  passed  through  the  villages  of 
Montreuil,  Viroflay  and  Chaville,  the  two  last  forming  one 
continuous  street  about  three  miles  long.  I  came  im- 
mediately after  Chaville  to  Sevres.  I  wanted  to  go  through 
the  great  battery  or  fortification  on  the  right,  and  across 
the  town,  but  the  sentry  at  a  place  where  the  roads 
divided  would  not  let  me.  No  officer  even,  he  says,  is 
allowed  farther  without  special  permit  from  the  general. 
I  chatted  a  bit  with  the  soldiers  before  the  canteen.  They 
had  been  under  fire  at  Worth  and  Sedan.  In  one  of  these 
battles  one  of  them  had  his  cartridge-pouch  exploded  by  an 
enemy's  shot,  and  the  contents  spattered  over  his  face. 
Another  told  me  how  they  had  recently  surprised  French 
soldiers  in  houses,  and  that  he  had  given  no  quarter.  I 
hope  they  were  Francs-tireurs.  In  the  villages  along  the 
road  there  were  numerous  public-houses.  Most  of  the  inha- 
bitants have  stayed  at  home  ;  they  appear,  almost  all  of  them, 
to  be  poor  people.  Very  little  was  to  be  seen  of  the  wreck 
which  is  said  to  have  overtaken  the  French  sugar  places  in 
Sevres,  and  the  ruined  porcelain  manufactory  must  be  a 
mere  fable.  The  soldiers  say,  that  not  more  than  ten  shells 
can  have  fallen  there,  and  they  only  seem  to  have  knocked 
a  couple  of  stones  out  of  the  wall  and  smashed  a  few  doors 
and  windows. 

When    I  returned,    about  half-past   four,  to  the  Rue  de 
Provence,  I  learned  that  Thiers  stayed  with  the  Chief  till  a 


282         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

few  minutes  before  my  return,  and  that  he  looked  tolerably 
contented  when  he  went  away.  The  Chief  went  out  for  a 
turn  by  himself  in  the  garden.  From  four  o'clock  onwards 
there  was  more  heavy  firing. 

To-day's  dinner  was  graced  by  a  great  trout  pasty,  the 
love-gift  of  a  Berlin  restaurant-keeper,  who  sent  the  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Confederation  a  cask  of  Vienna  March  beer 
along  with  it,  and — his  own  photograph  !  During  dinner  the 
Minister  talked  about  his  visitor,  and  said,  "  He  is  an  able 
and  likeable  man,  witty  and  ingenious,  but  with  hardly  a 
trace  of  diplomatic  quality — too  sentimental  for  business. 
Beyond  question  he  is  a  superior  kind  of  man  to  Favre  ;  but 
he  is  not  fit  to  make  a  bargain  about  an  armistice — hardly 
fit,  indeed,  to  buy  or  sell  a  horse.  He  is  too  easily  put  out 
of  countenance ;  he  betrays  his  feelings ;  he  lets  himself 
be  pumped.  I  got  all  sorts  of  things  out  of  him ;  for 
instance,  that  they  have  only  three  or  four  weeks'  provisions 
left  inside."  The  Berlin  pasty  reminded  him  of  the  quan- 
tities of  trout  in  the  Varzin  waters ;  and  he  told  us  how, 
some  time  before,  he  had  caught  in  a  pond,  supplied  only  by 
a  few  little  springs,  a  five-pound  trout,  so  long  (showing  us 
with  his  hands)  :  and  all  the  gamekeepers  of  the  neighbour- 
hood said  that  they  could  not  explain  how  it  got  there  in  a 
natural  way. 

In  connection  with  the  attitude  we  shall  have  to  assume 
about  the  elections  which  must  be  held  in  France,  I  take 
occasion,  in  the  newspapers,  to  remind  people  of  the  fol- 
lowing precedent,  which  may  decide  the  matter  for  us,  and 
to  which  we  may  ask  the  attention  of  those  people  who 
consider  the  exclusion  of  Elsass-Lothringen  from  the  voting 
something  unprecedented.  An  American  tells  us  that  in  the 
last  war  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico  an  armistice 
was  concluded,  with  the  view  of  allowing  the  Mexicans  to 


X,]  The  Armistice  Negotiations.  283 

elect  a  new  Government,  which  might  make  peace  with  the 
United  States ;  and  it  was  stipulated  that  those  provinces 
which  the  States  wanted  given  up  to  them  should  not  take 
part  in  the  election.  This  is  the  only  precedent  absolutely 
on  all  fours  with  ours,  but  it  certainly  appears  to  be  so. 

Thursday,  November  3. —  Fine  clear  weather  in  the 
morning.  From  seven  o'clock  onwards,  the  iron  lions  on 
Mont  Valerien  again  growl  furiously  down  into  the  sur- 
rounding wooded  valleys.  I  make  extracts  for  the  King 
iroxxi  iht  Morning  Post  of  the  28th  and  29th.  There  are 
two  articles  on  the  Empress  Eugenie,  which  must  have  been 
inspired  by  Persigny  or  Prince  Napoleon.  The  assertion 
they  make,  that  in  our  negotiations  with  her  commissioners, 
only  Strassburg  and  a  narrow  strip  of  land  in  the  district  of 
the  Saar,  with  perhaps  a  quarter  of  a  million  inhabitants, 
were  claimed  by  us,  rests,  the  Chief  tells  me,  on  a  misunder- 
standing. I  am  told  to  telegraph  that,  after  the  Council  of 
yesterday,  the  Chancellor  offered  M.  Thiers  an  armistice  for 
twenty-five  days  on  the  basis  of  the  military  status  quo. 

Thiers  came  back  about  twelve  and  stayed  with  the  Cliief 
till  half-past  two.  The  French  demands  are  exorbitant.  We 
learn  at  breakfast  that  besides  twenty-eight  days'  armistice, 
to  allow  of  the  elections,  of  their  verification,  and  of  the 
settlement  by  the  National  Assembly,  the  Provisional 
Government  asks  nothing  less  than  the  right  to  re-provision 
Paris  and  all  the  other  fortresses  at  present  in  their  posses- 
sion and  besieged  by  us,  and  it  requires  freedom  of  election 
in  the  eastern  Departments  to  which  we  lay  claim  as  our 
future  possessions.  Re-provisioning  and  military  status  quo 
differ  a  good  deal  from  each  other,  according  to  ordinary 
reasoning. 

When  Thiers  was  fairly  closeted  with  the  Chancellor,  I 
took  a  walk  with  Willisch  and  Wiehr  to  the  aqueduct  at 


284         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

Marly,  on  the  platform  of  which  Delbriick  and  Abeken  soon 
after  turned  up  also.  In  the  foreground  below  us  lay  the 
houses  of  Louveciennes,  scattered  amid  their  clumps  of 
trees ;  further  on,  among  Avoods  and  parks,  the  villages  of 
La  Celle  and  Bougival,  and  the  light  blue  riband  of  the 
Seine,  with  a  long  line  of  white  hamlets  on  its  banks.  Beyond 
it,  on  the  left,  rose  Fort  Mont  Valerien,  on  a  height  with 
very  few  trees  about  it,  its  windows  glowing  in  the  afternoon 
sun  ;  and  still  further  westward  the  eye  made  out  the  western 
quarters  of  Paris,  with  the  dome  of  the  Invalides.  To  the 
left  the  Seine  flowed  away  round  its  islands,  past  the  but- 
tresses of  the  bridges  that  had  been  blown  up.  On  the  same 
side,  perhaps  three  miles  away  from  our  position,  we  saw  the 
town  and  castle  of  Saint-Germain,  and  behind  us  appeared 
the  Chateau  of  Versailles — -which  seems  higher  here  than 
when  one  is  close  to  it — and  a  number  of  villages  and  estates. 
Through  the  telescopes  of  the  soldiers,  who  observe  here  and 
telegraph  their  observations  to  Versailles,  we  could  clearly 
make  out  a  crowd  of  people,  apparently  gathering  potatoes 
in  the  fields  below  the  fort,  and  we  could  see  a  division  of 
French  soldiers,  with  glittering  bayonets,  marching  past  a 
white  house  not  far  from  the  walls. 

About  four  o'clock  we  were  again  in  Versailles,  where 
we  heard  that  Thiers  had  this  time  gone  away  with  a  less 
cheerful  look  on  his  face.  Somebody  mentioned  that  Bolsing, 
who  had  been  for  some  time  ill  and  out  of  spirits,  had 
asked  the  Chief  for  leave  to  return  to  Berlin,  and  that  WoU- 
mann  was  to  succeed  him.  When  I  was  summoned  to  the 
Chief,  I  was  told  to  telegraph  to  London  that  in  future  tliey 
need  not  telegraph  him  proclamations  like  Gambetta's  of 
the  first  of  this  month,  as  it  was  not  his  interest  to  be  in- 
formed of  it  any  sooner  than  necessary. 

At  dinner  we  talked  of  the  Berlin  elections,  and  Delbriick 


X.]  Toxvn  and  Country.  283 

thought  they  would  turn  out  better  than  usual,  and  that 
Jacoby,  at  all  events,  would  not  be  re-elected.  Count  Bis- 
marck-Bohlen  said  he  took  a  different  view,  and  expected 
little  improvement.  The  Chancellor  said,  "  I'he  Berlin  people 
must  always  be  in  opposition,  and  have  their  independent 
opinion.  They  have  their  virtues — numerous  and  highly 
respectable  ones.  They  think  things  over  ;  but  they  would 
feel  themselves  very  common  persons  if  they  could  not  know 
everything  better  than  the  Government."  That,  however, 
he  went  on  to  say,  was  a  failing  not  peculiar  to  them.  All 
large  towns  had  something  of  it,  and  many  were  much  worse 
than  Berlin.  They  were  certainly  less  practical  than  the 
country  districts,  which  had  more  to  do  with  life,  and  more 
direct  contact  with  nature,  and  which  in  this  way  had  a 
more  correct  judgment  of  what  was  really  possible,  better 
corresponding  to  the  facts  as  they  developed  themselves. 

"  When  so  many  people  live  close  together,"  he  said,  "  in- 
dividualities naturally  fade  out  and  melt  into  each  other.  All 
sorts  of  opinions  grow  out  of  the  air,  from  hearsays,  and 
talk  behind  people's  backs ;  opinions  with  little  or  no  foun- 
dation in  fact,  but  which  get  spread  abroad  through  news- 
papers, popular  gatherings,  and  talk  in  beer-shops,  and  get 
themselves  established  and  are  ineradicable.  There  is  a 
second,  false  nature,  an  overgrowth  on  the  first,  a  sort  of 
faith  or  superstition  of  crowds.  People  talk  themselves  into 
believing  the  thing  that  is  not ;  consider  it  a  duty  and  obli- 
gation to  adhere  to  their  belief,  and  excite  themselves  about 
prejudices  and  absurdities."  "  It  is  the  same  in  all  big 
towns.  In  London,  for  instance,  the  Cockneys  are  a  quite 
different  race  from  the  rest  of  Englishmen.  It  is  the  same 
in  Copenhagen;  in  New  York,  and,  above  all,  in  Paris. 
With  their  political  superstitions  they  are  a  very  peculiai: 
people  in  France ;  narrow  and  limited  in  their  views,  which 


286         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

seem  to  them  to  come  from  some  sacred  source,  but  which 
when  looked  at  closely  are  mere  shifty  phrases."  How 
admirably  this  characterises  what  our  popular  democrats 
and  fashionable  poets  delight  to  call  the  "  Soul  of  the 
People." 

The  Minister  told  us  little  about  Thiers,  except  that 
shortly  after  the  commencement  of  their  conversation  to  day 
he  had  suddenly  asked  him  the  question  whether  he  was  yet 
provided  with  the  necessary  full  powers  for  carrying  ou  the 
negotiations.  "  He  looked  quite  amazed  at  me,  and  I  told 
him  that  our  outposts  had  reported  to  us,  that  after  he  set 
out  there  had  been  a  Revolution  in  Paris^  and  that  a  new 
Government  had  been  summoned  into  power.  He  was 
manifestly  startled"  and  I  inferred  that  he  considered  a  victory 
of  the  Reds  possible,  and  that  Favre  and  Trochu  had  no 
very  secure  footing." 

L.,  who  now  regularly  gets  narratives  and  hints  for  the 
Mo/iiteur,  was  told  to  reproduce  there  a  judgment  of  the 
Norddeiitsche  Allgemeine  Zeitiing,  on  the  capitulation  of  Metz, 
but  said  he  would  rather  not,  as  Bazaine  was  a  "  traitor." 
On  my  talking  to  him  he  declared  himself  ready  to  do  it, 
but  he  must  resign  the  editorship,  as  he  "  could  not  give  the 
lie  to  his  own  convictions."     Really? 

Thiers  was  again  with  the  Chief  from  nine  till  after  ten. 

Friday,  November  4. —  In  the  morning  the  weather  was 
wonderfully  fine  and  clear.  At  the  request  of  the  Minister 
I  answered  the  mis-statements  of  an  article  which  appeared 
in  the  Daily  Navs  about  his  conversation  with  Napoleon  at 
Donchery.  He  had  spent  three-quarters  of  an  hour  at  the 
very  least  inside  the  weaver's  house,  in  the  room  above,  and 
was  only  a  very  short  time  outside  talking  with  the  Emperor 
in  the  open  air,  as  he  told  the  King  in  his  official  rei)ort. 
In  his  conversation  vvith  Napoleon  he  never  struck  tlie  fore- 


X.]  Two  Balloons.  287 

finger  of  his  left  hand  into  the  pahii  of  his  right  hand,  as 
thai  was  not  a  trick  of  his.  He  did  not  speak  German  with 
the  Emperor,  "  though  I  have  at  other  times,  but  not  then. 
I  talked  German,"  he  said,  "  with  the  people  of  the  house, 
as  the  husband  knew  a  little  of  it,  and  the  wife  knew  it 
pretty  well." 

Thiers  is  again  in  conference  with  the  Minister  from 
eleven  o'clock.  Yesterday  he  sent  his  companion,  a  M. 
Cochery,  into  Paris,  to  learn  whether  the  Government  of 
September  4  was  still  in  existence  ;  and  the  answer  given, 
as  we  learned  at  breakfast,  was  Yes.  After  Blanqui  with 
his  Reds  had  got  possession  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  and 
kept  some  of  the  members  of  the  ministry  prisoners  there 
for  several  hours,  Picard  relieved  the  gentlemen —Abeken 
says  with  106  battalions,  probably  with  the  io6th  battalion — 
and  the  Government  was  re-established. 

I  was  wakened  up  early  with  the  news  theft  a  balloon, 
coming  from  the  north,  was  passing  over  the  town.  As  the 
wind  was  favourable,  a  second  followed  in  the  afternoon. 
The  first  was  white,  the  second  was  painted  the  colours  of 
the  French  Tricolor.  Bamberger  was  with  us  at  dinner. 
The  Chief  said,  "  I  notice  that  the  papers  are  blaming  me 
for  putting  off"  the  Bombardment ;  I  am  said  to  wish  nothing 
serious  to  be  done  before  Paris,  and  I  won't  allow  firing  into 
the  town  Rubbish  !  They  will  some  day  complain  of  me 
as  to  blame  for  our  losses  during  the  investment,  which 
have  certainly  not  been  small.  We  have  lost  here  in  little 
skirmishes  more  soldiers  probably  than  we  should  have  done 
had  we  stormed  the  place.  That  is  what  I  v/anted,  and 
what  I  want  now."  We  talked  then  of  what  officers  of  the 
general  staff  had  previously  said,  that  in  thirty-six  hours  or 
so  they  could  silence  the  two  or  three  forts  which  would 
be  the  first  objects  of  attack      Afterwards  we  spoke  again 


288         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

about  summoning  the  Reichstag  here,  and  the  Chief 
remarked  that  perhaps  the  Customs  Parhament  would 
follow  it.  Among  other  things  of  interest  mentioned  in 
the  course  of  dinner,  Bohlen  told  us  that  an  official  in 
Versailles — I  think  he  said  an  attorney-general — had  been 
surprised  in  a  correspondence  by  letter  with  Paris.  How 
he  managed  it  is  not  known  \  possibly  through  some  secret 
outlet  of  the  sewers,  which  are  said  to  run  under  the  Seine 
as  far  as  here  and  then  across  the  river  to  the  bank  on  this 
side. 

L.  tells  us  in  the  evening  that  Bamberg,  who  was  Prussian 
Consul  in  Paris  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  war  has  been 
appointed  to  take  over  the  editorship  of  the  MonUrur,  and 
he  describes  the  gentleman  to  me.  About  nine  o'clock  we 
are  told  in  the  Bureau  that  Thiers  is  outside  again  in  the 
ante-room.  I  see  him  once  more  before  he  goes  in  to  thte 
Chief  in  the  drawing-room,  where  he  stays  till  after  eleven.  It 
is  supposed  that  he  will  return  to  Paris  to-morrow  morning. 
During  the  interview  a  telegram  comes  which  says  that 
Beust  gives  in,  and  that  he  has  said  something  like  this,  that 
if  Russia  hesitates  about  the  demands  which  Prussia  is  to 
make  on  France,  Austria  will  do  the  same,  but  not  otherwise. 
It  is  sent  in  at  once  to  the  Chief  in  the  drawing-room. 

At  tea,  Bismarck-Bohlen  entertained  us  with  an  anecdote 
from  the  outposts.  A  few  days  ago  a  man  came  to  one  of 
the  commanding  officers  here,  and  went  with  him  into  a 
house,  from  which  he  emerged  immediately  after  in  the 
dress  of  a  Frenchman,  making  his  way  through  the  hedges, 
and  at  last  running  clean  away.  The  sentries  fired  on  him, 
but  he  managed  to  get  safe  to  the  bridge  of  Sevres,  off  which 
he  jumped  into  the  river,  and  by  swimming  and  wading  got 
to  the  other  side,  where  he  was  heartily  welcomed  by  the 
French  as  a  brave  friend  of  his  country.     "  He  is  said  to 


X.]  Schnaps  for  Generals.  289 

be  one  of  our  best  spies,"  said  the  narrator  of  this  anecdote 
in  conclusion.* 

Saturday,  November  5. — In  the  morning,  broken  weather 
and  a  low-toned  grey  sky,  but  in  a  few  hours  aftenvards  it 
cleared  up.  We  hear  that  the  officers  of  the  Papal  Zouaves 
in  Rome,  who  have  now  nothing  more  to  do,  are  coming 
back  to  France  through  Switzerland,  to  fight  under  Charette 
against  the  Germans — against  the  enemy  of  the  Ultramon- 
tane camp,  but  not  for  the  Republic — a  fact  which  I  shall 
make  known  through  their  newspapers. 

About  One  o'clock  there  was  a  short  conference  between 
the  Chancellor  and  Delbriick  and  the  othet  German  Minis- 
ters, in  which  we  were  told  at  dinner  that  our  Chief  gave 
the  gentlemen  an  account  of  his  negotiations  with  Thiers, 
and  also  spoke  of  the  arrival  of  the  German  sovereigns  who 
are  not  yet  represented  here.  At  four  in  the  afternoon 
Keudell  left  for  Berlin.  All  day  long  firing  was  going  on, 
but  it  was  not  so  violent  as  during  the  last  few  days. 

At  dinner  we  had  none  of  their  Excellencies  at  first  but 
Delbriick.  Afterwards  the  Chancellor  came  in;  he  had 
previously  dined  with  the  King.  He  asked  Engel  to  pour 
him  out  a  glass  of  corn-brandy,  and  then  told  us  of  an 
amusing  saying :  Not  long  ago — if  I  am  not  mistaken  it 
was  in  Ferrieres — a  general,  talking  of  drinks,  had  laid  down 
the  principle,  "  Red  wine  for  children,  champagne  for  men, 
Schnaps  for  generals."  He  then  complained,  as  he  has 
often  done,  that  certain  eminent  personages  worry  him 
with  all  sorts  of  questions,  and  make  all  kinds  of  claims. 

*  This  anecdote  has  a  suspicious  resemblance  to  another  which  was 
given  afterwards  by  the  French  papers  in  which,  however,  not  the 
French  but  our  people  are  represented  to  have  been  deceived.  The 
hero  of  the  anecdote  in  that  account  was  called  Bonnet,  and  was  a 
foi  ester. 

VOL.    I.  U 


290        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

Just  then  a  telegraphic  despatch  was  handed  to  him  which 
declared  that  Favre  and  the  other  ministers  in  Paris  had 
got  on  their  high  horse  again  and  proclaimed  that  there 
could  be  no  question  at  present  of  any  territorial  compen- 
sation, that  the  only  duty  of  Frenchmen  was  the  defence 
of  their  country.  The  Chief  said,  "  Well,  that  gets  us  rid 
of  any  more  negotiations  with  Thiers."  "  Yes,"  said  Del- 
briick  ;  "  with  such  obstinate  imbecility  there  will  naturally 
be  no  farther  talk  about  that."  After  a  little  the  Minister 
said  to  Abeken,  that  Prince  Adalbert  meant  to  write  to 
the  Emperor  (of  Russia?)  and  proposed  to  address  him 
as  "my  cousin,"  which  was  not  right.  Taglioni  asked 
whether  the  Emperor  had  first  called  him  so.  "  Even  then 
he  ought  not  to  address  him  so,"  said  the  Chief.  "He 
should  call  him,  perhaps,  '  my  uncle.' "  Many  German 
princes,  even  those  who  are  not  related  to  him,  address 
the  Emperor  as  "  my  uncle."  Finally  he  ordered  an  in- 
quiry to  be  despatched  by  telegram  to  Berlin  about  the 
usual  form  of  address. 

Somebody  mentioned  that  excellent  ■wine  had  been  dis- 
covered in  the  Chateau  Beauregard,  and  that  it  had  been 
confiscated  for  the  troops.  Bucher  remarked  that  this 
charming  estate  of  the  Emperor's  had  been  laid  out  for 
Miss  Howard.  Somebody  else  said,  Yes,  but  it  now  belongs 
to  a  Duchess  or  Countess  Bauffremont.  "  That  reminds  me 
of  Thiers,"  said  the  Minister.  "  He  probably  means  still  to 
write  something  in  history.  He  protracted  our  negotiation, 
perpetually  dragging  in  all  sorts  of  extraneous  matter.  He 
told  me  what  he  had  done  or  advised  on  such-and-such  an 
occasion,  asked  me  the  real  situation  of  so-and-so,  and 
wanted  to  know  what  would  have  been  my  course  in  such- 
and-such  circumstances.  He  reminded  me,  for  instance,  of 
a  conversation  I  had  had  with  the  Due  de  Bauffremont  ia 


X.]  The  Emperor  Napoleon  in  1866.  291 

the  year  1867.  I  had  then  said  that  the  Emperor  had  not 
understood  his  game  in  1866,  that  he  might  have  got  some 
advantage  for  himself,  though  not  in  German  territory,"  &c. 
"  That  was  substantially  correct.  I  remember  it ;  it  was  in 
the  gardens  of  the  Tuileries,  and  a  mihtary  band  was  playing 
at  the  moment."  In  1866  Napoleon  had  not  the  courage 
to  take  what  in  his  position  he  would  have  been  entitled  to 
do.  He  might  have — at  that  time  he  should  have — laid 
hold  of  what  was  the  subject  matter  of  the  Benedetti  pro- 
posal, and  held  it  provisionally  as  a  material  guarantee  for 
what  might  happen.  We  could  not  then  have  prevented 
him,  and  it  was  not  likely  that  England  would  have  attacked 
him — at  all  events  he  could  have  awaited  the  issue.  When 
we  had  conquered,  he  should  have  set  himself  back  to  back 
with  us,  and  encouraged  us  to  proceed  to  excesses.  But " 
(turning  to  Delbriick)  bending  a  little  forward,  and  then 
pulling  himself  straight  again,  as  his  habit  is  on  such 
occasions,  "  he  is,  as  he  continues  to  be,  a  Tiefenbacher 
(a  respectable  Philistine — Schiller  s  IVallcnstein.") 

He  then  discussed  ,  who   belonged,   he  said,  to  a 

very  old  family,  with  large  estates,  in  Burgundy,  a  rotie,  a 
first-rate  cancan  dancer,  at  home  in  the  dancing  saloons 
of  the  Parisian  grisettes  and  cocotks,  an  intelligent,  dissolute 
fellow.  After  he  had  run  through  his  own  property,  he  had 
married  a  rich  wife,  and  begun  to  waste  her  money  too,  till 
a  divorce  a  mensd  et  t/ioro  put  a  stop  to  it. 

We  hear  that  Keudell  wants  to  be  a  deputy — if  I  under- 
stand rightly  he  means  to  come  forward  as  a  candidate  in 
the  district  of  Nieder  Barnim.  After  a  conversation  with 
Trochu  and  Ducrot  on  the  bridge  of  Sevres,  Thiers  came  back 
and  had  a  conference  with  the  Chief,  lasting  from  half-past 
eight  till  after  half-past  nine.  At  tea  it  was  said  that  Ducrot 
and  Favre  considered  our  conditions  of  armistice  inadmis- 

u  2 


292         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-G ernian  War,     [Chap. 

sible,  but  that  the  opinion  of  their  colleagues  was  to  be 
taken,  and  that  Thiers  would  bring  back  the  final  answer  of 
the  Ministry  to-morrow  morning. 

I  interrupt  the  narrative  of  my  diary  to  insert  here  a  few 
matters  which  may  throw  light  on  what  was  said  above  about 
Napoleon  and  Belgium  in  1866. 

That  France  at  tkat  time  wanted  to  acquire  Belgium, 
although  in  a  way  requiring  less  resolution  than  that  indi- 
cated above,  is  well  known.  An  unanswerable  proof  of  the 
fact  was  the  draft  of  a  treaty  on  the  subject  which  Benedetti 
handed  to  the  Chancellor  of  the  Confederation,  Avhich  was 
published  by  the  Foreign  Office  shortly  before  the  outbreak 
of  the  war.  In  his  book  Ma  Mission  en  Prusse  Benedetti 
attempted  to  disavow  it.     He  says  there,  p.  197  : 

"  It  will  be  remembered  that  on  August  5,  1866,  I  bid 
before  M.  de  Bismarck  the  draft  of  a  treaty  with  reference 
to  the  Maine  and  the  left  bank  of  the  upper  Rhine,  and 
I  need  not  say  that  M.  Rouher  refers  to  this  communication 
in  the  second  paragraph  of  his  letter  on  the  6th.  But 
it  also  proves,  and  this  is  what  it  is  important  to  establish 
against  the  assertions  of  M.  de  Bismarck,  that  nobody  in 
Paris  dreamt  of  making  Belgium  pay  for  the  concessions 
which  were  indispensable  to  France,  and  to  use  the  very 
words  of  the  Prussian  ambassador,  '  were  due  to  her.'  " 

Count  Benedetti  was  ignorant  when  he  wrote  this  that 
during  the  war  certain  secret  papers  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  German  troops,  which  contradicted  him.  But 
the  Foreign  Office  did  not  hesitate  to  use  this  defensive 
weapon  against  him.  On  October  20,  187 1,  it  answered 
his  disavowal  pretty  much  as  follows  : 

"  He  (Benedetti)  attempts  here,  and  in  the  following 
statements,  to  mix  up  two  distinct  phases  of  the  protract  j J 


X.]  France  and  Belgium.  293 

negotiations  which  the  Prussian  Minister  President  conducted 
with  him  during  several  years.  He  confounds  the  demand 
for  a  cession  of  German  territory  including  Mainz,  which 
he  addressed  to  the  Minister  President  on  the  5th  and  7th 
of  August,  1866,  with  the  later  demand  for  Belgium,  and 
attempts  to  make  the  papers  found  in  the  Tuileries,  and 
already  published,  relate  solely  to  the  former,  though  that 
incident  was  really  closed  by  the  letter  he  gives  on  page  181 
of  his  book,  addressed  by  the  Emperor  to  the  Marquis  de  la 
Valette.  But  the  difference  in  his  understanding  of  the 
two  phases  is  clearly  established  by  his  own  report,  now  in 
the  hands  of  the  Foreign  Office.  He  wrote  a  report  on 
the  Maine  episode,  on  August  5, 1866,  the  first  part  of  which 
runs  thus : — 

"  'M.  LE  MiNISTRE, — 

" '  On  my  arrival  I  found  your  telegraphic  dispatch 
awaiting  me,  in  which  you  communicate  the  text  of  the 
secret  agreement,  which  you  instruct  me  to  present  for  the 
acceptance  of  the  Prussian  Government.  Your  Excellency 
may  rest  assured  that  I  shall  spare  no  effort  to  secure  that 
all  of  these  instructions  are  favourably  received,  however 
vehement  may  be  the  resistance  which  I  am  sure  to  meet. 
Convinced  that  the  Emperor's  government  is  acting  with 
moderation  in  confining  itself,  in  view  of  the  future  aggran- 
disements demanded  by  Prussia,  to  the  stipulations  for  its 
own  security  mentioned  in  your  draft,  I  should  be  most 
unwilling  to  admit  any  modifications  in  it,  even  to  the  extent 
of  reporting  them  to  you  for  your  consideration.  My  opinion 
is  that  in  this  negotiation  firmness  is  the  best,  I  might 
almost  add,  the  only  argument,  which  I  can  properly  use.  I 
shall  show  my  settled  resolution  to  reject  every  inadmissible 
proposal,  and  I  shall  do  my  best  to  point  out  that  if  Prussia 


294        Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War.     [Chap. 

denies  us  the  pledges,  which  the  extension  of  her  territories 
forces  us  to  demand  of  her,  she  will  be  chargeable  with 
refusing  to  recognise  what  justice  and  prudent  foresight 
require — a  task  which  appears  to  me  easy.  Meanwhile,  I 
must  also  be  prudent,  and  considering  the  kind  of  man  the 
Minister  President  is,  I  think  it  best  not  to  be  present  the 
first  moment  when  he  discovers  for  certain  that  we  demand 
the  bank  of  the  Rhine  up  to  and  including  Mainz.  With 
this  view,  I  have  this  morning  sent  him  a  copy  of  your 
draft,  and  written  a  private  letter  to  accompany  it,  of  which 
I  enclose  a  copy.  I  shall  try  to  see  him  to-morrow  morning, 
and  I  shall  inform  you  of  the  disposition  in  which  I  find 
him.'" 

This  letter  was  followed  by  a  conversation  to  which 
Benedetti  briefly  refers  in  his  letter,  but  in  such  a  way  as 
to  avoid  as  far  as  possible  coming  forward  himself  as  the 
narrator ;  otherwise  he  could  not  have  helped  giving  some 
indication  of  the  fact  that  he  himself  approved  of  the  demand 
made  by  his  Minister,  and  cordially  supported  it.  He 
replied  to  the  Minister  President's  observation  that  this 
demand  meant  War  and  that  he  would  do  well  to  go  off  at 
once  to  Paris  to  prevent  the  War,  that  he  would  go  to  Paris, 
but  that  it  was  impossible  for  him  on  his  own  personal  con- 
viction, to  recommend  the  Emperor  not  to  persist  in  his 
demand,  as  he  himself  believed  that  the  Dynasty  would  be 
in  danger  if  public  opinion  in  France  were  not  satisfied  by 
some  such  concession  on  the  part  of  Germany.  The  last 
expression  of  the  views  of  the  Minister  President,  which 
Benedetti  took  with  him  on  his  road  back  to  Paris,  was 
something  in  this  fashion. 

"  Point  out  to  his  Majesty  the  Emperor  that  in  certain 
circumstances  such  a  war  might  have  to  be  fought  with 
Revolutionary  weapons,  and  that  in  presence  of  Revolutionary 


X.]  The  French  Secret  Instructions.  295 

dangers,  the  German  Dynasties  are  confident  that  they  would 
prove  tliemselves  more  sohdly  estabhshed  than  that  of  the 
Emperor  Napoleon." 

These  communications  were  followed  by  a  letter  of  with- 
drawal from  the  Emperor  on  the  12  th,  with  which  the  curtain 
dropped  on  the  demand  for  concessions  of  German  territory. 
Four  days  afterwards  the  second  act  of  the  drama  opens, 
involving  Belgium.  In  a  letter  dated  August  i6th,  brought 
to  Count  Benedetti  from  Paris  by  a  certain  M.  Chauvy, 
which  contained  "  le  resume'  le  plus  succinct  et  le  plus  precis 
possible  "  (''the  briefest  and  clearest  possible  summary")  of 
his  instructions,  it  is  said  : 

"  I.  The  negotiation  must  be  of  a  friendly  nature. 

"  2.  It  must  be  essentially  confidential  (and  the  persons 
are  expressly  named  to  whom  the  knowledge  of  it  is  to  be 
confined). 

"  3.  According  to  your  prospects  of  success,  your  demands 
will  pass  through  three  successive  stages.  You  must,  in  the 
First  place,  point  out  the  essential  connection  between  the 
questions  of  the  boundaries  of  18 14  and  the  annexation  of 
Belgium ;  you  must  require  the  cession  of  Landau,  Saar- 
Louis,  and  Saaibriicken,  and  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Luxem- 
burg, in  a  public  treaty,  and  demand  that  Prussia  shall 
make  a  secret  treaty  of  alliance,  off"ensive  and  defensive,  one 
article  of  which  shall  authorise  us  ultimately  to  incorporate 
Belgium.  Secondly,  if  it  appears  to  you  impossible  to  secure 
these  bases,  you  must  give  up  Saar-Louis  and  Saarbriicken, 
and  even  Landau,  that  wretched  old  barracks  (ineille  bicoqiie) 
which  German  sentiment  is  attempting  to  set  up  against  us, 
and  confine  your  public  treaty  to  the  Grand  Duchy  of 
Luxemburg,  and  your  private  treaty  to  the  incorporation 
of  Belgium  with  France.  Thirdly,  if  the  complete  and 
immediate  incorporation  of  Belgium  with  France  raises  too 


296         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

serious  difficulties,  you  must  accept  an  article  in  which,  in 
order  to  soothe  away  the  opposition  of  England,  you  are  to 
consent  to  make  Antwerp  a  free  town.  But  you  must  in  no 
event  allow  the  transference  of  Antwerp  to  Holland,  or  that 
of  Maestricht  to  Prussia.  Should  M.  de  Bismarck  ask  what 
advantages  such  an  arrangement  offers  him,  your  answer  will 
be  simple ;  he  acquires  for  himself  an  important  ally,  he 
secures  all  his  recent  acquisitions,  he  consents  only  to  the 
taking  away  of  what  does  not  belong  to  him — in  return  for 
the  advantages  which  he  wishes,  he  is  not  asked  to  make 
any  important  sacrifice.  To  sum  up :  an  ostensible  treaty 
which  concedes  at  least  Luxemburg  to  us ;  a  secret  agree- 
ment for  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance,  permitting  us 
to  incorporate  Belgium,  in  which  it  must  be  recognised  as 
essential  that  Prussia  shall  expressly  promise  to  stand  by 
us,  even  to  the  extent  of  armed  support — these  are  the 
bases  of  the  treaty  which  you  are  never  to  lose  out  of 
sight." 

Benedetti  replied  to  this  instruction  from  Paris  on  August 
23  in  a  letter  which  is  all  in  his  own  handwriting,  in  which 
he  submitted  the  sketch  of  the  Treaty  which  he  was  charged 
to  negotiate.  This  sketch  is  also  in  his  own  writing.  It  is 
now  in  the  possession  of  the  Foreign  Office  in  Berlin,  with 
the  autograph  side-notes  of  the  emendations  made  in  Paris. 
After  these  alterations  it  agrees  entirely  with  the  copy 
which  Benedetti  laid  before  the  Minister-President,  and 
which  he  pubhshed  in  the  summer  of  1870. 

Benedetti's  letter  of  August  23  begins  as  follows  : 
"  I  have  received  your  letter,  and  I  conform  myself  to  the 
best  of  my  abilities  to  the  views  it  expresses.  I  send  you 
my  draft  in  this  inclosure.  I  need  not  tell  you  why  Landau 
and  Saarbriicken  are  not  mentioned  \\x  it,  for  I  am  convinced 
that  if  we  ventured  to  include  them  we  should  encounter 


X.]  Belgiicm,  Luxemburg  and  HoUaJid.  297 

insuperable  difificulties,  so  that  I  have  confined  myself  to 
Luxemburg  and  Belgium." 

In  another  passage  he  says  : 

"  As  a  matter  of  course  it  is  a  first  draft  that  I  am  sending 
you,  and  we  shall  modify  it  if  necessary." 

The  letter  goes  on  in  another  place  : 

"  You  will  notice  that  instead  of  drafting  two  agreements 
I  have  only  sent  you  one.  When  I  came  to  write  it  out 
I  was  compelled  to  recognise  that  it  would  have  been 
difficult  to  express  stipulations  which  could  be  published 
about  Luxemburg.  I  might  perhaps  make  the  proposal  to 
give  Article  IV.,  the  one  referring  to  Belgium,  the  form  and 
character  of  an  article  in  a  Secret  Appendix,  by  putting  it  at 
the  end.  Do  you  not  think,  however,  that  Article  V.  ought 
to  be  as  little  known  as  the  contracting  parties  to  it  ?" 

A  draft  of  the  answer  to  this  letter  of  Count  Benedetti's 
lies  in  the  Foreign  Office,  also  written  on  official  paper.  It 
is  obvious  from  it  that  Benedetti's  draft  was  approved  in 
Paris,  but  that  it  was  thought  necessary  to  take  a  little 
longer  time  to  turn  the  matter  over.  It  discusses  the  case 
of  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  requiring  some  compensation 
for  Luxemburg  from  the  territory  of  Prussia.  The  pecu- 
niary sacrifices  which  the  treaty  may  require  are  weighed. 
The  view  is  put  forward  that  the  right  of  occupying  the 
Federal  fortresses  according  to  the  former  Federal  Constitu- 
tion was  extinguished,  and  that  their  maintenance  in  Southern 
Germany  was  no  longer  reconcileable  with  the  independence 
of  the  states  there.  They  give  up  Landau  and  Saar-Louis, 
but  they  point  out  that  it  would  be  "  an  act  of  courtesy  "  if 
Prussia  were,  by  razing  the  works  in  these  two  fortresses,  to 
take  away  their  aggressive  character.  It  is  pointed  out 
at  the  same  time  that  people  in  Paris  regard  the  Unifica- 
tion of  Germany  as  an  inevitable  eventuality  which  must 


298         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

come  to  pass  pretty  soon.  Article  IV.  must  not,  however, 
be  made  absolutely  dependent  on  Article  III.  It  was 
obvious  that  the  extension  of  the  Supremacy  of  Prussia 
beyond  the  Maine  would  be  to  France  a  natural,  almost  a 
compelling  reason  for  making  herself  mistress  of  Belgium. 
But  other  opportunities  might  arise — the  exclusive  right  to 
judge  of  them  must  be  claimed  for  her — perfectly  clear 
and  accurate  expressions  in  the  draft  would  preser\^e  for 
France  a  liberty  in  this  respect  which  might  be  very 
valuable. 

It  is  repeatedly  stated,  clearly  and  precisely,  that  the 
acquisition  of  Luxemburg  is  the  immediate,  and  that  of 
Belgium  the  ultimate  object  of  the  agreement  to  be  made 
with  Prussia,  but  that  this  and  the  Offensive  and  Defensive 
alliance  are  both  to  be  kept  secret.  The  paper  goes  on  to 
say : 

"  This  combination  puts  everything  right ;  it  relieves  the 
strain  of  public  feeling  in  France  by  giving  it  an  immediate 
satisfaction,  and  by  directing  the  public  mind  to  Belgium, 
as  this  action  naturally  does.  It  preserves  the  necessary 
secrecy,  both  in  respect  to  the  project  of  alliance  and  the 
proposed  annexations.  Should  they  be  of  opinion  that  even 
the  giving  up  of  Luxemburg  ought  to  remain  a  secret  till 
the  moment  when  we  lay  our  hands  on  Belgium,  you  must 
combat  this  view  by  observations  in  detail.  To  put  off  the 
exchange  of  territory  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period  of  inde- 
finiteness  might  involve  a  momentous  acceleration  of  the 
Belgian  question." 

At  the  end  of  the  letter  Benedetti  is  empowered,  if  he 
thinks  it  necessary,  to  go  to  Karlsbad  for  some  time.  Count 
Benedetti  answered  this  letter  on  August  29th,  It  is  at  this 
time  that  he  first  expresses  his  doubt  whether  they  could 
reckon  on  Prussia's  sincerity  in  the  transaction.   He  remarks 


X.]  Prussia  in  searcJi  of  Allies.  299 

that  Count  Bismarck  had  signified  to  him  some  doubt  whether 
the  Emperor  Napoleon  might  not  make  use  of  such  negotia- 
tions to  produce  ill-feeling  against  Germany  in  England. 
He  remarks  upon  that,  "What  sort  of  reliance  can  we  have 
on  our  side  on  people  accessible  to  such  calculations  ?"  He 
mentions  General  Manteuffel's  mission  to  St.  Petersburg, 
and  is  afraid  that "  Prussia  may  have  been  looking  out  else- 
where for  strengthening  alliances,  which  may  enable  her  not 
to  face  the  necessity  of  reckoning  with  France.  Prussia 
requires — as  M.  de  Bismarck  asserts  that  the  King  once  said 
— an  alliance  with  one  of  the  great  Powers.  If  they  show 
themselves  disinclined  to  France,  it  is  because  they  have 
another  already  quite  or  very  nearly  ready."  In  order  to 
wait  for  light  on  the  subject,  Benedetti  thinks  the  moment 
opportune  for  him  to  go  off  for  a  fortnight  to  Karlsbad, 
where  he  will  hold  himself  in  readiness  to  return  to  Berlin 
on  the  receipt  of  any  telegram  whatever  from  Count  Bis- 
marck. During  his  absence,  however,  the  Minister  Presi- 
dent also  left  Berlin,  and  did  not  return  till  December. 

The  secret  negotiations  accordingly  remained  in  abey- 
ance for  several  months.  They  were  re-opened  later,  on 
various  occasions,  always  by  Benedetti.  In  his  book  he  says 
(p.  185),  that  it  is  a  mistake  for  M.  de  Bismarck  to  displace 
the  negotiations  about  Belgium  in  the  year  1866,  and  to  put 
them  in  1867 ;  but  the  fact  is  merely  this,  that  the  French 
ambassador  reopened  the  negotiations  interrupted  in  tlie 
previous  year,  and  the  representatives  of  Prussia  took  part 
in  them  only  with  the  view  to  put  off  an  attack  from  France, 
confining  them,  however,  to  Belgium  alone  after  the  failure 
of  his  attempt  on  Luxemburg.  The  attitude  of  France  at 
the  time  of  the  dispute  about  the  Belgian  railways,  taken 
along  with  what  has  been  said,  makes  it  seem  not  incredible 
that  even  at  that  time  she  had  not  given  up  the  hope  of 


300         Bis7narck  iti  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap 

procuring  the  consent  of  North  Germany  to  her  favourite 
project. 

We  return  to  1870,  and  to  extracts  from  the  chronicle  of 
our  life  in  Versailles  : 

Sunday,  November  6. — We  learn  in  the  morning  that 
one  of  the  air-balloons  which  recently  escaped,  after  cross- 
ing the  town,  has  fallen  into  the  hands  of  our  hussars 
at  Chartres.  The  soldiers  had  hit  it,  so  that  it  came  down. 
The  two  aeronauts  who  were  sitting  in  the  car  were  made 
prisoners,  and  the  letters  and  papers,  which  were  confis- 
cated, are  to  be  sent  on  here  for  our  perusal. 

I  am  informed  that  Bucher  was  summoned  here  by  the 
Chief  especially  to  work  out  the  German  question ;  but  he 
has  very  little  to  do,  as  Delbriick  has  taken  a  great  deal  of 
this  branch  of  the  business  to  himself 

About  three  o'clock  Thiers  comes  back,  and  I  seize  the 
opportunity  to  take  a  run  to  see  the  ofiicers  of  the  46th 
regiment,  now  quartered  in  Grand  Chesnay.  The  gentle- 
men were  very  merry,  full  of  all  sorts  of  tricks  and  jests, 
though  the  alarm  signal  might  at  any  moment  summon 
them  to  battle.  When  I  came  back  I  learned  that  Thiers 
had  spent  only  half  an  hour  in  negotiation  with  the  Chan- 
cellor, and  had  gone  away,  not  to  return,  with  a  downcast 
look. 

At  dinner  we  had  Count  Lehndorff  and  a  hussar  officer, 
called,  if  I  heard  rightly,  Count  Schroter.  The  Chief 
told  us  that  Johanna  (his  wife)  had  written  him,  and 
read  out  a  passage  of  her  letter  in  which  she  said  some- 
thing like  this :  "  I  am  afraid  that  there  may  be  no  Bibles 
in  France,  so  I  shall  send  thee  the  Psalm-book  by  the  first 
opportunity,  so  that  thou  mayest  read  the  prophecy  in  it 
against  the  French,  '  I  say  unto  thee  that  the  wicked  shall 


X.]  Letters  from  Home  for  the  Chief.  301 

be  rooted  out.' "  A.lso  Count  Herbert,  who  is  well  again, 
has  written  a  despairing  letter  to  his  papa,  because  he  has 
been  appointed  to  a  depot  squadron.  He  complains," 
says  the  Minister,  "  that  he  has  now  had  nothing  out  of 
the  whole  war  except  that  he  rode  with  the  army  for  a 
fortnight,  and  then  spent  three  months  on  his  back.  I 
wanted  to  see  whether  anything  could  be  done,  and  to-day 
I  met  the  War  Minister.  But  he  advised  me,  with  tears 
in  his  eyes,  to  do  nothing ;  he  had  himself  interfered  with 
the  natural  course  of  things,  and  had  lost  his  son  in  con- 
sequence." He  then  suddenly  asked  Abeken,  "What  was 
it  you  were  reciting  with  so  much  earnestness  in  the  garden. 
Privy  Councillor  ?  I  could  not  make  out  what  language 
it  was  in."  "  Oh,  that  was  German,  your  Excellency — 
Goethe.  It  was  the  Wanderer's  Sttirtn  Lied,  my  favourite 
poem,"  and  then  he  repeated  a  passage  to  us  with  his  best 
feehng  and  emphasis. 

The  conversation  then  turned  on  the  recent  fight  at 
Le  Bourget,  and  the  Chief  said  it  was  quite  wrong  for 
General  von  Budritzki  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  soldiers 
in  the  storming  party  and  to  carry  the  flag.  "  The  general's 
place,"  he  said,  "  is  not  among  the  troops ;  it  is  behind, 
where  he  can  see  things  properly  and  direct  them  through 
his  adjutants.  This  performance  was  nothing  better  than 
an  imitation  of  Schwerin's  statue  on  the  Wilhelms  Platz — 
a  Decoration  performance."  Finally,  some  one  spoke  of 
the  danger  that  France  might  fall  to  pieces.  In  the  south, 
for  instance,  the  "  Ligue  de  Midi,"  the  head  of  which 
was  Esquiros,  seems  to  have  contemplated  cutting  itself 
loose  from  the  country  which  is  governed  from  Paris. 
People  there  are  in  favour  of  the  plan  of  a  forced  loan 
from  the  wealthy  classes ;  and  it  is  said  that  Mieroslawski 
is   to  be   called  to    Marseilles   to  organise   the    battahons 


302         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

of  Reds  there,  who  have  the  ball  at  their  feet,  into  an 
army. 

In  the  evening  we  read  the  Comte  de  Chambord's  pro- 
clamation to  the  French.  He  will  consecrate  himself,  like 
the  rest,  "  to  the  Welfare  of  France ;"  and  he  says  that, 
"  (Governing  does  not  mean  flattering  the  passions  of  the 
people,  but  resting  upon  their  virtues,"  Instead  of  serving 
up  these  commonplace  phrases,  he  would  have  done  better 
to  tell  them  how  to  put  an  end  to  the  present  condition 
of  affairs.  Unless  the  political  and  social  confusion  which 
has  diffused  itself,  in  consequence  of  September  4th,  over 
more  than  Paris,  soon  terminate,  it  will  be  difficult  to  re- 
establish order  in  accordance  with  the  wish  of  Germany 
and  of  all  Europe.  If  the  present  state  of  affairs  lasts 
much  longer,  whatever  government  comes  after  the  Re- 
public will  take  over  a  country  afflicted  with  anarchy  that 
will  not  allow  it  to  reckon  on  the  virtues  of  the  people. 
It  will  have  to  rest  on  its  passions  instead. 

Monday^  November  7. — The  Chief  orders  me  this  morning 
to  telegraph  to  London  :  "  During  five  days  of  negotiation 
with  Thiers,  he  has  been  offered  an  armistice  on  the  basis 
of  the  military  status  quo  for  any  length  of  time  up  to 
twenty-eight  days,  so  as  to  hold  the  elections,  which  were 
to  be  allowed  even  in  the  occupied  portions  of  France. 
Ultimately,  he  was  offered  permission  and  facilities  for 
holding  the  elections  even  without  an  armistice.  But  after 
further  consultation  with  the  Parisian  authorities,  held  in 
the  outpost  lines,  he  was  not  empowered  to  accept  either. 
He  insisted  above  all  things  that  Paris  should  be  re-pro- 
visioned, but  he  was  unable  to  offer  any  military  equiva- 
lent. This  demand  could  not  be  granted  by  the  Ger- 
mans for  military  reasons,  and  yesterday  M,  Thiers  had 
orders  from  Paris  to  break  off"  the  negotiations." 


X.]  Failure  of  the  Negotiations.  303 

From  other  sources  we  learned  the  following  additional 
particulars  of  the  course  of  these  events,  and  the  present 
situation.  The  order  reached  Thiers  in  a  short  dry  letter 
from  Favre,  which  sent  him  back  to  Tours,  whither  he  went 
to-day.  He  was  ver}"-  much  depressed  at  the  foolish  stiff- 
neckedness  of  the  Minister  in  Paris  with  which  he  himself 
could  not  sympathise,  and  which  seemed  not  to  animate 
several  of  the  members  of  the  Provisional  Government. 
Favre  and  Picard,  especially  the  latter,  are  eager  for  peace, 
but  are  too  weak  compared  with  the  others  to  carry  their 
object.  Gambetta  and  Trochu  want  no  elections,  as  in  all 
probability  these  would  make  an  end  of  their  domination. 
This  domination  is  itself,  however,  on  a  very  weak  footing. 
It  may  be  overthrown  in  Paris  any  day,  and  the  provinces 
are  also  unsteady  in  their  support.  In  the  South,  Marseilles, 
Toulouse,  and  a  number  of  Departments  no  longer  recog- 
nise the  Government  of  National  Defence,  which  is  not 
Radical  enough  for  them,  that  is  to  say,  that  it  is  not  Com- 
munist. There  and  everywhere  else,  among  all  who  belong 
to  the  propertied  classes,  the  prospects  of  the  Imperialist 
party  are  steadily  improving. 

I  wrote  articles  substantially  saying  that  we  were  pre- 
pared for  whatever  might  happen  ;  but  that  the  ambition  of 
MM.  Favre  and  Trochu,  who  were  afraid  of  being  con- 
strained by  the  voice  of  the  real  representatives  of  the 
French  nation  to  let  go  the  helm  to  which  they  had  been 
called,  in  consequence  of  an  emeute,  refused  to  listen  to 
any  of  our  concessions.  It  was  this  ambition  alone  which 
was  prolonging  the  war.  We  had  shown,  on  tlie  other 
hand,  by  our  readiness  to  concede  the  utmost  possible,  that 
we  wanted  peace. 

In  the  afternoon  I  spent  another  hour  with  the  officers  at 
Grand  Chesnay.      They  were  in  constant  expectation  of  an 


304         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

alarm,  and  were   eagerly  waiting  for  the  bombardment  to 
begin. 

At  table,  where  we  had  Major  von  Alten,  Adjutant-Major 
to  the  King,  Count  Bill,  and  Lieutenant  Philip  von  Bismarck, 
the  Minister's  nephew,  we  talked  of  the  delay  of  the  bom- 
bardment, and  the  Chancellor  declared  the  rumour  now 
going  the  round  of  the  newspapers,  that  he  did  not 
want  it,  while  the  military  authorities  were  urging  it  on,  to 
be  thoroughly  "  unreasonable  and  inexplicable."  "  It  is  just 
the  other  way,"  he  said.  "  Nobody  urges  and  presses  it 
more  than  I  do,  and  it  is  the  military  people  who  do  not 
want  to  begin.  A  great  part  of  my  correspondence  is 
spent  on  the  effort  to  remove  the  scruples  and  objections 
of  the  military  authorities." 

The  conversation  seemed  to  make  it  clear  that  the  artillery 
still  wanted  more  preparation,  and  that  they  thought  they 
had  not  enough  ammunition.  Some  one  spoke  of  ninety 
waggon  loads  every  day.  At  Strassburg,  too,  they  had 
insisted  on  more  than  was  really  needed,  and  in  the  end, 
though  they  used  up  an  enormous  quantity  of  powder  and 
shot,  two-thirds  of  the  accumulated  ammunition  was  left 
over.  Alten  said  that  if  we  had  occupied  the  forts  we  should 
have  been  exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  enceinte,  and  would 
have  had  to  begin  everything  over  again.  "  It  may  be 
so,"  said  the  Minister,  "  but  in  that  case  it  ought  to  have 
been  well  known  to  them  beforehand,  for  there  -is  no  Fortifi- 
cation with  which  we  have  been  so  thoroughly  well  ac- 
quainted from  the  time  the  war  began  as  with  Paris." 

Some  one  said  that  two  air-balloon^  had  been  caught, 
in  the  one  of  which  two  prisoners  had  been  taken,  and  in 
the  other  three.  The  Chief  said  that  there  was  no  doubt 
that  they  must  be  treated  as  spies. 

Alten  said  that  they  would  be  brought  before  a  military 


X.]  The  Capture  of  the  Balloons.  305 

tribunal,  and  the  Chief  replied,  "  Then  certainly  nothing 
will  be  done  to  them."  He  then  spoke  of  Count  Bill's  being 
so  well  in  health,  and  so  strong,  and  that  at  his  years  he 
himself  had  been  shm  and  lean.  *'  In  Gottingen,"  he  said, 
"  I  was  as  thin  as  a  knitting  needle."  Somebody  said  that 
last  night  a  sentry  posted  before  the  villa  where  the  Crown 
Prince  was  living  had  been  shot  at,  that  the  man  had  been 
wounded,  and  that  the  town  would  have  to  pay  5000  francs 
compensation  to  him.  The  Chief  remarked  that  in  his 
evening  walks  he  would  not  take  his  sword  with  him,  but  a 
revolver,  as  he  said,  "  I  may  very  possibly  get  murdered  in 
certain  circumstances,  but  I  should  not  like  to  die  without 
my  revenge." 

In  the  evening  the  Chancellor  instructed  me  to  telegraph 
the  narrative  of  the  breakdown  of  the  negotiations  with 
Thiers  once  more,  but  in  somewhat  different  words.  When 
I  permitted  myself  to  remark  that  the  despatch  had  been 
already  telegraphed  that  morning,  he  replied,  "  Not  quite. 
Here  you  have  Count  Bismarck  proposed,  &c.  You  must 
notice  such  shades  of  difference  if  you  are  to  work  in  the 
ministry  of  foreign  affairs."  Afterwards  I  was  summoned  to 
him  again.  I  was  told  to  telegraph  :  "  From  private  com- 
munications with  Paris  we  learn  that  Favre  and  the  majority 
of  his  colleagues  were  in  favour  of  holding  the  elections  and 
of  the  armistice  arranged  by  Thiers,  but  that  Trochu,  by 
agitating  against  it,  had  carried  his  point." 

Tuesday,  November  S. — A  telegram  was  sent  off  in  the 
morning  to  order  the  persons  captured  in  the  air-balloons  to 
be  sent  on  to  a  Prussian  fortress,  and  then  brought  before  a 
military  tribunal,  and  further  stating  that  the  letters  con- 
fiscated in  the  balloon  car  compromised  diplomatists  and 
other  persons  to  whom  communication  with  outside  Paris 
had  been  hitherto  allowed  out  of  respect  to  their  position 

VOL.    I.  X 


3o6         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War,     [Chap. 

and  their  sense  of  honour.  This  communication,  an  article 
founded  on  these  facts  said,  could  no  longer  be  permitted. 

About  half-past  ten,  when  we  were  at  breakfast,  the  Chief 
received  a  visit  from  an  elderly  gentleman  wearing  a  silk 
cloak  and  a  scarlet  cap,  with  a  scarf  of  the  same  colour. 
He  was  Archbishop  Ledochowski  from  Posen,  and  we 
should  have  liked  to  know  whether  his  business  was  about 
the  Pope's  offer  to  intervene  in  our  interests  with  the  French 
Government.  Probably  they  hope  in  that  way  to  procure 
an  intervention  of  the  German  Government  in  the  interests 
of  the  Pope.  The  Archbishop  stayed  till  about  three 
o'clock,  and  after  he  left  the  Chief  went  off  to  the  King. 
He  dined  afterwards  with  the  Crown  Prince,  where  the 
Grand  Duke  of  Baden,  who  had  just  arrived,  was  also 
dining. 

Before  dinner  I  again  visited  H,  and  his  lieutenants,  who 
were  now  quartered  in  a  little  mansion  house  on  the  main 
road,  near  Chesnay,  which  belonged  to  the  famous  Parisian 
doctor,  Ricord.  They  were  as  "jolly"  and  as  inclined  for 
fun  as  ever,  and  they  were  still  longing  for  the  bombard- 
ment to  begin. 

Wednesday,  November  9.  —A  broken  and  cloudy  day.  I 
wrote  an  article.  Then  we  read,  marked,  and  made  extracts 
from  the  Times,  as  usual.  It  was  pleasant  to  come  across 
passages  in  the  Kolnische  like  :  "  The  tooth  of  Time  has 
peopled  the  walls  with  moss."  A  picturesque  writer  wrote  : 
"  The  great  ditch  at  Sedan,  whose  grey  lips  shut  them- 
selves down  in  thunder  on  the  greatness  of  France."  Well 
roared,  lion  ! 

The  Minister  wishes  me  to  inquire  into  the  antecedents 
of  an  American  called  O'Sullivan,  who  is  doing  no  good 
here,  and  who  seems  a  suspicious  character.  I  shall  first 
inquire  of  L.,  who  seldom  misses  fire  in  questions  about 


X.]  The  Chancellor's  Private  Life.  307 

people  here.  At  midday  it  was  reported  to  us  that  the 
fortress  of  Verdun  capitulated  yesterday. 

At  dinner,  Delbriick,  General  Chauvin,  and  Colonel 
Meidam,  superintendent  of  field  telegraphs,  were  the  Chief's 
guests.  Some  one  spoke  of  the  improper  use  which  distin" 
guished  personages  made  of  the  telegraph  for  their  private 
occasions.  Some  one  else  said  that  at  Epernay  the  con- 
nections had  been  destroyed,  and  other  mischief  done,  by 
the  Francs-tireurs  and  by  peasants ;  and  the  Chief  said  : 
"  They  ought  to  send  three  or  four  battalions  there  at  once, 
and  transport  6,000  of  these  peasants  into  Germany,  till  the 
war  is  over,"  "  Frorh  four  to  six  hundred  would  probably 
"be  plenty,"  said  Delbriick ;  "  the  fright  could  not  help 
having  its  effect  on  the  rest."  Afterwards  the  Chief  spoke 
of  the  French  newspapers,  and  said  it  was  almost  incredible 
what  invectives  many  journals  discharged  against  us. 

"  I  sent  one  of  them  to  the  King,  rather  imprudently  I 
must  say,  for  he  is  cruelly  handled  in  it  himself,  in  which 
all  sorts  of  horrors  are  told  about  my  way  of  going  on  in 
private  life.  I  thrash  my  wife  with  a  dog-whip ;  no  shop- 
keeper's daughter  in  Berlin  is  safe  not  to  be  dragged  off  into 
my  harem ;  I  have  embezzled  money ;  I  have  made  use  of 
s  ate  secrets  in  my  possession^  and  speculated  on  the  ex- 
change with  them,  and  so  on.  They  don't  yet  do  that  sort 
of  thing  in  Germany."  * 

"  The  harem  is  probably  behind  the  house,  in  the  cottage 
where  the  porters  live,"  said  Delbriick.  "  If  the  French 
journalists  only  knew  about  that  cottage,  what  mysteries 
they  would  discover  in  it ! " 

In  the  evening  L.  tells  us  that  Chateaudun  has  again 
been  evacuated   by  our  troops,  and  occupied  by  the  van- 

*  Compare  a  passage  later  on. 

X   2 


3o8         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chaf. 

guard  of  the  French ;  and  he  believes  he  knows  that  there 
was  a  sortie  of  the  Parisians  to-day  against  the  part  of  our 
hne  held  by  the  Bavarians.  About  O'Sullivan  he  knows 
only  this,  that  he  was  formerly  an  American  diplomatist,  an 
adherent  of  the  slave-holders  ;  that  before  his  arrival  in  Ver- 
sailles he  had  gone  in  a  meddling  way  to  the  Grand  Duke 
of  Mecklenburg,  to  propose  attempts  at  mediation,  and  that 
he  had  come  here  with  a  letter  of  recommendation  for  the 
Crown  Prince,  and  had  dined  with  him  in  company  with 
our  Chancellor  yesterday.  Probably  he  was  also  unable 
on  that  occasion  to  refrain  from  offering  his  good  services 
as  an  amateur  mediator. 

Many  troublesome  fellows  of  the  same  description  have 
got  in  here,  and  make  the  Hotel  des  Re'servoirs  an  unsafe 
place  with  their  importunity  and  their  projects.  Even  the 
Chancellor  himself  will  not  always  be  able  to  avoid  them 
when  they  come  and  button-hole  him  with  their  advice. 
There  are  some  very  extraordinary  suggestions,  e.g.,  the 
neutralisation  of  Elsass  and  Lothringen,  the  annexation  of 
these  provinces  to  Belgium  or  Switzerland,  the  restoration 
of  the  Emperor,  the  restoration  of  the  Orleans  family,  the 
making  the  French  a  present  of  Belgium,  so  that  they  may 
not  feel  it  unkind  of  us  when  we  retain  Metz  and  Strassburg 
and  their  appurtenances,  the  incorporation  of  Luxemburg 
with  Germany,  so  as  to  secure  the  same  object.  Perhaps  it 
would  be  a  good  thing  to  make  an  example,  which  would 
show  these  benevolent  people  that  they  are  not  wanted. 

At  tea  the  rumour  was  mentioned  that  the  influence  of 
ladies  had  contributed  to  put  off  the  bombardment.  After 
half-past  ten  the  Chief  came  to  us  out  of  the  salon,  where  he 
had  been  talking  with  the  Bavarian  general,  von  Bothmer, 
and  had,  it  appears,  been  discussing  military  questions  in 
connection  with  the  larger  Unity  of  Germany,  which  is  now 


X.]  Where  zvill  the  Pope  retire  to  ?  309 

in  progress.  He  stayed  perhaps  an  hour  with  us.  When  he 
sat  down  he  called  for  a  glass  of  beer.  Then  he  sighed,  and 
said,  "  I  wished  once  more  to-day,  as  I  have  often  wished 
before,  that  I  could  say  for  even  five  minutes,  this  is  to  be 
or  it  is  not  to  be.  One  has  to  bother  about  whys  and  where- 
fores, to  convince  people,  to  entreat  them  even  about  the 
simplest  matters — what  a  worry  is  this  eternal  talking  and 
begging  for  things  !  " 

Hatzfeld  asked,  "  Has  your  Excellency  noticed  that  the 
Italians  have  broken  into  the  Quirinal  ?  "  "  Yes,"  said  the 
Chief,  "  and  I  am  curious  to  see  what  the  Pope  will  do.  Will 
he  leave  the  country,  and  where  will  he  go  ?  He  has  already 
asked  us  to  ascertain  for  him  from  Italy  whether  she  would 
allow  him  to  leave  the  country,  and  whether  it  might  be  done 
in  a  reasonably  dignified  way.  We  did  so,  and  they  replied 
that  they  would  be  careful  throughout  to  respect  his  position, 
and  would  act  in  the  same  way  if  he  determined  to  leave 
Italy." 

"  They  would  be  very  unwilling  to  let  him  go,"  said  Hatz- 
feld. "  It  is  for  their  interest  that  he  should  remain  in 
Rome."  The  Chief  said,  "  Certainly  ;  but  perhaps  he  may 
have  to  go,  notwithstanding.  Then  where  will  he  go  to  ? 
Not  to  France,  for  Garibaldi  is  there.  He  does  not  wish  to 
go  to  Austria.  There  is  Spain,  of  course.  I  offered  him  to 
Bavaria.  He  thought  for  a  moment,  and  then  said,  '  There 
is  nothing  left  for  him  but  Belgium,  or — North  Germany.' 
In  fact,  we  have  often  been  asked  whether  we  could  secure 
him  an  asylum.  I  have  no  objection  to  Cologne  or  Fulda. 
It  would  be  an  exraordinary  turn,  but  it  would  not  be  an 
unlikely  one,  and  for  us  it  would  be  a  great  advantage  that 
we  should  appear  to  the  Catholics  as  we  really  are,  the  only 
power  in  the  present  day  willing  and  able  to  offer  security 
to  the  supreme  prince  of  their  church.      Then  Stofflet  and 


3IO         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

Charette  and  their  Zouaves  might  at  once  go  home.  Every 
pretext  for  the  opposition  of  the  Ultramontanes  would  dis- 
appear ;  and  in  Belgium  and  Bavaria,  too,  Malinkrott  would 
have  to  support  the  Government." 

"  People  with  lively  imaginations,  especially  women,  when 
they  are  in  Rome,  with  the  incense  and  the  splendour  of 
Catholicism  about  them,  and  the  Pope  on  his  Throne  dis- 
pensing blessings,  feel  an  inclination  to  become  Catholics. 
In  Germany,  where  they  would  have  the  Pope  before  their 
eyes  as  an  old  man  in  want  of  help,  a  good  kind  gentleman, 
one  of  the  bishops  eating  and  drinking  like  the  others, 
taking  his  pinch,  perhaps  even  smoking  his  cigar,  there  would 
be  no  such  great  danger.  And,  finally,  even  if  some  people 
in  Germany  did  go  back  to  Catholicism  there  would  not 
be  much  to  grieve  about,  as  long  as  they  continued  good 
Christians.  People's  confessions  don't  make  the  difference, 
but  their  beliefs.  One  ought  to  be  tolerant."  He  developed 
these  views  further  in  the  most  interesting  way,  but  I 
cannot  reproduce  it  here. 

Then  we  turned  to  other  matters.  Hatzfeld  said  that  his 
Highness  of  Coburg  had  fallen  off  his  horse.  "  Fortunately 
without  hurting  himself,"  added  Abeken,  who  had  just 
hurried  in,  with  a  happy  look  on  his  face.  The  Chief  was 
tempted  to  tell  us  about  similar  misfortunes  which  had 
befallen  himself. 

"  I  believe,"  he  remarked,  "  that  if  I  say  that  I  have 
fallen  off"  my  horse  fifty  times  I  am  not  up  to  the  mark.  To 
fall  off  your  horse  is  nothing,  but  it  is  bad  to  fall  with  him, 
and  to  have  him  lying  on  the  top  of  you.  The  last  time  I 
had  that  was  in  Varzin,  when  I  broke  three  of  my  ribs.  I 
thought  then  that  it  was  all  over.  There  was  not  so  much 
danger  as  appeared,  but  it  was  frightfully  painful." 

"  Once  before,  I  had  a  remarkable  tumble,  which  proves 


X.]  Suspended  Brain  Power  311 

how  people's  power  of  thinking  depends  on  the  matter  ot" 
the  brain.  I  was  on  the  road  home  with  my  brother,  and 
we  were  riding  as  fast  as  the  horses  would  go.  Suddenly 
my  brother,  who  was  a  little  in  front,  heard  a  frightful  crack. 
It  was  my  head,  which  had  knocked  on  the  road. 

"  My  horse  had  shied  at  the  lantern  of  a  waggon  which 
was  coming  up,  had  reared  backwards,  and  fallen  with  me, 
on  its  own  head.  I  lost  consciousness,  and  when  I  came 
out  of  this  state  it  was  only  a  half  recovery,  that  is  to  say,  a 
part  of  my  thinking  machinery  was  quite  clear  and  sound, 
but  the  other  half  was  not  there.  I  felt  over  my  horse,  and 
found  that  the  saddle  was  broken.  Then  I  called  my 
groom,  ordered  him  to  give  me  his  horse,  and  rode  home. 
When  the  dogs  there  barked  at  me — a  friendly  greeting — I 
took  them  for  strange  dogs,  and  was  vexed  with  them,  and 
scolded  them.  Then  I  said  that  the  groom  had  fallen  with 
the  horse,  and  that  he  must  be  brought  back  on  a  litter.  I 
was  very  angry  when,  on  a  sign  from  my  brother,  they  did 
not  carry  out  my  orders.  Did  they  mean  to  leave  the  poor 
man  lying  in  the  road  ?  I  did  not  know  that  I  was  myself, 
and  that  I  had  got  home,  or  rather  I  was  myself  and  the 
groom  at  the  same  time.  I  then  asked  for  something  to 
eat,  and  went  to  bed.  In  the  morning,  after  I  had  slept  it 
off,  I  was  all  right.  It  was  a  singular  case ;  I  had  looked 
at  the  saddle,  had  got  myself  another  horse,  and  had  done 
other  things  like  that,  everything,  in  fact,  that  was  practical 
and  necessary.  In  all  this  the  fall  had  produced  no  con- 
fusion in  my  ideas.  It  is  a  curious  example  to  show  what 
different  powers  of  the  mind  the  brain  accommodates.  Only 
one  of  mine  was  benumbed  for  any  length  of  time  by  the 
fall." 

"  I  remember  another  tumble.  I  was  riding  fast  through 
young  brushwood  in  a  great  forest,  a  good  bit  away  from 


312         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

home,  I  wanted  to  get  on  by  a  near  cut  right  through  the 
wood,  but  I  fell,  with  my  horse,  and  lost  consciousness.  I 
must  have  lain  there  three  hours  or  so,  insensible,  for  it  was 
getting  dark  when  I  woke  up.  The  horse  was  standing 
close  by.  The  locality,  as  I  told  you,  was  quite  away  from 
our  property,  and  unfamiliar.  I  had  not  yet  properly 
recovered  my  faculties ;  but  I  did  what  was  necessary  here, 
too.  I  loosened  the  martingale,  which  was  in  two  bits,  put 
it  in  my  pocket,  and  rode  off  by  a  way  which,  as  I  then 
understood,  was  the  nearest — it  crossed  a  river  by  a  pretty 
long  bridge — to  a  neighbouring  farm,  where  the  tenant's 
wife  ran  away  when  she  saw  a  big  man  ride  up  with  his 
face  covered  with  blood.  But  the  husband  came  out  and 
washed  the  blood  off.  I  told  him  who  I  was,  and  that  I 
had  ten  or  twelve  miles  to  ride  to  get  home,  that  I  was  not 
very  able  to  do  it,  and  that  I  should  like  him  to  drive  me 
over,  which  he  did.  I  must  have  stumbled  forward  fifteen 
paces  when  I  came  to  the  ground  and  tumbled  over  the 
root  of  a  tree.  When  the  doctor  examined  my  hurts,  he 
said  it  was  contrary  to  all  professional  rules  that  I  had  not 
broken  my  neck." 

"  I  was  other  times,  too,"  continued  the  Chief,  "  in  danger 
of  my  life.  Once,  when  the  Sommering  railway  was  being 
ifiade — I  believe  it  was  in  1852 — I  was  going  with  a  party 
through  one  of  the  upper  tunnels.  I  remember  Count  Ottavio 
Kinsky  was  there,  who  was  somewhat  older  than  I,  and 
wore  curls.  It  was  quite  dark  inside.  I  went  before  the 
rest  with  a  lantern.  There  was  a  pit  or  fissure  diagonally 
across  the  floor,  which  might  be  fifty  feet  deep  and  half  as 
wide  again  as  this  table.  They  had  laid  a  board  across, 
with  a  railing  on  both  sides,  so  that  the  wheelbarrows  might 
not  fall  over.  This  board  must  have  been  rotten,  foi 
it  broke  when  I  was  half-way  over,  and  I  went  down,  but 


X.]  In  a  Tunnel.  313 

as  I  had  instinctively  spread  my  arms  out,  I  kept  hanging 
on  by  the  side  raiUng.  Those  who  were  behind  me  thought 
I  had  fallen  in — for  the  lantern  of  course  had  dropped,  and 
the  light  gone  out.  When  they  shouted  out,  '  Are  you  alive  ?' 
they  were  not  a  little  astounded  to  get  the  answer  back,  not 
from  the  bottom  of  the  pit,  but  from  straight  before  them, 
*  Yes  ;  I  am  here.'  In  the  meanwhile  I  had  taken  hold  with 
my  legs  too,  and  I  was  asking  whether  I  should  come  back 
or  go  across.  The  guide  said  it  was  better  to  cross,  so  I  set 
to  work  and  managed  it.  The  workman  who  was  leading 
us  lighted  a  candle,  looked  out  for  another  board,  and  got 
the  rest  of  the  company  over.  In  this  affair  of  the  board 
one  saw  how  carelessly  and  frivolously  such  things  are 
taken  at  the  moment.  Afterwards,  when  we  were  out  of  the 
tunnel,  we  went  roaring  down  the  line  in  a  shallow  truck. 
We  had  heavy  sticks  to  check  the  speed,  and  we  used  them 
as  we  swung  round  the  curves.  At  the  worst  of  these  we 
kept  ourselves  right  only  with  the  greatest  difficulty,  for  the 
truck  all  but  ran  oif  the  rails.  Had  it  done  so,  it  would 
have  gone  over  into  one  of  the  two  abysses  at  the  spot.  We 
could  not  see  to  the  bottom  of  the  one,  and  the  othei*  went 
down  some  sixty  feet." 

The  Chief  then  told  us  of  a  case  in  which  old  Baron 
Meyendorfif  was  almost  in  danger  of  his  life.  At  Gastein  he 
had  once  let  himself  be  wound  up  the  incline  of  rails  which, 
if  I  understood  the  matter  correctly,  make  the  shortest  way 
to  the  height  where  the  old  gold-mines  were.  "  It  might  be," 
he  said,  "  perhaps  3000  feet  to  the  top,  and  the  railway 
ran  up  at  an  angle  of  perhaps  forty  degrees.  The  car  on 
which  one  had  to  sit  was  pulled  on  a  grooved  way.  If  the 
rope  had  broken,  he  would  have  run  down  10,000  feet  back 
with  enormous  velocity,  and  would  not  likely  have  reached 
the  bottom  with  whole  bones." 


314         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

Thursday,  November  10. — Winter  is  upon  us,  and  it  has 
been  snowing,  with  a  rather  low  temperature,  for  several 
hours  in  succession.  In  the  morning  the  Chief  tells  me  to 
telegraph  that  there  have  already  been  calamitous  results  for 
the  poor,  and  that  more  are  to  be  anticipated  from  the  Pro- 
visional Government's  deliberate  misappropriation  of  the 
funds  of  Savings  Banks  and  of  corporations  for  the  purposes 
of  the  war.  Afterwards  I  am  to  study  for  my  own  infor- 
mation the  documents  relating  to  the  unsuccessful  peace 
negotiations. 

Thiers  has  put  on  record  how  he  and  the  Ministers  of 
France  whom  he  represented  understood  the  basis  of  the 
armistice  which  was  to  have  been  made.  Their  line  was  as 
follows  :  The  object  of  the  agreement  was  to  be  to  put  an 
end  as  soon  as  possible  to  the  effusion  of  blood  and  to 
summon  a  National  Assembly,  which,  as  expressing  its 
wishes,  would  represent  France  before  the  Powers  of  Europe, 
and  which  might  sooner  or  later  conclude  a  treaty  of  peace 
with  Prussia  and  her  allies.  The  armistice  would  have  to 
last  twenty-eight  days  at  least,  twelve  of  which  would  be 
needed  for  summoning  the  electors,  one  for  the  voting  on 
the  candidates,  five  for  the  assembling  of  those  elected  in 
some  place  to  be  determined  on,  and  ten  for  the  validation 
of  the  elections  and  the  constitution  of  a  Bureau.  The  place 
of  meeting  might  for  the  present  be  Tours.  Free  and  un- 
disturbed elections  must  be  permitted,  even  in  the  districts 
of  France  at  present  occupied  by  the  German  armies. 
Military  operations  must  stop  on  both  sides,  but  both  sides 
were  to  be  permitted  to  bring  up  recruits,  to  undertake  de- 
fensive works,  and  to  construct  camps.  The  armies  were 
to  be  allowed  to  supply  themselves  by  any  means  at  their 
disposal,  but  requisitions  must  cease,  "  being  a  war  measure 
which  must  necessarily  stop  with  hostilities."     The  fortified 


X.]  W/iy  the  Negotiations  Failed.  315 

places  were  to  have  liberty  to  re-provision  themselves  for  the 
period  of  the  armistice,  in  proportion  to  the  numbers  of  the 
population  and  garrison  shut  in.  With  this  object,  Paris 
w^as  to  be  supplied,  by  four  specified  railways,  with  cattle 
and  various  other  necessaries  as  follows :  54,000  oxen, 
80,000  sheep,  8000  swine,  5000  calves,  and  the  necessary 
fodder  for  these  animals,  consisting  of  400,000  tons  of  hay 
and  straw  ;  5000  tons  of  salted  beef,  10,000  tons  of  meal,  1500 
tons  of  dried  vegetables,  100,000  tons  of  coals,  640,000 
cubic  yards  of  wood  for  fuel :  the  population  of  Paris  being 
reckoned  for  the  purposes  of  this  calculation  at  400,000  of 
a  garrison,  and  2,700,000  to  2,800,000  within  the  lines  of 
investment. 

These  demands  of  the  French  were  not  to  be  listened  to. 
If  the  Germans  had  conceded  them,  they  would  have  given 
away  the  larger  and  better  half  of  the  advantages  they  had 
secured  by  great  efforts  and  sacrifices  during  the  seven 
weeks  just  past.  In  other  words,  they  would  have  put  them- 
selves back  in  essentially  the  same  position  as  on  September 
19th,  the  day  when  our  troops  completed  the  investment. 
We  were  to  let  Paris  be  supplied  with  provisions,  though 
she  was  then  suflTering  from  want,  and  would  soon  be  driven 
of  necessity,  either  to  endure  a  famine  or  to  surrender.  We 
were  to  give  up  our  operations,  at  the  very  time  when  Prince 
Frederick  Charles's  army  had  just  been  set  free,  by  the  fall 
of  Metz,  for  further  operations,  which  could  be  prosecuted 
with  still  greater  effect.  We  were  to  sit  still  and  permit  the 
levies  and  the  recruiting,  by  which  the  French  Republic 
hoped  to  create  a  new  army  for  itself  in  the  field,  to  go 
quietly  on  while  our  own  army  was  in  no  want  of  recruits. 
While  we  were  asked  to  allow  Paris  and  the  rest  of  the 
French  fortresses  to  re-provision  themselves,  we  were  to 
leave  our   army  to   supply  itself  without   the   requisitions 


3i6         Bismarck  in  t/ie  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

permitted  in  an  enemy's  country.  All  these  demands  we 
were  to  concede,  without  our  opponents  offering  us  a  single 
military  or  political  equivalent — such,  for  instance,  as  the 
evacuation  of  one  or  of  several  of  the  forts  round  Paris, 
as  the  price  of  allowing  it  to  be  re-provisioned ;  and  without 
their  putting  forward  any  assured  prospect  of  peace.  To  pro- 
cure through  the  armistice  a  general  election  of  a  Constituent 
Assembly  to  restore  order  and  establish  a  government  such 
as  all  might  recognise,  the  object  which  Thiers'  memorial 
puts  forward  as  the  first  thing  to  be  got  by  it,  would 
certainly  be  far  more  in  the  interest  of  the  French  than  in 
ours.  When  we  remember  the  inflamed  state  of  the  public 
mind  in  France,  kept  up  by  the  continual  stimulating  pro- 
clamations of  the  Provisional  Government,  it  is  impossible 
to  feel  that  there  was  any  security  for  us.  If  the  existing 
Government  had  really  wished  the  elections,  they  could  have 
obtained  what  they  wished  without  the  elaborate  apparatus 
of  an  armistice. 

With  such  proposals,  it  was  useless  for  the  Germans 
even  to  begin  to  treat.  Everything  must  be  put  quite 
differently :  and  the  Chancellor  accordingly  offered  M, 
Thiers  an  armistice  on  the  basis  of  the  military  status 
quo,  to  last  for  twenty-five  to  twenty-eight  days,  and 
which  the  French  might  employ  in  quietly  calling  their 
electors  together,  and  in  summoning  the  resulting  Con- 
stituent Assembly.  This  itself  was  a  concession  on  our 
side,  all  the  advantages  of  which  were  with  the  French. 
If,  as  Thiers  asserted,  Paris  was  really  supplied  with 
provisions  and  other  necessaries  for  several  months — 
and  this  was  scarcely  doubtful  about  the  one  article  of 
meal — it  was  not  intelligible  how  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment should  have  allowed  the  negotiations  for  an  armis- 
tice, wliich  at  the  worst  prevented  the  French  from  making 


X.]  The  Inhabitants  of  the  Water-pipes.  3 1 7 

further  sorties,  to  break  down  on  this  question  of  the  re- 
provisioning  of  Paris.  France  would  have  had  the  immense 
advantage  of  confining  the  otherwise  inevitable  occupation 
of  French  territory,  which  the  army  just  set  free  after  the 
siege  of  Metz  was  preparing  to  accomplish,  within  a  line  of 
demarcation.  Thiers,  however,  rejected  this  very  liberal 
offer,  and  insisted  on  regarding  the  re-provisioning  of  Paris  as 
the  condition  sine  qua  non  of  an  agreement.  He  was  not 
even  ultimately  authorised  to  offer  any  military  equivalent 
for  it,  such  as  the  evacuation  of  one  of  the  forts  of  Paris. 

As  we  were  going  in  to  dinner,  the  Chief  told  us  that  the 
Minister  of  War  was  seriously  ill.  He  was  feeling  very 
weak,  and  had  not  been  able  to  get  up  for  fourteen  days 
past.  Afterwards  he  joked  about  the  washing  water  in  the 
house — "  The  occupants  of  the  water-pipes  here  seem  to 
have  their  seasons  like  other  people.  First  come  the 
centipedes,  which  I  don't  like  at  all,  with  their  hundred 
feet  going  all  together;  then  there  are  the  cockroaches, 
which  I  can't  bear  to  touch,  though  they  are  harmless  crea- 
tures enough — I  would  rather  handle  a  serpent ;  then  we 
have  the  leeches.  I  found  a  quite  little  one  to-day,  which 
had  rolled  itself  up  like  a  button.  I  tried  to  develop  him, 
but  he  would  not  move,  and  remained  mere  button.  At 
last  I  poured  spring  water  over  his  back,  when  he  pulled 
himself  out  as  long  and  as  fine  as  a  needle  and  got 
away."  We  then  talked  of  all  sorts  of  simple  dainties, 
none  the  less  excellent  on  that  account :  herring,  fresh 
and  salt,  new  potatoes,  spring  butter,  &c.  The  Minister 
said  to  Delbriick,  who  paid  his  tribute  also  to  these 
good  things,  "  The  sturgeon  is  a  fish  which  is  not  ap- 
preciated, though  it  is  thought  much  of  in  Russia,  and 
is  getting  more  in  favour  with  us.  In  the  Elbe,  for 
instance,  about    Magdeburg,    it    is   constantly   caught,   but 


3i8         Bismarck  iji  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap, 

it  is  eaten  only  by  fishermen  and  poor  people."  He 
then  explained  his  own  preferences,  and  came  to  talk  of 
caviare,  the  different  kinds  of  which  he  characterised  with 
the  feeling  of  an  amateur.  After  a  while  he  said :  "  How 
many  points  of  resemblance  there  are  between  these  Gauls 
and  the  Slavs  !  It  struck  me  to-day  again  very  forcibly, 
after  the  snow.  The  same  broad  streets,  the  same  closely- 
packed  houses,  the  same  frequently  flat  roofs,  as  in  Russia. 
Nothing  but  the  green-onion  looking  church  spires  is  want- 
ing. And  there  are  other  points.  The  verst  and  the  kilombtre, 
the  ardschine  and  the  m^tre  are  the  same.  There  is  the 
same  tendency  to  centralisation,  the  same  absolute  identity 
in  ever)'-body's  views,  the  same  Communistic  strain  in  the 
National  character."  He  then  spoke  of  the  wonderful  world 
of  to-day,  which  "  turned  everything  that  used  to  stand  on 
its  feet  upside  down,  and  showed  the  most  extraordinary 
displacement  of  relations."  "When  one  thinks  of  it,"  he 
said,  "  that  the  Pope  may  perhaps  end  his  days  in  a  little 
Protestant  town  in  Germany"  ("  Brandenburg  on  the  Havel," 
interposed  Bohlen)  "  that  the  Reichstag  may  be  in  Paris, 
the  Corps  L^gislatif  in  Cassel,  that  in  spite  of  Mentana 
Garibaldi  is  a  French  general,  that  Papal  Zouaves  are 
fighting  side  by  side  with  him  ;"  and  he  enlarged  a  while 
longer  on  the  same  subject. 

"  To-day  I  had  a  letter  from  Metternich,"  he  said  sud- 
denly. "  He  wants  me  to  let  Hoyos  go  in  to  bring  out 
the  Austrians  in  Paris.  I  told  him  that  since  October  25th 
they  have  been  allowed  to  come  out,  but  that  we  now  let 
nobody  whomsoever  go  in — not  even  a  diplomatist.  Nor 
do  we  receive  any  in  Versailles,  only  I  would  make  an 
exception  in  his  case.  He  will  then  probably  bring  up 
once  more  the  Austrian  claims  on  the  Confederation  pro- 
perty in  the  German  fortresses." 


X.]  Cups  and  Ptizzle-bottles.  319 

We  spoke  about  doctors  and  the  way  in  which  Nature 
occasionally  puts  herself  to  rights ;  and  the  Chief  said  that 
once  when  he  had  been  on  a  hunting  party  for  two  days, 
with  the  Duke  of  (I  could  not  catch  the  name),  he  had 
been  "  all  wrong  there  in  his  inner  man."  "  Even  the  two 
days'  hunting  and  the  fresh  air  did  nothing  for  me.  I  went 
the  day  after  to  the  cuirassiers  at  Brandenburg,  who  had 
been  getting  a  new  cup  "  (I  think  he  added  that  they 
were  celebrating  a  jubilee).  "  I  was  to  drink  out  of  it  first 
and  handsel  it,  and  then  it  was  to  go  round.  It  might  hold 
a  bottle.  I  held  my  breath,  drank  it  to  the  last  drop,  and 
set  it  down  empty.  I  astonished  them  greatly,  for  they 
don't  expect  much  from  men  of  the  pen.  But  it  was  the 
Gottingen  way.  The  remarkable  thing,  though  perhaps 
there  was  little  in  it,  was  that  I  was  never  so  right  inside 
as  in  the  four  weeks  after  that.  I  tried  to  cure  myself  in 
the  same  way  on  other  occasions,  but  I  had  never  again  so 
delightful  a  success."  "  I  remember  too,  once  when  we  were 
with  the  Letzlingen  hunt,  under  Frederick  William  IV.,  one 
of  these  puzzle  bottles,  of  the  time  of  Frederick  William  I., 
was  emptied  at  a  draught.  It  was  a  staghorn,  so  made 
that  the  drinker  could  not  put  the  mouth  of  the  horn, 
which  might  hold  three-quarters  of  a  bottle,  to  his  lips,  and 
yet  he  was  not  allowed  to  spill  a  single  drop.  I  took  it 
up  and  emptied  it,  though  it  was  very  dry  champagne, 
and  not  a  single  drop  went  on  my  white  waistcoat.  The 
company  stared  when  I  said,  'Another.'  But  the  King  said, 
'  No,  there  must  be  no  more,'  and  the  thing  had  to  remain 
so."  "  Formerly,  feats  of  that  sort  were  the  indispensable 
passports  into  the  diplomatic  service.  They  drank  the 
weak-headed  ones  below  the  table,  then  they  asked  them 
all  sorts  of  things,  which  they  wanted  to  know,  and  forced 
them  to  make  all  sorts  of  concessions  which  they  had  no 


320         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

auth'ority  to  make.  They  then  made  them  sign  their  names, 
and  when  the  poor  fellows  got  sober  they  could  not  imagine 
how  their  signatures  got  there." 

The  Minister  then  remarked,  though  I  forget  what  occa- 
sioned him  to  do  so,  that  all  the  families  in  Pomerania  which 
rose  to  the  rank  of  Count  died  out.  "  The  country  cannot 
tolerate  the  name,"  he  added.  "  I  know  ten  or  twelve 
families  with  whom  it  has  been  so."  He  mentioned  some,  and 
went  on  to  say,  "  So  I  struggled  hard  against  it  at  first.  At 
last  I  had  to  submit,  but  I  am  not  without  my  apprehensions, 
even  now." 

When  the  roast  came  on,  the  Chief  asked,  "  Is  it  horse?" 
One  of  us  at  table  said,  "  No,  it  is  beef."  He  said  it 
was  "  very  odd  that  people  won't  eat  horseflesh  unless  they 
are  forced  to  do  so,  like  the  people  inside  Paris,  who  will 
soon  have  nothing  else  left.  The  reason,  perhaps,  is  that 
the  horse  seems  to  come  nearer  to  us  than  any  other  animal. 
When  he  is  riding,  the  man  is  almost  one  with  the  horse. 

"  '  Ich  hatt'  einen  Kameraden, 
Als  war's  ein  Stiick  von  mir.' 

('  I  had  a  comrade,  who  was  like  a  piece  of  myself)  It 
is  nearest  us  in  intelligence.  It  is  the  same  thing  with  the 
dog.  Dog-flesh  must  taste  well  enough,  but  we  never  eat 
it."  One  of  the  gentlemen  expressed  himself  unfavourably, 
and  another  said  a  word  for  dog-steaks.  The  Chief  went 
on  with  his  parable  :  "  The  liker  anything  is  to  us,  the  less 
can  we  eat  it.  It  must  be  very  loathsome  to  have  to  eat 
monkeys,  which  have  hands  so  like  men's."  Somebody 
reminded  him  that  the  South  American  savages  ate  monkeys, 
and  then  we  began  to  talk  of  cannibals.  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  but 
that  must  have  been  commenced  at  first  through  hunger,  and 
I  believe  I  have  read  that  they  prefer  women,  who  are,  at 


X.]  0' Sullivan  s  Retiremeftt.  321 

least,  not  of  their  own  sex.  Man  really  does  not  care  for 
the  food  of  many  animals,  savage  brutes,  for  instance,  like 
lions  and  wolves.  To  be  sure  he  likes  bears,  but  they  live 
rather  on  vegetable  than  on  animal  food.  I  can't  eat  a  bit 
of  a  fowl  which  takes  on  fat,  not  even  its  eggs." 

When  L.  came  in  in  the  evening  to  get  material,  he  told 
us  that  O'SulIivan,  who  was  formerly  temporary  Minister  of 
the  United  States  in  Lisbon,  had  taken  his  warning  to  leave 
us  in  the  right  spirit,  and  gone.  L.  is  always  fishing  out 
something,  and  he  has  made  out  that  the  New  York  Times, 
about  whose  sources  of  information  here  he  has  been  in- 
quiring at  my  request,  is  served  by  two  correspondents,  a 
Mr.  Scofferen,  who  is  staying  with  the  chief  huntsman,  von 
Strantz,  at  Ville  d'Avray,  and  a  Mr.  Holt  White,  who  resides 
at  Saint-Germain.  After  eight  o'clock  Count  Bray  is  with 
the  Chief  in  the  little  reception-room  upstairs. 

Friday,  November  11. — This  morning,  to  judge  from  the 
noise  of  a  furious  cannonade  by  Ballerjan  (Valerien),  coming 
from  the  north-west,  our  friends  of  the  46th  are  in  particularly 
bad  temper,  and  seem  to  be  spitting  back  fire  and  flame. 
On  our  side  we  are  always  the  same  tame  set,  without  a 
bark  in  our  voice.  The  Chief  tells  me  to  telegraph  the 
capture  of  Neu  Breisach,  and  wishes  me  to  speak  to  the 
English  correspondent,  Robert  Conningsby,  who  has  asked 
him  for  an  audience  as  the  correspondent  of  several  news- 
papers. I  was  to  tell  him  that  the  Cliancellor  regretted  he 
had  no  time  to  spare.  Then  he  handed  me  the  Brussels 
Indiscrete.  "  There  is  a  wonderful  biography  of  me  there, 
which  is  extremely  comical.  They  would  find  it  as  true 
to  my  character  as  the  pictures  are  to  the  text  which  they 
illustrate.  Possibly  something  in  it  might  be  made  use  of 
for  our  own  papers  "  (Frederick  the  Great  also  made  lam- 
poons on  himself  more  accessible  to  the  public). 

VOL.    I.  Y 


322         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

I  fulfilled  these  commissions,  after  which  I  saw  Conningsby, 
whom  I  found  a  very  intelligent  man,  and  who  appeared  to 
wish  well  to  our  side.  He  had  married  a  German  wife  ;  but 
he  had  not  made  himself  master  of  our  language.  When  I 
came  back  I  took  up  the  Indiscrete.  It  was  the  print  to 
which  he  referred  recently  when  he  complained  of  the 
crimes  the  French  journalists  laid  to  his  charge.  I  noted  a 
single  passage  as  proof  of  the  extent  to  which  the  French 
press  carries  the  clumsy,  downright  and  stupid  lying  which 
has  for  some  time  been  its  weapon  against  us.  It  says  this 
of  our  Chancellor  : — 

"  He  made  great  personal  profit  out  of  diplomatic  hints 
of  what  was  being  got  ready  in  the  dark,  and  of  the  effect 
which  serious  news  is  sure  to  have  on  the  public  funds  when  it 
is  made  generally  known.  He  made  profit  in  this  way  out  of 
the  fact  that  he  was  in  a  position  to  gamble,  holding  a  win- 
ning hand,  on  every  exchange  in  Europe.  In  these  shameless 
speculations  on  the  good  faith  of  the  public  his  confederate 
was  a  Jew  banker  in  Berlin,  Herr  Bleichroder.  In  this  way 
Bismarck's  avarice  has  enabled  him  to  amass  colossal  sums 
of  money,  which  he  shares  with  the  banker  and  his  creatures. 

"  Bismarck,  as  a  great  man,  of  passionate  habits,  seldom 
denies  himself  the  gratification  of  carrying  off  a  pretty 
woman.  It  was  so  in  his  youth,  and  in  later  years  his  pas- 
sions have  impelled  him  to  repeated  crimes,  such  as  carrying 
off  a  daughter  from  her  father's  house,  or  a  wife  from  that  of 
her  husband.  Such  a  violent  abduction  was  the  fate  of  an 
extraordinarily  beautiful  woman  in  Breslau.  He  brought  her 
to  a  place  where  he  has  established  a  kind  of  seraglio.  After 
a  time  his  passion  dies  out  and  his  wanton  eyes  turn  to 
another  object.  Among  other  instances,  it  is  told  of  him 
that  having  become  enamoured  of  a  wonderfully  beautiful 
nun,  he  got  people  to  drag  her  from  her  convent  and  deliver 


X.]  How  the  Chancellor  treats  his  Wife.  323 

her  up  to  him."  "  In  BerUn  people  reckon  that  he  has  fifty 
illegitimate  children.  He  is  a  brutal  husband,  is  always 
vexing  his  lawful  wife,  and  making  her  bear  the  burden  of 
his  fiery,  wanton,  malicious,  and  brutal  nature.  He  forgets 
his  high  place,  and  treats  her  as  a  Prussian  peasant  would, 
i.e.,  he  belabours  her  with  a  whip,  for  we  are  told  that  that 
is  by  no  means  uncommon  in  Germany,  In  the  year  1867 
he  was  seized  by  the  demon  of  jealousy  when  he  heard  that 
one  of  his  mistresses  had  gone  to  the  theatre  with  a  good- 
looking  Russian  nobleman.  Considering  himself  entitled  to 
thrash  a  woman  to  whom  he  paid  a  yearly  allowance,  he 
went  straight  into  the  box  where  she  was  and  brought  the 
whip  heavily  round  her  naked  shoulders."  "When  this 
Vesuvius  of  a  diplomatist  was  in  Paris,  in  June  1867,  he 
went  out,  usually  in  the  evening,  in  plain  clothes,  often  incog- 
nito, to  prowl  after  that  sort  of  prey.  He  has  been  seen,  for 
instance,  at  the  Bal  Mabille." 

"  If  we  follow  Bismarck  step  by  step  in  the  different  epochs 
of  his  life,  we  see  him  in  politics  weaving  a  perpetual  web 
of  intrigue,  and  placing  at  the  disposal  of  the  ambition  of  a 
haughty  despot  all  that  the  human  mind  can  conceal  within 
itself  of  crafty  malice,  of  rascally  disposition,  and  of  criminal 
sentiment.  In  1863  he  robbed  the  people  of  Prussia  of 
their  freedom.  In  1864,  he  crushed  Denmark  in  her  weak- 
ness, and  robbed  her  of  two  Duchies.  In  1866  he  humiliated 
Austria,  and  annexed  the  kingdom  of  Hannover,  the  electo- 
rate of  Hesse,  the  duchy  of  Nassau,  and  the  free  states  of 
Frankfort,  cheating  them  all  frightfully.  In  1870  he  has 
throttled  France,  beaten  her  to  the  ground,  and  refused  to 
hold  out  to  her  the  olive-branch  of  peace.  In  all  these 
cases  M.  de  Bismarck  has  always  speculated  in  cold  blood 
on  the  death  of  the  innocent.  This  imperious,  arrogant,  and 
brutal  man  stands  unmoved,  a  heartless  witness  of  the  death- 

Y    2 


324         Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War.      [Chap. 

throes  of  whole  nations,  and  proves  to  the  world  how  far  the 
heart  of  man  can  go  in  the  refinements  of  barbarous  cruelty 
"From  as  far  back  as  1867,  Prussia  had  been  zealously 
preparing  for  the  war  which  she  intended  to  wage  against 
France.  She  kept  arming  without  intermission,  steadily  col- 
lecting the  elements  necessary  to  ensure  success.  Bismarck, 
as  the  Chancellor  of  the  new  Northern  Confederation ;  Roon, 
as  the  War  Minister ;  Moltke,  as  chief  of  the  general  staff, 
each  in  his  own  sphere,  placed  himself  at  the  disposal  of  the 
ambition  of  the  haughty  despot  who  governs  Prussia.  Moltke 
himself,  and  other  officers  of  the  general  staff  of  the  Prussian 
army,  travelled  through  part  of  France,  so  as  to  convince 
themselves  on  the  spot  of  the  correctness  of  the  reports  sent 
in  to  the  Provisional  Government.  They  took  plans  of  the 
French  fortresses ;  they  had  topographical  surveys ;  they 
drew  reports  on  the  models  destined  for  the  new  system  of 
armament."  (Here  several  incredible  instances  are  given 
of  our  system  of  reconnoitering  the  strong  and  weak  points 
of  France.)  "  By  Bismarck  and  Roon's  orders,  a  crowd  of 
spies  spread  themselves  over  France,  under  regular  chiefs, 
handsomely  paid,  some  of  them  officers  in  plain  clothes, 
others  civilians.  They  accurately  reported  everything  which 
they  noted  in  their  industrious  inquiries.  High  officers  of 
the  Departments  of  War  and  of  the  Interior  were  bribed  by 
fabulous  sums  of  money  to  betray  the  particulars  which  the 
Prussian  army  had  an  interest  in  knowing.  The  legion  of 
traitors  who  had  wormed  their  way  into  the  French  army 
was  the  sole  cause  that  Prussia  was  in  a  position  to  manoeuvre 
her  troops  so  freely,  and  to  fall  in  overwhelming  masses  on 
mere  army  corps  of  the  French.  This  secret  treason  became 
more  and  more  evident  every  day  during  the  campaign  of 
1870:  the  French  Government  possesses  abundant  proofs 
of  it." 


X.]  Fate  of  a  German  Journalist.  325 

Could  people  lie  more  shamefully  or  more  coarsely  ? 
What  can  the  public  be.  on  whose  belief  in  such  stories 
people  can  confidently  reckon  ? 

At  breakfast  we  learned  that  Orleans  was  again  evacuated 
by  our  troops,  and  that  the  Bavarians  there  under  von  der 
Tann  were  16,000,  and  the  French  40,000  strong.  "No 
matter,"  said  Bohlen ;  "  the  day  after  to-morrow  Prince 
Frederick  Charles  will  be  there,  and  the  Gauls  will  be  cut 
to  pieces." 

The  Chief  is  not  with  us  to-day.  All  day  long  we  have 
changeable  weather.  Sometimes  it  is  sleet  or  snow,  then 
there  is  blue  sky  and  the  sun  comes  out.  In  the  evening 
L.  brings  us  the  news  that  Hoff,  the  writer,  who  was  for- 
merly associated  with  him  as  editor  of  the  JVoiivelliste,  has 
poisoned  himself,  and  is  to  be  buried  to-morrow.  He  had 
been  warned  by  the  commandant  of  the  town  to  leave 
Versailles  immediately  for  having  complained  a  few  weeks 
before,  in  a  letter  to  the  National  Zeituftg  from  the  seat  of 
war,  that  the  English  correspondents  were  more  favoured  at 
headquarters  than  the  Germans — which,  by  the  way,  was 
the  fact,  though  it  was  not  our  fault  in  the  Rue  de  Provence. 
Hoff  was  the  son  of  an  eminent  Baden  member  of  parlia- 
ment, and  brother  of  the  Diisseldorf  painter.  He  wrote 
also  in  the  Hamburger  Nachrichten,  and  in  the  Augsburger 
Allgemeine  Zeitung,  and  since  1864  always  in  a  patriotic 
sense.  The  Grand  Duke  of  Baden,  to  whom  he  had  appealed, 
or  the  people  about  him,  had  said  they  could  do  nothing, 
and  the  poor  fellow  felt  himself  threatened  with  disgrace, 
and  saw  his  means  of  livelihood  cut  off  as  he  would  lose 
his  place  as  a  correspondent  by  being  sent  away  from  here. 
When  I  told  him  the  story  the  Chief  remarked,  "  It  is 
a  great  pity,  but  he  was  a  fool  for  his  pains;  if  he  had 
applied  to  me  he  would  have  been  let  off." 


326         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap, 

At  tea  Hoff  was  much  pitied  by  Hatzfeld  and  Bismarck- 
Bohlen,  and  Count  Solms,  too,  told  them  that  he  was  a  well- 
meaning  man,  and  had  several  times  been  useful  to  us. 
Apropos  of  his  banishment,  Bohlen  told  us  a  little  more 
about  the  honourable  O'Sullivan.  The  Chief  had  sat  next 
the  American  wlien  he  dined  recently  with  the  Crown  Prince, 
and  in  talking  with  him  had  arrived  at  the  settled  con- 
viction that  the  gentleman  with  the  Irish  name  was  a  poli- 
tical swindler.  After  dinner  he  had  accordingly  taken  an 
opportunity  to  ask  the  Crown  Prince  who  had  recommended 
him.  He  was  told  the  Duke  of  Coburg.  "  Well,"  said  the 
Chancellor,  "  would  your  Royal  Highness  take  it  ill  of  me 
if  I  put  him  in  prison,  or  sent  him  away  ?  for  he  impresses 
me  as  a  spy  and  swindler."  "  Not  at  all,"  said  the  Crown 
Prince,  and  Stieber  had  been  accordingly  directed  to  get  a 
little  more  information  about  the  gentleman.  The  result  of 
it  was  that  O'Sullivan  was  ordered  by  Blumenthal  to  take 
himself  ofif  immediately,  and  had  to  do  so,  though  his  wife 
represented  that  he  was  ill. 

Bohlen,  who  seemed  in  a  particularly  communicative 
mood  to-day,  told  us  several  pleasant  stories  about  the 
personages  in  the  Hotel  des  Re'servoirs,  ending  with  an 
anecdote  of  our  Minister,  which  I  may  note,  though  I 
imagine  that  the  story-teller  has  imported  into  it  a  little  of 
his  own,  or  I  should  rather  say,  given  it  his  own  tone. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  the  Count  told  us  that  a  woman  had 
come  to  the  Minister  at  Commercy  to  complain  that  her 
husband  had  been  put  in  prison  for  having  struck  a  hussar  in 
the  back  with  his  spade.  The  Minister  looked  pleasant,  and 
heard  her  story  out,  and — said  my  authority — "  when  she  had 
done,  he  said  to  her,  in  the  kindliest  tone,  '  My  good  woman, 
you  may  take  my  word  for  it,  that  your  husband — and  he 
drew  his  lingers  round  his  throat — will  be  hanged  at  once." 


X.]  Gambetta  and  Garibaldi.  327 

The  new  Imperialist  journal  Situation  may  have  its  faults, 
but  it  has  some  merits.  What  it  said  a  few  days  ago  about 
Garibaldi's  intervention  in  this  war,  for  instance,  is  perfectly 
correct.  "  Gambetta's  presence  in  Tours,"  it  writes,  "  has 
inspired  some  confidence  there.  It  is  hoped  that  he  may 
infuse  a  little  activity  into  the  defence.  In  the  meantime 
the  first  act  of  the  so-called  young  Dictator  has  made  no 
particular  impression.  It  is  the  nomination  of  Garibaldi 
as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Francs-Tireurs  in  the  East. 
Garibaldi  has  never  been  regarded  in  France  as  a  serious 
phenomenon.  He  will  be  looked  upon  as  a  general  of  the 
Comic  Opera,  and  people  are  impatiently  asking  themselves, 
'  Have  we  really  fallen  so  low  that  we  have  to  go  to 
this  political  theatre-puppet  for  help  ?'  Under  pretext  of 
awakening  enthusiasm  and  putting  vigour  into  the  nation, 
its  self-respect  is  cruelly  wounded.  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  people  who  have  undertaken  to  govern  us  are 
advocates,  fond  of  pompous  discourses,  high-sounding  phrases 
and  coups  de  theatre.  The  nomination  of  Garibaldi  is  one 
of  those  stage  effects  which  can  be  tricked  out  in  effective 
language.  In  the  mouth  of  the  Government  of  the 
National  Defence,  it  signifies  the  Union  of  Free  Nations, 
the  Solidarity  of  Republics.  It  is  possible,  however,  that 
M.  Gambetta,  worried  by  Garibaldi's  ways,  and  not  liking 
his  presence  in  Tours,  where  he  might  easily  have  become 
a  cause  of  dissenbion,  may  have  despatched  him  to  the 
East,  merely  to  get  him  out  of  his  own  road.  We  are  very 
doubtful  whether  he  will  accomplish  anything,  but  these 
people,  who  are  never  at  a  loss  for  an  argument,  say, 
'  His  is  a  name  of  glory,'  and  think  that  that  answers  all 
objections." 

Saturday,  November  12. — A  clear  sky  in   the   morning. 
The  Chief  is  complimented  with  an  hour's  early   military 


328         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap, 

music.  I  am  summoned  afterwards  to  receive  his  instruc- 
tions. I  draw  reports  on  the  past  history  of  Cluseret,  the 
old  soldier  of  the  Red  Revolution,  who  is  now  to  organise 
the  forces  of  resistance  of  the  Southern  Federation  which  is 
about  to  be  created ;  and  I  give  him  again  the  numbers  of 
the  French  soldiers  who  have  fallen  into  our  hands  as 
prisoners  since  the  capitulation  of  Metz,  so  that  the  Chief 
may  see  them  at  a  glance.  Nearly  14,000  men  surrendered 
at  Schlettstadt,  Fort  Mortier,  Neu  Breisach,  Le  Bourget, 
Montereau,  Verdun,  and  in  several  smaller  affairs,  and  are 
now  on  their  road  to  Germany. 

Wollmann,  who  has  just  arrived,  is  at  breakfast.  At 
dinner  we  have  Dr.  Lauer  with  us.  We  have  smoked 
salmon,  Pomeranian  goose-breast  —  an  institution  of 
Bucher's,  who  has  had  it  as  a  love-gift  from  Rodbertus — 
Magdeburg  sauerkraut,  and  Leipzig  larks — probably  also 
presents  from  home.  The  Chief  is  called  away  when  the 
salmon  is  on  the  table.  He  goes  back  through  the 
salon  and  comes  back  through  the  one  door  opening  on  the 
hall,  accompanied  by  an  officer  in  Prussian  uniform,  wear- 
ing a  big  beard,  into  the  dining-room,  through  which  they 
then  go  into  the  salon.  We  hear  that  the  officer  is  the 
Grand  Duke  of  Baden.  After  about  ten  minutes  the 
Minister  comes  back  to  us. 

We  happened  to  speak  of  Arnim  Boitzenburg,  the  ex- 
minister.  The  Chief  said  that  he  had  been  his  own  prede- 
cessor in  Aachen.  He  described  him  as  "  amiable  and 
talented,  but  disinclined  for  any  steady  work  or  energetic 
action."  "  Like  an  indiarubber  ball,  which  goes  up  and 
down,  bounding  and  rebounding,  always  getting  feebler,  till 
it  stops  altogether.  First  he  had  an  opinion,  then  it  got 
weaker  when  he  had  to  meet  his  own  objections,  then  an 
objection  to  his  objections  occurred  to  him,  till  in  the  end 
there  was  nothing  left,  and  the  whole  thing  came  to  an  end." 


X.]  Titles  and  Orders.  329 

Delbruck  said  the  son-in-law  was  a  well-trained  and  in- 
genious man,  but  thought  he  was  wanting  in  sympathy  and 
energy.  "  Yes,"  the  Chief  said  ;  "  there  is  not  much  of  the 
rocket  at  the  back  of  him."  He  added  :  "  Otherwise  he  has 
a  good  head ;  but  his  reports,  this  way  to-day,  that  way  to- 
morrow, often  with  two  essentially  different  views  on  the 
same  day, — there  is  no  relying  on  him," 

From  Arnim's  want  of  ambition  somebody  took  occasion  to 
bring  us  round  to  the  subject  of  titles  and  orders,  and  Abeken 
took  eager  part  in  it  as  a  connoisseur  and  amateur  of  these 
delicacies,  sitting  all  the  time  bent  in  two,  and  with  his 
eyes  drooped,  only  casting  a  sidelong  glance  now  and  then 
in  the  direction  of  the  Minister.  The  Chief  said  that  his 
first  decoration  had  been  the  medal  of  the  Humane  Society, 
for  taking  a  servant  out  of  the  water.  "  I  became  an  Ex- 
cellency first,"  he  said,  "  in  the  castle  yard  at  Konigsberg 
in  1861.  I  was  one  in  Frankfort  certainly;  not  a  Prussian, 
but  a  Confederation  Excellency.  The  German  Princes  had 
decided  that  every  ambassador  from  a  Confederated  parlia- 
ment must  be  an  Excellenty.  However  I  did  not  concern 
myself  much  about  it,  and  I  have  not  thought  much  of  these 
matters  since.     I  was  a  man  of  rank  without  the  title." 

After  dinner  articles  were  written  for  L.,  and  others  were 
marked  for  extracts. 

Sunday,  November  13. — The  Minister  stayed  in  bed  an 
uncommonly  long  time  to-day,  and  he  did  not  go  to  church. 
He  appeared  to  be  nervous  and  in  bad  form,  perhaps  a 
consequence  of  last  night.  After  getting  through  my  usual 
morning  work,  I  went  out  to  La  Celle  Saint-Cloud,  where 
H.  and  his  first  lieutenant  were  at  the  outposts ;  and  then 
to  a  place  where  Mont  Valerien,  which  we  had  again  re- 
cently vainly  tried  to  see,  was  really  to  be  made  out.  The 
way,  which  took  us   through  the  village  and  up  the  hills 


330         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap, 

towards  the  other  side,  was  soon  found  out  and  travelled 
over.  I  had  to  avoid  a  clearing  among  the  trees,  and  take 
a  roundabout  there,  as  people  from  the  fort  could  see  it,  and 
had  already  fired  in  that  direction. 

Under  the  sheltering  roof  of  this  wood  everything  looks 
very  warlike.  Little  camps  and  bivouacs,  with  pyramids  of 
war  munitions,  wooden  barracks,  newly  run  up,  glimmering 
here  and  there  like  big  dog  kennels  among  the  trunks  of 
the  trees.  Farther  on,  little  white  tents ;  everywhere  a  puddle 
of  filth.  At  a  pretty  cottage,  covered  with  green  leaves, 
the  way  to  which,  through  the  filth,  is  by  a  bridge  made  of 
window-shutters  and  other  planks,  I  meet  First-Lieutenant 
Kr.,  who  took  me  to  H.  The  latter  has  rigged  up  quarters 
which  he  would  hardly  have  dreamed  of  occupying  three 
months  since,  for  himself  and  a  military  surgeon  and  two 
officers,  the  younger  of  whom  is  the  one  that  danced  the 
cancan  with  such  elasticity  at  Chesnay.  The  gentlemen 
live  in  a  kiosque  of  the  Empress's,  and  go  straight  into  their 
dining-room  to  the  right  from  the  door.  They  have  had,  H. 
tells  me,  no  animal  food  but  mutton  for  several  weeks  now. 

Before  the  house  are  piled  the  arms  of  the  6th  com- 
pany of  the  46th  Regiment,  and  beside  them,  on  torn-off 
doors  and  window-shutters,  are  laid  their  knapsacks,  because 
of  the  filth  elsewhere.  Some  of  the  doors,  which  have 
been  used  here  also  to  make  steps  up  to  the  house,  have 
gilding  on  them.  The  big  hail  inside  is  full  of  Polish 
soldiers,  lying  about  on  trusses  of  straw  and  smoking 
the  most  detestable  tobacco.  First-Lieutenant  H.  warns 
me  not  to  sit  down  on  the  sofa  in  the  room.  There  are 
vermm  !  To-day  he  had  himself  made  an  uncomfortable 
discovery.  Otherwise,  except  for  the  everlasting  inevitable 
mutton,  things  are  bearable,  though  the  place  is  not  very 
s^ife.    Mont  Valerien  fires  over  the  range  of  hills  in  which 


X.]  Feeling  at  the  Kiosqtie.  331 

this  kiosque  of  Eugenie's  stands,  straight  away  as  far  as 
Louveciennes,  and  it  is  marvellous  that  the  French  have 
not  yet  sent  any  of  their  shells  here.  While  we  were  drink- 
ing our  bottle,  the  fort  fired  twice. 

After  our  refreshment,  H.  took  us  to  the  observatory 
of  this  outpost,  a  spot  among  chestnut  trees,  where  we 
could  see  with  the  naked  eye  the  savage  "Baldrian," 
beyond  the  wooded  slope,  so  distinctly  that  we  could 
count  the  windows  of  the  larger  buildings.  A  black  cloud 
of  smoke  is  rising  over  Paris.  Is  it  on  fire  ?  We  are 
recommended  to  be  prudent.  We  are  told  to  keep  our- 
selves as  much  as  possible  behind  the  trunks  of  the  trees, 
and  where  there  is  an  open  space  to  go  down  along  the 
ditch  dug  out  there.  We  learn  that  our  farthest  outposts 
are  stationed  below  at  the  edge  of  the  wood,  perhaps  800 
paces  from  our  present  position.  A  little  farther  up  there 
is  a  second  chain  of  sentries.  The  Kiosque  is  very  anxious 
that  the  bombardment  should  begin ;  it  does  not  understand 
the  delay  at  all.  It  has  heard  whispers  about  the  influence 
of  ladies.  "  The  petticoats,"  grumbled  one  of  its  inhabitants, 
"  are  in  it."  Kiosque,  Kiosque,  I  am  afraid  you  are  not  far 
off  the  true  scent.  ...  I  left  after  an  hour,  having  got  the 
password  for  the  day,  as  it  might  be  getting  dark  before 
I  reached  home.  It  was  "  Fressbeutel,  Berlin"  ("Paunch, 
Berlin  ").  Yesterday,  or  the  day  before  it  was  "  Erbswurst, 
Paris"  ("Pease  sausage,  Paris").  Appetising  ideas!  On 
the  road  to  the  village  below  I  overhauled  a  musketeer, 
escorting  a  Zouave,  who  was  his  prisoner.  I  did  the  four 
and  a  half  miles  from  this  point  to  the  Rue  de  Provence  in 
not  much  over  the  hour. 

To-day  the  Chief  ate  only  his  soup  and  a  little  ragoUt 
with  us  before  going  off  in  his  general's  uniform,  and  with 
his  helmet  and  several  orders  on,  to  dine  with  the  King. 


332         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap 

In  the  evening  he  told  me  to  contradict  the  false  report 
in  a  South  German  paper,  that  Count  Arnim  had  been 
on  a  visit  to  headquarters  before  he  left  for  Rome. 

I  made  a  note  the  day  before  yesterday  of  an  instance 
illustrating  the  way  in  which  the  French  calumniate  us. 
To-day  I  happened,  in  the  newspapers,  upon  a  collection 
of  examples  of  their  lying  throughout  this  war.  The  com- 
piler has  sent  the  Post  the  sum  total  of  the  men  whom  the 
war  has  cost  us  according  to  the  French  bulletins.  It  is 
impossible  to  believe  one's  eyes  when  one  sees  what  mar- 
vellous execution  chassepots  and  mitrailleuses  have  done 
among  our  troops.  According  to  these  reports  we  lost, 
up  to  the  end  of  October,  neither  more  nor  fewer  than 
about  a  couple  of  millions  of  men,  and  they  include  a 
crowd  of  distinguished  and  illustrious  names.  Prince  Al- 
brecht.  Prince  Karl,  Prince  Friedrich  Karl,  and  the  Crown 
Prince  are  dead,  carried  off  by  shots  or  illness.  Treskow 
has  been  cut  down ;  Moltke  is  buried ;  the  Duke  of  Nassau 
died  the  death  of  a  hero  for  his  country  though  he  has 
never  happened  to  be  in  the  field;  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Confederation  fell  shot,  or  cut  down  by  sabres,  trying  to 
appease  a  mutiny  among  the  Bavarian  troops ;  the  King, 
tortured  by  his  conscience  for  having  brought  the  scourge 
of  war  on  the  "  holy  soil "  of  France,  has  become  insane. 
And  these  shameless  liars  presume,  with  no  very  striking 
wit,  to  call  L.'s  Moniteur,  Mcntcur. 

Monday^  November  14. — The  Chief  is  not  well,  and  not 
to  be  seen  till  dinner-time.  About  twelve  o'clock  Bolsing 
leaves  us  to  return  home  by  Nanteuil,  Nancy,  and  Frank- 
fort. Count  Maltzahn,  a  big  man  with  mutton-cutlet 
whiskers,  in  a  blue  uniform,  who  is  a  companion  of  St. 
John,  is  with  us  at  dinner.  He  tells  us  that  the  Francs- 
tireurs  in  a  village   attacked   our  hussars.     The  Bavarian 


X.]  The  Duke  of  Coburg  at  Worth.  333 

riflemen  there  had  driven  the  Free  Companions  out  ot"  the 
houses,  and  the  hussars  had  then  chased  them  across  the 
open  and  sabred  120  to  170  of  them.  "Well,  and  what 
about  the  three  others,"  asked  the  Chief,  who  could  not 
have  rightly  heard  what  was  said.  "  Were  they  not  shot  ? 
Yes,  it  is  a  bad  business.  These  assassins  are  spared  far 
too  often.  I  remember  at  Saint-Avoid,  I  took  the  trouble 
to  erase  from  the  proclamation,  declaring  the  state  of  war, 
a  number  of  contingencies  in  which  death  ought  to  be 
threatened.  But  they  left — they  bothered  me  so,  saying, 
This  must  remain,  it  was  a  usage  of  war,  and  so  forth — half 
a  dozen  or  more,  which  were  too  many.  And  now,  all 
these  stand  in  the  paper.  Where  the  soldiers  don't  shoot 
or  hang  a  Franc-tireur  on  the  spot,  he  is  safe  to  get  off. 
It  is  a  crime  against  our  own  people." 

L.  tells  us  for  certain — he  says  he  had  it  from  P. — that 
the  Duke  of  Coburg  has  ordered  a  great  picture  from 
Bleibtreu,  in  which  he  dashes  into  the  middle  of  the  troops, 
who  are  fighting  among  clouds  of  powder-smoke,  at  the 
battle  of  Worth,  and  is  hailed  by  them  as  the  conqueror.  If 
so,  the  picture  will  probably  be  hung  up  next  to  that  of 
Eckernforde.  Why  not?  It  looks  well.  Poetical  licence 
is  admissible,  why  not  pictorial  ?     Artists  are  not  historians. 

At  tea  Hatzfeld  tells  us  that  the  attitude  of  Russia  causes 
him  anxiety.  She  seems  to  wish  to  take  the  opportunity  of 
the  present  war  to  annul  the  Peace  of  1856,  and  serious 
consequences  may  follow.  I  wonder  whether  the  Chief  takes 
the  same  view? 

From  numerous  entries  in  the  old  papers  one  might 
conclude  that  the  French  had  lost  all  political  sense,  and 
spoke  only  from  passion  and  infatuation.  Yet  there  are 
exceptions,  possibly  many,  who  not  yet  having  taken  leave 
of  their  five   senses,  are  still  in  a  condition  to  use  their 


334        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 

reason.  A  letter  which  is  to  be  pubUshed  in  the  Moniteiir 
one  of  these  days,  expresses  ideas  which  look  as  if  the  writer 
might  be  one  of  these  exceptions.  It  is  a  little  rhetorical, 
but  the  meaning  is  intelligible  enough. 

"  How  are  we  to  get  out  of  the  blind  alley  into  which  France 
has  run  herself?  A  great  country,  dismembered,  split  to 
pieces,  paralysed  by  the  government  in  possession,  and  even 
more  so  by  disorders  which  are  of  its  own  making ;  a  whole 
nation  without  a  government,  without  a  supreme  authority, 
without  a  recognised  central  power,  without  a  man  who  can 
represent  it  or  who  can  speak  for  it — that  is  our  situation. 
Can  it  go  on  for  ever  ?  Assuredly  not.  But  how  are  we  to 
get  out  of  it  ?  That  is  the  question  every  intelligent  man  is 
asking  himself,  a  question  put  to  us  on  all  sides,  and  to 
which  no  answer  seems  to  be  forthcoming.  But  an  answer 
must  be  found,  must  be  found  soon,  and  must  be  decisive. 

"  When  we  ask  what  authority  is  left  standing  after  this 
terrible  shipwreck,  there  is  only  one  to  which  the  country 
can  cling,  as  its  last  hope — we  mean  the  General  Councils. 
They  are  the  only  authorities  to  which  France  can  rally  in 
her  desperate  condition,  because  at  present  they  are  the  only 
authorities  emanating  from  the  nation.  From  their  constitu- 
'tion,  through  the  experience  and  social  distinction  of  the  men 
who  are  members  of  them,  and  their  knowledge  of  the 
wants,  the  interests  and  the  feelings  of  the  people  in  each 
of  the  departments  which  they  represent,  and  among  whom 
they  live,  these  bodies  are  alone  in  a  position  to  exercise  an 
undisputed  moral  influence  on  those  from  whom  they  received 
their  mandate. 

"  But  what  part  can  the  General  Councils  take  in  our 
present  relations  ?  It  appears  to  me  that  their  part  is  pre- 
scribed to  them  by  the  position  of  affairs.  Let  them  meet 
in  each  of  our  departments,  and  associate  with  themselves 


X.]  Salvation  in  the  General  Councils.  335 

che  deputies  chosen  at  the  last  election.  Let  them  use 
J.11  possible  means  both  in  the  departments  still  free,  and  in 
those  occupied  by  the  German  forces,  to  meet  each  other  in 
different  localities,  and  to  come  to  a  common  understanding. 
Let  them  issue  a  distinct  and  intelligible  proclamation  appeal- 
mg  to  the  sober  sense  of  the  masses  of  the  people.  (And 
certainly  it  will  not  be  easy  to  bring  so  many  bodies  to 
a  single  plan  and  a  common  profession  of  faith  ;  and  it  will, 
at  all  events,  take  some  time.)  Let  a  universal  vote,  an 
expression  of  the  national  will  be  asked  for  and  organised. 
The  nation,  whose  sovereignty  is  appealed  to,  has  by  three 
solemn  decisions,  set  aside  one  government ;  it  belongs  to  it 
alone  to  say  clearly  what  it  has  done,  and,  if  necessary,  to 
choose  another  government.  Who  could  dare  to  dispute  its 
right  ?  Who  could  venture,  without  justification,  to  sub- 
stitute himself  for  the  country  and  to  take  upon  himself 
to  decide  on  the  destinies  of  the  nation  without  its 
instructions  ? 

*'  I  know  the  objections  that  will  be  raised.  I  know  well 
enough  what  difficulties  and  dangers  this  magnificent  mani- 
festation of  the  public  will  would  encounter.  But  it  must 
be  made  in  spite  of  them,  for  there  is  no  other  way  out.  It 
is  a  sorrowful  truth,  but  it  must  be  spoken,  for  it  is  the  fact. 
I  am  convinced  that  it  is  just  in  the  departments  now 
occupied  by  the  Germans  that  the  public  will  would  find 
its  fullest  and  freest  expression.  The  reason  is  that  the 
Germans  have  as  deep  an  interest  as  we  have  in  speedily 
obtaining  an  enduring  peace,  and  that  nothing  but  their 
presence  will  be  sufficient  to  prevent  agitators  from  falsify- 
ing through  violence  the  free  expression  of  the  national 
will.  As  for  the  other  departments — those  parts  of  France 
•where  every  element  of  disorder  and  anarchy  is  at  present 
active   and  dominant— even  there,  I  believe  that  the  free 


336        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Cha?. 

expression  of  the  national  will,  whatever  it  may  be,  is  still 
possible.  Do  we  not  know  that  the  agitators,  the  terrorists, 
the  elements  of  destruction  and  intimidation  are  everywhere 
• — yes,  everywhere,  even  in  Paris,  their  headquarters — in  a 
contemptible  minority  (which,  however,  is  active  and  auda- 
cious, while  the  reasonable  people,  the  friends  of  order,  will 
venture  nothing,  and  leave  things  to  take  their  course),  and 
that  it  has  always  sufficed  to  throw  these  people  back  into 
their  original  nothingness,  when  those  who  wish  things  to 
go  in  a  well-ordered  way  choose  to  come  forward  to  the 
front  ?" 

The  article  concludes  :  "  If  the  nation  cannot  comprehend 
this  momentous  necessity,  if  in  its  apathy  and  dejection  it 
can  resign  itself  to  despair,  we  shall  have  to  bow  our  heads, 
confessing,  not  that  we  are  beaten,  but  that  we  are  annihi  ■ 
lated,  and  the  only  hope  of  our  salvation  will  be  from  some 
impossible  miracle." 

Tuesday,  November  15. — The  Chief  is  still  out  of  sorts. 
Catarrh  of  the  stomach,  some  call  it,  others  say  it  is  a  bilious 
attack.  "  The  people  at  Court  have  their  things  ready 
packed  up  to-day,"  Theiss  tells  us,  and  the  news  is  confirmed 
at  breakfast,  with  this  addition,  however,  that  Kan  ski  may 
perhaps  only  be  putting  his  subordinates  to  the  test,  and 
getting  them  in  training  for  what  may  possibly  be  wanted. 

For  the  time  being  matters  between  this  and  Orleans  are 
not  in  the  state  we  could  wish.  The  Minister  himself, 
when  he  came  down  to  dinner  with  us,  said  that  it  was 
possi])le  we  might  have  to  retreat,  and  evacuate  Versailles 
for  some  time.  An  advance  on  us  here  from  Dreux,  in 
concert  with  a  great  sortie  from  Paris,  is  not  out  of  the 
question,  and  even  a  layman  can  understand  that  a  success- 
ful attempt  of  this  kind,  the  consequence  of  which  might  be 
that  not  merely  the  Court  and  the  general  staff,  but  the 


X.]  Russia  and  the  Black  Sea  Question.  337 

most  important  pieces  of  our  siege  artillery  might  be  in 
danger  of  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  offers  the 
only  prospect  of  relief  for  Paris,  and  may  consequently  very 
well  be  in  contemplation.  He  then  told  Hatzfeld,  after 
reading  through  a  despatch  from  Paris,  to  say  that  the 
Americans  mentioned  may  get  out,  but  the  Roumanians,  for 
whom  a  permit  to  pass  through  our  lines  had  been  also 
asked,  are  not  to  get  it — he  had  his  reasons,  he  said. 

We  are  afterwards  told  that  the  pastor  of  Barwalde,  in 
Pomerania,  has  sent  a  magnificent  love-gift  of  six  roast  geese 
in  tinned  boxes,  one  for  the  King,  one  for  the  Crown  Prince, 
one  for  the  Chief,  one  for  Moltke,  and  so  on.  We  are  living 
here  every  day  much  as  if  we  were  in  Canaan.  We  get 
presents  almost  daily  of  smoked  goose-breast,  game,  pasties, 
or  noble  sausages,  and  cigars,  fine  wines  and  brandies. 
The  store-room  is  sometimes  hardly  able  to  hold  the  baskets 
bottles,  and  casks,  full  of  these  and  other  supplies. 

L.,  who  must  have  an  invisible  cap,  or  a  magic  ear- 
trumpet,  which  brings  him  by  seven  holes  one  behind  the 
other,  whatever  is  said  beyond  the  farthest  away,  says  he 
knows  that  a  Russian  diplomatist  has  arrived  at  head- 
quarters, bringing  notice  that  the  Petersburg  Cabinet  either 
considers  the  restrictions  imposed  upon  Russia  in  1856, 
with  respect  to  the  Black  Sea  as  removed,  or  wishes  to  have 
them  removed.  He  asks  whether  I  know  anything  of  it.  I 
say,  "  No."  I  advise  him  not  to  say  anything  about  the 
matter  in  correspondence. 

At  tea  we  learn  that  Savigny,  who  takes  a  great  deal  on 
himself  at  present  in  Wilhelnistrasse,  No.  67,  in  the  Chiefs 
absence,  has  been  very  hard  on  the  gentlemen  in  the  cipher 
Bureau,  because  he  cannot,  by  any  amount  of  work,  get  to 
the  meaning  of  three  or  four  minutes,  which  he  tells  them  to 
write  out  for  him  in  full.     A  former  Secretary  of  State  had 

VOL.   I.  z 


S3^        Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap, 

the  gift  of  thinking  and  putting  his  thoughts  on  paper  in 
even  a  more  parsimonious  way,  and  seldom  could  bring  it 
further  than  the  beginning  of  a  minute.  "  The  continuation 
and  the  conclusion — those  must  make  out  whose  place  it  is." 
Books  of  riddles,  and  pens  chewed  to  bits  are  not,  after  all, 
very  much  in  place  in  a  Foreign  Office ;  but  in  the  good  old 
pre-Bismarckian  era  it  probably  did  not  much  signify. 

In  the  evening  I  read  through  several  balloon  letters. 
One  of  themj  dated  November  3rd — which  will  do  for  in- 
sertion in  the  Motiiteur  and  elsewhere — was  the  expression 
of  the  opinion  of  a  man  of  rank  on  the  present  situation  in 
Paris.     I  omit  the  address  and  the  signature  : — ^^ 

"  My  dear  Joseph, 

"  I  hope  you  got  my  last  letters  all  right.  In  the  first 
of  them  I  told  you  my  forebodings,  all  of  which  have  since 
been  fulfilled  :  in  the  second,  I  advised  you  of  my  arrival  in 
Paris,  for  which  I  started  when  I  learned  that  it  would 
be  attacked ;  in  a  third  I  told  you  how  nobody  is  less 
free  than  under  the  Government  of  Freedom  ;  how  impos- 
sible it  is  to  go  out  without  risk  of  being  set  upon  as  a  spy, 
and,  lastly,  how  the  common  people  seem  to  think  they 
have  the  right  to  insult  ordinary  citizens,  under  the  pretence 
that  they  are  their  equals.  To-day  I  will  give  you  my 
account  of  myself  and  the  siege,  although  you  probably 
are  as  well  informed  about  the  latter  as  I  am. 

"  My  business  as  a  National  Guard  is  certainly  not  always 
pleasant.  I  have  often  to  be  seven-and-twenty  hours  on 
guard  on  the  walls,  which  involves  the  duty  of  marching 
up  and  down  all  night  backward  and  forward,  on  the  bas- 
tions, shouldering  my  musket.  When  it  rains,  it  is  very  dis- 
agreeable, and  it  is  always  tedious,  the  more  so,  that  when 
I  come  back  to  the  guard-house,  I  have  to  lie  down  in  straw 


X.]  Fighting  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville.  339 

full  of  vermin,  and  have  every  small  shopkeeper,  public- 
house  man,  and  servant  in  the  quarter  as  my  bedfellows. 
So  far  from  being  any  good  to  me,  my  name  and  position 
do  me  harm  by  making  them  envious  and  jealous,  and 
they  do  not  try  to  conceal  their  feelings.  If  there  is  a  nasty 
place,  where  our  common  straw  is  unusually  filthy,  or  where 
it  is  always  rained  upon,  it  is  assigned  to  me,  on  the 
pretext  that  no  preferences  must  be  allowed.  But  the 
feeling  that  I  am  doing  my  duty  raises  me  above  all  these 
annoyances.  What  I  like  worst  is  having  to  mount  guard 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  powder-mills  inside  the  town.  It 
seems  to  me  that  that  is  the  duty  of  the  new  town  police, 
who,  by-the-way,  do  nothing  at  all,  from  fear  of  disturbing 
the  comfortable  repose  of  the  inhabitants. 

"  I  went  at  six  the  other  morning  in  an  icy  fog  to  practise 
firing  behind  the  polygon  of  Vincennes.  Next  day  I  had 
once  more  to  get  up  at  five  to  go  to  the  Mairie,  where  my 
porter  was  to  be  elected  corporal.  Finally,  on  October  29th, 
I  had  to  mount  guard  for  seven-and-twenty  hours  in  the 
Cirque  de  I'lmperatrice,  which  is  now  turned  into  a  cartridge " 
factory.  I  thought  I  had  earned  a  little  rest ;  but  suddenly 
the  alarm-drum  went  through  all  the  streets  on  the  evening 
of  the  31st,  and  I  had  to  put  on  my  uniform  once  more,  and 
repair  to  the  Hotel  de  Ville.  There  we  stood  from  ten  at 
night  till  five  next  morning.  I  happened  to  be  placed  right 
before  the  famous  door  which  the  Mobiles  tried  to  break 
in,  some  fifteen  steps  away.  If  they  had  succeeded,  there 
would  assuredly  have  been  a  fight  just  there,  and  I  should 
have  been  hit  for  certain  at  the  first  volley.  Fortunately 
some  means  were  found  of  getting  into  the  building  by  some 
underground  passage,  and  we  left  it  by  the  same  way  with  a 
dozen  balls,  which  however,  hurt  nobody,  whistling  after  us, 
as  a  parting  salute.     Our  battalion  is  always  on  the  order  of 

z  2 


34<^         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

the  day.  It  is  the  4th,  and  its  commandant  is  your  colleague, 
M.  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  get  safe  through  a  day  which 
will  no  doubt  be  famous  in  history,  and  to  have  contributed 
to  its  happy  issue. 

"  On  the  evening  before  the  day  when  the  Committee  of 
Public  Safety  met,  I  went  about  five  o'clock,  to  the  square 
before  the  Hotel  de  Ville  to  get  a  little  fresh  air  and  exercise. 
I  saw  there  a  raging  spouter,  surrounded  by  a  considerable 
crowd  of  people.  He  was  stirring  them  up  against  the 
priests,  and  pointing  to  the  Cathedral :  '  There,'  he  said,  '  is 
the  enemy.  Our  foes  are  not  the  Prussians  ;  they  are  the 
Churches,  the  Priests,  the  Jesuits,  who  demoralise  and 
brutalise  our  children.  We  must  pull  down  and  destroy  the 
cathedral,  and  make  a  causeway  of  the  stones.'  All  is  quiet 
to-day,  thanks  to  the  cannon  and  the  troops  (Mobiles  and 
National  Guards),  who  line  the  whole  road  through  the 
Champs  Elysees  up  to  the  Tuileries. 

"  What  a  war,  my  dear  Joseph  !  There  is  no  precedent  for 
it  in  the  world's  history,  for  Caesar  took  seven  years  to  con- 
quer Gaul  when  it  was  in  a  state  of  barbarism,  and  in  three 
months  we  have  been  invaded  and  utterly  ruined. 

"  It  seems  all  over  with  the  Imperial  family.  This  makes 
one  party  the  less,  at  any  rate,  and  there  may  be  some 
advantage  in  that. 

"  Till  now  I  have  not  been  compelled  to  eat  horseflesh ; 
but  the  beef  is  of  a  melancholy  toughness,  and  the  buffalo 
flesh,  Avhich  comes  from  the  Botanic  Gardens,  some  of  which 
was  served  up  to  me  the  other  day,  is  not  much  better.  I 
am  quite  alone  here,  which  does  not  sound  nice ;  but, 
thanks  to  music  and  books,  to  which  I  give  all  my  spare 
time,  I  never  weary. 

"  If  there  should  be  an  armistice,  and  you  can  write  to  me, 
do  not  forget;  for  it  is  of  great  importance  for  me  to  learn 


X.]  A  Diplomatist  in  the  National  Guard.         341 

what  you  think  about  all  that  is  going  on.  I  should  like  to 
give  you  some  right  again  to  honour  the  name  of  a  French 
diplomatist,  which  has  for  the  present  become  a  laughing- 
stock." 

I  have  now  reached  the  middle  of  the  campaign,  and  the 
middle  of  the  series  of  recollections  which  my  Diary  pre- 
served during  its  course,  and  it  appears  a  good  opportunity  to 
insert  here  an  attempt  to  sketch  the  character  of  the  one  of  the 
gentlemen  about  the  Chancellor,  who,  both  then  and  since, 
seemed  to  me  the  most  considerable  of  them  ail.  A  couple 
of  words,  in  addition  to  what  has  been  several  times  said  in 
what  I  have  written  above  about  the  other,  who,  according 
to  my  view,  took  the  place  next  after  him,  will  complete  this 
first  half  of  my  work.  I  think  that  I  ought  not  at  present,  at 
least,  to  attempt  sketches,  either  general  or  minute,  of  any 
of  the  rest. 


342         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.     [Chap. 


CHAPTER  XL 

LOTHAR  BUCHER  AND  PRIVY  COUNCILLOR  ABEKEN. 

It  does  not  often  happen  that  long  residence  in  a  foreign 
country  influences  men  for  good  who  have  been  forced,  on 
pohtical  grounds,  to  forsake  their  native  land  and  their 
previous  sphere  of  activity.  Only  natures  of  quite  excep- 
tional excellence  retain  their  sterling  quality,  developing 
and  purifying  it,  shaking  off  the  delusions  which,  for  one 
reason  or  another,  possessed  them  in  days  gone  by,  and 
misdirected  their  actions.  As  a  rule,  the  exile — I  speak 
from  personal  observation  in  the  United  States  and  in 
Switzerland — appears  to  leave  right  feeling  behind  him  with 
his  home-life,  so  that  usually  only  the  first  half  of  the  proverb 
"  Tempora  mutantur,  nos  et  mutamur  in  ilUs "  ("  Times 
change,  and  we  with  them  ")  is  verified.  Regardless  of  all- 
changing  time,  with  little  or  no  appreciation  of  newly- 
arisen  and  more  deeply-seated  forces,  wants,  and  struggles, 
he  has  always  in  his  mind  the  picture  which  his  former  life 
presented  when  he  crossed  the  frontier.  Embittered  by 
unsuccessful  attempts  to  bring  about  a  reconstruction  of 
society  according  to  his  convictions,  disgusted,  clinging 
obstinately  to  his  "  principle "  and  the  dogmas  deduced 
from  it,  and  no  longer  being  able  to  take  part  in  affairs  at 
home,  he  confines  himself  to  a  criticism  which  knows 
everything  better  than  its  neighbours,  although  in  truth  it 
knows  nothing  properly. 

Some  waste  life  thus,  in  mental  solitude,  in  a  world  of  illu- 
sions.   Most  join  coteries,  whose   members  have  had  much 


XI.]  Exceptional  Ex-Exiles.  345 

the  same  experience  as  themselves ;  together  they  culti- 
vate the  phrases  they  brought  from  home  with  them,  amus- 
ing themselves  with  them  in  fruitless  conspiracies.  Many 
are  thus  entirely  and  for  ever  unfitted  for  true  and  productive 
political  thought  and  action.  Some  languish  in  political 
idealism  and  in  illusions.  Others  forget  their  home  and  attach 
themselves  to  a  new  National  existence,  which  becomes  of  far 
greater  importance  to  them  than  that  of  their  Fatherland. 
Others,  again,  return  home,  it  is  true,  when  the  compulsion  to 
live  in  exile  is  removed,  but  they  look  at  the  world  which 
has  grown  up  in  the  meantime  with  the  eyes  of  the  Seven 
Sleepers,  not  understanding  and  therefore  taking  no  pleasure 
in  the  fact  that  it  has  changed  for  the  better,  without  the 
help  of  their  venerated  ideal. 

However,  as  we  have  said,  there  are  exceptions.  Won- 
derful things  sometimes  happen  at  home  to  such  men. 
They  have  brought  back  with  them  not  only  a  warm  heart, 
but  an  intellect  naturally  clear  and  sharp,  a  good  fund  of 
knowledge,  with  the  impulse  to  add  to  it,  and  an  independent 
character,  not  such  as  one  can  find  anywhere  in  the  mere 
crowd  of  politicians.  All  this  now  stands  them  in  good 
stead.  Involuntary  leisure  gives  them  time  to  consider  the 
past,  to  examine  their  foreign  home,  to  compare  it  with 
their  own  country,  to  appreciate  the  defects  and  advan- 
tages of  both,  till  step  by  step  their  judgment  becomes 
completely  clear  in  the  most  various  directions.  Many 
a  man  has  in  this  way  got  all  sorts  of  good  from  his 
foreign  sojourn,  without,  however,  finding  the  ideal  which 
he  expected  to  have  seen  there  reaHsed.  Many  a  one  has 
thus  learned  for  the  first  time  how  to  render  full  and  com- 
plete justice  to  his  own  country,  and  understood  how  he 
could  best  serve  her. 

Two  instances  of  such  men  rise  before  me  as  I  write,  as 


344        Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War.     [Chap. 

well  as  many  who  are  the  very  reverse.  Both  were  at  the 
outset  Radical  Democrats  from  head  to  foot.  Both  submitted 
to  the  education  of  life,  and  have  at  last  become  practical 
politicians,  who,  in  their  aspirations  after  popular  liberty,  have 
learnt  its  limits  and  capabilities,  and  now  devote  themselves 
first  of  all  to  the  service  of  that  liberty  which  consists  in 
the  security  and  independence  gained  by  the  nation's  uniting 
to  oppose  foreign  power  and  lust  of  dominion. 

Such  a  man  was  Karl  Mathy,  the  radical  journalist,  the 
teacher  of  Grenchen,  the  friend  of  Mazzini,  the  zealous  patriot 
in  Saint  Paul's  Church,  the  minister  of  Baden,  who  has 
worked  with  all  his  heart  in  the  cause  of  German  unity.  A 
second  such  is  the  subject  of  the  present  sketch. 

Adolph  Lothar  Bucher,  somewhat  incorrectly  described  in 
the  press  as  "  Bismarck's  right  hand  " — by  this  I  do  not  mean 
to  say — very  far  from  it — that  this  title  belongs  to  any  other 
Councillor — ;but  certainly  the  ablest,  soundest,  and  most 
sensible  of  the  Chancellor's  assistants,  and  the  man  who  is 
most  devoted  to  him  and  enjoys  much  of  his  confidence,  was 
born  on  October  25,  1817,  so  that  at  the  present  time  he  is 
sixty,  being  about  two  and  a  half  years  younger  than  Prince 
von  Bismarck  himself  He  is  a  native  of  Neustettin ;  but 
when  he  was  only  two  years  old  he  came  to  Coslin  in  Lower 
Pomerania,  where  his  father,  an  able  philologist  and 
geographer,  and,  it  is  to  be  remarked,  a  friend  of  Ludwig 
Jahn,  had  been  appointed  Professor  and  pro-Rector  of  the 
Gymnasium.  Here  the  child  received  his  first  education 
and  his  first  conscious  impressions  of  life  and  the  world. 
The  account  which  he  gave  us  of  his  further  life  down  to  the 
beginning  of  the  year  i860  was  a  story  so  full  of  delicate 
humour  and  at  the  same  time  of  poetic  pathos,  that  many 
people  could  not  believe  it  of  the  serious,  sober,  and 
silent  man.     Although  the  narrative,  as  it  appeared  in  the 


XL]  A  German  Graft  on  a  Slav  Stem.  345 

fetiilleton  of  the  National  Zeitung^  on  December  24  and  25, 
1 86 1,  is  called  'Only  a  Story,'  I  must  use  it  constantly  in 
the  following  sketch,  to  supplement  the  information  gathered 
from  other  sources,  with  some  of  its  traits,  which  seem  to 
me  taken  from  life. 

To  those  first  impressions,  which  permanently  influenced 
Bucher's  nature  and  ideas,  belonged  the  feelings  which 
resulted  from  the  circumstance  of  his  having  grown  up 
at  Coslin,  one  of  those  places  on  the  coast  between  the 
Oder  and  the  Weichsel,  "  which  might  be  called  German 
'grafted-towns.'  The  German  did  not  found  them,  or  con- 
quer them,  but  he  grafted  a  shoot  on  a  Slav  stem,  which 
gradually  made  the  whole  German."  A  Slav  village  is  easily 
converted  into  a  town,  for  its  houses  lie  thickly  clustered 
"  as  if  fear  had  driven  them  together.  Besides,  the  graft 
was  well-selected  ;  for  it  consisted  of  merchants,  dealers,  and 
artisans,  who  brought  with  them  from  their  homes  crafts  of 
all  kinds,  and  the  ways  of  a  developed  community.  As 
the  saps  mingled  improvement  gradually  went  on.  The 
German  only  learnt  as  much  Slav  as  was  necessary  to  make 
himself  understood  ;  the  Slav  found  it  to  his  advantage  to 
learn  German  ;  and  long  before  the  Dukes  of  Pomerania 
offered  their  dominions  in  fief  to  the  German  Empire, 
the  country  itself  was  thoroughly  Germanised.  Even  on 
the  plains  they  had  themselves  summoned  German  farmers 
from  Lower  Saxony,  and  begged  them  to  bring  with  them 
the  heavy  German  plough,  that  the  native  might, learn  what 
ploughing  was.  Coslin,  like  all  these  grafted-towns,  lies  in 
the  bend  of  a  river  and  on  its  west  bank,  so  that  it 
possesses  a  natural  moat,  a  protection  against  foes  from 
the  east ;  it  is,  moreover,  specially  well  protected  on  the 
east  side;  for  they  were  an  unpleasant  set,  the  nation- 
alities who  lived    further  towards    Asia."      The   town    is 


34^         Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War.      [Chap. 

built  in  the  form  of  a  circle.  In  its  midst  is  the  market-place, 
and  in  the  centre  of  this  the  town-hall.  Broad  streets  run 
xrom  the  market-place,  connected  by  little  alleys.  "  The 
houses  have  their  small  ends,  with  pointed  gables,  turned 
to  the  street,  and  look  at  night  like  a  row  of  foot-soldiers, 
set  shoulder  to  shoulder." 

Any  one  who  can  read  between  the  lines  will  find  in  many 
places  here  what  is  to  be  gathered  of  the  political  views 
entertained  by  Bucher  at  the  time  this  '  Story '  was 
composed. 

Observation  and  reflection  seem  to  have  shown  themselves 
early  in  the  boy.  Even  his  imagination  was  soon  awakened 
to  lively  activity.  Campe's  narrative  of  the  conquest  of 
Peru  by  Pizarro,  which  he  once  got  as  a  Christmas  present, 
made  a  special  impression  upon  him.  He  seems  to  have  taken 
less  delight  in  his  '  Robinson  the  younger,'  a  book  he  pre- 
served as  late  as  1 86 1,  as  a  memorial  of  the  gloomy  feelings 
of  childhood.  "  Only  trusted  friends  were  allowed  to  see  it, 
and  they  heard  then  usually  the  following  remarks.  The  long 
row  of  volumes  to  which  this  belongs  relates  the  actions  and 
adventures  of  Spaniards,  Portuguese,  Englishmen,  French- 
men, and  Russians.  Only  the  first  one  has  to  do  with  a 
German  '  Robinson  Crusoe,'  and  what  does  this  Hamburg 
child  do?  He  has  certainly  the  roving  impulse,  which 
brought  the  Germans  to  Europe,  and  which  always  survives 
in  them  when  they  live  by  the  sea.  But  he  has  to  run 
away  by  stealth,  for  his  mother  warned  him,  '  Stay  at  home 
and  learn  an  honest  livelihood,'  while  his  father  said,  '  If  you 
mean  to  go  to  foreign  parts,  you  have  first  much,  very  mucli, 
to  learn.'  And  what  does  he  achieve  out  there  ?  He  does 
not  conquer  an  empire,  found  a  city,  or  make  a  fortune. 
He  runs  like  a  coward  from  the  footprints  of  the  savages, 
strikes  up  a  friendship  worthy  of  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau, 


XI.]  Buchers  Boyhood.  347 

stumbles  upon  a  heap  of  gold,  but  loses  it  on  his  way  home, 
and  brings  back  nothing  for  himself  or  his  country  but 
a  story  for  children.  He  lives,  it  seems,  as  an  upholsterer 
in  Hamburg,  and  goes  to  the  tavern  every  evening." 

Let  us  return  from  Pizarroand  '  Robinson  '  to  our  subject, 
and  hasten  to  the  end  of  his  boyhood.  Among  his  school 
lessons,  nothing  came  to  him  so  easily  as  mathematics  and 
natural  history.  In  his  leisure  hours  he  took  up  wood 
carving  and  turning,  when  he  was  not  wandering  in  the 
forest.  When  his  parents  at  last  thought  it  time  to  ask  him 
what  he  would  be,  he  wanted  at  first  to  be  a  sailor,  and 
when  his  mother  objected,  to  be  a  builder.  They  objected 
to  that  too.  He  must  be  a  student,  and  when  he  had  to 
make  his  choice  among  the  four  faculties,  he  decided  for 
law,  "  where  he  became  a  referendary,*  and  danced  with 
all  the  pretty  girls,  afterwards  becoming  Counsellor  of 
Justice,  Director  of  Resources,  Knight  of  the  Red  Eagle, 
Wolfhunter,  and  generally  a  great  man." 

Bucher  left  the  Gymnasium  when  the  persecution  of  the 
Burschenschaftf  was  at  its  hottest.  Many  of  his  school- 
fellows were  implicated.  One  had  taken  part  in  the  attempt 
at  Frankfort.  The  obnoxious  association  had  not  yet  been 
quite  rooted  out  in  the  small  university  towns,  and  on  leaving 
school  he  was  obliged  against  his  will  to  enrol  himself  in  the 
University  of  Berlin.  He  came  in  the  middle  of  the  quarrel 
which  had  arisen  at  tliat  time  between  the  historical  and  philo- 
sophical schools  of  jurists,  represented  by  Savigny  and  Gans. 
If  I  mistake  not,  he  first  joined  the  philosophical  side,  and 
studied  his  Hegel  diligently.  Afterwards  he  lost  taste  for 
philosophy,  and  nei;lected  it  for  a  long  time  in  favour  of 
jurisprudence,     which    he    had    to    study    hard    and    then 

*  A  young  lawyer  practising  without  emolument. 
+  A  political  association  of  students  founded  in  1815. 


348         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War,     [Chap. 

to  practise.  From  1838  onwards  he  was  active  in  the 
provincial  court  at  Coslin,  and  five  years  after  he  became 
assessor  to  the  provincial  and  city  court  at  Stolp.  At  the 
same  time  he  managed  some  estates  there,  which  made  him 
acquainted  with  the  conditions  of  the  country. 

His  office  in  Stolp  began  after  a  time  to  pall  upon 
him,  as  the  judge  at  that  time  was  still  burdened  with  a 
quantity  of  business  not  properly  legal.  By  way  of  relief 
he,  like  many  good  and  clever  enough  people  in  those 
days,  read  Rotteck  and  Welker,  whose  views  about  history 
and  politics  he  mastered  with  characteristic  thoroughness 
and  energy,  and  wished  to  translate  them  into  real  life. 
He  might  have  made  something  of  it,  but  the  March  days 
came  on  in  Berlin,  and  soon  afterwards  the  meeting  of  the 
Prussian  National  Assembly. 

To  this  assembly  Bucher  was  sent  in  1848  by  the 
electors  of  Stolp,  and  the  following  year  found  him  re- 
presenting the  same  town  in  tne  House  of  Deputies,  which 
had  been  formed  in  the  meantime.  There  had  been  no 
public  life  in  Prussia  till  1840.  The  new  deputy  from  Lower 
Pomerania  was  a  jurist  with  some  idea  of  civil  law,  but  no 
experience  of  any  sort  in  affairs  of  State.  Taking  into 
account  the  influence  of  Rotteck,  and  Welker's  views  of 
politics  and  history,  and  remembering  that  Bucher  was  a 
young  man  of  vigorous  intellect  and  will,  it  was  not  wonder- 
ful, but  natural,  almost  inevitable,  that  he  should  have  joined 
the  ranks  of  the  Radicals  in  the  Chamber ;  neither  those, 
however,  who  disregard  wholesome  formalities,  nor  tiiose 
who  delighted  in  pathetic  phraseology. 

"  I  never  heard  any  one,"  says  a  fragment  of  General 
von  Brandt's  memoirs,*  "  speak  with  more  skill  or  modera- 

*  See  the  Deutsche  Rundschau  for  June,  1877. 


XI,]  A  German  Saint- Jii-st.  349 

tion  than  Bucher  displayed  on  this  occasion  " — the  dehbera- 
tions  of  the  Commission  which  had  to  pronounce  upon 
Waldeck's  pet  child,  the  so-called  Habeas  Corpus  Act. 
"  His  fair  hair,  his  passionless  attitude,  reminded  me  vividly 
of  the  pictures  I  had  seen  of  Saint-Just.  Bucher  was  a  reck- 
less leveller  of  everything  established — all  ranks,  and  all  pro- 
perty; one  of  the  most  consistent  members  of  the  National 
Assembly,  and  ready  for  any  step  which  seemed  likely  to  lead 
towards  the  end  he  had  in  view :  virtue  in  principles,  and 
brotherly  love  in  carrying  them  out.  With  no  knowledge  of 
society,  devoted  to  barren  juridical  abstractions,  he  was  firmly 
convinced  that  the  welfare  of  the  world  could  only  be  se- 
cured by  a  sudden,  vigorous,  and  miglUy  destruction  of  the 
existing  state  of  things.  He  helped  to  organise  the  jjublic 
resistance,  and  eagerly  diffused  the  idea — which  was  specially 
his  own — of  goading  on  the  ambitious  and  turbulent  faction 
in  the  National  Assembly  to  the  adoption  of  a  Dictatorship. 
The  ironiccil  contempt  with  which  he  treated  the  j^owers 
that  were,  openly  showing  Ins  hatred  of  the  old  constitution, 
and  his  dogma  of  the  Sovereignty  of  the  People,  with  the 
radical  chimeras  of  which  he  intoxicated  them,  at  the 
same  time  developing  his  own  capacities  as  a  Demagogue, 
would  have  placed  him  very  far  beyond  all  his  adherents  in 
his  strictly  logical  efforts. 

"  What  views  Bucher  upheld  in  the  National  Assembly,  and 
how  he  was  already  prepared  to  lay  aside  the  jurist  in  con- 
sideration of  a  political  opportunity,  may  be  further  seen  by 
a  passage  from  the  speech  in  which,  on  September  4,  1848, 
after  the  Minister  had  refused  the  demand,  he  defended, 
against  Hausemann  and  the  orators  of  the  Right,  the 
motion  made  by  Stein  on  August  9,  then  referred  to  a 
Commission,  and  finally  adopted  in  a  milder  form,  demand- 
ing that  tlie   Ministry  of  War  should  warn  the  officers  of 


350         Bismarck  in  the  Franco- German  War.      L^ha?. 

the  army  against  reactionary  efforts,  and  recommend  their 
hearty  co-operation  in  the  establishment  of  a  constitutional 
state  of  law.  While  opposing  those  who  had  questioned 
the  lawful  authority  of  the  National  Assembly  in  this 
instance,  because  the  Electoral  law  of  April  8  only  gave  it 
power  to  unite  the  Constitution  with  the  Crown,  he  remarked 
that  he  must  characterise  such  a  notion  as  very  naive. 

"  The  history  of  the  world,"  he  proceeded  to  say,  "  will  not 
remain  within  the  compass  of  an  electoral  law.  A  new  age 
needs  quite  another  basis  than  a  page  in  our  legal  code.  I 
myself  belong,  and  am  attached,  to  the  legal  profession, 
but  I  have  already  often  had  occasion  to  regret  that  we  are 
so  numerously  represented  in  this  house.  We  look  only  too 
readily  from  the  limited  judicial  standpoint  at  the  enormous 
questions  which,  if  we  do  not  decide,  we  are  yet  called  upon 
to  help  in  deciding,  and  we  apply  to  them  only  too  readily 
the  narrow  judicial  standard.  We  cannot  and  we  ought 
not  to  behave  like  the  judge  who  pronounces  his  sentence 
with  scrupulous  regard  for  the  laws  which  are  before  him 
and  v/hich  he  cannot  touch.  We  are  bound  with  states- 
man-like purpose  to  recognise  our  necessities,  to  recognise 
a  mission,  for  which  perhaps  no  precedent  exists — the  mission 
of  directing  the  consequences  of  a  Revolution  not  yet  born 
along  the  peaceful  path  of  Legislation,  If  we  hold  fast 
to  that,  we  shall  easily  recognise  the  extent  of  our  rightSj 
or  still  better,  of  our  duties.  There  is  so  much  talk  about 
our  authority  and  our  rights.  Let  us  at  last,  for  once 
in  a  way,  speak  of  our  duties  towards  the  people,  which 
bleeds  from  a  thousand  wounds." 

The  orator  then  enumerated  the  defects  and  disadvantages 
of  the  Constitution  left  by  the  old  government,  and  asked 
whether  the  discussion  ouj;ht  to  consist  of  anxious  inquiries 
after  the  form  of  remedy.    The  old  organs  of  the  government 


XI.]      The  National  Assembly  and  the  Ministry.      35 1 

were  not  in  many  cases  able  to  give  the  Ministry  a  true 
idea  of  the  state  of  things  ;  but  the  National  Assembly,  which 
represented  the  people  itself,  was  well  able  to  do  so.  The 
Minister-President  had  attempted  to  bring  about  a  unity 
of  view  between  the  government  and  the  majority  of  the 
National  Assembly;  this,  to  him,  was  inconceivable.  A 
resolution  was  passed  on  the  9th  of  August,  which,  after 
two  days,  was  communicated  to  the  Ministry.  They  did 
not  think  it  necessary  to  answer  it.  If  they  had  at  least 
expressed  their  opinion,  and  explained  that  they  took 
umbrage  at  the  abrupt  form  of  the  concession  demanded 
of  them,  and  had  asked  the  National  Assembly  to  take 
the  matter  once  more  into  consideration,  so  as  to  soften 
the  form  of  the  resolution,  the  position  of  things  would 
be  quite  different,  and  more  satisfactory  to  the  Assembly 
and  the  country.  They  had  done  nothing  of  tlie  kind.  The 
National  Assembly  felt  bound  to  make  the  Ministry  aware 
that  they  did  not  rightly  appreciate  the  conditions  and  re- 
quirements of  the  hour,  and  as  they  had  not  acted  upon  this 
advice,  they  must  be  requested  to  carry  the  resolution  into 
effect ;  for  a  constituent  assembly,  so  long  as  it  possesses  no 
executive  powers,  has  no  organ  but  the  Ministry.  As  re- 
gards the  substance  of  the  resolution,  the  idea  of  any  altera- 
tion could  only  be  discussed  if  the  circumstances  which 
dictated  it  four  weeks  ago  had  changed ;  but  this  was  not 
the  case.  The  Minister  of  Finance  said  that  we  ought 
not  to  trouble  ourselves  about  the  political  opinions  of 
the  officers,  for  the  province  of  the  army  was  merely  to 
obey.  But  for  that  very  reason  it  was  not  to  be  tolerated 
that  individual  leaders  of  the  army  should  openly  express 
tendencies  opposed  to  the  prevailing  system^  and  calcu- 
lated to  effect  its  overthrow.  Glancing  at  the  danger  which 
the  Minister  of  Finance  had  suggested,  the  orator  concluded; 


352         Bismarck  in  tlie  Franco-Gei'inan  War.      LChaf. 

"  1  do  not  fail  to  notice  that  the  poUtical  atmosphere  is 
overcharged ;  but  I  know  one  thing — and  I  say  this  in 
the  name  of  my  friends — we  are  faithfully  following  the  path 
pointed  out  by  our  convictions,  and  we  are  not  frightened 
by  what  the  Minister  has  suggested  to-day ;  for  the  respon- 
sibility, and  it  is  one  of  terrible  gravity,  does  not  fall  on 
our  heads." 

In  the  House  of  Deputies  Bucher  did  conspicuous 
service  towards  establishing  organised  laws.  He  played 
an  important  part  as  referee  on  the  occasion  of  Waldeck's 
motion  for  obliging  the  Ministry  to  withdraw  the  state  of 
siege  which  had  been  imposed  upon  Berlin  on  Novem- 
ber 12,  1848  —  a  motion  which  when  adopted  resulted 
in  the  dissolution  of  the  House  of  Deputies.  Bucher  found 
no  difficulty  in  proving  the  illegality  of  the  state  of  siege. 
For  there  could  be  no  possible  doubt  that  the  right  to 
impose  it  was  not  deducible  from  Article  1 1  o  of  the  Con- 
stitution, which  only  came  into  force  three  weeks  later, 
especially  as  this  article  treated  merely  of  the  suspension  of 
certain  fundamental  laws  in  case  of  War  or  Insurrection.  On 
November  12  neither  war  nor  insurrection  had  taken  place 
.n  Berlin,  yet  the  Ministry  had  not  only  suspended  these 
laws,  out  had  put  the  citizens  under  military  tribunals, 
of  which  Article  no  said  nothing,  and  for  allowing  which 
in  such  cases  even  older  laws  contained  no  provision. 

The  consequence  of  the  resolution  thus  carried  into  effect 
was  the  dissolution  of  the  House  of  Deputies,  followed,  on 
February  4,  1850,  by  the  so-called  stoppage  of  supplies  case, 
which  lasted  till  the  21st.  Some  forty  members  of  the 
National  Assembly  were  tried  for  passing  the  resolution  on 
November  15,  1848,  that  the  Government  had  no  right  to 
control  public  money  or  raise  taxes,  so  long  as  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  could  not  carry  on  their  deliberations 


XL]  Bucher  in  London.  353 

in  Berlin  unmolested,  and  for  further  issuing  a  proclamntion 
on  the  1 8th  intended  to  secure  respect  for  this  resolution 
and  charging  tlieir  opponents  with  stirring  insurrection. 
The  trial  was  a  bit  of  Cabinet  justice.  It  was  so  obvious 
that  the  Criminal  Court  in  Berlin  was  not  competent  to  try 
them  that  the  President  forbade  the  accused  and  their  counsel 
to  urge  this  plea.  Bucher's  view  of  the  illegahty  of  the 
state  of  siege  in  Berlin  probably  accounted  for  the  extreme 
hatred  entertained  towards  him  in  higher  quarters,  which 
this  trial  brought  to  light.  The  proceedings  ended  with 
the  acquittal  of  most  of  the  accused.  Bucher,  on  the  con- 
trary, with  Burgomaster  Plathe  from  Leba,  Kabus,  the 
miller,  from  Schwademiihl,  and  Nennstiel,  the  householder, 
from  Peiskretscham,  were  declared  guilty,  and  both  Bucher 
and  Plathe  were  sentenced  to  fifteen  months'  imprisonment, 
with  the  usual  addi^'ion  of  loss  of  the  national  cockade, 
removal  from  office,  and  the  like. 

This  sentence  occasioned  Bucher's  going  abroatl,  and 
finally  to  London.  It  is  easy  to  understand  that  after 
his  fifteen  months'  imprisonment  he  was  still  persecuted 
by  the  police.  In  London  he  spent  his  time  first  in 
the  careful  study  of  political  economy  and  politics,  in 
observing  English  conditions  and  peculiarities,  and  in 
the  consideration  and  analysis  of  the  characteristics  of 
the  English  parliamentary  system — an  occupation  during 
which  he  found  hypocrisy,  corruption,  and  deception,  which 
filled  him  ever  afterwards  with  anger,  repugnance,  and 
contempt,  in  many  men  and  things  highly  praised  and 
admired  in  Germany.  Among  the  acquaintances  he  made 
was  Urquhart,  with  whom  he  afterwards  quarrelled.  Only 
in  the  last  years  of  his  stay  in  London  did  he  come  to 
know,  through  English  Socialist  connections,  other  famous 

VOL.    I.  2   A 


354         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-Gennan  War.      [Chap 

political  exiles,  such  as  Mazzini,  Ledru  Rollin,  and  Herzen. 
They  were  of  further  assistance  to  him  in  his  political  re- 
seirches,  as  he  observed  how  all  these  gentlemen  had 
it  in  view  to  cut  a  strip  out  of  the  hide  of  the  sober  and 
consistent  German  bear  by  means  of  the  principle  of  nation- 
ality ;  or,  to  speak  more  plainly,  they  speculated  each  for  his 
own  nation  on  a  piece  of  Germany ;  as,  for  instance,  the 
Rhine-border,  the  rocky  heights  of  the  Alps,  or  the  Poland 
of  1772.  Even  liberal  German  papers,  out  of  reverence  for 
the  "  principle,"  that  is  to  say,  a  mere  phrase,  actively  oc- 
cupied themselves  with  the  question,  how  a  chemically  pure 
Germany  was  to  be  constructed.  The  Volkszeitiing,  for  ex 
Hmple,  wanted  Posen  to  "  be  given  up,"  of  course  without 
saying  to  whom  it  properly  belonged.  Such  foolish  non- 
sense was  opposed  to  the  sound  human  understanding  and 
*he  patriotic  spirit  which  had  never  ceased  to  animate 
Bucher. 

During  his  stay  in  England  Bucher  worked  for  various 
German  newspapers.  In  particular  he  wrote  for  several 
years  in  the  National  Zeitung,  under  the  signature  cu,  highly 
valuable  reports  and  thoughtful  political  essays,  which  at- 
tracted general  attention,  from  their  deep  and  quite  unusual 
grasp  of  subject.  He  gave,  among  other  things,  an  excel- 
lent description  of  the  first  great  Exhibition  in  London, 
information  upon  English  domestic  arrangements  and 
customs,  upon  ventilation,  Turkish  baths,  which  he  had 
come  to  know  about  from  a  journey  to  Constantinople,  and 
other  practical  matters.  But  he  rendered  quite  an  exceptional 
service  in  the  enlightenment  of  liberal  German  politicians 
by  his  letters  on  the  English  parliamentary  system.  .  They 
put  an  end,  with  conclusive  argument,  to  the  superstition  that 
Gv'rman  popular  representation  should  be  built  up  and 
arranged  after  the  British  model,  and  established  the  con- 


XL]  Btccher  and  the  Mancliester  School.  355 

viction  that  constitutional  organisations  and  usages  should 
not  be  everywhere  the  same,  but  must  be  adapted  to  the 
character,  to  the  historical  development,  and  to  the  resources 
of  each  individual  country.  A  further  very  welcome  conse- 
quence of  these  parliamentary  letters  was  the  recogni- 
tion., which  has  since  become  almost  universal,  of  the 
fact  that  the  English  art  of  government  is,  as  regards  the 
outside  world,  a  purely  commercial  policy,  with  no  grand 
historical  point  of  view,  or  ideal  motive  or  aim  of  any  kind. 
In  this  way  the  foibles  of  Palmerston,  Gladstone,  that 
"  doctor  supernaturalis "  (heaven-bom  prophet),  Cobden, 
and  the  whole  body  of  hypocritical  and  egotistical  apostles 
of  the  English  Free-traders,  were  brought  to  view  as  by 
the  strong  beams  of  the  electric  light.  It  was  an  unmask- 
ing which  to  this  day  they  have  scarcely  outlived. 

These  and  some  other  productions  of  Bucher's  brilliant 
pen  did  not  sometimes  quite  fall  in  with  the  creed  of  the 
paper  in  which  they  appeared,  and  in  regard  to  the  gospel  of 
the  Manchester  School,  which  flourished  in  its  office,  as  well 
as  in  reference  to  the  solution  of  the  German  question,  its 
correspondent  cD  was  looked  upon  as  decidedly  heretical. 

About  the  year  i860,  Bucher,  probably  tired  and  disgusted 
with  newspaper  writing,  contemplated  an  entire  alteration  of 
his  circumstances.  As  the  essay,  '  Only  a  Story,'  implies, 
and  as  I,  in  spite  of  the  extravagance  of  the  idea,  have 
reason  to  believe  certain,  he  intended  to  make  a  home  for 
himself  under  the  palms  and  mango-trees  of  tropical  America, 
and — turn  cofifee-planter.  This  fancy,  overlaid  with  prac- 
tical, perhaps  also  with  unpractical  additions,  seems  soon, 
however,  to  have  taken  flight — Thank  God  !  we  may  add, 
and  probably  he  would  say  so  himself.  If  his  sphere  was 
not  in  England,  still  less  was  it  among  the  half-negroes  of 
Costa  Rica  or  Venezuela.     His  proper  course  was  to  come 

2  A  2 


356         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

back  to  Germany,  and  the  amnesty  of   i860   opened  the 
door  to  his  return. 

Once  more  in  Berhn,  Bucher  renewed  his  friendship  with 
Rodbertus,  and  made  the  acquaintance  of  Lassalle,  whom 
in  his  turn  he  introduced  to  Rodbertus.  The  SociaUstic 
agitator,  wliom  we  know  to  have  been  a  man  of  quite  dif- 
ferent stamp  from  his  forerunners,  the  Liebknechts  and 
Mosts,  a  genuine  patriot,  a  man  of  the  greatest  abihty,  of 
quite  remarkable  learnmg,  but  at  the  same  time  inspired 
by  a  fiery  and  reckless  ambition,  stood  just  then  at  the 
turning-point  of  his  life.  The  Party  of  Progress  had  rejected 
him  and  his  efforts  to  rouse  them  to  a  more  consistent 
and  effectual  opposition.  He  then  thought  of  displacing  it 
by  a  Working  Man's  party,  to  be  led  by  himself,  and  with 
this  object  he  sought  zealously  to  come  to  an  under- 
standing with  Rodbertus,  who  certainly  felt  the  charm 
of  this  man  of  genius.  Although,  like  Lassalle,  regard- 
ing the  iron  law  of  wages  as  unassailable,  he  declared, 
however,  that  he  could  not  consent  to  a  political  agitation 
with  aims  economically  untenable. 

About  this  time  a  request  came  to  Lassalle,  Rodbertus, 
and  Bucher,  on  behalf  of  the  Leipzig  workmen's  union,  for 
advice  respecting  the  means  by  which  the  condition  of  the 
working  classes,  whom  it  was  intended  to  summon  to  a 
Workmen's  Congress,  could  be  improved.  Upon  the  basis 
of  his  iron  law  of  wages,  Lassalle  answered,  not  by  means 
of  the  self-help  notions  propounded  by  Schulze-Delitzsch,  but 
by  proposing  State  Credits,  directed  towards  the  establish- 
ment of  companies  of  producers,  to  which  end  the  work- 
men must  organise  themselves  into  a  political  party.  Rod- 
bertus advised  against  this  step.  Bucher  wrote,  "  I  lose  no 
lime  in  expressing  my  conviction  that  the  doctrine  of  the 
Manchester  School,  that  the  State  has  only  to  care  for  the 


XL]  One  Hat  or  Three  Hats.  3  5 


1 


security  of  the  person  and  let  everything  else  go,  will  not 
stand  in  the  face  of  science,  history,  or  practice " ;  but 
he  had  clearly  no  confidence  in  Lassalle's  practical  pro- 
posals. Indeed,  his  now  published  correspondence  shows 
that  Lassalle  himself  had  them  so  little  at  heart  that  he  ex- 
pressed himself  ready  to  "  let  them  go  "  joyfully  whenever 
-Rodbertus  could  hit  upon  some  other  plan.  As  regards 
Bucher,  he  holds  firmly,  to  my  knowledge,  the  same 
negative  opinion  to  this  day,  and  I  can  only  agree  with 
him. 

Bucher  found  also  in  Berlin  the  agitation  for  "  Prussian 
Supremacy."  But  the  gentlemen  who  urged  it  wished  for  no 
"  brotherly  war."  As  will  be  remembered — perhaps  with 
some  head-shakings  and  shruggings  of  shoulders  —  their 
speeches  and  leading  articles  urged  that  the  struggle, 
the  victory,  and  the  conquest  must  be  "  moral."  Bucher 
of  course  wished  for  a  closer  union  among  the  Germans 
as  against  foreign  ambition,  but  he  could  not  get  up  the 
necessary  strength  of  faith  to  believe  that  Austria  could  be 
sung  out  of  Germany,  or  to  realise  the  possibility  of  the 
"  Central  Government,"  and  the  smaller  states  being  brought 
under  the  famous  Prussian  spiked  helmet,  or  into  any 
unity  (under  one  hat)  by  means  of  rifle  competitions  and 
gymnastic  clubs,  by  ink  written  or  printed,  or  by  the  reso- 
lutions of  well-intentioned  popular  assemblies.  Even  the 
great  saying  of  Herr  von  Beust,  "  Song  itself  is  a  power," 
could  not  convince  him  that  he  was  mistaken.  He  saw 
clearly,  and  said  it  as  plainly,  both  in  speech  and  in  writing, 
that  without  war  there  must  be  three  hats  ;  in  other  words, 
that  something  in  the  nature  of  a  Triumvirate  was  the 
Lest  that  could  be  attained  ;  and  the  reproach  that  Bucher 
belied  his  convictions  by  accepting  a  post  under  Bismarck, 
is  quite  without  foundation.      He  regards  with   a   special 

2  A  3 


358         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

dislike  people  who  would  not  give  a  halfpenny  even  if  the 
Croats  stood  before  the  gates  of  Berlin,  and  who  were  able 
to  get  up  enthusiasm  for  the  Augustenburg  farce  even 
during  the  last  scene  of  its  final  Act.  It  is  exceedingly- 
amusing  to  look  through  the  list  of  gentlemen  who  voted 
in  the  Prussian  House  of  Deputies  for  the  famous  direct 
address  to  the  Crown  to  the  effect  that  the  policy  of  Prussia 
under  this  Ministry,  could  only  result  in  the  Duchies  being 
handed  over  to  the  Danes. 

During  the  war  of  words  against  Bismarck,  Bucher  was 
already  working  to  some  purpose.  At  that  time  many 
people  regretted  that  he  could  have  behaved  so  falsely  ;  now 
he  is  hated  by  many  because  they  are  obliged  to  admit  that 
tie  acted  honestly.  His  adhesion  to  the  policy  of  the  leading 
Minister  came  about  in  the  following  way.  For  some  con- 
siderable time  after  his  return  to  Berlin  he  was  still  working 
*br  the  National  Zcitung.  The  connection  was  afterwards 
broken  off  when  he  found  himself  in  increasing  disagree- 
ment on  more  than  one  point  with  the  party  represented, 
by  the  paper,  and  he  worked  for  some  months  in  Wolff's 
telegraph  office.  The  very  limited  salary  he  received  there 
for  hard  work,  and  undoubtedly,  too,  his  distaste  for  such  aa 
occupation,  led  him  to  think  next  of  once  more  taking  up 
the  law,  and  turning  advocate.  He  spoke  of  this  idea  to  an 
acquaintance  of  Bismarck's,  who  advised  him  against  it. 
Soon  afterwards  the  Minister,  unprejudiced  as  usual,  sent 
for  him,  and  told  him  that  he  could  give  him  an  opportunity 
of  making  himself  useful  in  another  way.  So  Bucher,  in 
1864,  made  his  entrance  into  the  Foreign  Office,  first  as  a 
clerk,  and  then  as  an  occasional  Councillor  of  Legation.  In 
the  following  year  he  had  to  solve  an  important  question, 
the  administration  of  Lauenburg,  which  had  come  into  the 
hands  of  Prussia  by  the  Convention  of  Gastein.     It  took 


XL]  BiicJicr  with  Bismarck.  359 

Bucher,  under  the  direction  of  his  chief,  till  1867  to  get 
it  into  proper  order.  The  little  Duchy  was  a  juridical 
curiosity,  and  compared  with  other  states  a  monstrosity; 
it  represented  in  fossil  form  the  code  of  the  Seventeenth 
century ;  its  proper  place  was  the  German  Museum.  It  had 
no  codified  legislation,  only  the  common  law.  In  the  last 
years  before  1865  it  had  come  for  the  first  time  under 
the  authority  of  the  German  Confederation,  and  afterwards 
under  that  of  Prusso-Austrian  commissioners.  The  order 
of  the  day  was  the  absorption  of  the  numerous  fat  official 
posts  by  a  few  "  noble  families "  who  were  in  the  habit 
of  leasing  out  the  enormous  domains  among  themselves. 
Bucher  had  to  work  the  whole  matter  out  in  the  rough, 
to  redress  abuses  in  a  hundred  directions,  and  to  bring 
back  right  and  reason.  Luckily  he  was  under  the  guidance 
of  the  Minister,  who,  however,  during  the  greater  part  of 
this  very  period  was  laid  up  with  serious  illness  at  Putbus, 
in  Riigen,  so  that  his  Councillor  was  in  the  embarrassing 
position  of  being  obliged  to  govern  without  having  full 
powers. 

I  must  pass  briefly  over  Bucher's  further  activities. 
Usually  in  the  immediate  company  of  the  Chancellor,  he 
was  repeatedly  set  by  him  to  prepare  and  work  out  matters 
of  the  greatest  importance,  and  we  may  suppose  that  he 
executed  all  his  commissions  with  skill  and  cleverness,  and 
that  in  the  work  which  he  entrusted  to  him  his  Chief  seldom 
found  anything  wanting,  or  any  part  of  his  wish  or  inten- 
tion misunderstood  or  ill-expressed.  Bucher  understood  him 
from  the  beginning,  and  at  once  threw  himself  into  his  way 
of  looking  at  and  dealing  with  things.  In  1869,  and  in  the 
spring  of  1870,  he  spent  several  months  with  the  Minister 
at  Varzin,  where  he  was  the  medium  of  correspondence 
between  his  chief  and  the  authorities  of  Prussia  and  the 


360         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

German  Confederation.  During  the  French  war,  he  was, 
as  I  have  mentioned,  summoned  in  the  last  week  of  Sep- 
tember to  the  principal  headquarters,  where  he  remained 
with  the  Chancellor  till  the  end  of  the  campaign.  In  187 1 
he  was  at  Frankfort  during  the  negotiations  for  peace.  In 
the  next  years,  too,  as  if  indispensable,  he  followed  the 
Prince  whenever  he  retired  to  his  Pomeranian  estate.  He 
seems  to  shun  the  air  of  the  court. 

I  have  to  add  that  Bucher  has  remained  unmarried,  and 
that  to  my  knowledge  he  sees  little  company  compared  with 
other  men  in  his  position.  He  gives  me  the  impression 
of  a  silent,  sober,  and  prudent  man,  not  wanting,  however, 
in  certain  poetic  impulses  and  not  without  a  healthy  vein 
of  humour.  His  thoughts,  his  sympathies,  and  his  anti- 
pathies are  expressed  gently,  but  with  no  lack  of  energy. 
A  cool  head,  with  a  warm  heart  below.  Still  water,  but 
deep. 

I  have  completed  my  portrait,  and  when  I  now  glance 
over  it,  it  strikes  me  that,  in  spite  of  my  high  esteem  for 
the  original,  I  have  drawn  it  not  exactly  in  rose  colour, 
but  in  the  honest  tints  of  truth.  If  I  add  a  piece  of 
strong  praise  by  way  of  superscription,  it  comes  from 
another  mouth.  "  A  genuine  pearl,"  the  Chancellor  said 
of  Bucher,  when  I  parted  from  him  in  1873. 

When  Lothar  Bucher  Avas  chosen  by  the  Chancellor  to  be 
his  fellow-worker,  it  was  Privy  Councillor  Abeken  to  whose 
place  he  succeeded.  Heinrich  Abeken  was  in  every  respect 
an  official  of  the  old  school.  He  belonged  in  his  whole  nature 
to 'the  epoch  in  our  history  which  may  be  called  the  literary- 
aesthetic  ;  to  the  time  when  political  interests  gave  way  to 
the  occupations  of  poetry  and  philosophy,  and  to  the  con- 
sideration of  philological  and  other  scientific  questions.  He 
was  most  at  home  in  that  range  of  ideas  which  prevailed  at 


XL]  Abeken  in  Rome  and  the  Holy  Land.  361 

court  and  in  hi'^^h  official  circles  before  the  new  era.  He 
has  never  gone  into  politics ;  on  the  contrary,  a  matter  of 
aesthetics  often  seems  to  him  of  greater  moment  than  a  grave 
political  move.  It  not  unfrequently  happened  that  while 
others  were  anxious  about  the  result  of  a  critical  turn  in 
this  or  that  important  political  situation,  his  head  was 
running  on  some  verse  or  other  of  a  poet,  ancient  or 
modern,  which  usually  found  feeling  utterance  from  his 
lips,  although  the  poetic  effusion  might  have  no  bearing 
upon  the  situation. 

Abeken  came  from  Osnabriick,  and  was  born  in  1809. 
His  education  for  the  University  was  directed  by  an  uncle, 
the  philologist  and  aestheticist,  Ludwig  Abeken,  who  moved 
in  Weimar  circles  in  Schiller's  time,  and  had  fitted  himself 
to  appreciate  their  ways.  The  nephew  afterwards  studied 
theology,  and  in  his  '  thirties '  became  chaplain  to  the 
Embassy  at  Rome  under  Bunsen.  Here  he  married  an 
English  wife,  whom  he  lost  by  death  after  only  a  few 
months.  Becoming  the  friend  of  Bunsen,  with  whose  views 
and  efforts  in  a  religious  direction  he  sympathised,  he 
turned  his  attention,  about  1841,  to  diplomatic  business. 
He  first  drew  up  a  memorial  on  the  establishment  of  an 
apostolic  bishopric  at  Jerusalem — ^an  idea,  by  the  way, 
which  hardly  anyone  in  Berlin  would  now  think  of.  Later 
on,  we  find  him  again  with  Lepsius  in  Egypt,  from  whence 
he  afterwards  travelled  through  the  Holy  Land.  He  entered 
the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs  under  Heinrich  Arnim, 
and  stayed  there  till  his  death  in  the  autumn  of  1871, 
although  most  important  changes  had  taken  place  there  in 
the  meantime. 

With  Councillor  of  Legation  Meier,  who  published  a 
memorial  of  his  friendship  for  him  in  the  AUgemeine  Zeihmg, 
we  see  in  him,  "  the  quiet  virtue  of  loyal  and  conscientiously 


362         Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.      [Chap. 

continuous  faithfulness  and  assiduity,"  but  we  see  also  that 
Politics  were  never  dear  to  his  heart,  or  at  least  did  not 
appeal  to  his  heart  and  conscience  as  other  things  did. 
We  may  draw  yet  another  conclusion,  and  the  biographer 
Ave  have  named  does  not  hesitate  to  draw  it.  "  Abeken," 
he  begins,  "  shows  a  resemblance,  partly  innate  and  partly 
acquired,  to  Bunsen,  whose  disciple  he  was,  and  whose  life 
he  has  written.  His  disposition  was  versatile  and  his  mind 
many-sided.  On  the  other  hand,  his  character  was  neither 
independent  nor  creative.  For  this  reason  he  escaped," 
so  the  Memoir  proceeds,  "  the  danger  that  he  might,  in 
pursuit  of  some  new  and  bold  idea  or  conviction,  have 
been  tempted  to  struggle  in  the  whirlpool  of  the  circum- 
stances of  the  time,  or  against  the  customary  action  of  the 
machine  of  State,  and  so  been  cast  on  shore.  With  his  easier 
and  less  independent  political  versatility  he  was  able  to  keep 
his  water-way  for  the  space  of  four-and-twenty  years,  under 
seven  different  Ministries  and  systems,  with  no  shock  either 
from  within  or  from  without.  If  any  one  reproaches  our 
friend  with  this,  and  censures  as  unmanly  his  dexterity  in 
tacking,  his  steady  persistence  in  his  office  and  position  in 
consequence  of  his  involuntarily  giving  way  to  wind  and 
weather,  the  stoical  comment  would  apply  less  to  indi- 
vidual instances  of  his  thought  and  action  than  upon  his 
whole  life  and  work,  which  were  inseparably  connected 
with  these  questions."  If  we  read  between  the  lines,  and 
consider  both  the  praise  and  the  blame  as  expressed  a 
little  too  plainly  and  concisely,  we  shall  be  doing  the  late 
Privy  Councillor  no  wrong  by  subscribing  to  this  judgment. 
Of  his  usefulness  in  business  and  the  Hmits  of  this  use- 
fulness, we  have  already  spoken  ;  as  well  as  of  the  unusually 
strong  attraction  which  everything  connected  with  the  Court 
exercised  upon  him.      In  this   respect  he  was  the  direct 


XL]  Abekeii  at  the  Grceca  363 

opposite  of  Bucher,  as  he  was  also  in  being  uncommonly 
sociable  and  talkative.  Among  other  ways  of  satisfying 
his  craving  for  intercourse  with  pleasant  people,  he  often 
moved  among  the  circles  which  met  in  Prince  Radziwill's 
Palace.  He  could  not  give  up  these  visits,  even  when 
the  Ultramontane  opposition  against  the  Chancellor's  church 
policy  was  directed  from  these  circles.  Passing  by  these 
and  other  societies  of  high  rank,  we  shall  find  him  at  his 
happiest  in  the  weekly  meetings  of  the  "  Grzeca,"  a  society 
principally  composed  of  old  "Romans,"  the  statutes  of  which 
excluded  all  political  conversation,  and,  besides  friendly  talk, 
only  allowed  discussions  on  philology  and  aesthetics.  Here 
he  was  in  his  element.  "  But  even  in  the  midst  of  official 
work,"  writes  Meier,  and  I  can  confirm  what  he  says,  "  even 
in  his  office,  he  could  find  time  for  aesthetic  or  philological 
interludes,  and  at  one  time  entertain  his  colleagues,  tired 
out  with  Hesse  or  Schleswig-Holstein,  with  some  of  his 
Roman  or  Eastern  recollections,  at  another  astonish  them 
with  a  quotation  from  some  German  or  foreign  poet — 
Goethe,  Sophocles,  Heiniich,  Kleist,  Shakespeare,  or  Dante." 
I  may  be  permitted  to  add,  that  he  oftener  awoke  other 
feelings.  An  anecdote  which  Meier  tells  us  of  his  friend, 
without  seeing  what  a  farce  he  is  setting  before  us,  may 
show  how  far  it  was  so. 

"  When  Abeken,  in  November,  1850,  as  he  often  told  us, 
accompanied  his  then  chief  from  Berlin  to  Olmiitz,  to 
conclude  that  unlucky  Convention  which  he  of  course  would 
never  recognise  as  other  than  a  happy  diplomatic  deliverance 
for  Prussia,  they  both  saw  suddenly,  during  their  night 
journey,  the  winter  morning  sun  rise  before  them,  and 
greeted  it,  the  Minister  first,  with  the  chorus  in  the  Antigone, 
equally  familiar  to  them  both,  'Aktas  'AtAiou,  ('  Thou  beam 
of  the  sun ')." 


364     Bismarck  in  the  Franco-German  War.    [Chap.  XI 

This,  I  think,  needs  no  commentary.  I  only  say,  lucky 
for  Abeken  that  the  Minister  who  assisted  at  this  doubly 
unnatural  expression  of  feeling,  exhibited  probably  not 
for  the  first  time,  was  called  von  Manteuffel  and  not  von 
Bismarck.  I  should  like  to  have  seen  Bismarck's  indig- 
nation if  the  deceased  had  intoned  the  chorus  to  the  rising 
sun  before  him,  at  the  time  when  the  sun  of  Prussia  was 
setting  for  years. 


END  OF  VOLUME  I. 


"A  book  abounding:  in  matter  of  solid  Interest."— LokiUh  Spectator. 

^5p  (lotippninpnf  of  JIHJ*  %\m%. 

By    JULES     SIMON. 

Translated  front  the  French. 
Two  vols.  8vo $4,50. 

The  importance  of  this  book  among  the  materials  for  the  history  of  the 
time  is  at  once  self-evident,  and  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  Simon's  part 
in  the  most  intense  action  of  the  period  he  describes,  his  intimate  relations 
with  Thiers  himself,  and  his  position  in  the  Republican  party  of  France, 
unite  to  give  a  worth  to  his  narrative  such  as  could  hardly  attach  to  that  of 
any  other  eye-witness  of  these  events.  Such  records,  by  men  writing  of 
matters  in  the  very  crisis  of  their  own  activity,  generally  have  to  wait  for 
the  future  historian  to  put  them  into  their  lasting  form,  and  give  them  their 
greatest  interest  as  parts  of  the  whole  story.  But  the  most  remarkable  fea- 
ture of  M.  Simon's  book  is  that  it  does  not  need  this  treatment,  and  is  not 
so  much  a  personal  memoir — a  contribution  to  history — as  a  completed  pic- 
ture of  the  period.  There  is  a  justice  of  proportion  and  truth  of  historical 
perspective  about  it  that  is  very  unusual  in  the  work  of  one  recording  the 
politics  of  his  own  day.  Parts  are  not  unduly  magnified  because  they  were 
subjects  of  the  author's  special  personal  observation  and  interest ;  but  the 
relative  weight  of  different  events  is  as  carefully  given  as  though  by  a  philo- 
sophical looker-on  rather  than  an  actor.  There  is  a  strong  probability  that 
a  century  hence  the  book  will  still  be  looked  upon  as  among  the  first 
authorities,  in  impartiality  and  full  appreciation  of  the  time  it  treats. 

Simon's  pen-pictures  of  contemporaries — even  of  adversaries — are  very 
striking,  in  the  fact  that  they  are  generally  just  without  losing  any  of  their 
vigor.  They  are  as  interesting  from  another  point  of  view — if  not  as 
"ruthless" — as  those  of  the  great  German  chancellor,  whose  comments  on 
the  characters  of  those  engaged  in  the  same  scenes  are  often  supplemented 
by  these  sketches.  The  future  historian  of  the  last  ten  years  can  hardly 
complain  that  he  lacks  knowledge  of  their  leading  men,  when  he  has  at  hand 
this  history  and  Dr.  Busch's  memoirs  of  Prince  Bismarck, 


From  the  "  London  Spectator." 

"  The  special  interest  connected  with  these  volumes  is  to  be  found  in  striking  and  vivid 
notices  scattered  through  them  of  points  which  only  one  intimately  connected  with  the 
transactions  under  review  could  have  known.  With  the  single  exception  of  M.  Barthe- 
lemy  St.  Hilaire,  no  person  was  so  closely  associated  with  M.  Thiers  during  the  course  of 
his  administration  as  Jules  Simon.  *  *  *  *  Xhe  various  chapters  are  devoted  to  so 
many  episodes — many  of  them  stirring  episodes — that  are  told  with  striking  force.  Of 
course  the  spirit  of  the  narrative  is  strongly  biased,  but  it  cannot  be  said  that  M.  Jules 
Simon  writes  with  want  of  candour.  *  *  *  *  The  history  of  the  constant  and  patient 
struggle  of  M.  Thiers  against  turbulent  and  factious  combinations,  though  oot  unlre- 
quently  attended  by  sallies  on  his  own  part  of  seeming  impatience  and  querulousncss,  is 
narrated  in  graphic  chapters.  Two  especially  must  command  attention — those  in  which 
M.  Simon  tells  the  tale  of  the  Commune  and  of  the  negotiations  which  M.  Thiers  carried 
on  with  so  much  skill  and  pertinacity  for  the  liberation  of  France  from  the  invader  at  a 
term  earlier  than  that  fixed  by  the  original  treaty." 

*if*  The  above  book  for  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or  ivill  he   sent,  ^e^aid,   upon 
receipt  of  price,  by 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS,  Publishers, 

743  AND  745  Broadway,  New  York. 


IjOITDUN  times.— "BT  far  the  best  Historr  of  the  DecUne  and  Fall 
«f  tbe  RomEin  Commonwealth." 


THE 

iiisturi)  of  Borne, 

FROM  THE  EARLIEST  TIME  TO  THE  PERIOD  OF  ITS  DECLINR. 
By  Dr.  THEODOE  MOMMSEN. 

fnnslated,  with  the  aathor''s  sanation  and  additions,  by  the  Rev.  W.  P.  Dickson,  Regiot 

Professor  of  Biblical  Criticism  in  the  University  of  Glasgow,  late  Classical 

Kxamiuer  in  the  University  of  St  Andrews.    With  an  In- 

troduftion  by  Dr.  Leonharo  Schmitz. 

REPBINTED  FROM  THE  REVISED  LONDON  EDITION. 

toTiT  Volumes  crown  8vo.  Price  per  Volume,  $2.00, 


Dr.  MOMMSEN  has  long  been  known  and  appreciated  through  his  researches 
into  the  languages,  laws,  and  institutions  of  Ancient  Rome  and  Italy,  as 
the  most  thoroughly  versed  scholar  now  living  in  these  departments  of  his- 
torical investigation.  To  a  wonderfully  exa6t  and  exhaustive  knowledge  of 
these  subje6ts,  he  unites  great  powers  of  generalization,  a  vigorous,  spirited, 
and  exceedingly  graphic  style  and  keen  analytical  powers,  which  give  this 
history  a  degree  of  interest  and  a  permanent  value  possessed  by  no  othei 
record  of  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  Roman  CommoUwealth.  "  Dr. 
Mommsen's  work,"  as  Dr.  Schmitz  remarks  in  the  introdu6tion,  "  though 
the  produflion  of  a  man  of  most  profound  and  extensive  learning  a'ld 
knowledge  of  the  world,  is  not  as  much  designed  for  the  professional 
scholar  as  for  intelligent  readers  of  all  classes  who  take  an  interest  in  the  his- 
tory of  by-gone  ages,  and  are  inclined  there  to  seek  information  that  may 
guide  them  safely  through  the  perplexing  mazes  of  modem  history." 

CRITICAL  NOTICES. 

"  A  work  of  the  very  highest  merit ;  its  learning  is  exa£t  and  profound  ;  its  narrative  fuU 
of  genius  and  skill ;  its  descriptions  of  men  are  admirably  vivid.  We  wish  to  place  o» 
record  our  opinion  that  Dr.  Mommsen's  is  by  far  the  best  history  of  the  Decline  and  Fall 
if  the  Roman  Commonwealth." — London  Times. 

"  Since  the  days  of  Niebuhr,  no  work  on  Roman  History  has  appeared  that  combines  sc 
mucb  to  attract,  instruft,  and  charm  the  reader.  Its  style — ^a  rate  quJity  in  a  German  au 
thor — is  vigorous,  spirited,  and  animated.  Professor  Mommsen's  work  can  stand  a  coui 
pari.saa  with  the  noblest  produAions  of  modem  history."— Z)r.  Schmitz, 

"  This  is  the  best  history  of  the  Roman  Republic,  taking  the  work  on  the  whole — tiM 
author's  complete  mastery  of  his  subjeft,  the  variety  of  his  gifts  and  acquirements,  his 
(tAphic  power  in  the  delineation  of  national  and  individual  chara<5ter,  and  the  vivid  intereil 
which  he  inspires  in  every  portion  of  his  book.  He  is  without  an  equal  in  bis  own  sphesn.* 
-  JSJiniurgh  Rrview. 

"  A  oo«k  of  deepest  interest" — Dean  Trenth. 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS, 

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•A  GREAT  StJOOESS." -Pall  Mall  Qazetts. 


Jk.      ITE-W      ^  IT  ID       C  H  E -A.  !>  E  S,      "FlXIITIOir. 

MR.    EUGENE    SCHUYLER'S 

TURKISTAN: 

Notes  of   a  Journey  in  1873,  in  the  Russian  Province  of 

Turkistan,  the  Khanates  of  Khokan  and  Bukhara, 

and  Provinces  of  Kuldja. 

By   EUGENE  SCHUYLER,  Ph.D., 

Fonnerly  Secretary  of  the  American  Legation  at  St.  Petersburg,  now  Consul-Geno^ 

at  Constantinople. 

OPINIONS    OF   THE    PRESS. 

From  the  London  Times. 
"  Mr.  Schuyler  will  be  ranked  among  the  most  accomplished  of  living  traveler*. 
Many  parts  of  his  book  will  be  found  of  interest,  even  by  the  most  exacting  of  genera] 
readers;  and,  as  a  whole,  it  is  incomparably  the  most  valuable  record  of  Central  Asia 
which  has  been  published  in  this  country." 

From  the  N.  Y.  Evening  Post. 

"Th«>  author's  chief  aim  appears  to  have  been  to  do  all  that  he  says  he  tried  to  do, 
and  to  do  greatly  more  beside — namely,  to  study  everything  there  was  to  study  in  the 
countries  which  he  visited,  and  to  tell  the  world  all  about  it  in  a  most  interesting  way. 
He  is,  indeed,  a  model  traveler,  and  he  has  written  a  model  book  of  travels,  in  which 
every  line  is  interesting,  and  from  which  nothing  that  any  reader  can  want  to  hear  about 
has  \>e.K:\\  excluded.  ' 

Mr.  Gladstone  in  the  ^'■Contemporary  Review." 

"One  of  the  most  solid  and  painstaking  works  which  have  been  published  among  lif 
in  recent  years." 

From  the  Ne^u  York  Times. 

"Its  descriptions  of  the  country  and  of  the  people  living  in  It  are  always  Interesting 
and  frequently  amusing  :  but  it  is  easy  to  see  that  they  have  been  written  by  one  who  U 
not  only  so  thorou2;hly  cosmopolitan  as  to  know  intuitively  what  is  worth  telling  and  what, 
had  better  be  omitted,  but  who  is,  also,  so  practiced  a  writer  as  to  understand  precisel} 
how  to  set  forth  what  he  has  to  say  in  the  most  effective  manner." 

From  the  Atlantic  Monthly. 

"Undoubtedly  the  most  thoroughly  brilliant  and  entertaining  work  on  Turkistar 
which  has  yet  been  given  to  the  English-speaking  world." 

From  the  Independent. 
"It  is  fortunate  that  a  record  of  the  sort  appears  at  this  time,  and  doubly  fortunate 
that  It  comes  from  the  hand  of  so  wise,  well-informed,  and  industrious  a  traveler  and 
diplomat" 

From  the  New  York  World. 

"  Its  author  has  the  eye  and  pen  of  a  journalist,  and  sees  at  once  what  is  worth 
Bceing,  and  recites  his  impressions  m  the  most  graphic  manner." 

Tv70  vols.  8vo.    'With  three  Maps,  and  numerous  Illustrations, 
attractively  bound  in  cloth,  price  reduced  from  $7.50  to  $5. 

*,*  The  above  book  for  sale  by  all  booksell  rs,  or    will  be  sent,  post  or  exj>res> 
charges  paid,  upon  receipt  of  the  price  by  the  publishers, 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS, 

743  AND  745  Broadway,  New  York. 


ANOTHER  GREAT  HISTORICAL  WORK 


^IJF  l^ixtoFg  of  (JpFFrr, 

By  Prof.  Dr.  ERNST  CURTIUS. 

Translated  by  ADOLPHUS  WILLIAM  WARD,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  St.  Peter's 
College,  Cambridge,  Prof,  of  History  in  Owen's  College,  Manchester. 

Complete  in  five  vols.,  crown  8vo,  at  $2.50  per  volume. 

PuNTKD  UPON  Tinted  Paper,  uniform  with  Mommskn's  History  of  Romr,  anb  thi 
Library  Edition  of  Froude's  History  of  Enguuid. 


Curtius*  History  of  Greece  is  similar  in  plan  and  purpose  to  Mommsen's  History  of 
Rome,  with  which  it  deserves  to  rank  in  every  respect  as  one  of  the  great  masterpieces  of 
historical  literature.  Avoiding  the  minute  details  which  overburden  other  similar  works, 
it  groups  together  in  a  very  picturesque  manner  all  the  important  events  in  the  history  ol 
this  kingdom,  which  has  exercised  such  a  wonderful  influence  upon  the  world's  civilization. 
The  narrative  of  Prof.  Curtius'  work  is  flowing  and  animated,  and  the  generalizationtt 
although  bold,  are  philosophical  and  sound. 


CRITICAL  NOTICES. 


"Prc>fessor  Curtius'  eminent  scholarship  is  a  sufficent  guarantee  for  the  trustworthiness  ol 
his  history,  while  the  skill  with  which  he  groups  his  facts,  and  his  effective  mode  of  narrating 
them,  combine  to  render  it  no  less  readable  than  sound.  Professor  Curtius  everywhere  main- 
lairs  the  true  dignity  and  impartiality  of  history,  and  it  is  evident  his  sympathies  are  on 
the  side  of  justice,  humanity,  and  progress." — London  Athena'uin. 

"We  can  not  express  our  opinion  of  Dr.  Curtius'  book  better  than  by  saying  that  it  may 
be  fitly  ranked  with  Theodor  Mommsen's  great  work. " — London  Spectntor. 

"As  an  introduction  to  the  study  of  Grecian  history,  no  previous  work  is  comparable  to 
the  present  for  vivacity  and  picturesque  beauty,  while  in  sound  learning  and  accuracy  ol 
statement  it  is  not  inferior  to  the  elaborate  productions  which  enrich  the  literature  of  th« 
»gc.-' — N.  Y.  Daily  Tribune. 

"The  History  of  Greece  is  treated  by  Dr.  Curtius  so  broadly  and  freely  in  the  spirh  d 
the  nineteenth  century,  that  it  becomes  in  his  hands  one  of  the  worthiest  and  most  instructive 
branches  of  study  for  all  who  desire  something  more  than  a  knowledge  of  isolated  facts  fot 
dieir  education.  This  transi  ition  ought  to  become  a  regular  part  ol  the  accepted  course 
^  residing  for  young  men  it  college,  and  for  all  who  are  in  training  for  the  Bee  political 
tfe  of  our  country." — N.  Y.  Evening  Post. 

*^*  The  abo^ie  book  for  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or    tvill  be  sent,  post  or  express 
charges  paid,  upon  receipt  of  the  price  by  the  publishers, 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS, 

743  AND  745  Broadway,  New  York. 


•*  Thi  great  meriU  of  this  work  have  long  since  made  it  an  American 
Classic,  as  well  as  given  it  an  international  reputation" — The  Nation. 


The  Earth  as  Modified  by  Hum  Action 

BY    GEORGE    P.    MARSH, 

Xttthor    of    "  Lectures    on    the    English    Language,"    *e. 

A    NEW  AND   REVISED    EDITION. 
Oae  volume,  crown  8vo,  cloth.    Price  reduced  from  $4.50  to  $3. 


OPINIONS    OF  TSE  PHESS. 


The  IjOndon  Spectator — "The  hook,  though  it  is,  as  we  have  said,  scientific  in 
method,  is  intended  less  for  the  professed  physicist  than  for  persons  of  general  intelli- 
gence and  culture,  and  to  such  we  sincerely  recommend  it.  The  style  is  clear  and 
often  graphic,  and  the  work  is  full  of  interesting  and  suggestive  information." 

Tbe  Nation — "  It  is  in  our  opinion  one  of  the  most  useful  and  suggestive  works  eve* 
published,  and  to  those  who  have  never  reflected  on  the  various  ways  in  which  man- 
kind, consciously  or  unconsciously,  disturb  the  equilibrium  of  nature  with  effects  bene- 
ficial, indifferent,  or  disastrous,  as  the  case  may  be,  Mr.  Marsh's  observations  and 
laboriously-collected  facts  will  come  with  the  force  of  a  revelation.  The  least  obser- 
vant and  reflecting  will  find  entertainment  in  reading  him,  and  all  may  profit  by 
his  teachings." 

The  Evangelist — "At  whatever  part  of  the  book  the  reader  commences,  he  will  find 
himself  reluctant  to  lay  it  down.  To  an  intelligent  reader  it  presents  a  most  fascin- 
ating subject  of  study,  and  will  be  read  over  and  over  again  with  new  pleasure.  It 
will  quicken  his  own  observation  of  nature,  and  will  thus  prove  of  great  practical 
utility." 

The  Congregationalist — "To  the  multitude  of  readers  to  whom  it  is  a  stranger  we 
may  say  that  it  is  worthy  of  their  eager  acquaintance.  They  will  find  it  a  storehouse 
of  most  interesting  facts,  skillfully  arranged  by  a  philosophic  mind  into  a  story 
whose  fascination  is  fully  equaled  by  its  important  bearing  upon  the  general  welfare." 

The  Churchman — "To  those  who  are  interested  in  Physical  Geography,  and  more 
especially  in  the  relation  between  that  study  of  Social  Science  and  Political  Economy, 
this  work  will  be  of  great  value.  It  must  be,  moreover,  to  all,  a  source  of  literary 
entertainment  and  a  means  of  useful  instruction." 

The  N.Y.  Daily  World — "Mr.  Marsh  addresses  himself  in  this  work  to  practical 
and  thinking  men,  not  to  physicists.  It  would  be  a  happy  thing  if  this  work  could 
find  a  place  in  every  farmer's  library.  It  contains  a  mine  of  facts  which  in  an  inci- 
dental way  would  be  of  invaluable  use  to  him." 

The  'Watchman  and  Reflector — "The  Author  gives  to  his  treatment  of  a  largo 
and  generous  scholarship  a  broad  and  accurate  knowledge  of  facts,  a  clear,  simple, 
eloquent  style,  and  a  spirit  earnest  for  the  conservation  of  those  elements  in  the  world 
around  us  that  are  essential  for  the  best  physical  being  of  the  human  race." 


•,*  TAe  above  hook  for  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or  will  be  sent,  excess  charges  ^id, 
vii>n.  receipt  0/  the  irice,  by 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS, 

743  AND  745  Broadway,  New  York. 


KLUNZINGER'S 

UPPER    EGYPT: 

ITS  PEOPLE  AND  ITS   PRODUCTS. 
A  DESCRIPTIVE  ACCOUNT 

OF   THE 

Manners,    Customs,    Superstitions,    and    Occupations    of    the 

People  of  the  Nile  Valley,  the  Desert,  and  the  Red  Sea  Coast, 

with  Sketches  of  the  Natural  History  and  Geology. 

By   C.    B.    KLUNZiNGER,    M.D., 

Formerly  Egyptiati  Sanitary  Physiciafi  at  Koseir,  on  the  Red  Sea, 


One  Volume,  8vo,  Illustrated,  cloth.    Price,  $3.00 


KOTICES   OF  THE  PRESS. 

"A  work  of  great  value,  a  most  interesting  accumulation  of  facts,  and  such  ; 
description  of  the  actual  manners  and  customs  of  the  Egyptians  as  is  to  be  found  nowhert 

else Dr.  Schliemann  calls  it  the  'Baedeker'  of  Egypt,  and  the  epithet  i» 

not  undeserved."— A'arZ/z  Americati  Revieiv. 

"A  book  of  decided  value  and  great  interest." — Hartford  Courant. 

"A  solid,  unique,  and  trustworthy  work." — Springfield  Republican. 

"The  book  is  one  that  will  be  amply  pleasing  to  the  popular  taste,  and  at  the  same 
time  will  give  to  those  who  read  for  a  more  solid  purpose  than  entertainment,  a  remark- 
ably close  acquaintance  with  the  land  of  the  Nile." — Boston  Journal. 

"  From  first  to  last  there  is  not  a  line  of  what  might  be  called  dry  reading,  though 
everything  is  described  with  photographic  accuracy.  Indeed,  so  strong  is  the  realism  ol 
the  pi.  tures  which  he  gives  us  of  Life  in  Upper  Egypt,  that  the  reaiier  must,  for  the 
time,  feel  that  he  is  a  fellow-traveler  with  the  author,  instead  of  an  humble  beneficiary  of 
of  his  researches." — Baltimore  Gazette, 

"The  book,  although  presented  in  the  truthful  form  of  a  personal  narrative  of  inci- 
dents of  life  and  travel,  possesses  the  interest  of  a  romance  presented  in  a  series  of  word 
pictures  which  are  as  fascinating  as  they  are  instructive  to  the  reader." — Neiv  Vork 
Commercial  Advertiser. 

"The  reader  is  not  wearied  with  any  second-hand  descriptions  of  scenery,  or  with 
figures  and  plans  culled  from  the  useful  pages  of  cyclopedias  ;  but  he  is  given  a  vivid 
and  picturesque  account  of  a  historically  interesting  people,  and  of  a  laud  that  even  yet 
is  too  imperfectly  known." — Boston  Sat.  Eve.    Gazette. 


*»*  The  above  book  for  sale  by  all  bookselli-rs,  or   will  be  sent,  ^st  or  express 
charges  paid,  upon  receipt  of  the  price  by  the  publishers, 


CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS, 

743  AND  745  Broadway,  New  York. 


Popular  and  Standard  Books 

PUBLISHED  BY 

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Keats'  (John)  Letters  to  Fanny  Bra^f    w.t^"  p         '       *  '  ~ 

Kingsley  (Charles).     All  Saintl' DayTnd  .^er  Sermrr"     •^'"°'  ^'°'»'--   '  5° 
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