Bismarck in the Franco-German war, 1870-1871

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BISMARCK

FRANCO-GERMAN WAR

1870-1871.

AUTHORISED TRANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN OF

DR. MORITZ BUSCH.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
Vol. II.

ILnnUon :

MACMILLAN AND CO.

1879.

THIRD THOUSAND.

LONDON ; PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET
AND CHARING CROSS.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

CHAP. PAGE

XII. Increasing Anxiety for Decisive Action in

SEVERAL directions I

XIII. The Difficulty in the Reichstag about the

Convention with Bavaria removed— The
Bombardment put off 32

XIV. Prospects before Paris improve ... .80

XV. Chaudordy and Facts — Officers breaking
their Parole — French Misconstructions —
The Crown Prince entertained by the
Chief .... ii8

' XVI. First Weeks of the Bombardment .... 169

XVII. The Last Weeks before the Capitulation of

Paris . . ^ 210

XVIII. Negotiations for the Capitulation of Paris . 245

XIX. From Gambetta's Retirement to the Conclu-
sion OF the Peace Preliminaries .... 332

BISMARCK

IN THE

FRANCO-GERMAN WAR.

CHAPTER XII.

INCREASING ANXIETY FOR DECISIVE ACTION IN SEVERAL
DIRECTIONS.

About the middle of November I wrote home : " It is still
possible that we may get back before Christmas. From
expressions attributed to the King in the last few days many
think it likely. For my own part I don't put much faith in
it, although everything is going well, and Paris will pro-
bably be reduced to meal and horse-flesh in three or four
weeks, and must accordingly ' sing small,' especially when
Hindersin's big guns begin to assist to rapid decisions a
government made reasonable by starvation. I can under-
stand how our good friend S. finds the thing slow. Certainly
the war makes no account of his comfort or that of those
who feel with him. Let him possess himself in patience a
while longer, like our soldiers, who have to wait for the end '
in hunger and dirt, while he and other fine people in Berlin
lie on comfortable sofas and have their cups and platters
full. These omniscient critics of the bar and the tap-room,
with their eternal grumbling and fault-finding, are a queer
sort, ridiculous and very unsatisfactory.''

VOL. II. E

2 Bismarck i7t the Franco-German War. [Chap.

In all this there was certainly some truth. But when it
became clear that the Parisians had been provisioned for
longer than we believed, when the big guns of General
Hindersin kept silence for weeks after, and the German
question would not get solved in the way we wanted, the dis-
content, even in the-house in the Rue de Provence, increased
daily, while rumours that people who had no business to
interfere were preventing the beginning of the bombardment
gained greater and greater force week after week.

Whether these rumours were well-grounded I must leave an
open question. It is certain, however, that there were other
causes also at work to prevent the bombardment beginning
as soon as people wished, and that, the effectual blockade
of Paris itself was something unprecedented. Let me quote,
for instance, what Major Blume said of it in 187 1 : — -

" Foreign military critics had declared the blockade of
Paris absolutely impossible till it actually took place, and
they had very good grounds for their opinions. When the
inhabitants were first shut in, there were nearly 400,000
armed men in the city, some 60,000 of whom were line
troops, and nearly 100,000 Gardes Mobiles of the city and
the neighbouring departments. The line and the Mobiles
were armed with the chassepot, and whatever the defects
of their military training, they were certainly capable of -de-
fending themselves behind walls and ditches, and, if pro-
perly led, of making dangerous sorties. The fortified
enceinte of Paris was 18 miles, the line connecting the forts,
34 miles ; the line through the most advanced outposts of
the besieging army, 50 miles long ; the direct telegraph line,
which joined up with each other the headquarters of the
several army corps, extended for not less than go miles. The
German army, which completed the investment on Sept. 19,
consisted of no more than 122,000 infantry, 24,000 cavalry.

XII.] Nmnber of German Army before Paris. 3

and 622 guns. The effective strength of the different
divisions had been greatly reduced by the battles they had
fought and their march as far as Paris. The Guards, for
instance, numbered only 14,200, and the Fifth Army Corps
only 16,000 infantry. Thus the investment of Paris vi^as a
bold undertaking, far more so than even the French used
dien to represent it, and a very little self-examination would
convince them now how little right they have to comfort them-
selves with fine-sounding phrases about the glorious defence
of their capital.' For four long weeks there was only a.
single German foot-soldier per yard over the enormously
long line of investment Gradually the Eleventh North
German, the First Bavarian Army Corps, and the relief troops
melted in to fill up the gaps. The fall of Strassburg freed
the Guards' division of the Landwehr, and at the close of
October our two armies round Paris numbered 202,000
infantry, 33,800 cavalry, and 898 guns. Besides the strain
of outpost duty, and the perpetual necessity of strengthening
the line of investment, thes-e troops had every now and then
to spare strong detachments to sweep clear the immediate
neighbourhood of the besieging army. Taking all things
into account, the number of the German troops directly
engaged in the investment of Paris hardly ever exceeded
200,000 men.''

Blume proceeds to explain what he believes to have been
the reasons why no attempt was made in September to take
the city by assault, and why a regular siege was not opened
against it afterwards. The forts and the enceinte which
protected the city could not have been carried by storm.
As to a regular siege, or even an artillery attack on single
forts, the chief obstacle, apart from the numerical weakness of
the troops who would have had to undertake it, was our great
poverty in suitable siege guns. These could not be brought

B 2

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

up till after Toul fell and the railway was opened to Nanteuil,
which was not till the last week of September. Nanteuil
was still fifty miles from Paris, and after the railway- up to it
had been cleared for traffic, the first thing was to provide
suitably for the health and comfort of the troops. Round
Paris itself there were no stores or warehouses, little indeed
but wine-shops. The army had to live from hand to mouth.
Reserve magazines had to be organised and filled, and till
that was done the siege guns had to wait. Even after the
guns had got to Nanteuil there was plenty of trouble.
Nearly 300 cannon of the heaviest calibre, with five hundred
rounds of shot and ammunition for each of them, " necessary
as a first supply," had to be dragged fifty miles on waggons
" over execrable roads." The necessary four-wheeled carts
could not be collected in France, and long columns of
ammunition waggons had at last to be brought from Ger-
many. Through these causes and others Major Blume
asserts that in December, when the preparations began for
the artillery attack on Mount Avron and the forts on the
south of Paris, the park of artillery was of very moderate
strength. Besides the forty rifled six-pounders, there were
only 235 guns, nearly half of which were rifled twelve-
pounders. They were hardly fit, as Blume says, to do more
than make a sort of moral impression on the city. But
that, he adds, "was all that was wanted, and in the circum-
stances it was no use arranging for a regular siege, or for
parallels of investment for the reduction of the forts."

"About the middle of January 123 guns were playing on
the southern front of Paris. They threw into the city from
two to three hundred grenades daily, sufficient to make every
place on the left bank of the river ' lively,' and to drive most
of the inhabitants from their houses. The actual material
damage was certainly trifling. After the fall of Mdziferes,

XII.] French and German Soldiers Prisoners. 5

however, a good many more heavy guns were placed in
position, and the successes of our batteries in the north
enabled us to prepare an attack of decisive moment against
Saint-Denis, and to bring the northern half of Paris also
'under fire. The powers of resistance had, however, by
that time been completely exhausted. Shortly after the
last unsuccessful sortie on January 19, the city laid down
its arms, and the armistice and peace followed in due
course."

I return to the middle of November, and I shall leave my
journal to speak for itself as much as I can.

Wednesday, November 16. — The Chief is still out of
sorts. People attribute it partly to worry over our negotia-
tions with 'several of the South German States, which seem
once more to be hanging fire, and to his annoyance with the
military authorities, who are supposed not even to have
asked his opinion on several points which involved more
than merely military questions.

After three o'clock I spent some time again with the
officers of the 46th, who have been run from the outposts
into this haven of rest for a few days, and are making
themselves comfortable in the Chateau of Chesnay. H., who
will now probably soon get his iron cross, tells us a pretty
little anecdote of the last few weeks. In the struggle near
Malmaison they had to get over a breach in the wall of a
park, which, however, was still too high for him to climb
without laying aside his drawn sword. He was in some
perplexity, when he noticed on the other side a handsome,
strapping French lad, who had been taken prisoner and
disarmed. Calling him up he asked him to hold the sword.
The lad laughingly did as he was told, returned him his
weapon afterwards with a smile and a bow, and did the
same good turn for the sergeant-major who was clambering

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

up behind H. Naturally the soldiers would have shot the
man down on the slightest sign of an inclination to keep the
sword. These Gauls let themselves be taken prisoner now,
H. thinks, without making any difficulty. The reason of this
is no want of food in the Paris army so far. The deserter
Zouave sergeant caught at the outposts at La Celle looked
an extremely well-nourished person. Everybody here is
eager and impatient for the beginning of the bombardment,
and everybody maintains for certain that it has been so far
prevented by some ladies of high station interceding that
the city should be spared. To-day people expected — from
what signs or on what grounds I omitted to inquire — a great
sortie of the Parisians. I tell them that such an attempt
would have far fewer chances of success now than some
weeks ago, as Prince Frederick Charles and his troops are
already at Rambouillet.

Count Waldersee dines with us. The Chief again com-
plains that the military authorities don't inform him of
everything of importance that goes on. It was after re-
peated entreaties that he got them to agree to send him,
at all events, what they were telegraphing to the German
papers. In 1866 it was a different story. He was then
summoned to every consultation. " And so I ought to be,"
he says ; " my business requires it ; I need to know all that
goes on in military matters, so that I may be able to make
peace at the right time."

Thursday, November 17. — After breakfasting with us,
Delbriick, who lived two or three doors away, towards the
Avenue de Saint-Cloud, set out to-day for Berlin, where the
Reichstag is to open its sessions. At breakfast we learned
that Keudell had been elected, but that he would soon come
back to us. Before breakfast I had looked through several
French balloon letters, also a heap of Paris newspapers, and

XII.] Garibaldi and his Francs-tireurs. 7

among them La Patrie of the loth, with an interesting
attack on the provisional government by About — saying
pretty much the same thing as Figaro has been saying
recently — the Gazette de France of the 12th, and the Liberte
of the loth. Afterwards I sent to Berlin a translation of the
letter which the president of the Roman Junta has directed
to the Allgemeine Zeitung. In the afternoon we heard that
Prince Frederick Charles had arrived at Orleans.

Alten and Prince Radziwill were the Chief's guests at
dinner. Somebody said that there was a rumour that
Garibaldi, with his 13,000 "free companions," had been
taken prisoner. The Minister said, " That would be very
serious : 13,000 Francs-tireurs, who are not even Frenchmen,
made prisoners — why on earth were they not shot?" He
complained once more that the military authorities so seldom
ask his opinion. " There, for instance, is this capitulation
at Verdun, which I should certainly not have advised.
They have promised to give back the arms after peace is
made, and tlie French magistrates are to order and settle
everything meanwhile as they think proper. The first is a
trifle, for in making peace we may stipulate that the arms
are not to be given back. But 'as they think proper !' Our
hands are tied fast, and meantime they can go against us in
everything and act just as if no war were going on. They
might openly encourage a rising for the Republic, and
according to the agreement we could not protect ourselves."

Somebody then spoke of the article of the Diplomatist
in the Independance Beige, which prophesies the return of
Napoleon. "No doubt," said the Chancellor, "if he has
read the article, he is picturing something of the kind to
himself. After all, it is not quite impossible. If he made
peace with us he might return with the troops he has in
Germany. It is something like our Hungarian legion on a

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

large scale. He is really the regular government. After
the restoration of order he would not need more than
200,000 men to maintain it. It would not be necessary to
overawe the large towns with troops, except Paris. Perhaps
Lyons and Marseilles should be made safe; but he could
trust all the rest to the National Guard, and if the Re-
publicans rose he could shoot them down."

A telegram stating what Granville had said about the
Russian declaration respecting the Treaty of Paris was
brought in, and the Prince began upon it at once. " It
means pretty much this, that Russia claims the right to set
herself free from a part of the Treaty of 1856, and on her
own initiative takes what can only be , given her by the
collective powers. England cannot allow a pretension like
this, which would make any and every treaty worthless.
Future complications are much to be feared." The Minister
laughs, saying : " Future complications ! Parliamentary
speeches ! Risk nothing ! The accent is on the word
' Future.' That is the sort of talk when people mean to do
nothing at all. No, nothing is to be feared, as four months
since nothing was to be hoped from these people. If at the
beginning of the war the English had said to Napoleon,
' Don't fight,' this would never have happened." After a while
he went on : " People have always said that the Russian
policy is diabolically artful — full of shuffles, and quirks and
dodges. It is nothing of the kind. Dishonest people would
have made no such declaration ; they would have gone on
quietly building war ships in the Black Sea and waited till
somebody asked them about it. Then they would have
said they knew nothing about it, they had ' sent to inquire,'
and they would have wriggled out. They might have kept
that sort of thing up a long time in Russia, till at last every-
body had got used to things as they were." Bucher said

XII.] Spain and the War. 9

" They have already three war ships in the Black Sea built in
Sebastopol; and if they were told, You can't have any
here, they might answer that they really couldn't get them
away, as the passage of the Dardanelles was closed against
them in 1856."

Another telegram announces the election of the Duke of
Aosta as King of Spain. The Chief says, " I am sorry for
him and for Spain. He is elected by a narrow majority —
not by two-thirds as was originally intended. There are
about 190 votes for and 115 not for him." Alten is happy
over the monarchical sentiment of the Spaniards, which even
now has been victorious. " Ah, these Spaniards," says
the Minister. " Did a single man of these Castilians, with
their elevated feelings, even whisper his indignation when
this war was set afoot by their former election, by Napo-
leon's interference with their freedom of choice and by
his treating them as his vassals ? " Somebody said it was
all over now with the candidature of the Prince of Hohen-
zollern. "Yes," replied the Chief, "because he chose
that it should be. Only a fortnight since I said to him,
' There is still time.' But he had ceased to care for it."
In the evening at tea-time somebody said that Borck was
quite delighted to learn that we should pass our Christmas
at home. He had said to the King, " People must be begin-
ning to think about the Christmas gifts for the Queen."
■" Ah," said Yltt Majesty, " and how long is it now till
Christmas ?" " Five weeks, your Majesty." " Well, we shall
be home by that time." A story or a misunderstanding, I
believe. Let me make a note of it, however.

Friday, November 18. — Thick mist in the morning,
which cleared up about eleven, and gathered again a little
in the afternoon. At breakfast we learn that General von
Treskow has driven 7,000 moblots out of Dreux and

10 Bismarck in the Franco-Gertnan War. [Chap.

occupied the town. I asked whether I might telegraph
the fact, and was told, " Yes," so that I did so. Afterwards
I went out with Wollmann to Ville d'Avray for another
look at Paris. When we got back the Bavarian Minister
of War, von Pranky, was with the Chief, in the salon.
In the office we talked about Keudell as hkely to come
back to-morrow or on Sunday, and about a small sortie
made against the position of the Bavarians, no details of
which, however, had come in. The evening edition of
the National Zeitung of the 15th, under the head of Great
Britain, has notices of Regnier and his visits to us in
Metz and to Eugdnie. He is a well-to-do proprietor,
married to an Englishwoman, and a friend of Madame
Lebreton, one of the Empress's ladies, who escaped from
France before the war. Pie seems a volunteer diplomatist,
and as we had previously guessed among ourselves, he
appears to have undertaken his role of mediator on his
own prompting. At dinner the guests were Count Bray, the
Minister von Lutz, and von Mancler, a Wiirtemberg officer.
Bray is a tall, lanky man with long, smooth-hanging hair
plastered down the side of his head and behind his ears,
clean-shaven all but a short poverty-stricken whisker, with
thin lips, very thin hands and uncommonly long fingers.
He says little, radiates a chill all round him, and certainly
does not feel himself at home where he is. He might
easily be taken for an Englishman. The usual Jesuit of our
comic papers is very much his sort of figure. Lutz is the
exact opposite, middle-aged, round, ruddy, with a black
moustache, dark hair brushed high back from his forehead,
with spectacles, brisk and talkative. Mancler is an uncom-
monly handsome young fellow. The Chief is very good-
humoured and sympathetic, but the conversation this time
has no particular significance, turning mostly on beer

XII.] Christmas here or at Home ? 1 1

questions, in discussing which Lutz was much interested,
and gave us a great deal of information.

Saturday, November 19. — Nothing to do in the morning
but to read through the papers. The Chief is occupied,
I suppose, with the Bavarian aifair. Bray and Lutz have
been with him again in consultation from one o'clock. In
the evening the Minister dined with the King, and Counts
Maltzahn and Lehndorf, and a c&rtain Herr von Zawadski
with us. He is a green hussar, wearing a white patch with
the red cross, the badge of the Knights of St. John, and the
iron cross on a white ribbon. He has a full red face and
wears a moustache. There is nothing to note about the
conversation. Bets are made that there will be a great
sortie to-morrow. Somebody has been told that the Ver-
sailles people are to give us a new St. Bartholomew's night
this evening, but nobody turns white at the news.

Sunday, November 20. — The band of a Thuiingian re-
giment woke the Chief up with a morning serenade. He sent
them down something to drink. Afterwards he came out to
the door, and took a glass in his hand, saying: ^'■Prosit!
(good luck !) We shall drink to our speedy return to our
mothers.'' The conductor asked him whether it would be
long till that time. The Minister answered : " Well, we
shan't spend our Christmas at home, though the Reserves
may. The rest of us will have to stay here among the
French. We have a great deal of money to get out of
them. But we are sure to get it pretty soon," he added,
laughing.

In the afternoon I made an excursion through Ville
d'Avray to Sfevres. Between the two, up on the hill by the
railway bridge, there is a magnificent view over one quarter
of Paris which lay before me in the bright afternoon sun-
shine. I returned through Chaville and Viroflay. In the

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

former village I came across a piece of soldiers' wit. They
had converted the figures on the pillars at the two sides of
a doorway into caricatures. A fisherman, or porter, with his
trousers turned up to the knee had been made into a sort of
sans-culotte, by giving him a muff and a pocket-handker-
chief, covering his shoulders with red epaulettes, strapping a
knapsack on his back, sticking a military cap behind his
ears, and arming him with a rusty musket. I had no time
to make out what the abbd on the other side represented.
They had stuck a three-cornered hat with a tricolour cockade
on his head, made him hold a huntsman's horn at his mouth,
hung a wine-bottle round his neck by a string, and fastened
a lantern in front of him.

At dinner our guest was General von Werder, a long man
with a dark moustache, who is Prussian Military Plenipo-
tentiary at St. Petersburg. Soon after he came in, the Chief
said, with a look of gratification on his face, "It is pos-
sible that we may yet come to terms with Bavaria." " Yes,"
cried Bohlen, " something of the sort is already mentioned in
the telegrams of one of the Berlin papers, the Volkszeitung,
the Staatslmrger-Zeifung, or one of that kind." The Minister
said, " I don't like that. It is too soon. After all, with the lot
of respectable people who have nothing to do and who find
things dull, there is little wonder that nothing can be kept
quiet" Afterwards, I can't now recall in what connection,
he happened to mention this anecdote of his youth : " When
I was quite small, there was a ball or something of the sort
given at our house, and when the company sat down to
table, I looked out for a place for myself and found one
somewhere in a corner where several gentlemen were seated.
They puzzled over the little guest, and talked to each other
about me in French : ' Who can the child be ? ' ' C'esf peut-
iire un fils- de la maison, ou une fi ' (' Perhaps it is a boy of

XII.] Jupiter Gagern. 13

the family, or a girl '). ' C'est un fils, monsieur ' (' It is
a boy, sir '), said I, quite unabashed, and they were not a
little astonished."

The conversation then turned on Vienna and Count
Beust, and the Chief said that Beust was apologising for
tlje uncivil note which had just appeared, declaring that
Biegeleben, and not he, was the author. The conversation
passed from him to the Gagerns, and, finally, to Heinrich
Gagern, of whom people once thought so much. Talking
about him, the Chief said, " He lets his daughter be brought
up as a Catholic. If he thinks Catholicism the right thing
there is nothing to be said ; but then he ought to become a
Catholic himself What he is doing is mere inconsistency
and cowardice." "I remember that, in 1850 or 1851, Man-
teuffel had been ordered to try to arrange an understanding
between Gagern's people and the Conservatives of the
Prussian party — for as far, at least, as the king was willing
to go on the German question." " He tried it with me and
Gagern, and one day we were invited to his house to supper
for three. Politics at first were hardly mentioned. Then
Manteuffel made some excuse and left us together. As
soon as he had gone, I tackled Gagern about politics, and
explained my whole position in a very sober and business-
like way. You should have heard Gagern. He put on his
Jupiter face, lifted his eyebrows, bristled up his hair, rolled
his eyes about, fixed them on the ceiling till they all but-
cracked, and talked at me with his big phrases as if^I had
been a_Eubhc m.e,eting. Of course__that got nothing out_of
me. I answered him quite coolly, and we remained as far i
apart as ever. When Manteuffel came back to us, and
Jupiter had had time to disappear, Manteuffel asked me,
' Well, what have you made up with each other ?' ' Indeed,'
said I, ' nothing is made up. He is frightfully stupid — and

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

takes me for a public meeting, the mere phrase-watering-pot
of a fellow ! Nothing is to be done with him.' "

We spoke of the bombardment, and the Chief said, " I
said to the King once more, so late as yesterday, that it was
now full time for it, and he had nothing to say against me.
He told me that he had ordered it, but the generals said
they were not ready.'' The conversation then turned on
General von MoUendorff, who had just died, and who was
said to have been a thoroughly fine old gentleman. Count
Bismarck-Bohlen told a story of him. " In the affair at
Schleswig, when shots were being fired in the distance,
Wrangel rode up to MoUendorff in a state of great excite-
ment to ask where the firing was going on. MoUendorff
could not say. Wrangel abused him, saying that it was his
duty to know, and burst away from us in a very theatrical
style. After a little, MoUendorff said, ' This Wrangel is
really half a brute and half a play actor. I sit here quietly
master of the situation.' " The Minister capped the story
with this other. " After the days of March, I remember
that the troops were in Potsdam and the King in Berlin.
When I went out to Potsdam a great discussion was going on
what was to be done. MoUendorff, who was there, sat on a
stool not far from me, looking very sour. They had peppered
him so that he could only sit half on. One was advising
this and another that, but nobody very well knew what to
do. I sat near the piano, saying nothing, but I struck a
couple of notes, ' Dideldum Dittera ' (here he hummed the
beginning of the infantry double-quick step). The old
fellow got up from his stool at once, his face iDeaming with
delight, embraced me, and said, ' That's the right thing ! — I
know what you mean — march on BerUn.' As things fell out,
however, nothing came of it."

After a little the Chancellor asked his guest, " What may

XII.] Seeing the Emperor in Russia. 1 5

every visit to the Emperor cost you now?" I don't re-
member what Werder replied ; but the Chief went on : " In
my time it was always a pretty dear thing, especially in
Zarskoje;----! had always at that time to pay fifteen or
twenty, sometimes five-and-twenty roubles, according as I
went at the request of the Emperor or on my own account.
In the form.er case it was dearer. The coachman and
footman who had fetched me, the house-steward who re-
ceived me — and when I had been invited he had his sword
at his side — the runner who preceded me through the whole
length of the castle to the Emperor's room, and that must
have been a thousand yards, all had to get something. You
know him, of course, the fellow with the high round feathers
on his head, like an Indian. He certainly earned his five
roubles. And I never got the same coachman to take me
back again. I could not stand these drains. We Prussians
had very poor pay — 25,000 thalers (^3750) salary, and
8000 thalers (^1200) for rent. No doubt I had a house
for that as big and fine as any palace in Berlin. But the
furniture was all old, faded, and shabby, and if I count in
repairs and other expenses, it came to quite 9000 thalers
(^^1350) a year. I found out, however, that I was not
expected to spend more than my salary, so I eked it out
by keeping no company. The French ambassador had
;£t 2,000 a year, and was allowed to charge his government
with the expense of all company which he could at all
consider official." " But of course you had free firing, which
comes to ^ good deal a year in St. Petersburg," said Werder.
" I beg your pardon," answered the Chief, " I had to pay
for that myself. But the wood would not have been so dear
if the officials had not made it dear. I remember once
seeing a fine load of wood on a Finland boat; I asked the
people their price, and what they named was very moderate.

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

I was about to buy it, when they asked me (he said this in
Russian) whether it was for the Treasury. I was imprudent
enough to say not for the Imperial treasury, but (he again
used the Russian words) for the Embassy of the King of
Prussia. When I came back to settle and get the wood
taken home, they had all run away. If I had given them
the address of a merchant with whom I could have come to
a private understanding, I should have had it for the third

of what I should otherwise have paid. The " (he used

again the Russian word for the Prussian ambassador) " was
in their eyes another officer of the Czar's, and they thought,
' No, when he has to settle with us he will say that we have
stolen the wood, and throw us into prison till we let him
have it for nothing.' "' He went on to tell other stories of
the way in which the Tchinovniks torment and plunder the
peasants, and came round again to the wretched pay of the
Prussian ambassador compared with the others. " It is the
same thing," he added, "in Berlin : a Prussian Minister gets
10,000 thalers (;^i5oo), while the English ambassador gets
63,000 (;£^94So), and the Russian, 44,000 (^6600) ; then
he charges his government with the expense of all official
entertainments, and when the Emperor stays with him he
usually gets a full year's extra salary. No wonder we cannot
keep pace with them.''

Monday, November 21. — ^The negotiations with Bavaria
don't yet seem to be quite concluded, but he hopes he
has brought them to a good end on essential points. The
way in which it has been managed is not to be made out
from what one hears. It seems clear to me that the result
is a compromise in which we have maintained what is
essential and given way to the wishes and demands of others
in everything else. No sort of pressure certainly has been
put upon them. It is conceivable that the question whether

XII.] The Bavarian Convention. 17

Elsass-Lothriiigen is to be retained or given back, has
constrained them to settle. Elsass-Lothringen can only be
asked from France in the name of and for all Germany.
The north has no immediate need of it, but to the south,
as history can tell the Particularists, it is as necessary as
daily bread. Bavaria is a sharer in the benefit. It is only
through her complete union with the north, which will
show every consideration for all her wishes, that Bavaria
can secure this wall of defence for herself in the west. It
would not look well that the more and more emphatic hope
and wish of the whole of Germany to recover that stolen
property should be disappointed through the struggles of the
Munich politicians against a closer union with the rest of
the country. Some people in the north may possibly have
contributed to make the Bavarians less obstinate. I don't
know how much there may be in what I was told to-day at
breakfast : " We might have had them earlier. But the

sent some good friend of his to Munich who knew

his feelings, who has dealt with them and shown them how
satisfactory the minor concessions really were, so that Bray
has already, probably, in his conference with the Minister,
taken a paper out of his pocket saying, .Look here ; such
and such men who are reasonably national, ask only so much.
After which very little would remain to be said."

Keudell is back and looking very well. About one o'clock
the Chief has a conference with Odo Russell, who was pre-
viously accredited from the Court of St. James's to Rome.
He has probably to discuss with the Minister the preten-
sions of Russia in respect to the Black Sea. After three,
when the Chief goes to the King, I start with H. for the
Hotel de Chasse, where we drink middling French beer
among a crowd of officers and army doctors, and chat with
the conversable landlady who dresses in black silks and

VOL. II. c

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

manages her business from her pulpit-like throne. The
Minister distributes among us a good many out of a parcel
of three thousand cigars which he received, I believe, as
a present from Bremen. I get my share. They are Pren-
sados and excellent.. The Chief is not with us j we have
Knobelsdorff as our guest.

In the evening L. has a story that Garibaldi has inflicted
a heavy defeat on us, in which six hundred of our cavalry
were killed. Stupid chatter ! Why not say six thousand at
once ? It costs no more breath. L. supposes that some-
thing must be decided near Orleans to-morrow, as our men
have surrounded the French. In the evening, a little before
nine, Russell is again with the Chancellor, and remains till
close on eleven.

Tuesday, November 22. — Detestable rainy weather in the
morning. While we are sitting at late breakfast Lutz has
a talk with the Chief in the salon. The latter opens the
door once and asks, " Can any of you gentlemen tell me
how many members Bavaria has in the Customs parlia-
ment?" I go to look it up in old Webet's Illustrated
Calendar, but found no information in what is usually a
good authority on such points. There must, however, have
been forty-seven or forty-eight. After three the Russian
General Annenkoff spends nearly an hour and a quarter with
the Minister. At dinner we have Prince Pless and a Count
Stolberg. The talk runs on a great discovery of fine wines
which were hidden in some hill or cellar in Bougival. It has
been duly confiscated according to the rules of war, as it falls
under the head of sustenance. B., who is our high steward,
complains that none of it has come our way. And, indeed,
on every occasion the foreign office is served as shabbily as
can be. They seem to try to palm off the most inconvenient
lodgings on the Chief, and to succeed pretty generally in

XII.] Shooting First. 19

finding them. " Yes," says he, laughing. " They certainly
don't behave nicely to me. It is most ungrateful of these
mihtary people whose interests I have always defended in
the Reichstag ! They will find me a changed man soon.
When I started for the war I was all for them, when I get
back I shall be a complete parliamentarian." Prince Pless
praises the Wiirtemberg troops, who make an admirable
impression, and who come next our own men in soldierly
bearing. The Chancellor agrees with him, but must put a
word in for the Bavarians. It seems to gratify him particu-
larly that they make such short work in shooting down
the Franc-tireur robbers. " Our North Germans go too
much by the letter. When a bushranger of that sort shoots
at a Holstein dragoon, the soldier flings himself from his
horse, runs after the man with his heavy sabre, catches him
and brings him to his lieutenant, who either lets him off or
hands him over to his superior officer, who is sure to do so.
The Bavarian knows better, and makes war in the good old
way, not waiting till he has been shot at from behind, but
shooting first." We have caviare and pheasant pasty on
the table, the one provided by the Baroness von Keudell and
the other by the Countess Hatzfeld ; and Swedish punch is
handed round.

In the evening there is Bernstorfif's note on the subject
of the French frigate Desaix, which captured a German
vessel in English waters, a letter to Lundy is prepared for
our newspapers on the English supplying munitions of war
to the French ; we advise them that they are no longer to
defend Bazaine from the charge of treason, as " injurious to
his feelings," and a telegram is despatched to say that for
some days back the French Government has been refusing
to let any foreigners out from Paris, including even diplo-
matists, to whom our lines are still open as usual.

c 2

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

L. tells us that the prefect, von Brauchitsch, has ordered
the French magistracy at Versailles, under penalty of 50,000
francs (;^2ooo), to provide before December 5 a magazine
of articles necessary for us, the stock of which is beginning
to run low. Garibaldi has had a small success over our
troops, after all ; our loss in killed, wounded, and missing
not, however, exceeding 120 men.

At tea-time we heard that H., who was with us in
Meaux, had come back and been received by the Chief.
According to Bohlen, he is a somewhat mysterious person-
age, an agent of Napoleon's, though he is engaged on —
perhaps, indeed, joint proprietor of — a very radical, demo-
cratic newspaper in the Rhine Province, and though he gives
himself out and, in Prussia, is considered to be a high-toned
patriotic republican. It is in that capacity that the Govern-
mental President von introduces him to us. What

there may be in the object of his present visit to bring the
two halves of this double nature together is far from
clear. We talked afterwards of a gentleman who, in despair
at the goings on of certain personages in the Hotel des
Reservoirs, meant soon to enrol himself among the demo-
crats, if he had not already done so.

Wednesday, November 23. — Early this morning I said to one
of the councillors, " Do you know how matters are now getting
on with the Bavarian negotiations ? Will the affair be settled,
do you suppose, this evening ? " — " Yes," he said, "unless
something new turn up ; but any trifle might break them off."
— " Do you know what was the point on which the negotia-
tions nearly came to grief a short time ago ? " — " You would
never guess ; it was the question of collars or epaulettes."
As I was called away at the moment, I could not solve
this riddle ; but I learned afterwards that the question had
been whether the Bavarian officers were in future to wear the

XII.] Bavarian Vigour. 21

mark of their rank, as hitherto, on their collars or on their
shoulders, like the North Germans. ... At dinner we had
a hussar with the Geneva sash, and an infantry soldier with
shoulder straps ; the former the Silesian Count Frankenberg,
a big, tall, dignified-looking man, with a large ruddy 'beard ;
the latter. Prince Putbus. They were both decorated with
the Iron Cross. They talked over the excitement in
Berlin over the delay of the bombardment, and about the
grumbling there on that account. The report that one of the
reasons of the delay was the interference of ladies in a high
position appears now to circulate everywhere. . . . The con-
versation turned on the attitude of the French peasantry,
and Putbus said that a Bavarian officer had burned down
the whole of a fine village and ordered the wine in the
cellars to be run into the streets, because the peasants there
had behaved treacherously. Somebody else remarked that
the soldiers, somewhere or other, had frightfully beaten a
curate, who had been apprehended for some alleged treachery.
The Minister again praised the energy of the Bavarians, but
as to the second case, he added, " We must either treat the
country people with as much consideration as possible or
altogether deprive them of the power to harm us, one thing
or the other." And, after musing a little, he added, " Polite-
ness as far as the last step of the gallows, but hanging for
all that. One can afford to be gruff only to one's friends,
being convinced that they won't take it ill; how much sharper
one is, for instance, with one's own wife than with other
ladies."

There was some talk about the Duke of Coburg, and
afterwards about the aqueduct at Marly, which had not
been touched by the guns of the forts ; and then Prince
Putbus spoke of a certain Marchioness Delia Torre, who
had, he said, had a somewhat stormy past, who liked cam-
paigning, who had been with Garibaldi before Naples, had

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

been staying here with us for some time, and was going
about with the Geneva Cross. Somebody spoke of the
picture which had been ordered from Bleibtreu, and another
of the guests spoke of the rough sketch of a picture repre-
senting General Reille bringing Napoleon's letter to the King
on the hill before Sedan. They said that the General was
taking off his hat as if he was about to shout Hurrah ! or Vivat !
The Chief remarked : " He behaved himself throughout with
propriety and dignity. I had a talk with him alone while
the King was writing the answer. He represented to me
that we ought not to impose hard conditions on so large an
army which had fought so Avell. I shrugged my shoulders.
Then he said that before they would give in to such con-
ditions, they would blow themselves up sky-high with the
fortress. I said, ' Do it if you like.' ' Faites sauter! Then
I asked him whether the Emperor was quite sure of his
army and his officers. He said, ' Certainly ! ' And
whether his orders would still be obeyed in Metz. Reille
said they would, and we have since seen that at that time he
was right. If he had made peace then, I believe he would
now have been a reigning sovereign; but he is — as I said
sixteen years since, when nobody wo"uld believe me — stupid
and sentimental."

In the evening L. told us that a misfortune had
happened to one of the newspaper correspondents here.
Dr. Kreissler, who furnishes news to the Berlin papers, is
said to have disappeared some eight days ago, during a
journey he made to Orleans, and it is feared that he.may
have been killed by the Francs-tireurs, or at least taken
prisoner.* We should not have been so sorry if the same
fate had overtaken a correspondent of some Vienna and

* It was subsequently discovered that Dr. Kreissler had been made
prisoner.

XII.] The Three Pens. 23

Frankfort papers, which are hostile to Prussia, viz. a certain
Voget, who, it appears, imagines himself privileged to circu-
late all sorts of lies all over the world under shelter of the
German authorities. At the very beginning of the war, at
Saarbriicken, he got into a quarrel with our officers ; and he
has now been impudent enough to say that the Prussians
left the Bavarians in the lurch at Orlean.':, by not coming up
to their assistance at the right time, thus making them the
real cause of the defeat. To banish him from the army
would be a much more sensible thing than what we did
about poor Hoff.

About ten o'clock I went in to tea, and found Bismarck-
Bohlen and Hatzfeld still there. The Chief was engaged
with the three Bavarian plenipotentiaries in the salon. After
a quarter of an hour or so, he threw open the folding-doors,
put his head in, looked round kindly, and, when he saw that
there were several of us, came up to us and sat down at the
table with- a glass in his hand.. " Now," said he excitedly,
"the Bavarian business is settled, and everything signed.
We have got our German unity, and our Emperor." There
was silence for a moment. Then I begged to be allowed
to take the pen, with which he had signed the document.
" In God's name," said he, " take all three of them, if you
like; but the gold pen is not there." I went and took
possession of the three pens which were lying beside the
document, two of them still wet. (W. afterwards told me
that the one the Chancellor had used was that wi&i feathers
on both sides.) Two empty champagne bottles stood on
the table. " Bring us another," said the Chief to a servant,
"it is a great occasion." After musing a little, he re-
marked, " The newspapers won't be satisfied, and a his-
torian writing in the ordinary spirit may very likely con-
demn our convention. He may say [I am giving his exact

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

words, as I always do where I use quotation marks], ' The
stupid fellow might easily have asked for more ; he would
have got it ; they would have had to give in to him ; his might
was his right' I was more anxious that these people should
go away heartily satisfied. What are treaties worth which
people are forced to sign? I know that they went away
satisfied. I don't want to press them, or to take full advan-
tage of the situation. The convention has its defects, but it
is the stronger on account of them. I count it the most
important thing which we have accomplished during recent
years." . . . " As for the Emperor, I reconciled them to that
during the negotiations by representing that it would be much
pleasanter and easier to concede certain points to the German
Emperor than to the neighbouring King of Prussia." . . .
Afterwards, over a second bottle which he drank with us
and Abeken, who had come in, in the meantime, he began
to talk about his death, and mentioned the exact age at
which it would happen. ..." I know it," he said, when
somebody remonstrated, " it is a mystic number."

Thursday, November 24. — Hard work in the morning.
Wrote several articles in the sense of yesterday evening's
conversation with the Chief on the convention with Bavaria.
In the afternoon, we went together for a walk in the park
of the ditteau, and W. told me how a Colonel K. had put
an advocate somewhere in the Ardennes in prison for trea-
sonable relations with a band of Francs-tireurs. The court-
martial had condemned him to death, and he had begged
for remission of the sentence. The Chief, however, had
heard of it, and had made_ them write to-day to the War
Minister to use his influence with the King to let justice
take its course.

At dinner. Count Tilly, of the General Staff, and Major
Hill were the principal guests. He again complained that

XII.] The Delay of the Bombardment. 25

the military authorities talked too little to him, and asked
his opinion too seldom. " It was so, for instance, with the
appointment of Vogel von Falkenstein, who has just raised
the Jacoby trouble. If I have to speak about that business
in the Reichstag, I shall wash my hands of it all. They
could have done nothing more disagreeable to me." " When
the war began," he went on to say, " I was a keen partisan
of the military people. I shall side with the parliamentarians
for the future, and if they worry me further, I shall take my
seat somewhere on the extreme left." The convention with
Bavaria was mentioned, and the difficulties in connection
with it were set down to the account of the National Party,
on which the Minister said, "It is quite extraordinary
how many very intelligent people understand nothing what-
ever about politics." Then changing the subject suddenly,
he said : " The English are beside themselves. Their journals
are shouting for war, on account of a letter in which there is
nothing but a statement of a particular view of what is right.
For that is all there is in Gortchakoff's note,'' which he
went on further to discuss. Afterwards he began to speak
once more of the delay in the bombardment ; which was
making him anxious for political reasons. " We have col-
lected there an immense siege park," he said ; " all the world
is expecting us to begin, and up to this moment the guns are
standing idle. It has certainly damaged us with the neutral
powers. The effect of the success of Sedan has been lessened
quite enormously in consequence, and for what object, after
all?"

Friday, November 25. — Before breakfast, I telegraphed
the capitulation of Thionville, which happened during the
night. I prepared, for the King's reading, an article in the
Neue Freie Presse, describing Granville's note as feeble and
colourless, and I took care that all our newspapers should

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

reproduce the telegrams of July last, assuring Napoleon
of the concurrence of the French people in the declaration
of war he then sent us.

In the afternoon I spent an hour with W. in the gallery
of historical portraits in the chateau, which of its kind is of
the greatest value, and which includes a very interesting
half-length of Luther. Afterwards we had a walk through
the principal streets of the town to the two chief churches,
and to Hoche's monument. We met, as usual, crowds
of priests, nuns, and monks, and marvelled at the number
of wine-shops and coffee-houses which supply Versailles.
One of these establishments is called the " Smoking Dog "
(^Au Ckien qui fume), a dog with a tobacco pipe in his
mouth being painted on the signboard. The people at the
door-steps, and especially the women, were everywhere
polite. The newspapers say that mothers and nurses turn
their backs when a German pats a child on the cheek. I
have never seen anything of the kind ; on the contrary, they
were always quite pleased, and said, " Faites minette d, man
sieur/" (" Curtsey to the gentleman "). No doubt, the upper
classes are seldom seen in the streets, and when they do
appear, the ladies are in mourning — for the misfortunes of
their country, of course — and because black is becoming.

During his usual evening visit, L. told us that Samwer had
been away again for some time, and had not, as the news-
papers told us, been appointed prefect anywhere, but that
the town has had the privilege of harbouring another inter-
esting personage, the American spiritualist Home, who has
come over here, I believe, from London with introductions
to the Crown Prince.

Saturday, November 26. — ^Wrote several articles; one
on the extraordinary list of honourable mentions by
Trochu in the Figaro of the 22 nd. The Chief read out to

XII.] Troclms Heroes. 27

me portions of passages which he had marked in pencil,
saying, " Many of the heroic deeds of these defenders of
Paris are sucli commonplace affairs that Prussian generals
would never think them worth mentioning. Some of them
are mere brag ; others manifest impossibiUties. Trochu's
heroes have made more prisoners, if you count them up,
than the French have done altogether during the whole siege
of Paris. Captain Montbrisson distinguished himself by
marching at the head of an assaulting column, and getting
himself lifted over a park-wall to make a reconnaissance — as
it was his bounden duty to do. Then you have the farce of
a soldier called Gletty, who made three Prussians prisoners
— par la fermete de son attitude. It was the firmness of his
attitude which brought our Pomeranians to their knees ! It
might be all well enough in a Paris theatre on the Boulevards,
or in a circus, but fancy it in real life ! Then there was Hoft",
who killed neither more nor fewer than seven-and-twenty
Prussians in different single combats. This three-times-nine
man must certainly be a Jew, perhaps the cousin of Malzhoff
in one of the Wilhelmstrasses. At all events he is a miles
gloriosus. Lastly, we have Terreaux, who captured z.f anion
(colour) along with the staff to which it was fastened. Pro-
perly speaking, that is the colour of a company, which we
do notjhave in Germany. Such is the stuff a commander-
in-chief publishes officially. This list of honourable mentions
reminds me of the battle-pieces of " Toutes les Gloires de la
France" (in Versailles), where every drummer-boy from
Sebastopol and Magenta has had his portrait taken for
beating his drum."

Count Schimmelmann (a light blue hussar, with a face of
a somewhat Oriental type, apparently in his last twenties)
and Hatzfeld's brother-in-law (a brisk and self-confident
American) were the Chancellor's guests to-night. He said

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

to us : "I was yesterday the victim of a whole swarm of
mishaps, one after the other. First, I was to have had a
conversation with Odo Russell, who had important business.
I sent him a message to wait a couple of minutes for me,
as I was occupied with another pressing matter. After a
quarter of an hour I came out, and found him gone, and the
peace of Europe may perhaps have depended upon it."
Then about twelve I go off to wait on the King, and fall

by the way into the hands of , who compels me to

listen to a letter, and holds me prisoner a long while. In
that way I lose a whole hour, during which telegrams of
great importance ought to have been despatched. The
people concerned may perhaps not have got them to-day at
all, and decisions may have been come to and relationships
estabhshed in the meantime which may have very serious
consequences for the whole of Europe, and may completely
alter the political situation. All this happened," he said,
" because it was a Friday."

Afterwards he asked, " Have any of you gentlemen told
the Mayor to provide properly in the Trianon for the King
of Bavaria ? " Hatzfeld replied that he had himself seen
the Mayor about the matter. The Chief replied, " Excel-
lent ; I hope he will come. I never imagined that I should
have to play the part of house-steward of the Trianon.
What would Napoleon I. and Louis XIV. have said to that?"
Somebody remarked that the American spiritualist Home
had been here several days, and had been invited to dine
with the Crown Prince. Eucher described him as a
dangerous man, and added that he had been condemned
in England for some underhand business about a legacy.
After dinner he told me that, according to the newspapers,
Home had some time ago swindled a legacy in his own
favour out of a rich widow, that the lawful heir had prose-

Xll.] Mr. Home, the Spiritualist. 29

cuted him, and that he had ultimately been condemned by
the court to pay a large sum in damages. It was to
be feared that he had been sent here now by somebody to
influence important personages to our injury, and Bucher
said he would try to induce the Chief to get the fellow
turned away.

In the evening I extracted several articles from the
Moniteur for the King's reading, and read Treitschke's
paper upon Luxemburg and the German Empire in the
Preussische Jahrhiccher. From half-past eleven till after half-
past twelve at night, there was another violent cannonade
into space from the forts or the gunboats. The Chief
remarked, " It is a long time since they heard themselves
speak. Don't let us grudge them the pleasure."

Sunday, November 27. — In the morning we received the
speech made at the opening of the Reichstag. I sent it imme-
diately to L., so that he might translate it and get it printed
in the newspapers. After twelve, Russell appeared again.
The Chief asked him to wait for ten minutes, and spent that
time walking up and down with Bucher in the garden. As
there was nothing to do, I made a call alone with H. in La
CeUe, and on the road back was stopped three times by the
sentinels, a thing which never happened to me before. After
spending an hour in a pleasant chat with H. and the other
officers, in the stately chateau over the market-place, I started
for home. An official who was going back to the town in
a handsome carriage gave me a place beside him. He had
found the horse and carriage shut up in a stable at Bougival,
and had taken them quietly away. He appears also to be
the discoverer and distributor of the great find of wine which
was made there, but which is now pretty nearly finished.

Count Lehndorf and a Bavarian officer (Count Holnstein),
a handsome, straight-built man, with a full red face and a

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

pleasant open manner, apparently, we thought, about thirty
years of age, were at dinner. I hear that he is the Master
of the Horse to King Ludwig, and one of his confidants.
The Chief spoke first about the Russian affair, and said :
"Vienna, Florence, and Constantinople have kept quiet
about it so far ; but Petersburg and London, which have
spoken, are the important places. It will all come right in
the end." Then he told several anecdotes of his sportsman's
life — of chamois-hunting, "for which he has not breath
enough now"; of the heaviest wild boar he had killed, "the
head alone weighed between 99 and loi lbs. ''; and of the
biggest bear he had shot. Our relations with Munich came
up later in tlie evening, and Holnstein remarked that before
the war broke out, the French embassy had been completely
mistaken about the attitude of Bavaria. It had got its infor-
mation from two or three red-hot Catholic and anti-Prussian
drawing-rooms. It considered the victory of the patriots
certain, and had even believed that the King would have to
go. The Chief replied, " I never doubted that Bavaria
would side with us, but I certainly could not have hoped
that she would have decided so soon." Afterwards we talked
about the shooting of the treacherous Africans; and Holnstein
said that a shoemaker in Munich, from whose windows the
procession of the Turco prisoners who had been marched in
there could be very well seen, had made a good deal of money
by charging for the view, and had handed over 79 guldens
(;^8) to the fund for our wounded. Numerous spectators
came even from Vienna to see the spectacle. The Chief said,
" It was against my incUnation that these black fellows got
taken prisoners at all." Holnstein answered, " I believe,
too, that you don't do so now." The Chief replied, " If I
had my will, I should put every soldier under arrest who
takes such a fellow prisoner and hands him over to the

XII.] Good News for Versailles. 31

authorities. They are a robber gang who ought to be shot
down. The fox may plead that it is its nature, but for these
fellows, it is most horrible and monstrous. They tortured
our soldiers. to death in the shamefullest way."

After dinner, at which we always smoke, the Minister gives
us each a big, full-flavoured, first-rate cigar, saying, "Pass
the bottle.'' His grateful countrymen have recently been
particularly mindful to supply him with cigars, and on his
sideboard stands box upon box of weeds, so that, God
be praised, he has enough of what he likes in that way.

L. told us that Home left yesterday, if I understood him
rightly. He has ordered the Moniteur to be sent after him to
London, having subscribed to the paper for a month. Perhaps
this and the whole affair of his journey to our head-quarters
may have been only a ghostly spiritualist hocus-pocus ; but it
looks suspicious that this Cagliostro from Yankee-land should
have asked whether he might speak to the son of Worth, the
great London tailor, who " lets duchesses wait in his salon,"
and who was caught in one of the balloons. It is said that
Home will come back again. L. tells us, further, that our
Versailles friends have been made happy these last few days
by a supply of pleasant news. Thiers and Favre, some say
Trocliu too, have been in the town to negotiate with King
Wilham. Garibaldi, whom our generals have driven away
from Dole, has recaptured Dijon, according to the myths
of our Versailles friends, and in so doing made prisoners
no fewer than 20,000 German soldiers. A German prince
or Highness has fallen into the hands of the French in the
neighbourhood of Paris. The King offered Marshals
Bazaine and Canrobert in exchange for him, but the offer
was not accepted. Prince Frederick Charles, finally, has
been defeated at Rambouillet, Dreux, and Chateaudun, the
very opposite being the fact ; and so on. " Hope springs
eternal in the human breast."

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

CHAPTER XIII.

THE DIFFICULTY IN THE REICHSTAG ABOUT THE CONVEN-
TION WITH BAVARIA REMOVED THE BOMBARDMENT PUT

OFF.

Monday, November 28. — Early in the morning I telegraph
the capitulation of La Ffere, with 2000 men, and the vic-
tory of Manteuffel on the Somme at Ladon and Maizibres.
Afterwards I prepared an article on the Convention with
Bavaria. The Chief asks about Home, and I tell him that
he is gone, but is expected back. He orders me to write at
once to the military authorities that if Home returns without
a permit, he is to be immediately put in prison, and word
brought to the Chief. If he appears with a permit, he is to
be watched as a treacherous spy and swindler, and his arrival
reported at once to the Minister.

In the afternoon Bucher and I made a carriage excursion
to St. Cyr ; Prince Pless and Count Maltzahn were with us
at dinner. The Minister spoke, first of all, of the American
spiritualist, and told us what he thought of him, and what he
had arranged to have done about him. "Bohlen said : "And
you know, too, that Garibaldi also has taken himself off."
Somebody said : " If we could catch him he ought to be shot,
for he had no business to shove himself into this war." " He
should first be put in a cage and exhibited publicly," said
Bohlen. " No," said the Minister, " I would try another
plan. I would send the prisoners to Berlin, with bits of
pasteboard round their necks, and the word ' Gratitude '
printed on them. After which they should be shown through

XIII.] Napoleon at Sedan. 33

the town." Bohlen said : " And then to Spandau." The
Chief answered, " Or you might write on the card ' From
Venice to Spandau.' " ,

Afterwards we talked about Bavaria, and the situation in
Munich. Somebody, in what connection I don't recollect,
once more referred to the circumstances of Reille's appear-
ance at Sedan, and it seemed as if the King then expected
more from the letter of the Emperor Napoleon, as, indeed,
according to what the Minister said once before, he had
been justified in doing. The Emperor ought not to have
surrendered himself a prisoner there with no object; he
should have concluded peace with us. The generals would
have stood by him. Then we talked about the bom-
bardment, and, in connection with it, of Bishop Dupanloup
and his present intrigues, and afterwards of the part he
had played in the opposition at the Council. " I remem-
ber,'' said the Chancellor, " that the Pope wrote a very clear
letter to the French Bishops, or to several of them, order-
ing them not to mix themselves up with the Garibaklians."
Somebody said that something lay very much at his heart.
The Chief answered, " What is nearest my heart just now
is what may be going on at the Villa Coublay. If they
would give me the command-in-chief for four-and-twenty
hours, and I were to take the responsibility on myself,
I should give just one order — ' Fire !' " The Villa Coublay
is a place not very far from here, where the siege artillery
is collected in a park, instead of being brought into the
forts and batteries, and the Chancellor has made the most
urgent representations to hasten the bombardment. " You
have 300 guns, all told," he went on; "and fifty or
sixty mortars, and for every piece you have five hundred
rounds — surely that is enough. I have spoken to artillerists
who say that at Strassburg they did not use half of what

VOL. II. D

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

is already piled up here, and, compared with Paris, Strass-
burg was a Gibraltar." " Perhaps you might have to fire
some barracks in Mont Val^rien, . and overwhelm Forts
Issy and Vanvres with your grenades, so as to clear them
out. The enceinte is very weak, and the ditch no bigger
than the length of this room." " I am convinced that if we
could throw grenades for four or five days into the town
itself, and they once saw that we can fire further than they
can, namely, 9000 yards, they would sing small in Paris.
No doubt the fine quarters lie on this side of the town, and
the people in Belleville would not care a straw though they
were all wrecked. Indeed, they would rub their hands over
the destruction of the houses of the rich." "We might
certainly have left Paris alone, and gone further, but now
that we have begun it we must put it through. The plan of
starving them out may take a long while yet, perhaps till the
beginning of the year. They have certainly meal up till
January. If we had only begun the bombardment four
weeks ago, we should in all probability have been by this
time in Paris, which is the vital point. As it is, the
Parisians fancy that London, St. Petersburg, and Vienna
are keeping us from firing, and the neutral Powers believe,
in their turn, that we can't do it. Some day, however, the
real reasons will be revealed."

In the evening I telegraphed to London that the Reichstag
had again voted a hundred million thalers (;^i5,ooo,ooo)
towards the prosecution of the war with France, and that
eight social democrats only voted against it, also that
jManteuffel had occupied Amiens. Afterwards several
articles were prepared, one to defend the Chancellor and
explain how satisfactory his position had been in the nego-
tiations with Bavaria, and how much had been due both to
his moderation and his sagacity. The vital point, as I said.

XIII.] Stolen Pictures. 35

was not that any particular concession should be got out of
the Munich people, but that the South German States should
feel at home in the organisation of the new German state.
Any pressure or constraint to extract further concessions
from them would be ingratitude, especially as they have
fully discharged their patriotic obligations. It would,
besides, be bad policy to press any more urgent claims
on our allies. The discontent which would be the in-
evitable consequence would do us far more harm than
half-a-dozen slightly improved paragraphs in a treaty could
ever do us good. It would at once reveal to the neutral
powers, Austria and the rest of them, the place where a
wedge might be driven home, which might loosen and
in the end split to pieces the unity Just realised.

L. told us that somebody had been stealing from the
Gallery of Historical Portraits in the chateau — two portraits,
of a Princess Mary of Lothringen and of the La Vallifere,
having been carried off. An investigation was set on foot
immediately, and it was shown that the thief had used
a double key, and must have been familiar with the ways
of the custodians, so that the theft can hardly be set
down to any foreigner. It is perfectly certain, however,
that the French will say that we carried the pictures off
with us.

From half-past nine till after one in the morning the
sound of a brisk renewed cannonade from the north side
could be made out.

Tuesday, November 29. — In the morning the mouths of
the French cannon growl out to us a savager salute than
ever, while I have the gratification to telegraph new triumphs
of the German arms. Yesterday, for instance. Garibaldi
had severe losses at Dijon, and Prince Frederick Charles's
troops defeated the more numerous French army opposed

D 2

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

to them at Beaune la Rolande. When I laid the second of
these telegrams before the Chief, he said, " To say many
hundred prisoners is to say nothing j many hundreds
means at least a thousand. To put our loss at a thousand
men, and say nothing more of the enemy than that he
sustained severe losses, would be a piece of clumsiness of
which we ought to have too much sense to be guilty. I
■beg you in future to make up your telegrams more
carefully."

At breakfast we learn that the thunder of the cannon
was to support a sortie of the Parisians in the direction of
Villeneuve, where the Bavarians are, which was repulsed.
A few shots were still to be heard from the forts as late as
one o'clock. Something more seems to have been expected,
for several batteries are standing ready to start, on the
Avenue de Saint-Cloud.

In the afternoon I sent off another article on the con-
vention with Bavaria, which is to be reproduced in various
forms- in Berlin. A grudging dissatisfaction seems to be
the prevailing mood there. Afterwards I ran off to the little
place at Chesnay, where my lieutenants are having all sorts
of fun. I found them, for instance, singing the song of the
eleven thousand virgins of Cologne.

We had Lieutenant-Colonel von Hartrott at dinner.
The conversation turned on the distribution of the Iron
Cross, and the Chief observed, " The doctors ought to have
it on their black and white sashes ; they are under fire, and
it takes much more courage and sense to let yourself be
shot at without doing anything than to go with a storming
party." Blumenthal said to me that he at any rate could
not earn one, for it is his duty to keep himself out of
danger of being shot. Accordingly he always looks out
for a place from which he can have a good view of every-

XIII.] A Friend indeed. 37

thing, with very little chance of being hit ; and he is quite
right ; a general who exposes himself needlessly ought
to be put under arrest. We talked next of the handling of
the army, and he said, " Modesty and moderation are the
only things to ensure victory ; conceit and insolence being
certain defeat." Then he asked Hartrott whether he was a
Brunswicker. " No," he said, " I am from the district of
Aschersleben." " I made out from your accent," said the
Minister, " that you came from the Harz, but not from
which side." Aschersleben suggested Magdeburg, which
reminded him of his friend Dietze, of whom he said, " He is
the most estimable man I know, his house is the pleasantest
and most comfortable for a visitor I have ever been in.
There is good hunting and capital keep, and his wife is
perfectly charming. Then he is full of that genuine native
heartiness — the politesse de cceur — nothing made up. What
a difference between a hunting party given by a man who
goes out without a gun, and whose delight it is to see his
friends shoot well, and one where it is perfectly understood
that the master is to have most of the shooting, and that
bad temper and swearing at the servants are a matter of
course, if he does not get it." Abeken wondered whether
politesse de cceur was native French or imported. " Not a
doubt," said the Chief, " that the phrase was borrowed from
us. The thing itself exists only among the Germans. I
should call it the courteousness of good-will and of kindly
feeling in the best sense of the word — the courteousness
of a man inclined to be helpful to one. You come across
it among our common soldiers, often certainly in the clum-
siest forms. But the French have none of it ; their cour-
teousness is begotten only of hatred and envy." He went
on to say that the English had something of the sort, and
praised Odo Russell, whose natural and straightforward

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

ways were thoroughly to his liking. " One thing only made
me at first a little suspicious of him. I had always heard,
and my own experience had confirmed it, that an English-
man who could speak good Ftench was a doubtful character,
and Odo Russell speaks French quite admirably. But
then he speaks German just as well."

At dessert he said, " I see that I eat too much, or perhaps
too much at a time. I can't get out of the stupid habit of
eating only once a day. Some time ago it was even worse.
I used to drink my cup of tea early in the morning, and
tasted no food at all till five o'clock at night. I smoked
' even on,' and it did me a great deal of harm. Now my
doctors make me take at least a couple of eggs in the
morning, and I don't smoke much. But I ought to eat
oftener, only if I take anything late I am kept awake all
night digesting it."

In the evening I had again to telegraph the news of
our victory at Beaune, the French attempt to break
through in the direction of Fontainebleau, with the bulk
of the Loire army, having been utterly baffled. After-
wards I was directed to send off a telegram to the War
Ministry in Berlin, requesting them to issue letters of cap-
tion, and to send them to us for publication in the French
papers, after all the French officers who have broken their
parole and made their escape from captivity, a practice
which is becoming alarmingly frequent among these gentle-
men. Afterwards he showed me a report from an adjutant
of K&atry, the commander of the Breton army, on the
absurd and theatrical pardoning of a soldier, which I was
told to reproduce, with a little commentary, in our Moniteur,
and which I give here as a specimen of the way in which
these new-fangled dilettanti officers show off, and how they
get themselves noticed and praised in the newspapers. A

XIII.] K^ratrys Forgiveness. 39

few days ago, Count Kdratry authorised the following publi-
cation : —

" Camp de Conlie, November 18, midnight.
" The General commanding (Keratry) authorises me
to send you the following despatch : ' This was a day
never to be forgotten in the army of Brittany. A soldier
who had been condemned to be shot at two o'clock was
pardoned. He had been guilty of great insubordination to
the Commandant of the Camp, General Bonedec. Since
his condemnation, the army chaplain and officers of the gene-
ral staff had interceded on his behalf General Keratry's
answer was that it was out of his power to pass the thing
over. Accordingly all the troops in camp were gathered
about one o'clock to-day, to be present at the execution of
the sentence. About twOj everything was in readiness. The
condemned man stood between two field chaplains, expect-
ing every moment would be his last. He had shown con-
siderable fortitude the whole day, as he knew that there was
no longer the faintest hope of pardon. At the appointed
hour, the sentence was read before all the troops. Then
came the first rattle of the drum : at the second all would
be over. The coffin was ready, and the grave dug. It was
a frightful moment. Just when the last signal was to have
been given, Monsieur de Keratry stepped forward, cried
' Halt !' and in a clear ringing voice said (really just as in
a genuine melodrama), ' Officers and men of the army of
Brittany ! One of our soldiers, guilty of an act of insubor-
dination, has been sentenced to death by court-martial; I
grant him a free pardon; but in future every offence against
discipline will be punished without mercy. I hope that this
lesson may be sufficient to prevent any offence against the
Articles of War or disobedience to the orders of your officers,
and that I shall be rewarded for my leniency by a discipline

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

beyond reproach. That justice may be impartial, I remit
all the other sentences at present in force.' This speech
was received with tremendous acclamations, and shouts of
' Vive Kdratry ' (just as in the theatre). The officers of the
general staff, who had asked for the man's pardon, were
deeply touched. All the troops then marched past the
General commanding; and although ordered to march in
silence, they kept shouting ' Long live Kdratry !' In the
evening the officers of tlie general staff expressed their grati-
tude to the Count. His gracious act has made a deep im-
pression on the soldiers. The result will, I hope, be that
they will give him a confidence never to be shaken."

The ludicrously theatrical nature of the people at present
in authority in France could not be better illustrated than
by the publication of such a document. The brave French
soldiers who have to fight for the maintenance in power
of such stage-heroes, are much to be pitied.

A single example, to ' show the line our servants take
about the delay of the bonibardment, and the sort of myths
which circulate in their circles. As I was, for the last
time to-day, going up the staircase leading to my room from
the story in which the Chief lives, Engel, in great delight,
called after me : " Doctor, things are right now ; all will soon
be over with Paris." " How is that ? I don't think it can
last long. But you are not going to begin the bombard-
ment ?" " No, Doctor, I know, but I mustn't say a word."
" Oh, speak quite freely." Then he whispered something to
this effect in my ear, on the stair-landing : " The King told
our Excellency to-day, at tlie War Minister's, ' The bombard-
ment comes off on the 2nd !' "

After ten o'clock the French began another furious can-
nonade from their fortSj with what object, nobody can make

XIII.] WAat might have been. 41

out. At tea, when the Chief was with us, fuller favourable
accounts came in of yesterday's battle. We then spoke of
the delay of the bombardment — a subject coming every day
more prominently into the foreground — and of the Geneva
Convention, of which the Chief remarked that we must
tolerate the thing, but that it was nonsense, and that war
could not be carried on that way. It appears that Del-
briick has not telegraphed quite distinctly what are the
prospects of the arrangements with Bavaria being carried
in the Reichstag. It seems as if the Reichstag could not
make up its mind to decisive action, and the convention
concluded at Versailles were to be attacked both by the
Progress party and the National Liberals. The Chief said :
" As for the Progress fellows, they are quite consistent.
They would like us back in 1849. But these National
Liberals ! If they will not take what, at the beginning of the
year they were struggling for with all their might, and what
they may now have by putting out their hand, we must
dissolve their Reichstag. The Progress party would be
weakened by a new election, and several of the National
Liberals would not come back either. But the convention
would for the present be torn to pieces. Bavaria would re-
consider her position ; Beust would stick his finger in the
pie, and nobody knows what might happen. I can't well go
off to Berlin. It is very inconvenient, and takes up a good
deal of time when I am really wanted here." In this con-
nection he spoke also of the state of matters in 1848 :
" At that time things looked well for a while for a union of
Germany under Prussia. The little princes were mostly
powerless and in despair. If only they could have had a
good deal of property secured to themselves — domains, ap-
panages, &c. — ^most of them would have willingly consented
to everything else. The Austrians had their hands full with

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

Hungary and Italy. The Emperor Nicholas would, at that
time, have made no protest. If before May, 1849, we had
put our backs into it, been decided, and settled up with
the minor princes, we might have had the south, for the
armies of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg were inchned to side
with the revolution in Baden, which at that time was not an
impossibility. But time was lost through delays and half
measures, and the opportunity was gone."

About eleven a telegram came in from Verdy about the
sortie this morning. It was directed against La Haye, and
about five hundred red-breeches were taken prisoners. The
Chief complained bitterly that they would go on taking
prisoners, instead of shooting them down at once.

" We had more than enough prisoners," he said, " already,
and the Parisians were relieved of so many ' consumers,'
whom we should have to feed and for whom we had no
room."

Wednesday, November 30. — In the morning T. was writ-
ten to at length, and the reasons explained to him why we
did not urge the demands which he and those who feel with
him think absolutely essential in Bavaria. At the same
time we communicated similar observations to S. During
the latter half of the night and towards morning there was
heavy firing from great guns beyond the thicket between
this and Paris. Wollmann thinks he also heard the growl
of the mitrailleuses and the rattle of musketry. Other

people knew nothing of that The Chief appears to

have seriously entertained the idea of asking the King to

relieve him of his office, and according to he put the

notion aside just before the decisive moment.

In the afternoon Wollmann and I took a carriage excur-
sion to Marly. The Chancellor, Abeken, and Hatzfeld also
rode out in that direction a little after us, so that we met

XIII.] Rothschild on Stocks. 4^

them up at the aqueduct. We saw there that heavy firing
was going on north of Paris in the direction of Gonesse.
White clouds of powder smoke rose into the sky, and
flashes of fire from the guns hghtened through it.

Prince Putbus and Odo Russell dined with us, and the
Prince told us of the only time he had made an attempt to
speculate in stocks on the strength of his knowledge of state
secrets and of the bad luck he had had of it. " I had been
charged," he said, " to talk over the Neuenburg (Neufchatel)
business with Napoleon, in the spring of 1857, I beheve. I
was to ascertain his attitude, and I knew that he would
express himself favourably, and ■ that that would point to a
war with Switzerland. On my way through Frankfort,
where I then resided, I went accordingly to see Rothschild,
whom I knew personally, and told him to sell out a certain
stock which he held for me, as it would certainly not rise.
' I should not advise you to do it,' said Rothschild, ' the stock
has good prospects, and you will see tliat soon.' ' Well,' said
I, ' if you knew what I know, you would think differently.'
However that might be he said, he should not like to
advise selling out. Of course I knew better, so I sold my
stock and went off. In Paris, Napoleon was quite clear
and very amiable. He could not accede to the King's wish
to be allowed to march through Elsass and Lothringen, as
that would have roused too much feeling in France. Other-
wise he entirely approved of the enterprise, and it would
give him nothing but gratification to see that Democrats'
nest routed out. So far I had succeeded perfectly. But I
had not calculated on our own policy in Berlin, which had
meanwhile shifted in another direction — probably in view of
Austria — so that the thing was given up ; there was no war,
the stock kept steadily rising in the market, and I could
only regret that it was no longer my property."

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

Then we spoke of the bombardment, of the Villa Cou-
blay, and of what seemed the impossibility of getting the
necessary ammunition forward quickly. The Chief said,
" I have told the gentlemen twice over that we have lots of
horses, which have every day to be exercised to keep them
in health, and which might surely be employed for once in
another way. ..."

Somebody told us that the Villa Caffarelli had been pur-
chased for our embassy in Rome, and Russell and Abeken
said it was a very handsome one. The Chancellor said
" Yes indeed, and we have some fine houses in other places,
as, for instance, in Paris and London. But according to
our continental ideas, the latter is too small. Bemstorff has
so little space that when he receives or is at work, or has
any grand affair on, he has to get his room cleared out for
it. His Secretary of Legation has a better room in the house
than Bemstorff himself" " The residence of the Embassy
in Paris is a fine house very comfortably arranged. It is
certainly the best house any of the Embassies have in Paris,
; and it is worth so much that I once asked myself the ques-
tion whether I ought not to dispose of it and give the Am-
j bassador the interest of the capital to pay his rent with.
,' The interest on 2\ million francs (;^8o,ooo) would be a
f nice addition to his income, which is only 100,000 francs
{£,6,000). But the more I turned it over, the less I liked
it. , It is not seemly or worthy of a great power, that its
ambassadors should have to rent a house which they might
I get notice to quit, when all the state papers would have to be
'j trundled through the streets in wheel-barrows during the
I flitting. We must have houses of our own, and we ought to
have them in every embassy town. The house in London
is in a very peculiar position. It belongs to the King, and
everything turns on the energy with which the ambassador

XIII.] Ambassadors and Ministers. 45

of the day looks after his own interests. It may happen —
occasionally it does happen — that the King gets no rent at
all. ..." The Chief praised Napier, who was formerly
English ambassador in Berlin. " It was very easy to get
on with him," he said ; " Buchanan, too, was a good, dry
man, but trustworthy. Now we have Loftus. The position
of an English ambassador in Berlin raises curious questions
and involves special difficulties on account of the relationship
between the two Royal Houses. It needs great tact and discre-
tion (a quiet hint probably that Loftus does not answer these
demands and requirements)." The Minister (perhaps to mark
still more clearly his opinion of the character of the then
representative of Her Britannic Majesty) then turned the
conversation to Gramont, saying " He and OUivier always
seem to me the real people. If such a thing had happened
in my hands, after doing mischief like that, I should at
least have enlisted or become a Franc-tireur on my own
account, though I might have been hanged for it. That"big
strong fellow Gramont is very well made for soldiering."
Russell said he had once seen him in Rome in blue velve-
teens at a hunting party. " Yes," said the .Chief, " he is
a good sportsman. He has the right build of muscles
for it. He would have been a capital head gamekeeper.
But — Minister of Foreign Affairs — one can hardly con-
ceive how Napoleon could have appointed him to such a
position.''

In the evening L. told us that he had seen two heavy
siege guns, with eight horses each harnessed to them, passing
through Versailles to-day, probably for a battery at Sevres
or Meudon.

Bohlen told us at tea that Hatzfeld had yesterday been
invited to the Royal table. Abeken sorrowfully remarked,
" I have never had the good fortune to be commanded to

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

dine and have never got any farther than tea.'' About ten
o'clock the Minister came in. He spoke once more of the
bombardment. "If what the General Staff asserted at Fer-
riferes, that in three days they could reduce a couple efforts to
ruins, and then push forward against the feeble enceinte, were
correct, it would be a good thing for us. But now — it has been
too long put off — only one month till Sedan, and already
three months here, for to-morrow is the ist of December.
The danger of an intervention of the neutral Powers grows
greater daily. That would begin in a friendly sort of way
and might end in all sorts of mischief . . . Had I known
three months ago how things would be I should have been
very anxious." Later in the evening, Abeken came back
from the King, to whom he has for some time been reporting
matters for the Chancellor. He had heard that there had
been three sorties to-day, one directed against the Wiirtem-
bergers, one against the Saxons, and the third against the
Sixth Army Corps. The King thought that it might have
been an attempt to break through our lines and escape.
" Where could they go ?" said the Minister ; " they would put
their heads in a sack. Such an attempt would be the best
thing that could happen for us. Where they came on with
eight battalions we should meet them with ten : and better
troops too. Of course they may have received dark hints
about the Army of the Loire, they don't know that it
has already been defeated. By the way," turning to me,
' you might put into a telegram what Putbus told me to-day,
that some of the wounded to whom we gave permission to
return to Paris, declined to do so."

There was no more firing to-night

I have already remarked somewhere that there are only a
few reasonable men in France. To-day I have come across
one. A leading article of the Lyons Decentralisation, headed

XIII.] A Voice from the Provinces. 47

' A Voice from the Provinces,' and signed L. Duvarennes,
runs as follows : —

" On the day after the Empire fell, the Paris Deputies
thought themselves obliged to form a Government. Im-
partial history will take note of this quite as much as of
the attitude of a Chamber elected, at least in part, rather
in the interests of a dynasty than of the nation. Out of
their action issued the Provisional Government and the
premature proclamation of the Republic, which has not
yet received the necessary legal sanction of the representa-
tives of the country.

" Although we may not excuse, we can readily understand
the excitement of those first days ; and how the French
people, unaccustomed to administer its own affairs, sur-
prised by what then revealed itself to it as a sort of eteri.al
justice asserting its indefeasible rights and appearing to be
a success — we can understand how arbitrary action seemed
in many parts of the country to assume the shape of freedom.

" But we have several times already pointed out to whom,
in our opinion, we owe this false idea of the situation, and
as one naturally suspects the man who is to profit by a
crime, of being its real author, the adherents of the de-
throned government have an interest so clear and unmis-
takable in the maintenance of disturbance in France, that
we are entitled distinctly to charge them with striving to
secure it by every means in their power " (the writer is in
error here).

" What ought to be the attitude of the Government, if it
really wishes to defend the country in its hour of danger?
What has it done in that way ? It was bound first of all to
make an appeal to the nation and by every possible means
to bring itself into that harmony with its representatives

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

which the situation required for the public well-being. It
ought by its example to have inculcated the union of all
Frenchmen. But it must be admitted that unity, which
implies a disciplined obedience, was every«'here absent,
and that we have too many actual governments to be able
to tell which of them is the lawful government of the
country.

" Tours orders elections and Paris will not hear of them.
Paris proceeds to elections which France, acting from
Tours, has refused. Lyons is under one flag, France under
another. Marseilles holds itself aloof. Blood flows in the
streets of Perpignan, and Esquiros leaves his place in Ghent
and is received ■ttdth shots from revolvers. Duportal stays
at his post at Toulouse, preaching up a peasants' war, in
defiance of the government at Tours. Is this unity ? Can
one call it Government? In presence of such facts is it
possible to question the necessity of a regularly established
authority ?

" There is another class of citizens resisting the elections
— the people at present at the helm. Probably they are
afraid that the country would send them back to their
old occupations. Certainly the obstinacy with which they
cling to their dictatorship justifies every kind of distrust.
They see that the power they have laid hold of is slipping
out of their hands, they struggle to confirm themselves in it,
and people hereabouts are beginning to talk of a plebiscite,
to establish a sort of bastard representation of the people
for the duration of the war. We shall not exchange our
liberties for such a mere phantasm of freedom ; we shall go
on demanding a free, equal, and universal expression of the
popular will. It is not the time to ask people to cast into
the ballot-boxes a simple Yes or No for a particular set of
candidates. After the Plebiscite, which has been hissed off

XIII.] Free Elections.

49

the stage, they ought to let the curtain stay down on the
comedy, and we say distinctly, for the honour of the country,
that a proposal for that sort of election can scarcely be
seriously meant. But there is no reason why we should
not immediately elect municipalitieSj restoring to the com-
munes of our towns and villages their most sacred rights,
of which they have been shamefully robbed by the preten-
sions of the Parisians to be the mouthpiece of France.
Let us name our municipalities, and elect our mayors. In
one word, let us be free, and from these communes will
issue a real representation of the country.

" Under the reign of yesterday's Csesar, we had plenty
of fine speeches stigmatising the official precautions taken
about the freedom of elections. Was all this patriotism (of
MM. Gambetta and Favre) nothing but a wretched farce ?
We might have believed it sincere, if the Caesar of to-day had
not been equally ready to give his own declaration of the
popular will. We want free elections ; we want the Com-
mune ; we want people really charged with the decision of
our destinies ; we shudder to think of the hydra of anarchy,
which is already rearing its hideous head. That is why Vife
shall never cease to demand communal elections, and the
creation of those e\tcttd.mX.o 3. Farlia77ient of national defence,
if we are to defend ourselves any longer, and, at any rate,
into a Parliament representing France."

Thursday, December i. — This morning only a couple of
shots were fired from the forts. I telegraphed that yesterday's
sortie had led to a desperate struggle with the Wiirtemberg
Division, the larger half of the 12th, and portions of the
6th and 2nd Army Corps, and that the result had been that
the enemy had been repulsed along the whole line. The
wounded had declined to avail themselves of the permission

VOL. II. E

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

to return to Paris. Afterwards there was the usual study of
the journals with pencil marking and extracts.

At breakfast Abeken appeared with his hair cut. He
asked Bismarck-Bohlen how he looked. The answer was,
" Admirably, Privy Councillor, but the lock on the one side
is longer than on the other." " No matter for that, I always
wear it so. But have you really nothing else to say against
it ?" " It is quite perfect. Privy Councillor." The old
gentleman went away whistling, greatly pleased with himself,
and Hatzfeld watched him as he went out with a wondering
smile.

At dinner we had a First Lieutenant von Saldern who
was present as Adjutant at the last engagements of the loth
Army Corps with the Army of the Loire. According to him
this Corps was for a long time surrounded by a superior
body of French, who were trying to break through one
wing of our troops towards Fontainebleau. They defended
themselves for seven hours against the enemy's assaults
with magnificent courage and firmness. The troops
under Wedel, and above all those of the i6th Regiment,
specially distinguished themselves. "We made over 1600
prisoners, and the total loss of the French is estimated at
from 4000 to 5000 men," said Saldern. " Yes," said the
Chief, " but prisoners are now a serious trouble to us, an
extra burden "... When Saldern told us, in the course of
his narrative, that one of the French soldiers was shot only
ten paces in front of our needle-guns, the Chief said, " But
he was shot." Afterwards he gave Abeken his instructions
for the report he was to make for him to the King, " and
say to his Majesty," said he finally, " that if we permit a
Frenchman to appear in London (in the Conference then
being held for the revision of the peace of 1856), we are not
bound to do so, as the Government has never been recognised

XIII.] Bismarck atid the Hospitals. 5 1

by the Powers, and cannot be long in existence. We may
allow it, to gratify Russia, on this question only, but if any-
thing else is brought forward, he must leave the room."

The Chief then told us the following incident : " After
being with Roon to-day, I took a walk which may have
done some good. I went to see Marie Antoinette's rooms in
the chateau, after which I thought to myself, You should take
note how the wounded are getting on. I asked one of the
sentinels, ' What do the people get to eat ?' ' Well,' he said,
' not very much, a little soup, meant for broth, with some bits
of bread and pickles of rice in it, not boiled very soft, and
very little fat' 'And about the wine,' I said, 'and do you
get beer ?' They got about half a glass of wine a day.
I asked another, afterwards, who had got none at all.
A third told me he had had some three days ago, but none
since. I questioned about a dozen, including some Poles, who
did not understand me, and could only express their deUght
to have anybody asking for them, by smiling. Also the poor
wounded soldiers did not get what they ought, and the
rooms were cold, because they were not allowed to be
heated for fear of spoiling the pictures on the walls. As if
the hfe of a single soldier were not worth more than all
the lumber of pictures in the chateau. Then the servants
told me that the oil lamps were only allowed till eleven, and
that after that the men had to lie in the dark till the morn-
ing. I had previously talked with an officer severely wounded
in the foot. He said he ought to be satisfied, though things
might be managed better. People took pretty good care of

him, but for the rest . A Bavarian companion of St.

John plucked up heart and told me that beer and wine were
given out, but probably half or more went a-missing some-
how, as well as warm things and other gifts from friends at
home. Then I went off to the head doctor. '.What about

E 2

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

the provision for the sick,' I said ; ' do they get proper things
to eat?' 'Here is the ofRcialhst of returns.' ' Don't show
me that,' I said, ' people can't eat paper — do they get their
wine ?' ' Half a Utre daily.' ' Pardon me, the people say
that is not so. I have asked them, and it is hardly to be
supposed they are lying when they say they have got none.'
' Here, sir, is my proof that everything is done properly, and
according to my orders. Come with me, and I shall ask
them about it before you.' ' I must excuse myself,' I said, ' but
they shall be asked by the auditor whether they, get what
goes to the inspector for them.' ' That would be a great
reflection on me,' said he. ' Yes,' said I, of course, 'but I
shall take care that the matter is inquired into, and at once.' " *
He went on to say, "Frauds happen mostly among two classes,
the meal-worms, who have to do with the provisions, and
the building people, especially the hydraulic engineers.
Unfortunately, too, there are some arhong the doctors. Not
long ago, perhaps a year and a half since, I remember that
there was a great investigation into frauds in the supply of
the soldiers, and to my astonishment I found that about
thirty doctors were involved." Then he asked suddenly,
" Does any of you know who is Niethammer ? He must
come of a very learned family.'' Somebody thought he was
a philologian, another said there was a friend of Hegel's
of that name, Keudell remembered that there was a diplo-
matist so-called, who had no good-will to us. The Chief
said he must have been in relation with Harless, a Bavarian
theologian, who was an enemy of ours.

* We shall see afterwards that little more came of this suspicion,
which appearances abundantly justified, than that some small defects
were discovered in the provision for looking after the sick throughout.
I have told the story as an evidence of the Minister's sense of justice
and kindly, feeling for people.

XIII.] The Convention and its Critics. 5 3

In the evening Bunker's interpellation on the imprison-
ment of Jacoby, as it appeared in the National Zeitting,
was prepared for the King's reading.

The Chancellor came in later, after half-past ten, when
we were at tea. After a while, he said, " The papers are
not pleased with the Bavarian Convention ; I expected as
much. They are out of humour because certain officials,
who will have to conduct themselves entirely according to
our laws, are to be called Bavarian. It is the same thing,
essentially, with the military people. The beer tax is not
to their mind, as if we had not had the same thing for years
ill the Customs Union. They would cavil in this way over
every detail in the treaty, though everything essential has
been obtained and properly secured. They are behaving as if
we had been at war previously with Bavaria, as we were with
the Saxons in 1866, instead of the Bavarians being our allies,
and fighting at our side. Rather than see any good in the
Convention, they would prefer to wait till they could have
their unity in a form agreeable to themselves. They would
have to wait a long while. Their course leads to nothing
but distraction, while the matter must be settled at once.
If we put off. Time, the old enemy, will come in, and sow tares
among our wheat. The Convention secures us a great deal,
and those who want everything will make it possible that
we may get nothing whatever. They are not content with
what is in their hand — they want more uniformity — if they
would only think of five years back, and what they would
then have been satisfied with. ... A Constituent Assembly !
But the Kmg of Bavaria might decline to allow one to be
elected. The Bavarian people would never force his hand,
and neither should we. Yes, criticism is easy when people
don't in the least realise the real circumstances."

He then turned to a different subject : " I have seen the

54 Bismarck in the Franco- Germa7t War. [Chap.

account," he said, "of the surprise of the Unna Battalion.
Inhabitants of Chatillon took part in it, and others un-
doubtedly added to the difficulties of our troops. If they
had only burnt down the place in their first rage ! After-
wards, in cold blood, it is not so easy to do.''

A little after, he took up some gold pieces, and played
with them in his hands for awhile. "It is startling," he
said, "how many well-dressed people go about begging
here. It was the same in Rheims, only it is much worse
here. How seldom one sees gold pieces now of Louis
Philippe's, or Charles the Tenth's ! I remember when I
was young, in my twenties, one still saw pieces of Louis the
Sixteenth and Eighteenth, the thick ones. Even the name,
Louis d'or, has almost gone out, though with us it is still the
correct thing to talk of Friedrichs d'or." He balanced a
gold Napoleon on the tip of his middle finger, as if he were
weighing it, and went on : "A hundred million double
Napoleons would be about the amount of the war indemnity
so far, in gold — it will come to more after a bit — 4000
million francs. Forty thousand gold thalers make a hundred-
weight, thirty hundredweights are the load for a good two-
horse cart — -I know that I once had to take 14,000 gold
thalers home, and how heavy they were ! That would take
about eight hundred carts." " We should get those faster
than the carts for the ammunition for the bombardment,"
said somebody, whose patience, like that of most of us, was
about worn out over the putting off of the bombardment.
" Yes," said the Chief, " but Roon told us a few days ago,
that he has several hundred lorries at Nanteuil, meant for
the transport of the ammunition. We might use four
horses for awhile, for carriages which have now six, and
spare the extra two for the transport of ammunition. We
have already 318 cannon, but we want forty more, and he

^IIIJ The Condition of Paris. 55

might get them also, said Roon. But others won't hear of
it." Afterwards, Hatzfeld said : " They have been refusing
to hear of it for six or seven weeks now. Bronsard and
Verdy said, so long ago as at Ferriferes, that we could lay
Forts Issy and Vanvres in ruins in six-and-thirty hours, and
then advance on Paris itself. Yet, after all that, nothing is
done." I asked what Moltke thought about the matter.
"Oh, he doeS' not trouble himself," said Hatzfeld; but
Bucher said, " Moltke wants the bombardment."

Before going to bed, I cast my eye over our Moniteur,
with a whole column full of the names of French officers
who had been taken prisoners, broken their parole, and got
off" from the places where they had been interned. There
were captains and lieutenants, infantry and cavalry, northern
Frenchmen and southern Frenchmen. Two had got away
from Dresden, and no fewer than ten from Hirschberg. If
we can trust the reports in the English and Belgian news-
papers, there is little enough already in Paris, of what holds
body and soul together ; but things are still bearable, at
all events, for well-to-do people. They have plenty of
bread, dried vegetables and preserved meats. There is
very little fresh beef, and it is very dear. Horse and
donkey-flesh, " both better than they are called," says a
letter, have to serve for it with most of the Parisians. The
rat is beginning to be much in request. Dogs and cats are
articles of luxury, and can no longer put out their noses
with impunity on the Boulevards at night.

The stock of oil is about done, there is no more wood for
firing, and the supplies of coal are running low. About the
middle of November a pound of butter cost twenty-five to
twenty- six francs, a goose thirty-five, a pound of horse-flesh
three to four francs, and fresh vegetables and milk were no
longer within the reach of people of moderate means.

S6 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

Friday, December 2. — In the morning I again explained
the Chiefs attitude about the convention with Bavaria in
letters and an article. At breakfast we were told that
another sortie was going on against the Wurtemberg troops
and the Saxons, and that this time the French had de-
■weloped great masses of infantry. We had several degrees
of cold, a very serious affair for the wounded on the battle-
field. In the afternoon 1*116 long article in the Times on
Gortchakoffs answer to Granville's despatch was translated
for the King.

Alten, Lehndorff, and an officer in dragoon uniform were
the Chiefs guests at dinner. The officer was a Herr von
Thadden, a son of Thadden-Treglaff. The Chief said
that after coming back from a carriage round he had just
been looking to the better quartering of our soldiers on
guard. " Up to this time the fellows have been billeted,"
he said, "in Madame Jesse's coach-yard, where they can get
no fire. I could not allow that any longer, and ordered the
gardener to clear out the half of the hothouse for them.
' But madame's plants will be frozen,' said the gardener's
wife. ' It is a pity,' I said, ' but it is better than that the
soldiers should be.' " He then spoke of the danger that
the Reichstag might disallow, or at least modify, the con-
vention with Bavaria. " I am most anxious about it," said
he. " These people have no idea of the real situation. We
are standing on the point of a lightning conductor ; if we lose
our balance, after I have had the greatest difficulty in getting
it, we tumble to the bottom. They want more than what
was got without using any pressure, and what they would
have been delighted with, or with the half of it, in 1866.
They want amendments, they want to put in more unity and
uniformity. If they alter a single comma, we shall have the
negotiations all over again. Where are they to be held ?

XIIL] Two Love Gifts. 57

Here in Versailles? And if we are not finished by the ist
of January, which would be delightful to many in Munich,
the unity of Germany is done for, perhaps for years, and the
Austrians can do what they like in Munich.''

The first dish after the soup was mushrooms, served
up in two different ways. " You must eat these with much
feeling," he said ; " they are a love-gift from the soldiers,
who found them in some quarry or cellar, where a crop of
mushrooms is being raised. The cook has fitted with them
a capital sauce, first-rate ! Even a better love-gift, certainly
a more unusual one, was sent me by the soldiers : what regi-
ment was it that sent me the roses?" "The 47th," said
Bohlen. " Yes, that bouquet of roses was gathered under
fire, probably in a garden of the outpost circle. By the
bye, that reminds me that in the hospital I came across a
Polish soldier, who could read no German. A Polish
prayerbook would be a comfort to him ; has anybody such
a thing ? " Alten said no, but he could supply him with
some Polish newspapers. The Chief replied : " No good ;
he would not understand them, and they would put him up
against us. Perhaps Radziwill has something. A Polish
novel, ' Pan Twardowski,' or something of that sort, might
do." Alten said he would make a note of it.

The conversation then turned on to-day's sortie, as twice
over we heard the thunder from the Seine. Somebody
said, " The poor Wiirtemberg fellows have no doubt lost a
great many men this time, too." " Most likely the poor
Saxons also," said the Chief. Somebody mentioned Ducrot,
who was probably in command of the sortie, and said he
ought to take care not to get taken prisoner. " Certainly,''
said the Minister, " he should either get killed in battle, or
if he has no mind for that he should take himself off in
a balloon." . . . The Chief looked round : " Where is

58 Bismarck iji the Franco-German War. [Chap.

Xrausnik? He has surely not forgotten to bring the
apple-poultice for the soldier which I promised him. He
was wounded only in the arm, but he looked a miserable
object, and had fever — suppuration, I am afraid."

We began to talk of speculation in stocks, and the
Minister again repeated that very little could be made out of
it, through the possession of which must always give one a
very restricted forecast of political events. Such things only
produce their effects on the Exchange a little later, and
nobody can guess on what day the effect will begin. " Yes,"
he went on, " and if one could procure a fall of stocks by
intrigues of that sort, it would be a disgraceful affair. The
French Minister G. did so, as R. recently told us. He
doubled his capital by it — it might almost be said, that the
war was promoted with that object. M., too, as they say
tried the same business — not on his own account, but with
the money of his mistress — and when it was likely to turn
out well, he died under suspicious circumstances. A man
who wants to make use of his position will arrange to have
the Bourse telegrams for all the Exchanges sent on along
with the political despatches to suitable officials at the
various legations. Political telegrams have precedence, and
twenty or thirty minutes might be gained that way. Then
you must have a Jew who can run fast, to take proper
advantage of the extra time. There are people, doubtless,
who have done it. In this way one might earn his 500 or
5000 thalers daily, which in a couple of years would come
to a good deal of money. My son shall never say that his
father made him a rich man in any such fashion. He may
get rich some other way, if he wants. I was better off
before I was Chancellor of the Confederation than I am
now. I was ruined by the Dotation. Since that time I have
been a man in difficulties, I considered myself before as a

XIII.] The Chancellor at Home. 59

simple country squire, but after I came to belong in a sort
of way to the peerage, the demands on me have increased,
and my estates don't bring it in. The time when I always
had something to the good was when I was ambassador at
Frankfort, and in St. Petersburg, when I needed to keep no
company and kept none.'' Then he told us of his ground-fir
and wood pulp concerns in Varzin, out of which he seemed
to expect to make a good deal. His tenant paid him interest
on the capital which he had sunk in the mills and other
plant. " How much might it be ?" said somebody. " Forty
to fifty thousand thalers. He pays me 2000 thalers," he
added, " for a water-power, which was of no use before ;
he buys my pine logs which I could hardly sell pre-
viously, and after thirty years he is to hand me back the
whole of the mills in the condition in which he received
them. At present there is only one, but there will soon be
another where the water falls with greater force, and after-
wards a third." " And what may your tenant make of it ? "
" Pasteboard for book-covers, paper for packing and for
making boxes and so on, especially for Berlin, and cakes of
ground-pine flour which are 'sent to England, dissolved there,
mixed up with other stuffs, and turned into paper.'' All this
he explained to us in detail, as knowing all about the
processes.

Saturday, December 3. — During the night there was heavy
firing again in the north, but, in the course of the day, only
single shots came from the big guns. Yesterday there must
have been severe fighting on the east and north-east of Paris,
with heavy losses on our side too. Apparently the French
had established their footing at night in the villages of Brie,
Villiers, and Champigny, which were included within our
lines. I forward by telegraph to Germany a communication
from the General Staff about these events, which leaves the

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

continued occupation of these positions by our troops
ambiguous, speaks only of the repulse of the French, who
burst out in heavy masses, by the Saxons (who seem to have
lost a whole battalion), the Wiirtemberg troops, and the 2nd
Army Corps, and goes on to describe a victory at Longwy
and at Artenay. At half-past one the Chief goes to visit
the Grand Duke of Baden, whose wife's birthday it is, and
afterwards dines with the King. We have Count Holnstein
with us, who went off last Saturday night to see the King
of Badon at Hohenschwangau and got back here at mid-
day to-day. " A journey that can never be forgotten," said
Bohlen to him. I asked Bucher about it. " The Count
was absent while the Emperor question was going on, and
he brings back good news," he answered. We v/ere struck
to-day by the French firing four cannon-shots some six
times in the course of the day, two at intervals of about four
seconds, and two almost simultaneously.

The Gaulois, which has emigrated from Paris to Brussels,
seems- an accurate sort of print. Its editors, one of whom
was that amiable person, Angelo de Miranda, go on as
if they were still writing in Paris, shut off from all the world.
For example, these children of the father of lies tell us, that
about the middle of October Prussia paid 450,000 thalers
(^^67,500), through a London house, to certain people
living in France, on which account these people are sup-
posed to be Prussian spies. They say that Moltke died and
was buried three weeks since, but that any German soldier
who mentions the fact is at once shot. To get out of the
way of the serious business which there is likely soon to be
about Paris, King William has, it seems, taken himself off
to Germany, probably to open the Reichstag. Lastly,
thirty-six heads of families at Mutzig, near Strassburg, whose
sons are with the French army, have been put to death,

XIII.] Neutrality of Luxemburg. 6l

their ears and noses cut off, and their corpses fastened on
the church walls, where they have been for a month past.
In other respects the chief editor, Tarbe, is not at all bad.
He attacks Gambetta, whom he calls a tyrant, and whom
he charges particularly with acting in the interest only
of the republic, not of France, the republic meaning
nothing but his own dictatorship and absolute sovereignty ;
and with sacrificing his country to secure his own power.
In Paris Tarbd appears not to have been in a position
to express these views with sufficient distinctness. So he
left Paris, and tried to slip through the German line,
with three of his sub-editors. He succeeded, but he could
not start his paper again in any of the French provincial
towns, as he might not have been allowed to attack Gam-
betta even there. So he is going to fight and lie from
Belgium. Notes about this mendacious print were com-
municated to the Moniteur and the German papers.

Afterwards I wrote an article on the neutrality of Luxem-
burg, and the perfidious way in which the people there have
taken advantage of it to assist the French in their struggle
with us in various particulars. The line of argument was as
follows. At the beginning of the war we declared that we
should on our part respect the neutrality of Luxemburg.
The reciprocal neutrality of the grand duchy and people of
Luxemburg was presumed without any express declaration.
This presumption has turned out unfortunately. , While
we kept our promise honestly, inconvenient as it was
interfering especially with the forwarding of our wounded,
neutrality was frequently violated by Luxemburg in the
most flagrant fashion. We had previously had reason to
complain that the fortress of Thionville had been revic-
tuaUed by supplies brought in during the night through
the connivance of the officers of the grand-ducal railway

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

and of the police authorities. After the capitulation of
Metz numerous French soldiers passed through the Grand
Duchy on their way back to France and the French army
operating against us in the north. The French consul
established an official " bureau " at the railway station at
Luxemburg, where 5uch soldiers were supplied with money
and legitimation papers for their journey. The grand-
ducal government allowed all this to go on without making
an attempt to interfere with this assistance to the enemies
of Germany. It can have no reason to complain if we pay
no further reSpect to its neutrality in our military operations,
and if we require it to make up the loss which we have
had to undergo through its permitting these violations of
neutrality.

Sunday, December 4. — Lovely weather. Scarcely a shot
fired in the north. I am telegraphing that the French have
made no new attempts to break through our lines either
yesterday or to-day, and that Prince Frederick Charles has
been again pressing forward and capturing some more guns.

The Bavarian ex-minister Von Roggenbach, first lieu-
tenant Von Sarwadsky, and the Bavarian companion of St.
John, von Niethammer, a man with an uncommonly noble
countenance, whose acquaintance the Prince made recently
in the hospital, were at dinner. The Minister first men-
tioned that he had again been visiting the wounded in the
chiteau. Then he said, " Frankfort and Petersburg ex-
cepted, I have never been as long in any strange place as
I have been here. We shall certainly spend our Christmas
here, and a little ago we did not expect that. At Easter
we may be still in Versailles seeing the trees once more
growing green, and keeping our ears always open for news
of the army of the Loire. If we had known, we should have
had asparagus beds in the garden out there." Afterwards,

XIII.] The Surrender and the End. 63

turning to Roggenbach, he said, " I have seen the extracts
from the newspapers. How they are wrestling over the
Convention ! They don't leave one good hair on its head
The National Zeitung, the Kolnische, the Weser Zeitung, which
is as it always is, the most rational of all. Well, criticism rnust
please itself But I am responsible if nothing comes of it
all, and the critics are not. It is all one what they say
against me if the thing can only be put through in the
Reichstag; history may say, if it pleases, that that poor
creature of a Chancellor ought to have made something
much better out of it, but then I was responsible. If the
Reichstag amends it, every South German country diet may
do the same, and a peace such as we want, and need, is
done for. Elsass cannot be claimed from France, unless a
political personality has been meanwhile created, and there
is a Germany to recover it for."

We spoke of the peace negotiations which would likely
spring out of the soon-expected capitulation of Paris, and of
the difficulties that might ensue. " Favre and Trochu,'' the
Chief began, " may say, ' We are no longer the Government ;
we once were, but we have resigned and are merely private
individuals — ^I am only Citizen Trochu.' I should soon
bring the Parisians to their senses. I should say, You two
millions of people are answerable to me with your lives.
I shall leave you to starve for four-and-twenty hours till we
get what we want out of you. And twenty-four hours on
the top of that, for what happens is all one to me. The
delay will do me no harm, but ... I could manage well
enough with myself, but there is something standing behind
me, behind my back, or rather lying on my chest, so that I
cannot breathe. . . . Ah ! if I were squire, I could answer
for my own hardheartedness ; but I am not squire. Within
the last few days something very foolish has come up

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

through sentimental feeling for the people inside. Great
magazines of provisions are to be prepared for the Parisians.
They are to be brought over from London and Belgium,
the magazines are to be between our lines, and our soldiers
are Only to look on, and not to help themselves out of
them when they are in want. It is to save the Parisians
from starving after the capitulation." " We have certainly
enough in the house here, but the troops outside are
often hard put to it, and they are suffering that the
Parisians may be able, when they know they are looked
after outside, to put the capitulation off till they have really
swallowed their last loaf and slaughtered their last horse. I
am not asked about it, else I should be hanged rather than
give my consent." " But I have myself to blame ; I was im-
prudent enough to invite people's attention, only the diplo-
matic world's to be sure, to famine as inevitable." (I had
also had to do the same in the newspapers.)

Swiss cheese was handed round, and somebody asked
whether cheese went well with wine. " Some kinds of
cheese with some sorts of wine," said the Minister ; " high-
flavoured cheeses like Gorgonzola or Dutch, don't suit.
Others suit well. When people used to drink hard in
Pomerania, some two centuries or so since, the Rammin
folk were the hardest drinkers. One Stettin man had once
got wine which did not taste right to him, and he wrote to
the wine merchant about it. The answer he got back was,
' Eet Kees to Wien, Herr von Rammin, denn smekt de Wien
wie in Stettin ook to Rammin.' (' Take cheese to your wine,
like a Rammin man, for the wine tastes the same in Stettin
as in Rammin.')"

L. told us when he came in, about eight o'clock, to fetch
his notes, that the Ambassador von der Goltz had told
him in 1866 that he had despatched a courier to the

XIII.] Bavaria and the Convention. 65

German head-quarters to say that the Emperor Napoleon
would offer no objection to the annexation of Saxony, but
the messenger arrived a couple of hours too late (the facts, as
is well known, were different). I then told L. to explain
at length, in an article in the great newspaper for which he
corresponds, what is the feeling here about the convention
with Bavaria. He could say something like this : In the
first place, we cannot dictate to Bavaria the conditions of her
entrance into the Confederation with the rest of Germany,
as we did to Saxony in 1866. She is our victorious ally,
not our defeated enemy. We could not have put pressure
on her in time of peace, much less now, after she has been
fighting by our side, with whatever motives — and probably a
wish to maintain her own independence, to a certain reason-
able extent, may have been one of them. And finally,
if the Reichstag alters anything in the convention the
diets of Southern Germany may correct anything they
think convenient, and the negotiations will be endless ;
while it is of the utmost moment that the convention should
soon be complete, in view of the annexation of Elsass-
Lothringen.

After ten o'clock, some six shots came from one of the
forts, one sharp after the' other, and some more shortly after.
The Wiirtemberg troops fought, it appears, wonderfully well
insDucrot's first sortie towards the Marne, and the Saxons
also, who lost several hundreds in prisoners. We have taken
eight hundred French prisoners.

I went down to tea after half-past ten. Bismarck-Bohlen
and Hatzfeld were sitting there with three sharp-shooters,
who were waiting for the orders of the Chief. It was half
an hour later before he came back from the Grand Duke of
Baden's. He wrote rapidly a letter in pencil to the general

VOL. II. ^

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

commanding the Fourth Army Corps, which one of the sharp-
shooters took away with him. Then he told us how the
Grand Duke had just had the news from the King that
our people were now in possession of the Forest of Orleans
and ■ close up to the town. After the others and the
sharp-shooters had left, I asked, " Your Excellency, should
I telegraph the good news straight off to London ?" " Yes,"
he said, smiling, "if the general staff will allow us to say
anything about the movements of the army." He then read
Renter's telegram with accounts from the French side. He
stopped at the word " tarde," which was probably a mistake
in writing out, saying, "A Saxon must have telegraphed
this." Then, with a look at me, " I beg your pardon."

The gentlemen came in with Abeken who had had the
honour to drink tea with the King We spoke of Gortcha-
koff's note, of England, of Count Holnstein's journey,
and its happy results, of his audience by King William.
Bohlen said, " They are quite beside themselves in Ger-
many. It will be a splendid spectacle to-morrow with
their Emperor. They will illuminate ; they are already
making preparations for a feast of dazzling magnificence.".
"Well," said the Chief, "it may have, I fancy, a good
effect on the Reichstag. It was very good of Roggenbach
to be ready to go off to Berlin at once" (to preach
reason to those of the members of parliament who were
dissatisfied).

Monday, December 5. — Charming weather, but this morn-
ing very cold. While he was still in bed the Chief had a
written report from Bonsart, that the Third and Ninth Army
Corps under Prince Frederick Charles had had a great
victory, that the railway station and one of the suburbs of
Orleans had been taken by Mannstein ; that the Grand Duke
of Mecklenburg had appeared in the west of the town j that

Xlli.] Victories at Orleans aud Amiens. 67

over thirty cannon and several thousand prisoners had
fallen into our hands. All sorts of war material, including
nine cannon, had also been captured by our troops at
Amiens, after a victory there. Finally, here, before Paris,
the French had been driven back behind the Marne. I
telegraph this in our usual fashion, and this time the
Minister has no fault to find with my long despatch.

Soon after he called me back, and I wrote out a polemical
article on the Bavarian affair, in which the ideas I had put
forward hitherto were somewhat differently given, and which
I dropped into the cigar-box which hangs below on the
wall of my bureau, for letters requiring rapid dispatch. It
was something in this style : " The rumour that the Chan-
cellor of the Confederation accepted the convention with
Bavaria as it now stands, only because he believed ■ that
the Reichstag would throw it out, or, at all events modify it,
is altogether groundless. In the course of December these
conventions will have to be finally accepted and concluded in
every particular, if they are to come into force, as they are
meant to do, on the first day of the new year. Otherwise,
everything remains in uncertainty. If the representatives of
North Germany alter the Convention, the South German
diets become entitled to alter it back again, aiid nobody can
say whether they may not decide to exercise their right. In
that case the nation would have a long while tQ wait for
political unity." (" Ten years, perhaps," the Chief had said,
" and interim aliquid fit — something happens in the mean-
time.") " Nor can the peace that is coming be what we want
without them. The conventions may be defective, but all
that can be put right afterwards by the Reichstag acting
along with the Federal Council, and through the pressure of
public opinion, and of national feeling among the people.
Hurry had nothing to do with it. If this pressure fails, the

F 2

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

present situation of German affairs is still manifestly according
to the wish of the majority of the nation. The Nationalists
in Versailles are very much concerned and disturbed about the
tone Berlin takes in the matter ; but there is some comfort
in noticing that the Volkszeitung has been fighting against
the convention with Bavaria ; for people are accustoming
themselves to recognise by degrees that everybody with
political insight regularly goes against everything which that
paper praises or recommends, and inclines to the side )vhich
it criticises and warns them away from."

About three I went for a walk with Bucher to the wooded
hills south of the city, from which we can see its whole
extent. Shortly before dinner I telegraphed, according to
news which the Chief had just received, that Orleans was
last night taken possession of by the Germans. About the
same time L. came to let me know that Bamberg had told
him that he, L., was to resign the editorship oi 'Cos. Moniteur
officiel, by order of the Federal Chancellor, to him, Bamberg.
.... I am glad that he is still permitted to get information
for his correspondence from us. He has several times done
us really good service in that way.

The Royal messenger Bamberger sat at dinner on the
Chiefs left. He was thinking of starting for Berlin to' per-
suade people to accept the conventions with South Germany
without alteration. Besides him, the Minister had as his
guests a dragoon officer with a yellow collar. Colonel von
Schenk, and a lieutenant or captain of the light-blue hussars.
The latter, a grey-headed gentleman with moustaches, was
the von Rochow who killed Hinkeldey in a duel. The
conversation first turned on doctors, and their knowledge
of things, and the Chief thought very little of them. Then
we talked of the conventions, and somebody said that the
attitude of the princes in the matter had been right. " Yes,

XIII.] Ministers and Members of Parliament. 69

but the attitude of the Reichstag," interrupted the Chan-
cellor, " I can think of nothing but, gentlemen, gentlemen,
you are spoiling the whole of our fowling. You remember
Kaiser Heinrich. But it turned out well there in the end.
Well, if this fails, man after man of them might offer himself
to be shot dead on the altar of his country, but it would
be of no use to anybody." Then he thought a moment,
and went on with a half smile, " People should make
members of Parliament as responsible as ministers, no more
and no less, on a footing of perfect equality. There might
be a law that they could be put on trial for high treason, for
obstructing important State agreements, or, as they have done
in Paris here, for approving a war made without just cause,
and in lightness of heart (they were all for it, except Jules
Favre). Some day, perhaps, I shall introduce such a law."

We then spoke of the last fights before Paris, and some-
body said that the Pomeranians had been under fire.
" Probably also my good fellows from Varzin," said the
Chief; " forty and nine — seven times seven. How are they
getting on, I wonder ? " Rochow then told some stories
about several peculiar habits of General von Alvensleben, in
whose quarters he had passed the night.

We spoke again of the delay in the capitulation of Paris,
which was to have taken place in four weeks at latest.
" Yes," sighed the Chancellor, " if it would only come to
that, all my troubles would be over." Bamberger suggested,
"I suppose we shall not allow them merely to capitulate;
we shall require them to make peace with us ? " " Quite
so," said the Chief, " that is my view, too, and we must
force them to it by starving them. But there are people
here who want to be praised for their humanity above
everything, and who spoil everything with it ; besides which,
our first duty of humanity is to think of our own soldiers,

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

and see that they don't suffer needless misery^ and are not

killed for nothing." " 's view of the bombardment is just

the same. Then they spare the potato-grubbers, who ought
to be shot, of course, if we want to force the city to submit
by starvation."

After eight o'clock I was repeatedly called for by the
Chief, and wrote two longish articles. The second was
founded on a note in the Indkpeniiance Beige, and pointed
out that there was nothing in the circumstance that the
House of Orleans was connected with that of Habsburg
Lothringen through the Due d'Alengon, to make us Germans
inclined to give it any preference, or to regard it at all more
favourably. It came pretty much to tRis.

" It will be remembered that when the princes of the
House of Orleans offered their services for the war against
us, they were refused by Trochu. The Indtpendance Beige
now tells us that the Due d'Alengon, the second son of
the Due de Nemours, who was not at the time able to
follow in his father's and uncle's footsteps, on account of
ill-health, is now ready to try his luck in the same direction,
and it significantly adds : — " It will be remembered that
the Due d'Alen§on is married to a sister of the Empress of
Austria." We understand the hint, and believe that we
meet it in the spirit of the true policy of Germany as follows.

" The Orleans princes are well known to have been quite
as hostile to us as the other dynasties which have angled for
the French crown. Their press teems with lies and insults
against us. We have not forgotten the pretty song to the
glory of the murderous Francs-tireurs, which the Due de
Joinville started after the battle of Worth. In France the
Government which is most agreeable to us is that which
has least power to hurt us, having too much to do at home
in strengthening itself against its rivals. For us, except in

XIII.] The Orleans Princes and Austria. 71

that way, Orleanists, Legitimists, Imperialists, and Repub-
licans, are equally worth and equally little worth. As for the
hint of the Austrian relationship, we can see what that would
come to. . . . There is one party in the Austro-Hungarian
Empire which sides with, and another which sides against
Germany. The latter would like to see the Empire repeat the
old policy of Kaunitz in the Seven Years' War, of a perpetual
conspiracy with France against German, and above all,
against Prussian interests. It is the policy which has recently
been associated with the name of Metternich, which was pur-
sued from 18 1 5 to 1866, and which people have since been
attempting to carry out more or less energetically. This is
the party of which Metternich junior, the latter-day resur-
rection of old Prince Metternich, has for years been the
most emphatic spokesman. It wants a Franco-Austrian
alliance against Germany, and it was one of the chief insti-
gators of the war now raging. The House of Orleans may
fancy that its connection with Austria improves its prospects,
but it is the very reason why it has nothing to hope for, at
all events from us.''

While we were drinking tea, and after Bucher and
Keudell and I had been sitting awhile together, the Chief
came in, and Hatzfeld afterwards. The latter had been
with the King, and told us that he had learned that in
the battle near Orleans, and during the pursuit which
followed. Prince Frederick Charles had captured seventy-
seven guns, several mitrailleuses, and four gun-boats. Some
10,000 unwounded prisoners fell into our hands. The
enemy's troops dispersed in different directions. All the
important points were taken by storm, and we suffered
considerable losses in consequence, the 36th, for instance,
having lost a great many, it is believed as many as 600 men.
In the last battle before Paris, also, we lost heavily, in con-

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

sequence of the overwhelming numbers of the enemy. You
may imagine, Hatzfeld went on to say, that we did not
have a very lively time at the King's. " The Russian state
councillor, Grimm, told us all sorts of feebly interesting
things about Louis XIV. and Louis XV. The Weimar man
proposed a riddle to which nobody could give the correct
answer." " Radowitz was a great man in finding out these
things," said the Minister. " He used to give his solution
of every possible thing with the utmost confidence, and that
was the way in which he won most of his successes at Court.
He could tell us exactly what la Maintenon or la Pompadour
wore on such and such a day. She had this or that round
her throat, her head-dress was ornamented with humming-
birds, or bunches of grapes ; she wore a pearl-green or a
parrot-green dress with such or such flounces and laces —
all quite as well as if he had been there himself The ladies
were all ears for this toilette lecture, which came trippingly
from his tongue."

The conversation turned afterwards on Alexander von
Humboldt, who, if we can trust to what was said about him,
must have been a courtier not at all of the entertaining
kind. " In the time of his late Majesty," the Chief told
us, "I was the only victim when Humboldt used of an
evening to entertain the company in his own fashion. He
used to read aloud to us — often for an hour at a time —
a biographical account of some French scholar or architect
in whom nobody but himself took any interest. There he
stood, holding his paper close up to the lamp. Occa-
sionally he let his hands drop, to interpose some learned
expansion of what he had been saying. Nobody listened to
him, but he kept on without a pause. The Queen worked
steadily at some tapestry work, and certainly did not hear a
word of his discourse. The King looked over pictures —

XIII.] Humboldt at Court. 73

copper-plates and wood-cuts — making a good deal of rustling
in turning them over, with the quiet purpose apparently of
preventing himself having to listen to anything that was
being said. The young folks kept at the side and in the
background, talking quite unrestrainedly, tittering, and
occasionally overpowering the voice of the lecturer, who
went rippling on all the same for ever like the brook.
Gerlach, who was usually present, sat on a little round stool,
over the edge of which his portly person overflowed on all
sides, and he slept and snored so loud that the King once
wakened him up, saying, ' Gerlach, don't snore so any
longer.' I was his only patient audience, for I kept quiet,
as if I were listening to the discourse, while I was thinking
of other things. At last, we had in the cold meat and the
white wine." " It vexed the old gentlemen very much
when he could not get speaking. I remember once that
somebody present took up all the conversation, quite natu-
rally, as he was telling us in a charming way about things
that interested us all. Humboldt was beside himself. He
moodily heaped on his plate — so high " (showing us with
his hand) " pat^ de foie gras, fat eels, lobster claws, and
other indigestibles — a regular mountain of them — it was
marvellous what that old man could eat. When he was able
for no more, he began to be restless again, and made one
' more attempt to run away with the conversation. ' On the
peak of Popocatepetl,' he began, but it was no use, the
story-teller was not to be put down. ' On the summit of
Popocatepetl, 14,000 yards above the level of the sea,' he
repeated, in a loud, excited voice. It was still no use ; the
story-teller went on just the same, and the company gave
their attention to him alone. It was unheard of — an out-
rage ! Humboldt sat down storming, and fell a-musing sadly
on the ingratitude of mankind, even at Court."

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

" The Liberals made a great deal of him, and counted
him one of themselves. But the breath of his nostrils
was the favour of princes, and he never felt himself com-
fortable except in the sunshine of royalty. That did not
prevent him from gossiping about the Court afterwards
with Vamhagen, and telling all sorts of evil stories about
it. Vamhagen made books of them, which I bought like
other people. They are frightfully dear when one thinks
of the dozen lines in big type that sprawl over a page."
Keudell said he supposed, however, that for history they
were indispensable. " Yes," said the Chief, " in a certain
sense they are. There are points on which they are not
worth much, but as a whole they express the acrid tone of
Berlin society at a time when there was no good in it. Every-
body about that time used to talk with the same malicious
impotence." " Without such books, it would be quite im-
possible for one nowadays to have the least conception
of the kind of world it was unless one had seen it.
Plenty of apparent, but no real good-breeding. I can re-
member, though I was then but a little fellow (it must have
been in the year 1821 or 1822), the Ministers of the day
were frightful creatures, much stared at, and full of a
mysterious importance. There happened to be a great
gathering at Schuckmann's, what was called at that time an
' Assembly.' What a frightful creature of a minister that
man was ! My mother went to it. I can remember her
as if it were yesterday. She had long gloves on, up to here "
(pointing up past his elbow), " a short-waisted gown, her
curls done up in pads at both sides, and a big ostrich
feather on her head." Whether or not he had meant to
tell us some story, he broke off here, and went back to
Humboldt. " Humboldt," he said, " had really much to
tell one that was worth listening to, when one was alone

XIIi.] Moltke and Trochu. 75

with him — about the time of Frederick William III. — and
especially about his own first residence in Paris. He had
a kindness for me as I was always so respectful a listener,
and I got a great many good anecdotes from him. It was
just the same with old Metternich. I spent a couple of
days with him once on the Johannisberg. Thun said to
me, some time after, ' I don't know what glamour you have
been casting over the old prince, who has been looking
down into you as if you were a golden goblet, and who told
me, that he had no insight at all, if you and I did not get
on well together.' ' Well,' said I, ' I will tell you ; I listened
peaceably to all his stories, only pushing t he clo ck several
times till it rang again. That pleases these talkative old
men.' " Hatzfeld remarked, that Moltke had written to
Trochu, to tell him the real state of things at Orleans. " He
gave him liberty to send out an officer to convince himself
of the truth, offering him a safe-conduct to Orleans." The
Chief said, " I know. I should have liked better that they
had let the proposal originate with him. Our lines are at
present thin in several places; and, besides, they have
their carrier-pigeon post. When we invite them to come out
and see for themselves, it looks as if we were in a great
hurry for the capitulation."

Tuesday, December 6. — Before breakfast, I telegraphed
particulars of the battle at Orleans to Berlin and London.
Afterwards I drew up articles for the Moniteur, and for
several German papers, on the breach of their parole by
several captive French officers, some of whom are again to
be pursued with letters of caption. Even General Barral,
now in command of the army of the Loire, made his escape
in this disgraceful fashion. He gave a written promise on
his word of honour, after the surrender of Strassburg, not
once but twice over^ that he would not in this war

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

bear arms again against the Prussians and their alHes, and
that he would do nothing whatever to the injury of the
German armies. He then went off to Colmar, and from
thence to the Loire, when he re-entered the French service
— an unprecedented infamy. The gentlemen of the Tours
government made no objection to him. These gentlemen,
whom the Belgian papers are never tired of praising up as
honest folk, men of honour, and so forth, went even farther
than that. They dispatched a certain M. Richard to the
French officers now interned in Belgium, who gathered them
together in the house of Taschard, the representative of
MM. Gambetta and Favre in Brussels, and then urged and
threatened them, to break the word of honour they had given
the Belgian authoirities, to make their way back to France,
and to take service there once more against the Germans.
Even in Silesia such emissaries seem to have over-persuaded
some officers of low character. In the history of warfare
cases like these are certainly not numerous. But the affair
has another aspect ; these disgraceful proceedings must
give the German authorities great reason to question how
far they can trust a government like that of the National
Defence. When a government stoops to invite officers
to break their word of honour ; when it employs and makes
use of officers who have done so, on its own initiative,
proving by so doing that it shares and excuses these low
conceptions of the value of solemn promises, we must, as
a matter of course, treat it as in the last degree untrust-
worthy, so long as it goes on tempting its captive officers
to break their parole, and employing and making use of
them, after they have done so.

Dr. Lauer and Odo Russell were at table. The conver-
sation was of no special interest, and almost no politics
were talked at all. But we had some delicious wines

XIII.] Count Gramont. . yj

from the Palatinate — Deideslieimer Hofstiick and Forster
Kirchenstiick — the best blood of the grape, rich in every
virtue, fragrant and fiery. "From fire man's spirit was
created." Even Bucher, who usually drinks only red wine,
did honour to this heavenly dew from the Haardt moun-
tains.

In the evening, Consul Bamberg, the new editor of our
Versailles journal — an elderly man, in a sort of sea-captain's
uniform, flying the ribands of a couple of orders — paid us
what is after this to be a daily visit. The recent inspection
of the hospital in the chateau by the Chief has given rise to
an inquiry, and if I understand rightly, he has had a letter
from the war ministry informing him that everything is in
perfect order, that the sick have been getting what was
proper for them, and that the sentinel who told him about
the alleged neglect has been suitably punished.*

Afterwards I wrote an article in which I expressed a
polite astonishment at the brazen-facedness with which Gra-
mont reminded the world of his existence in the Brussels
Gaulois. It is through his unheard-of narrowness of vision,
and his almost unprecedented incapacity for the office he
then filled, that France has been brought to her present
misery, and he ought, like his colleague OUivier, to have
hidden himself away in silence, and been only too thankful
that people should forget his existence, or, as his ancient
name required and obliged him — and his bodily robust-
ness well enabled him to do it — he should have gone
into some regiment, and done his best by hard fighting
for her to atone, as far as lay in his power, for the injury
he had done his country. Instead of which, he has the
courage to remind the whole world that he is still alive,

* For details see a subsequent page.

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

and that he once directed the foreign policy of France.
"A brazen-faced dunderhead." Naturally, one does not
answer the statements of such people.

After the consul with the order, L. came in with the
good news that Rouen was occupied yesterday afternoon
by General von Goeben, and that the German troops
operating in that region had now turned their attention
to Havre and Cherbourg. I requested him also to write
something for his paper about the employment of the
officers who had broken their word of honour, and about
Gramont's audacity.

According to EngUsh accounts from Paris things began,
quite a fortnight since, to be very uncomfortable there.
Several kinds of disease have broken out, and the death
cases are considerably more numerous than in ordinary
times. Anxiety and disheartenment, as well as want of
food, have contributed. In the first week of September
there were 900 deaths ; in that ending the 5th of October,
nearly twice as many ; in the following week, 1900. Small-
pox rages in the town, and is carrying oif many victims ;
and a great number of people have died of bowel disease.
Home-sickness has broken out like an epidemic among the
battalions recruited from the provinces. An English corre-
spondent who visited ; the hospital "du Midi" in the last
week of October, noticed a placard above the entrance-gate,
on which was printed, " Any person bringing in a cat, a dog,
or three rats, will get his breakfast and dinner. N.B. It is
absolutely essential that the animals be brought in alive."
Similar placards are said to be quite common at the gates
of the Paris hospitals.

It wants still five minutes of midnight. The Minister is
already off to bed — very early for him. The candles in the
bottles I use for candlesticks are nearly burnt out. Mont

XIII.] The Night Watchman at Mont Valerien. 79

Valdrien thunders down a frightful salute into the valley
below it. With what object ? Perhaps it is only to tell the
Parisians it is about twelve o'clock, a sort of night watchman
calling the hour ; otherwise all this shooting is much ado
about nothing. During the last two days of battle, Abeken
was told to-day that the forts threw about 6000 bombs and
grenades, but only fifty-three of our men were hurt by them,
and several of them only sUghtly wounded.

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

CHAPTER XIV,

PROSPECTS BEFORE PARIS IMPROVE.

Wednesday, December 7. — Disagreeable weather. Only
now and then a shot fired from the forts or the gun-boats.
The lies with which Gambetta and his people have been
trying to stop up the hole which the defeat of the " red-
breeches " at Orleans has knocked in the hopes the people
cherished of a great victory over us, induced us to send the
following note to the Moniteur : — " The members of the
Government of Tours have published accounts of the defeat
of the Army of the Loire which read like fragments of the
tales of the ' Arabian Nights.' For instance, their telegram
says, ' The retreat of the Army of the Loire was accom-
plished without loss, except that we left the heavy ships'
guns spiked in the entrenched camp.' In reality, 12,000 un-
wounded prisoners fell into the hands of the German troops.
The Tours despatch goes on to say, 'we lost no field
artillery.' Forty-seven field-pieces, and several mitrailleuses,
were captured by the conquerors. The German people,
remembering the virtues of the Catos, Aristideses, and other
Republicans of antiquity, were disposed to hope that the
Republic would have wiped lying out of the list of its means
of operation, and fancied that it would lie less, at all events,
than the Empire. It was evidently wrong. These jCatos of
the present day have put to shame all previous attempts to
substitute untruth for truth. When they have anything
disagreeable to lie away, the advocates of Tours are much
more unblushing than the generals of the Empire." After-

XIV.] Austrian Diplomatists. 8i

wards I telegraphed the new advances of our armies in the
north, and the occupation of Rouen.

After three o'clock I went with Wollmann across the
Place d'Armes towards the court of the chateau, where
fourteen of the bronze guns taken at Orleans are ranged
under the very eyes of the equestrian statue of Louis XIV.,
directly below the inscription, ' A toutes les gloires de la France '
(to all the glories of France), an ironical comment upon
that expression of Gallic conceit and swagger. The guns
were some of them twelve and some four pounders, and be-
hind them were ranged gun-carriages and ammunition carts.
The French guns have each a name — one, for instance, is
called " Le Bayard," another, " Le Lauzun," a third, " Le
Boucheron "; while others are " Le Maxant," " Le Repace,"
" Le Brisetout," or similar horrors. On several there is a
scrawl, stating that they were captured by the 4th Hussar
Regiment.

Counts Holnstein and Lehndorf were with us at dinner.
We had the fine Deidesheimer again. The Chief began to
talk, inter alia, of his recollections of Frankfort. " I got on
well with Thun ; he was an honest man. Rechberg was not
bad upon the whole ; at least, he was personally honourable,
though he was very violent and effervescing— one of those
furious very fair folks." He went on to say : " No Austrian
diplomatist of the school of that day troubled himself
very much about the exact truth. The third of them,
Prokesch, was not at all the man for me. He had brought
with him from the East the trick of the most miserable
intrigues. Truth was a matter of absolute indifference to
him. I remember once, in a large company, there was
some talk of an Austrian assertion which did not square
with the truth. Prokesch raised his voice, and said, so
that I should hear him distinctly, 'If that were not true

VOL. II. G

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

I should have been lying (and he emphasized the word),
in the name of the Imperial Royal Government.' He
looked me straight in the face. I returned the look, and
said quietly, ' Quite so, your Excellency.' He was obviously,
shocked ; but when onTooking^ round he perceived nothing
but down-dropped eyes and solemn silence, which meant
to say that I was in the right, he turned on his heel and
went into the dining-room, where covers were laid. After
dinner he had recovered himself, and came across to me
with a full glass, for otherwise I should have supposed that
he was going to call me out. He said, ' Come, now ; let us
make friends.' ' Why not ? ' said I ; ' but the protocol must
of course be altered.' 'You are incorrigible,' he replied,
smiling. It was all right. The protocol was altered, so that
they recognised that it had contained an untruth." After-
wards we spoke of Goltz, and the Chief once more told the
Beaumont story of his unpopularity with his people, and
asked Hatzfeld whether he had had anything to complain of
from Goltz. Hatzfeld said " No ; but it was quite true that
Goltz did not get on well with the people of the Embassy."
After dinner, Consul Bamberg was with me, and received
the article on the untruthfulness of the Tours people. I

spoke to him also about L , whose capacity I praised

while he said that he thought him a good patriot, and that

he had formerly done some good work. . . . Later on, L

himself turned up, and told us, among other things, that
people were beginning to call the Hotel des Reservoirs the
Hotel des Prdservoirs — no very brilliant joke, I thought ;
but people may have their own ideas about it, and anybody
who was at that time in Versailles will know well enough
what they were.

Hatzfeld told us at tea that numerous prisoners had passed
through to-day, and that there had been considerable dis-

XIV.] Wines and Brandies. 83

turbance and disorder because civilians, especially women,
had pressed in among the people, so that the escort had
been driven to make use of the butt ends of their muskets.
. . . We then spoke of the bombardment, and the gentle-
men agreed that the King really wished it, and that there was
a hope that it would begin very soon. . . . Moltke, it was
added, wished it too. He had recently received an answer
from Trochu to the letter he had sent, the sum and sub-
stance of which was, " Many thanks ; but, for the present,
we had better leave things as they are.''

Thursday, December 8. — A great deal of snow fell, and it
was tolerably cold, so much so that, in spite of the big beech
logs which were burning in my fireplace, I could not get
reasonably warm in my room. . . . Prince Putbus was with
us at dinner. Besides other good things, we had omelettes
with mushrooms, and, as several times previously, pheasant
and sauer kraut boiled in champagne. There was also
Forster Kirchenstiick and Deidesheimer Hofstiick. The
Minister said that he preferred the former. " The Forster,"
he said, " is undoubtedly a higher style of wine than the
Deidesheimer." Finally, besides this and other excellent
drinks, we had an admirable old corn brandy. Putbus sug-
gested that sauer kraut was not wholesome, and the Chief
said, " I do not think so. I eat it precisely because I believe
it to be wholesome. But, Engel, give us a schnaps " (a drop
of brandy). The Minister then showed Putbus the menu,
and, during conversation about it, it was mentioned that a
young diplomatist in Vienna had carefully collected all the
menus of his chief, and preserved them in two finely-bound
volumes, in which some most interesting combinations were
to be found.

Later on, the Chancellor remarked that the French must
now have got one or two very big guns in one of the forts

G 2

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

nearest us. " One can make that out by the report, which is
much louder, but they may very hkely hurt themselves with
them. If they use a very heavy charge, the gun will either
turn round and shoot straight into the town, or blow itself to
pieces, though of course it might sometimes go off right, and
then the shot might reach us'at Versailles."

Somebody asked what was the position of the Emperor
of Germany question, and the Chief said : "We have had
trouble about it, with telegrams and letters ; but the most
important were those which Count Holnstein brought us —
a very intelligent person." Putbus asked what office he held.
" Master of the Horse. He made a journey to Munich and
back again in six days. In the condition of the railroads
he must have made a great effort to manage it. Certainly
he had a capital constitution to help him ; and he went, not
merely to Munich, but as far as Hohenschwangau. King
Ludwig, too, contributed very much to the speedy settle-
ment of the affair. He took the matter up at once, and
gave a decisive answer without putting off time."

I do not know how it came about that the conversation
happened upon the expressions, " swells, snobs, and cock-
neys," which were then discussed at length. The Chief
called a certain gentleman in the diplomatic service a
" swell," and went on to say : " It is a capital word, the
force of which we cannot quite give in German. It is
1 something like ' stutzer ' (a dandy), but it includes, besides,
a puffed-out chest, and a sort of general blown-up-ness.

" ' Snob ' is quite different, and we have no exact ex-
pression for that either. It signifies different things and
properties, especially one-sidedness, narrowness and Philis-
tinism, and that a man cannot get out of mere local or
temporary views. The snob is a sort of bourgeois person.
All this is not quite a complete description. He cannot

XIV.] Snobs, Swells, and Cockneys. 85

get beyond the interests of his family ; his circle of vision in
political questions is extremely limited ; he is shut in by the
ways of thinking and the prejudices in which he has been
brought up. There are snobs, and very decided snobs too,
of the female sex. We may also speak of party snobs—
those who cannot help placing the higher politics on the
same basis as questions of individual rights, radical snobs
(fortschrittsnobs) .

" A Cockney again is different. The word is appUed
chiefly to Londoners. There are people there who have
never got outside their walls and streets, their bricks and
mortar — who have never seen a green thing, who have
learned life only in town, and heard nothing beyond the
sound of Bow bells. We have people in Berlin also who
have never been away from it ; but compared with London,
and even with Paris, which also has its cockneys, though
they have a different name there, Berlin is a little place.
In London, hundreds of thousands of people have never
seen anything beyond the city. In such big towns views
sprout up, ramify, and harden into permanent prejudices
for those who live in them. It is in these great centres of
population, where there is no experience, and consequently
no correct idea — in many cases not even a conception — of
anything outside of them, that this simpleton sort of narrow-
ness is born. A simpleton who is not conceited is tolerable
enough, but a simpleton who is impracticable, and conceited
besides, is not to be endured. People in the country districts
have a much better chance of understanding life as it really
exists and grows about them. They may have less educa-
tion, but what they know, they usually do know. There are
snobs, of course, in the country. Well, for instance " (turn-
ing to Putbus) " a first-rate huntsman, who is thoroughly
convinced that he is the first man in the whole world, that

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

hunting is really everything, and that people who understand
nothing about it are worth nothing at all ; and a man on an
estate outside there, where he is everybody, and where all
the people depend entirely upon him. When he comes in
from the country to the wool-market, and finds that nobody
in the town takes him at the value at which he is estimated
at home, he gets low, sits down on his woolsack and sulks,
and takes no interest afterwards in anything but wool."

The conversation dropped away soon after this into stories
about horses and horsemanship. The Chief told us about
his brown mare, which he had not at first thought much of,
but which carried him for thirteen hours at Sedan — at least
fifty-five English miles — and which was quite fit for service
next day. Then he gave us other stories of horsemanship ;
telhng us, for instance, how once, when he was out riding with
his daughter, he had come up to a ditch which he himself
certainly would never have liked to take, but which the
Countess, her horse having got into his stride, took quite
easily, and so forth.

In the evening I was summoned several times to the
Chief, wrote several articles, and among them one on the
approval which the French Consul, Lefaivre, in Vienna, had
expressed of Bebel, the Socialist Member of Parliament, on
account of his sympathies with the French Republic. The
moral of my article was, " So Germany is to go on for the
future, obedient and thoughtful as in the past, while France
is to transact business and be master." The Frankfurter
Zeitung is no longer to be looked at in Berhn for extracts,
as the French nonsense which it advocates is not worth
reading.

At tea Keudell said I was in future to get not merely the
rough draughts and sketches of important political matters
which the Chief gave me, I was to see everything j he would

XIV.] The Duty of Noblemen. 87

talk the matter "over with Abeken, who holds the position
of secretary of state here, a piece of news which I heard
with much gratification. Bucher told me that the Minister
had given them a very interesting discourse in the salon
when coffee came on the table. Prince von Putbus had
spoken of his wish to travel in very distant countries. "Yes,
and we might help you,'' said the Chief; " we might send
you to notify the establishment of the German Empire to
the Emperor of China and the Tycoon of Japan."

Afterwards, in view of the future, and naturally with
some reference to his guest, he had launched out into a
long discourse about the duties of the German aristocracy.
The higher nobility ought to have some feeling for the
interests of the State, to recognise their mission, to protect
the State from vacillation in the conflicts of parties, to main-
tain a firm attitude, and so forth. There is nothing to be
said against this, bjit when they associate with Strousberg
they may just as well become bankers at once. One won-
ders whether, at that time, the Prince understood the whole
affair perfectly, and whether he was accommodating his
language' to what he knew to be the facts.

Friday, December 9. — I telegraph the victory, the day be-
fore yesterday, of our 17 th Division at Beaugency over a
French corps of about sixteen battalions, with six-and-twenty
cannon, and I contradict the story of the Gazette de France
about Galvez, the Ambassador of Peru.

At breakfast we were told that Prince Trubetzkoi, a
relation of Orloff' s, wanted protection for his villa from our
army police, and had also asked the Chancellor that our
troops should be taken away from the neighbourhood of his
property, as their being massed there raises the price of
the necessaries of life. His letter will go to the waste-paper
basket. The Commandant of Versailles, General von

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

Voigts-Rhetz, was with us at dinner. I believe he is a
brother of him who was governor-general in Hanover in
1866, and who has now won the battle of Beaune la Rolande,
a long man, with dark beard and eagle nose. The con-
versation, which turned principally on the recent battles
between Orleans and Blois, was of no particular importance.
The Chief was absent, being unwell, and it is believed that
he has pains in his leg. In the evening Bamberg came
in, and after him L. who had heard from a good source
that the bombardment would begin almost at once, that
the King had burst out against Hindersin in a frightful fuiy,
because there was not ammunition enough ready yet, and
that he himself was now to take the matter in hand.

Later in the evening extracts were made for the King
from the report in the Observer of the discourse of a certain
M. de Fonvielle in London on the bombardment, the
purport of which was that the speaker had laughed at the
idea that it was from motives of humanity that King William
was not allowing Paris to be bombarded. De Fonvielle had
said that he was unable to do it, and that his batteries were
kept at a respectful distance by the brave marines who were
serving in the forts. His plan was to starve the city, in
which, however, he would not succeed, as it was provisioned
for more than two months, and as earnest study of the
question of nourishment had shown them how to convert
the skin, blood, and bones of slaughtered animals into food,
Paris would not let itself be intimidated by the attempt to
reduce it by famine. Its cry was " No surrender," its only
wish to sweep the enemy out of France, and it had now got
the broom in its hands with which it meant to perform this
operation.

Saturday, December 10. — Mist in the morning, a great
deal of snow fallen, and the sky still full of it. The Chief

XIV.] The Deputation from the Reichstag. 89

is not yet right. I telegraph more about the battle of Beau-
gency, in which the ist Bavarian, and the 8th and 22nd
North German divisions fought against two new army corps
on the French side, and more than a thousand prisoners
and six cannon fell into our hands. The Militdr Wochen-
blatt again notifies the escape of seven French officers who
have broken their parole, and I forward a note about it
for further publication in the Moniteur. At dinner the
Chief, Bismarck-Bohlen, who has been suffering for three
days, and Abeken, who has had the good fortune to be
commanded to dine with the Crown Prince, were all absent.
In the evening I prepared for the King an article in the
National Zeitung, which shows that they are speaking even
in the Reichstag of the delay in the bombardment, and
which also expresses a wish for some explanation of the
reasons of the delay.

Having been sent for by the Chief, I took the liberty
before leaving to ask how things were going on in the
Reichstag about the treaties. He replied, " All right ; the
agreement with Bavaria will either be adopted to-day, or voted
upon to-morrow, and the address to the King too." I then
permitted myself to ask how he was in health. " Better,"
he said, " it is a varicose vein in the leg." I said, would
it trouble him long ? "It may go away in a day, or it may
bother me for three weeks.''

Keudell told us at tea that the Reichstag had decided to
send a great deputation to Versailles, charged to present its
congratulations to the King on the unity of Germany, and
on the restoration of the dignity of Emperor. Abeken did
not like this. He said, sulkily, " It is frightful for the Reichs-
tag to send us thirty fellows here — a deputation of thirty
people is really dreadful." He gave us no hint of his reason
for being annoyed. Thirty wise Bonzes with the title of

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

Privy Councillors might possibly not have been frightful, but
thirty Marshals of the Household are enough to excite one.
Hatzfeld expressed himself anxious about our immediate
future in a military point of view. He believes that there is
room for anxiety about our position in the west. Von der
Tann, he says, has only 25,000 left of his 45,000 men, and
the armies which have sprung out of the ground at the
stamp of Gambetta's foot, are continually growing in num-
ber. News has come in at the Bureau that the French have
got together two very large armies, and that the seat of
Government has been removed from Tours to Bordeaux.

It is doubtfulj of course, how long this energy of Gambetta
will meet with a response in the capacity for resistance in
the country, and in its readiness to submit to further military
drains. In the southern departments people appear to be
very much discontented and thoroughly exhausted with this
destructive war. The Gazette de France gives a letter dated
" Tours, ist December,'' in which the writer says, "I have
seen nothing for a long time which can be compared with
the misery which the last levee en masse has entailed upon
our country districts. The compulsory contribution for the
pay and equipment of the mobihsable national guard for the
next three months has converted our ill-humour into rage,
and our distress into despair. The reason is, that though
our good peasants may be much less clever than they are
represented by Balzac and Victorien Sardou, they are
certainly not such simpletons as Gambetta would like them
to be for the success of his Republican exhortations. An
instinct which is all but infallible shows them that while a
levee en masse of fathers of families might likely enough only
take place on paper, a war contribution makes an imme-
diate demand upon them, unless it is in the form of a
loan, which would press still more heavily. The peasants

XIV.] opinion in the Country Districts. 91

say that on the day when our mobilisable men get their
equipment, they will not have a shirt left for their own
backs.

" This extraordinary tax, which bursts upon us like a
bomb-shell, at the beginning of the worst season of the
year, has no relation whatever to the resources of our un-
fortunate country communities. Only two of the four
simple rules of arithmetic are left to us — addition to our
losses and multiplication of the misfortunes which are over-
taking us. The Germans have taken subtraction for them-
selves, and the demagogues division. In our south-easterly
departments, among the people of the Ardfeche, the Durance,
and the Rhone, want and misery began before the war, the
invasion, and the republic. A drought, which made water
in many places an article of luxury ; the complete failure of
the grass and hay crops, which compels us to sell our cattle
for a third of the usual price ; the sickness among the silk-
worms, which has ceased to be interesting, having become
chronic ; the grape louse, an agreeable change after the
grape rot — like M. Cr^mieux, instead of Louis Bonaparte —
the unheard-of depression in the value of our manufactures ;
all these taken together had thrown us upon the bed of
sickness long before the day when infatuation, folly, frivolity,
improvidence, bounce, and incapacity united to betray France
to the Germans. We were already sick enough. The war
gave us the finishing stroke, and the Republic is looking after
our burial."

Sunday, December 11. — In the morning, at nine o'clock,
we have five degrees of cold, the garden below is covered
with hoar-frost, and the moisture is frozen in delicate thread-
work on the branches of the trees and shrubs. I pay Bis-
marck-Bohlen a sick visit, his illness having taken another
form. The Chief, too, has not yet quite recovered, but he

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

must be better, for he drives out at about two o'clock.
Half an hour later, I take a walk through the park of the
chiteau, where about fifty persons, some of them ladies of
doubtful character, and three or four whose characters are
not at all doubtful, are skating on the big central reservoir.
As I came back, I heard somebody scolding furiously in
French. Looking round, I noticed walking right behind me
an elderly man, who limped a little, and who was abusing
an over-dressed and over-painted female who was going
mincingly past us. " Shameless women, who bring dis-
grace into our families, and ruin on our young people ; they
ought to be driven out of the town," he said, turning to me
as if he wished to bring me into the conversation. Then he
came close up, constantly scolding, and ultimately coming
to a person of the male sex, whom he called the destroyer of
France, declaring that the misery into which these men had
plunged their country was a frightful spectacle, which cried
aloud to Heaven. I said to him, " But France, you know,
wanted the war, and must accept the consequences." He
allowed that, but still burst out in furious abuse of the Re-
public and its leaders, especially Gambetta ; Trochu, Favre,
Gambetta, and the whole of them, were good-for-nothing
blood-suckers. The Republic meant government in the
interests of the dregs of the people, who looked askance at
the comforts of their neighbours, and would like to dis-
tribute the plunder amongst themselves. He would rather
see the King of Prussia master of France, and the country
mutilated, cut up small, and broken into fragments, than the
Republic. The Emperor, too, had been good for nothing.
He was a mere usurper. Louis Philippe had pleased him
just as little ; he was not the right heir. But the Republic
was the worst of all ; and so on. I accompanied the en-
raged Legitimist as far as the Place Hoche, where I left

XIV.] Balloons drawn by Eagles. 93

him, after he had told me his name and address, and I
had promised that I would pay him a visit soon.

In the Avenue of Saint-Cloud I met Hofrath and Major
Borck, who asked me whether I knew what could have been
the reason why the King had been so very much depressed
yesterday after Abeken had had his talk with him. I could
not help him in the least.

The Chief dined with us to-night, but spoke httle, and
complained of headache. Hatzfeld told us that Hartrott
had just informed him that 4400 horses and 1000 waggons
were on the way from Germany to be used in the transport
of ammunition. The bombardment of Paris would begin in
eight or ten days. The Chief answered, " It ought to have
begun sooner, and, as for the eight days, that has often
been promised us."

In the evening, I cut out for the King a number of
articles from the German newspapers, expressing their
views upon the situation, and an article in the Belgian
Echo of Parliament. Abeken will bring them before him
to-morrow.

Our Moniteur gives us another list of the French officers
who have escaped by breaking their parole. There are no
fewer than twenty-two of them, ten of whom escaped from
Hirschberg. I see from the same paper that the Pall Mall
Gazette has accepted as genuine coin, and passed into circu-
lation, a joke in the manner of Baron Miinchausen. Moved
by the mischances that have happened to several of the air-
balloons sent up from Paris, the French are supposed to have
put their calculating finger to their nose, and to have solved
the problem of guiding these conveyances in the following
manner. It is as simple as the egg of Columbus. They
harness eagles to them. The correspondent of the newspaper
writes, " However extravagant the idea of making birds guide

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

balloons to their destination may appear, people in Paris have
gone into the matter seriously. It is said that satisfactory
experiments have been made with eagles from the Botanic
gardens, harnessed to the car. These experiments took
place in the presence of the Postmaster-General Ramport, of
M. Chassinat, of the chief of the postal service in the De-
partment of the Seine, and of the Receiver-General Mattet.
Four or six powerful birds were harnessed to the balloon,
and were guided by an aeronaut by means of a piece of raw
flesh fastened to the end of a long stick, which was held in
front of their beaks. The greedy birds keep struggling in
vain to reach it, as it moves through the air with the same
velocity as they do. When the aeronaut wishes the balloon
to move in a different direction, he turns the stick, with the
beef-steak at the endj to the right or left. If he wants to
go downj he drops it ; if to ascend, he lifts it up." The
editor of the Moniteur adds the remark, '* We are afraid that
these eagles were geese."

Hatzfeld told me at tea all sorts of interesting things
about his experiences and observations in Paris. In 1866
Napoleon said to Goltz, that he could not allow a complete
incorporation of Saxony with Prussia, but if only the name
and a small portion of the kingdom — Dresden, for instance,
with a few square miles in the neighbourhood — ^were left,
he would be quite content. If that be true, I have reason
to think that the Chiefs advice was to take no advantage of
this offer. At first, the Empress could not endure Goltz, for
the following reason. During the interim between Goltz
and his predecessor, Prince Reuss represented the embassy,
and the Court was very much attached to him ; he was in
high consideration, especially as coming of a princely family
Eugenie would have liked him to have been ambassador,
but he was sent off to Brussels, and the Empress attributed

XIV.] The Empress and a Restoration. 95

that to Goltz, disliked him for it, received him with marked
coldness, never invited him to her select parties, and only
saluted him, not speaking to him at all, upon pubhc
occasions. Goltz, who was supposed to have been much
smitten with her, often went away in a regular fury. Once,
however, when he happened to have been invited to such a
select evening, she had been compelled to say something to
him, and in her perplexity, nothing occurred to her but the
question, " What is Prince Reuss doing now ?" When Goltz
went home, he is said to have been in a frightful rage,
and to have used a disagreeable epithet. . . . After-
wards, however, the relationship between them improved,
and Goltz ultimately stood so well wth the Emperor, that
he (Hatzfeld) was of opinion that if Goltz had been alive in
1870, there would have been no war between us and France.
I asked what sort of woman the Empress was. He
said, "Very beautiful, not over middle height, splendid
bust, fair, with much natural intelligence, but little acquired
learning, and few interests in intellectual matters." She had
once taken him, with other gentlemen, through her rooms,
and even into her sleeping apartment, but he had nowhere
seen a book, or even a newspaper. Hatzfeld is of opinion
that things will come round in the end to Napoleon's restora-
tion. After all, he was not so bad as people represented
him ; and certainly by nature, he was the very reverse of
truculent, being rather soft. If the French should see that
they cannot pull through with their Republic of advocates,
through whom they are falling more and more into ruin,
they would invite him back again some day. As a second
time the Saviour of Society, he might venture to treat
with us upon the basis of what we require in order to make
peace. His services in securing order might then make up
for the loss in power and authority, which would be the

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

necessary consequence of his giving up Elsass and part of

Lothringen.

******

I insert here a letter which a sympathiser with the Legiti-
mist whom I have already mentioned in this diary, wrote to
Prince Bismarck in 187 1. It was as follows : —

" Prince, — Since the capitulation of this accursed city of
Paris, very extraordinary things have happened in ouj;
unfortunate France.

"Ah, Prince, I am not initiated into the secrets of Pro-
vidence, but it appears to me, if you will permit me to say
so, that you were too magnanimous to that miserable and
despicable population of Paris. Your armies ought to
have humbled them to the uttermost, entered their city in
triumph, and occupied it completely.

" Woe to him who had dared to disturb so well-deserved
a triumph. You thought it better, however, to show more
moderation. Look at the results. I do not know what
the future may have in store for us ; but it appears to me
that your Excellency ought, as speedily as possible, to
interfere with, and put an end to, a condition of things
which is becoming critical for France and dangerous for
Europe, and which may involve serious consequences for the
other states. Beware, Prince, of the propaganda of wicked
passions. If you could listen to the expression of all the
hopes of these revolutionaries of the newest sort, as I can,
you would, perhaps, not be without some anxiety about the
future. Be assured. Prince, that if the Republic establishes
itself in France, it will soon cause disturbances in every
monarchical state of Europe. It would be better that France
should perish than that she should receive such a form of
government, the consequence of which could be nothing
but incessant miseries, vice, and revolution.

XIV.] A Frenchman's Appeal to the Chancellor. 97

" When I see so many crimes and basenesses, and so deep
a moral degradation, I despair, and cry for some strong
and energetic hand to put an end to it all. Yes, Prince,
the whole party of right-thinking people in France would
greatly prefer the sovereignty of the foreigner to that of the
demagogism with which we are threatened, and which will
never be put an end to till it has been annihilated. That,
Prince, is the mission which is laid upon you. I believe that
the right moment has come. Do not neglect it. No feeling
ought to restrain your Excellency, especially when you think
of the past, and the horrible struggles which we are witness-
ing every day. The tiger is unchained, and, if he is left
loose, he will devour everything. Chain up Paris ! Annihi-
late it if necessary, or subject it to your domination, and you
will have deserved well of mankind. Allow me, Prince, to
go one step further, and suggest to you a partition of France
on an early day. Let Italy have the piece along the course
of the Rhone, from Geneva to the sea, with the island
of Corsica. Give Spain the strip up to the line of tlie
Garonne, from sea to sea. Give England Algiers, and take
all the rest, Prince, for yourself. It is reasonable that you
should have the largest portion. Then let Russia and
Austria aggrandise themselves in the East.

" Oh, my country ! thou hast willed it ! And thou, O
accursed Paris, arrogant city, sink of all corruptions, sole
cause of all our sufferings, may an end be put at last to thy
domination ! To you, Prince, all this may appear strange,
coming from a Frenchman ; but I have been witness of so
many deeds of shame that I am weary of such a country,
where every crime has free scope, and where we never
meet men of high sentiments. I always cherish the hope,
Prince, that I may one day have the good fortune to see,
your Excellency here in Lyons, another city which stands
VOL. II. H

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

much in need of chastisement. Permit me, most gracious
sir, to express to you the deep respect with which I have
the honour to be," &c., &c.
The diary may now proceed.

Monday, December 12. — The Chief appears to be worse
again, and he is said to be in a very fretful temper ; Dr.
Lauer has been with him. The Times contains an article,
which is all we could wish, the principal points of which I
may note here. It is as follows : " In the present crisis it
is not the duty of the Germans to show high feeling or sym-
pathy, or magnanimously to forgive their defeated enemy.
The question rather is of a simple piece of business and of
prudence. What will the enemy do after the war, when he
has recovered his strength? People in England have but
a faint recollection of the numerous cruel lessons which
Germany has had from France during the last four centuries.
; For 400 years no nation has had such bad neighbours as
they have found in the French, who werfe always unsociable,
irreconcileable, greedy of territory, not ashamed to take it,
and always ready to assume the offensive. During this
whole time Germany has endured the encroachments and
usurpations of France. To-day, when she has won the
I victory and has conquered her neighbour, it would in our
opinion be very foolish of her not to take advantage of the
situation, and not to acquire for herself a boundary likely to
secure peace for her in the future. As far as we know there
is HO law in the world entitling France to retain the terri-
tories which were formerly annexed by her, after the owners,
from whom they were taken, have laid their hands upon the
thief. The French complain bitterly to those who will
listen to them that they are exposed to losses which threaten
their honour, and they incessantly and earnestly entreat
people not to dishonour poor France, to leave her her

XIV.] The Times on Peace Conditions. 99

honour unstained. Will her honour, however, be preserved,
if France refuses to pay for her neighbour's windows which
she has broken ? The real fact is, that she lost her honour
when she broke her neighbour's windows, and only her deep
repentance, and her honest determination not to repeat the
offence, can restore it.

" We must say with all frankness, that France has never
shown herself so senseless, so pitiful, so worthy of contempt
and reproach, as at the present moment, when she obstin-
ately declines to look the facts in the face, and refuses
to accept the misfortune her own conduct has brought
upon her. A France broken up in utter anarchy — Ministers
who have no recognised chief, who rise from the dust in
their air balloons, and carry with them for ballast shameful
and manifest lies and proclamations of victories that exist
only in their imagination — a government which is sustained
by lying and imposture, and chooses rather to continue and
to increase the waste of human life than to resign its own
dictatorship and its wonderful Utopia of a Republic — that
is the spectacle which France presents to-day. It is hard
to say whether any nation ever before burdened itself with
such a load of shame.

" The quantity of lies which France, official and unofficial,
has been manufacturing for us since the month of July, in the
full knowledge that they are lies, is something frightful and
absolutely unprecedented. Perhaps it is not much after all
in comparison with the immeasurable heaps of illusions and
unconscious lies which have so long been in circulation
among the French. Their men of genius, who are recog-
nised as such in all departments of literature, are apparently
of opinion that France outshines other nations in a super-
human wisdom, that she is the New Zion of the whole world,
and that the literary productions of the French for the last

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

fifty years, however insipid, unhealthy, and often, indeed,
devilish, contain a real Evangel, rich in blessing for all the
children of men."

The article concludes in these words : " We believe that
Bismarck will take as much of Alsace, and of Lorraine too,
as he chooses, and that it will be the better for him, the
better for us, the better for all the world except France, and
the better in the long run for France herself. Through large
and quiet measures M. von Bismarck is aiming with eminent
ability at one single object — the well-being of Germany and
of the world. If the large-hearted, peace-loving, enlightened,
and earnest people of Germany grow into one nation, and
Germany becomes mistress of the Continent in place of
France, which is light-hearted, ambitious, quarrelsome, and
over-exciteable, it will be the most momentous event of the
present day, and all the world must hope that it may soon
come about."

It is an admirable article, and we shall bring it to the
knowledge of our friends in Versailles through the Moniteur.

At breakfast we talked of the fact that a few officers
still despaired of the success of a bombardment of Paris.
Formerly, however, the general staff had no doubt on the
subject ; and if some of them now have changed their views,
we can see what motives and influences explain the change,
and one of the gentlemen expressed himself emphatically on
the subject. The chief difficulty now seems to be this, that
large bodies of troops must be massed in the neighbourhood
to cover the redoubts and positions where the guns are to
stand, and may then be fired upon with effect from the forts
and gunboats. During this talk Hatzfeld had information
that his ponies had managed to get out of Paris unslaugh-
tered, and with tlreir flesh on them, and were now on their
way to his house here.

XIV.] The Condition of Paris. loi

The Chief stayed a long time in bed to-day, and it was
not till the afternoon that he was able to transact business.
He was also absent at dinner. Hatzfeld told us there that
he had talked with several of the diplomatists who had just
come in from Paris — the Russian General-Adjutant, Prince
Wittgenstein ; the English MiUtary Plenipotentiary, Clare-
mont ; and a Belgian. They left Paris yesterday morning
early, and got here this afternoon by Villeneuve Saint-
Georges, with the ponies and some other horses. Claremont,
Hatzfeld said, impressed him as a sensible man, well
acquainted with the condition of things in Paris. He said
that he himself had not had to eat any horseflesh or to
endure any hardships, that all the cabs and omnibuses
seemed still to be plying in the city, that people were still
playing pieces in the theatre at the Porte Saint-Martin, and
that concerts were given twice a week at the Opera House.
According to his account the gas lamps and street lanterns
are still burning, though only one in live of the latter is
lighted, as indeed is usual here in Versailles ; and the only
difference is — and it is only among the well-to-do classes —
that people regularly go to bed about ten o'clock, whereas
before the city was blockaded they used not to go till
midnight. The villages inside the French lines have all
suffered worse than those inside ours. He supposes they
may have provisions for two months yet. Abeken, on the
other hand, had learned from Voigts-Rhetz that Moblots
had come out in crowds to surrender. They had been fired
upon, but a number of them, not frightened by that, had
forced us to take them prisoners, and when they were ex-
amined had declared that they had suffered great misery,
as only the regular troops were properly supplied with food.

All the evening I was hard at work. I translated articles
for the King from the Times and Daily Telegraph, expressing

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

themselves forcibly in favour of the restoration of the
German Empire and the Imperial dignity. I prepared for his
perusal several press utterances about the bombardment, and
sent out, for printing, the manifesto which Ducrot addressed
to his troops before the last great sortie. The conclusion
of this pompous discourse deserves to be put on record. It
runs as follows : " As for myself, I am firmly determined —
and I declare it in presence of the whole country — that
I shall return to Paris either a dead man or a conqueror.
You may see me fall, soldiers^ — you will not see me retreat ;
and if I should fall, do not halt a moment, but avenge me."
Ducrot returned to Paris from the Marne neither a dead
man nor a conqueror. His address to his soldiers was
nothing but empty phrases. He is a play actor, and has
broken his solemnly-pledged word of honour a second time.
It is doing him no injustice for the Moniteur, after giving
his address, to put a note to it, " Fortunately we know the
vahie of General Ducrot's word of honour."

After avowing that it cannot help viewing with lively
satisfaction both the fact of the restoration of the German
Empire, and the way in which it has come about, the Times
goes on to say :

" The political significance of this change in the situation
cannot be estimated too highly. An immense revolu-
tion has been accomplished in Europe, and all our old-
fashioned traditions have suddenly grown out of date.
Nobody can foretell the relations which must establish
themselves between the Great Powers, but it is easy to see
what, in its broader features, is the tendency of the epoch
on which we are about to enter. There will be a strong
and united Germany, at the head of which stands a family
representing the interests of the German Fatherland and its
mihtary reputation. On the one side this Germany touches

XIV.] The Future of Europe. 103

Russia, a strong and vigilant power ; on the other France,
which will either patiently bide the time when her destiny-
will once more change, or, burning with the thirst for
vengeance, will lie in wait for the opportunity of an attack.
She will certainly not be in a position for a long time to
resume the great part she has played in Europe, and
which was conceded to her during the splendid period ot
the Napoleonic Restoration. As far as we in England are
concerned, instead of having two powerful military states on
the continent, as hitherto, with a natioh between them with
its forces scattered and unprepared for a struggle, which
might have been annihilated at any moment if these over-
whelming powers had happened to unite, we should have a
solid bar in the middle of Europe likely to strengthen the
whole framework. The political hopes of previous genera-
tions of English statesmen have thus been fulfilled. They
all wished for a strong central Power. They wrought for it
in war as well as in peace, through negotiations and treaties
— at one time with the Empire, at another with the new
Power which was rising in the North. From this day for-
ward Germany must make a reality of what has long been
nothing more than a political idea."

We must not on that account forget the fact that English
policy has for the last half century been more favourable to
Austria than to the " power which was rising in the North.''

L. came in after eight, and claimed to know "On excellent
authority," as usual, that the King did not care for the as-
sumption of the Imperial dignity, and that the arrival of the
thirty-man deputation from the Reichstag especially had not
been to his liking. He is supposed to have said, " I dare
say I owe this dignity after all to Herr Lasker."

Afterwards I wrote an article for the press, by the Chiefs
direction, pointing out that we are now fighting, not merely

I04 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap,

against France, but against those cosmopolitan Red Repub-
licans — Garibaldi, Mazzini (who is now with Garibaldi, acting
as his adviser), and the Polish, Spanish, and Danish members
of the same party. The object for which this agreeable
company is striving is set forth in a letter from the son of
the prefect Ordinaire, who describes himself as an officer of
Garibaldi's general staff, This letter, dated Autun, Novem-
ber 1 6, and directed to the editor of the journal Rights of
Man, says :

" From the postmark you will see where we are — in the
worst den of priestcraft in all France. Autun is one of the
chief centres of the monarchical reaction. It looks more like
an immense monastery than a town, with its great blank
walls and its iron-barred windows, behind which monks of
every description are praying and conspiring for the true
cause and its right divine. Everywhere in the streets the
red shirt comes in contact with the priest's black gown ; and
even the shop people, like everything else in the place, have
a mystic look of having been saturated with holy water. We
are on the ' Index ' here, and slanderous stories are told about
us — too maay for even the waters of the flood to wash away.
Every breach of discipline — and some are unavoidable with .
volunteers and free companions — is at once represented as a
great crime. An outrage worthy of death will be manufac-
tured out of nothing. The mountain often, of course, brings
forth its mouse, but the bad effect produced on public opinion
remains, notwithstanding.

"Could you believe it? The authorities themselves aggra-
vate the situation. The authorities make themselves, I hope
unwittingly, the echo of these slanderers, and regard us with
evil eyes, so that our army almost seems to be considered by
our fellow citizens a band of robbers. Yes, believe me, the

XIV.] The United States of Europe. 105

Monarchists of every shade have intermitted none of their
pernicious activities, and hate us because we have sworn to
leave none of those market-place stalls standing from which
Kings and Emperors dictate their commands and caprices
to the nations. Yes, we proclaim it openly, we are the
soldiers of the -Revolution; and, I will add, not merely of
the French, but of the Cosmopolitan revolution. Italians,
Spaniards, Poles, and Hungarians understood, when they
hurried here to fight under the banner of France, that they
were in reality defending the Universal Republic.^'

" The significance of the struggle is already clear. It is
between the principle of Divine right, of authority, of
monarchy, and that of the sovereignty of the people, of
civilisation, and of freedom. The Fatherland vanishes
in presence of the Republic.

"We are citizens of the world, and we are ready, each
according to his capacity, to fight to the death for the
realisation of the grand idea of the United States of Europe,
the brotherhood of all free peoples. The monarchical
reactionists know this, and their enmity as good as doubles
the Prussian armies. At our breasts we have the bayonets
of the foreigner, and treachery at our backs ! Why are all
these ancient officials not chased away? Why are these
former generals of the Empire, with their persons more or
less decorated with their plumes, their orders, and their gold
lace, not one and all cashiered without mercy? Can the
Government of the National Defence not see that they will '
betray it ; that with their hypocritical mano2uvres, their
shameful capitulations, their incomprehensible retreats, they
are preparing the way for a Bonapartist restoration, or at
least for an Orleans or a Bourbon ascending the throne ?

" Let the Government which has undertaken to liberate

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

the soil of our country, polluted by the hordes of the foreigner,
beware. Let it rise to the height of its own mission.
Living in an epoch like ours, in the frightful circumstances
in which we stand, it is not enough to be an honest man.
One must show some energy, and must not lose his head, or
drown himself in a glass of water. Let the Cremieuxs, the
Glais-Bizoins, the Fourichons, recollect how men acted in
1792 and 1793. To-day we need men of the convention, a
Danton, a Robespierre. Up, gentlemen, and room for the
Revolution ! She alone can help us. Gireat crises must be
met by great means and great measures.

" Let us never forget that internal organisation must con-
tribute to our defence against the outside world. It is a
great matter to have nothing to trouble us when we march
against the enemy ; it is worth something to know that we
are sustained by Republican officials, and that the army is
not in the hands of men who are ready to sell it. What
signify the formalities of the military hierarchy ? Choose
your generals, if necessary, from the ranks of your soldiers,
and especially from among your young soldiers. Infuse a
little fresh blood into the veins of the Republic, and
the Republic will rescue herself and redeem all Europe
from the yoke of the tyrants. Rise ! A single effort, and
long live the Universal Republic ! "

The Fatherland vanishes in presence of the Republic !
Use the same great weapons as Danton and Robespierre did;
cut off everybody's head who differs from you in politics or
religion ; let the guillotine be declared a permanent institu-
tion. Generals Chanzy, Bourbaki, Faidherbe, Vinoy, Ducrot
and Trochu, are to be sent about their business, and men
from the ranks to take their places. This is what is
preached by the son of a prefect, in the department of the
Doubs, an officer of Garibaldi's general staff. I wonder

XIV.] The Chancellor's Retirement contemplated. 107

how many will say Amen to these proposals when they
read them a few days after this in the Moniteur.

Tuesday, December 13. — In the morning I wrote another
article on the confession of faith of the cosmopolitan
Republicans. Then I telegraphed the capitulation of
Pfalzburg, and the commencement of the bombardment of
Montmddy. The Chiefs health is a trifle better, but he still
feels himself very limp.

At breakfast the Chancellor's possible retirement was
talked over ; we amused ourselves over a Lasker Ministry,
saying that " Lasker would turn out a kind of Ollivier,"
and, half joking, half serious, we discussed Delbriick as the
probable Chancellor of the Confederation, " a very sensible
manj but no politician." I thought it inconceivable that
they could allow the Chief to retire, even at his own request.
The gentlemen thought it not impossible. I said that if
things here went on four weeks longer they would be forced
to recall him. Bucher doubted whether in such a case he
would come back, and said positively that from his know-
ledge of him he felt sure that he would never come back,
if he once retired. He enjoyed Varzin far too thoroughly
when he was away from business and bother of every kind.
He was happiest in the woods and in the country. " Believe
me," the Coun tess ha d once said to him, " a wr«,4^ '(aturnip)
interests him more than all youf politics,'' a mot which one ,
must accept with some reserve, and consider applicable only
in his occasional moods.

At half-past two I went to him for business. He desired
me to direct people's attention to the King of Holland's
perplexity about new Ministers, and to point out that it was
a consequence of the parliamentary system which forces the
King's advisers to retire, whatever may be the circumstances,
when the majority of the representatives of the people are

io8 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

against them on any single question. He remarked, "I re-
member that, when I waiTMinister, these people were having
their twentieth or twenty^rst ministry since the introduction of
their parliamentary system. When people hold strictly to the
principle that the Minister must be sent about his business if
the majority goes against him, too many politicians get used
up ; they have then to go to the second-raters. In the end
there is nobody left willing to devote himself to the kind
of work. The moral is, either that the salary of ministerial
offices ought to be raised, or that people must a little relax
the severity of parliamentary practice."

The Chief drove out about three, after having Russell
again with him, and he also came, God be praised ! to dinner
with us, where he drank a little beer and a couple of glasses
of Vichy water with champagne. We had turtle-soup, and,
among other delicacies, a wild boar's head and a compote of
raspberry jelly and mustard, which was excellent. The
Minister said, " Things were very bad with me this time. I
was troubled with varicose veins in 1866 also. I lay full-
length on the bed, and had to answer letters of a very des-
perate sort — very distracting for me — with a pencil. They"
(he meant the Austrians) " then wanted to disarm on the
northern frontier, but to keep their armies together farther
down, and I had to convince them that that would not do
for us at all."

He then spoke of his negotiations with Russell, and of
Gortchakoff's demands. " The people in London," he said,
" don't want to return a straightforward ' Yes ' to the proposal
to restore to Russia.and Turkey the Black Sea, and complete
sovereignty over their own coast lines. They are afraid of
public opinion in England ; and Russell returns perpetually
to the idea that some sort of equivalent should be offered. He
asked, for instance, whether we could not adhere simpliciter

XIV.] England and the Black Sea. 109

to the agreement of April 16, 1856. I told him that Germany-
had no real interest in it. Or whether we might not pledge
ourselves to remain neutral, if it came to a conflict ? I said
I was no friend of conjectural politics, under which class
such a pledge would come ; and that it would all depend on
the circumstances. At present we saw no reason to trouble
ourselves about it. That ought to be enough for him. For
the rest, I was not of opinion that gratitude was without its
place in politics. The present Emperor had always shown
himself friendly and well-disposed to us ; while Austria had
never shown herself trustworthy, and had occasionally been
very uncertain. As for England,, he knew well enough how
much we had to thank her for. The friendliness of the
Emperor, I said, was a relic of old relationships which origi-
nated partly in the family connection ; but it rested also on
the recognition of the fact that our interests were not in
collision with his. Nobody knew how that might be in future,
and it was better not to talk about it." ..." Our position,
I represented, was different from what it had been. We were
the only power that had reason to be content ; we had no call
to do anybody a favour when we did not know whether he
would do us a service in return."

" He came back to his equivalent, and asked me whether
there was nothing I could propose to him. I suggested the
opening of the Dardanelles and the Black Sea to all nations.
It would probably be agreeable to Russia, as it would give
her access to the Mediterranean from the Black Sea ; and
to Turkey, as she would then have her friends close to her ;
and to the Americans, who would lose one of the reasons
which draw them towards Russia, in the realisation of their
wish for the freedom of all the water highways of the world.
He seemed to take that in." " The Russians,'' added the
Chancellor, " ought not to have been so modest in their

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

requirements ; if they had asked for more, they would have
had no difficulty in getting what they want about the Black
Sea."

The conversation then turned on the four principles of
the new law of the ocean : no fitting out of privateers ; no
seizure of goods except contraband of war ; that a blockade
is only to be valid when it is effective, and so on. One of
these had been flagrantly infringed, the Chief said, by the
French when they burned German vessels ; and he closed
our discussion of the subject, saying, " Yes, we must see how
we can get rid of all this nonsense."

In the evening I extracted more articles for the King
from the German papers, wondering and complaining about
the delay of the bombardment. Afterwards L. came in to
inquire whether I knew anything particular about a certain
Heldig or Hillwitz. I told him I did not. L. went on to
say, that he lived upon his means, was a democrat and a
friend of Classen-Kappelmann's, had recently been here, and
had had an interview with the Chancellor. On his way home
he had been thrown into prison, but released, in consequence
of a telegram from the Chief. He was supposed to be an
agent for the restoration of Napoleon, whom he wanted to
see set on the throne again, with a view to the final estab-
lishment of the republic, as an expedient ad interim which
might ensure the peace of Germany during the inevitable
struggle for the mastery among parties in France. If there
is anything at all in this, the story is partly wrong, and cer-
tainly incomplete. I refrained, however, from remarks on
the subject and contented myself with making a note of it.

Wednesday, December \/^. — A cloudy sky, and mild weather.
Yesterday and the day before there was little firing from
the forts and gun-boats, and to-day there was none at all.
In the morning, by the Chiefs orders, I telegraphed the

XIV.] A Soldier's Funeral. 1 1 1

occupation of Blois by our troops and the capitulation of
Montm^dy. The Centralists in Germany are still expressing
their dissatisfaction with the convention with Bavaria. T.
in H. writes me about it almost in a tone of despair : " I
quite understand that Count Bismarck could make no better
of it, but it is a sorrowful business all the same. Bavaria
has once more, as in 1813, through the convention of Ried,
put a stick between our legs. As long as our leading
statesman is left to us, we shall be able to get along in spite
of it. But afterwards ? I cannot feel the same unconditional
confidence in the new empire as I had in the vital force of
the North German Confederation. I can only hope that
in spite of the seeming defects in the constitution of the
state, the healthy forces of the nation may daily grow." I
hope so too, though the deficiencies in our constitution do
not strike me as so dangerous as they do our friend in H.
For the rest, what is the use of complaining about things
which it was impossible to arrange differently ? What was
possible has been done, and our watchword now must be,
Accept what is to be had ; with industry, patience, and good
luck, more will come of it in time.

Before dinner, I again attended the funeral of two soldiers
who had died in the hospital of the chateau. The procession
crossed the Boulevard de la Reine and the Rue Adelaide on
its way to the churchyard. This time the French saluted the
corpse by lifting their hats. The music played through the
streets the melody " Wie wohl ist mir, O Freund derSeelen,"
and outside of the big common cemetery, " Wie sie so sanft
ruhn."

The Chief dined with us, and his guest was Count
Holnstein. The conversation did not turn upon politics.
The Minister talked in the kindliest and most good-
humoured fashion of all sorts of things. He said, for

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

instance, that as a young man he had been a fast runner
and a capital jumper, whilst his sons had unusual strength
in the muscles of their arms. He would not like to try
them in a stand up-wrestle. He then brought out the case
with the gold pen presented to him by Bissinger, the
jeweller, to show to his guest, and he told us that the
countess had written to know the truth about it, thinking it
might turn out like the story about the clown at Meaux, — a
story which I now heard for the first time, about the new-
born child of a French soldier who had recently fallen,
being deposited one morning on the Chief's bed, and which
was, of course, an invention of the newspapers. Somebody
said that the deputation from the Reichstag had got as far
as Strassburg, and would be here the day after to-morrow.
The Chancellor remarked, " Then we must think seriously
what answer we are to give them. Simson will manage
the thing very well. He has several times before had
similar things, to do on the first deputation about the Em-
peror and at the Hohenzollernburg. He likes to speak,
and on such occasions speaks well and agreeably. Abeken
remarked that the deputy Lowe had said that he had gone
through this experience once before, and had the oppor-
tunity afterwards of reflecting on the matter, far from Madrid.
" Really, was he there in 1849 ? " asked the Minister. " Yes,"
said Bucher, " he was President of the Reichstag." " So,
then," said the Chief, " it was not on account of the Em-
peror's journey that he had to remain away from Madrid,
but because of the trip to Stuttgart, which was a very different
affair." At that time, according to him, he was first in the
Hohenzollernburg, where all the branches of his family had
separate apartments, then in another old castle in Pome-
rania where all the Dewitzes had formerly had a right of
tenancy, but which had now become a picturesque ruin, the

XIV.] A Country Squire in Pomerania. 113

people of the next small town having made use of it for a
quarry, and after that again with the owner of an estate in
the country who had got his money in a peculiar way.

" He had always been apparently in difficulty and want,
at one time up to the neck, the caterpillar having devoured
his woods, a fire having burnt down a good part of them,
and a hurricane finally levelling many of his trees to the
ground. The wood had to be sold, and to his surprise he
got a large sum for it — fifty or sixty thousand thalers —
so that he was at once set on his feet again. It had never
occurred to him that he had his wood to cut down."

The Chief then told us of another remarkable person, a
neighbour of his own. " He had ten or twelve properties,
but never any ready money, and often wanted to dispose
of something. Whenever he gave a formal breakfast party,
he used to have to sell one of his properties. At last there
were only one or two left. His peasants bought one of
them for fifty-three thousand thalers. They paid him fifteen
thousand thalers down, and immediately sold off ship's
timber to the amount of twenty-two thousand. He had
never happened to think of that."

He talked next of the dragoon guards in Munich, whose
bigness and whole style had given him the impression that
they must be capital judges of beer. Then he talked of
his son Count Bill, who was the first German to ride into
Rouen. Some one said he would be a conclusive evidence
to the inhabitants, that our troops had not so far been badly
looked after, and the Chancellor again descanted on the
strength of his " lads.'' They had uncommon strength
for their age, he said, " though they had had no gymnastic
training. I had no feeling against it certainly, but there
had been no opportunity for it away from home." While

VOL. II. I

1 14 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

we were smoking our after-dinner cigars, he asked whether
the gentlemen of the office smoked. " They all do it,"
said Abeken. " Well," he said, " Engel must distribute the
Hamburg cigars among them. I have had so many sent
me that I shall still have some left to take home, even
if the war lasts another twelvemonth."

After 9 o'clock in the morning I was twice called to the
Minister. A note was sent for the press stating that Tarbe,
the editor of the Gaulois, which now appears in Brussels,
got out of Paris and through the Prussian lines by purchasing
his passport from a Swiss for 10,000 francs. " Say nothing
about the other Swiss (who we are informed sold his pass
through the circle of our outposts to another Parisian for
6000 francs)," said the Chief. " It might look as if we
wanted to worry Switzerland, which we have no intention
of doing."

Thursday, December 15. — The weather was mild. Hardly
any firing from the forts. Counts Frankenberg and Lehndorf
were our guests at the beginning of dinner. Half an hour
afterwards Prince Pless came in. The Minister was ex-
tremely chatty and good-humoured. We talked first about
the question of the day, when the bombardment was to
begin, and- the Chief said he thought probably in eight or
ten days from now, but that it would have little effect for a
few weeks, as the Parisians had had time to make their
preparations to meet it. Frankenberg said that people in
Berlin, especially in the Reichstag, spoke of nothing so
much as of the reasons which had made us put off the
bombardment of Paris so late as this. Everything else fell
into the background. " Well," said the Chief, " now that
Roon has taken the thing in hand something will be done.
There are a thousand waggons on the way here, adequately
horsed. Ammunition for transport, and some of the new

XIV.] The Reichstag and the German Empire. 115

mortars have already arrived. We may look out for some-
thing soon now."

We then began to talk of the way in which the restoration
of the German Empire had been brought before the Reichs-
tag, and several of those present said that in their opinion
it had not been managed as they should have liked. The
thing had been badly arranged. The Conservatives had
had no notice of the intended communication, so that it
reached them just as they were at breakfast, and Windhorst,
with his usual ability in turning circumstances to account,
had been quite entitled to remark that he should have
expected more sympathy from the Assembly. " Yes,'' said
the Chief, " there ought to have been a more effective mise

en scene for such a piece Somebody might have

come forward to express dissatisfaction with the Bavarian
Convention. It wanted this, and omitted that. Then he
should have said, that if any counterpoise for these defects
could be found, anything in which the unity of Germany
would find adequate expression, it might alter the case,
and at that point the Emperor might have been brought
out." " After all, the Emperor has more power than many
fancy." " I don't for a moment deny that the Bavarian
Convention has its faults and deficiencies ; that is easily
said by people who have no responsibility. How would it
have been if I had refused to meet the Bavarians half-way,
and nothing had come of the whole affair ? It is impossible
to realise the difficulties we should have got into, so that
I was frightfully anxious about the freedom from prejudices
of the centralistic party among the deputies of the Reichs-
tag." " This is the first time for many a day that I have
had a couple of hours' sound and satisfying sleep. I used at
first to lie awake full of all sorts of thoughts and troubles.
Then Varzin would suddenly come up before me^ perfectly

I 2

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

distinct in the minutest particulars, like a great picture with
even all its colours fresh — the green trees, the sunshine on
the stems, the blue sky above. I saw every individual tree.
I struggled to shake the thing off, but it came back and
worried me, and when at last I ceased to see it, other things
came in — reports, notes, despatches, and so on, till I fell
over about morning.''

The conversation then turning on the fair sex in this
country, the Chief said — " I have travelled a good deal
through France, during peace, too, and I don't recollect
that I ever saw anywhere a single nice-looking country
girl, but I have seen frightfully ugly creatures often. I
believe that there are a few, only the pretty ones go off to
Paris to make their market there.'' Towards the end we
talked of the enormous destruction the war had entailed
on France, and the Minister said, " I can imagine that the
country might become empty and masterless, and that after
the emigration of the people we might have to let the
estates out to deserving Pomeranians and Westphalians."

I was after dinner with H., who leaves to-morrow for the
outposts of Bougival, where the incidents, at present, are a
French grenade bursting into the house and hurting a lot
of people, or a glass of beer at the Hotel de Chasse. His
cousin is there,, and the doctor in the hospital at the
chateau. He happened to speak of the visit the Chief
had recently paid to the wards and said, that in the way
in which the Chancellor had taken it up, neither the doctor,
who was involved, nor the other officer complained of, had
really been to blame, for the men not being properly looked
after. The sentry who had been talking to our Count
about the neglect of the sick was a sot, not in any way
trustworthy. The thing really at fault was the close scrimped
"form " for the dietaries of the Prussian hospitals. Men could

XIV.] Uneasiness about the Military Situation. 1 1 7

neither live, on it, nor die on it. The system would have
broken down altogether but for the contributions of volun-
tary benevolence and the presents from friends, and that
doctor's gruffness and irritability to people who brought
presents, to French ladies, for instance, had often prevented
the soldiers getting such things.

In the evening, at tea, Bucher was at first alone with me,
then Keudell came in, Avho was a good deal troubled, and
anxious about Gambetta's gigantic levies, which were esti-
mated, as he had heard from the general staff, at 1,300,000
men. He had been told also by Moltke's people, that we
were to get 80,000 or 90,000 new troops, but he thought we
ought to have had half a million. What would happen if
the French with 300,000 men from the south-east were to
fall on the thin line of our communications with Germany ?
We might then easily be compelled even to give up Paris.
Certainly this is too melancholy a view of the situation.

ii8 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

CHAPTER XV.

CHAUDORDY AND FACTS— OFFICERS BREAKING THEIR PAROLE
— FRENCH MISCONSTRUCTIONS — THE CROWN PRINCE
ENTERTAINED BY THE CHIEF.

Friday, December i6. — Weather mild and sky clouded. In
the morning I wrote several articles on Chaudordy's circu-
lar despatch about the barbarous way in which we are repre-
sented to be carrying on the war. My line was as follows :
" To the slanders which the French press has been cir-
culating for months in order to excite public opinion against
us, we have now to add an official document emanating
from the Provisional Government of France, the object of
which is to induce foreign courts and cabinets to take part
■ against us by exaggerated and distorted statements of our
proceedings in this war. An official of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, M. de Chaudordy, has taken occasion to
complain of us in a circular letter to the neutral powers.
Let us look at the main points of his indictment, let us then
state the real facts of the cases he describes, and leave the
world to judge whether the French or we are more open to
the reproach of barbarism.

" He asserts that our requisitions are immoderate and that
we demand from the towns and communes which have fallen
into our hands exorbitant contributions. We are said even
to have laid hold of the private property of individuals. We
are accused of savagely wrecking and burning down towns
and villages where the inhabitants have fought against us
or even been helpful in the slightest way to the French

XV.] WAat the French say of the Germans. 119

who are defending their country. Our accuser says, ' To
punish a town for the offence of a single inhabitant whose
sole crime was that he rose against the foreign invader,
superior officers have ordered it to be set on fire and plun-
dered, thus shamefully abusing the unquestioning discipline
exacted from their soldiers. Every house where a Franc-
tireur had hidden or had a meal has been burnt down.
^Vhat becomes of private property ? ' The circular goes on
to say that in bombarding open towns we have introduced a
practice which has no precedent in history. Finally, among
other outrages of which we have been guilty, we have taken
hostages with us in the railway trains to secure ourselves
against the rails being lifted and other damage and injury
done to the lines.

" We answer these charges thus : If M. de Chaudordy had
known anything of war, instead of complaining of the sacri-
fices our operations require from the French population, he
would have been astonished at our comparative reasonable-
ness. The German troops respect private property every-
where, but it is not to be wondered at if, after forced
marches or hard fights where they have been exposed to
cold and hunger, they insist on getting lodged as comfortably
as possible and on requiring of the inhabitants whatever is
of immediate necessity — food, drink, and firing, for instance
— or if they take them, in cases where the inhabitants have
fled. There is evidence, that so far from attacking private
property, as M. de Chaudordy says they do, they have often
done the very opposite, and have, at the risk of their own
lives, rescued for the owners objects of special or artistic
value, exposed to injury from the French guns. We are
charged with having burned down villages. Has our ac-
cuser never heard of the reason : of the Francs-tireurs,
assassin-like, firing at our men in them, of the inhabitants

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

helping these murderers and rendering them every possible
assistance ? Has he not heard how the Francs-tireurs, who
went recently from Fontaines to Lyons, declared loudly and
openly that the object of their march was to pay visits to
those houses in the district, the plundering of which was
worth their while? Can he give a single authenticated
instance of horrors committed by our soldiers like those
practised on them by the Turcos and the free companions of
the French ? Have they cut off the ears and noses of their
enemies, either dead or alive, as the French did to the
German soldiers at Coulours on the 30th of November?
Eight hundred German prisoners should have been brought
into Lille on the nth of December. There were only two
hundred. Many of them were severely wounded, but
instead of offering them assistance the people pelted them
with snowballs, and cried to the soldiers to run their
bayonets into them. The number of times the French
have fired on flags of truce is unprecedented, and the fol-
lowing incident, though all but incredible, is perfectly
authenticated. On the 2nd of December Under-Sergeant-
major Steinmetz von Villers wrote a letter to his lieutenant
in Mirecourt by the express request of an officer of the
Garibaldians, notifying that if our troops allowed reprisals
against Vettel or any place in the neighbourhood, he would
cut off the ears of fourteen Prussians who had fallen into
the hands of the free companions.

" We have often refused to treat free companions as sol-
diers, but only when, by following the principles recommended
to the country people of the department of Cote d'Or by the
Prefect Luce Villiard on the 21st November, they failed to
conduct themselves as such. He told them, ' The country
does not ask you to embody yourselves in companies and
march against the enemy. It expects you, every morning,

XV.] The Mode of War of the Francs-tiretirs. I2i

to pick out three or four men to go to any place which the
character of the ground renders suitable and fire at the
Prussians wherever they can do so without danger. Above
all things, fire at the enemy's cavalry, and give their horses
up at the chief place of the arrondissement. I shall pay
you a reward (the wages of assassination) and shall publish
your heroic conduct in all the newspapers of the department
and in th.e Journal officieL'

" We have bombarded open towns, such as Orleans, but
is M. de Chaudordy not aware that at the time they were
in the occupation of the enemy? Has he forgotten that
the French bombarded the open towns of Saarbriickeu and
Kehl ? Finally, about the hostages, who are taken with our
railway trains, they accompany us, not to interfere with
the heroic deeds of the French, but to prevent malignant
crimes. The railways carry other things besides soldiers,
ammunition, and war materials. They are not a mere
means of war, assailable, like others, by armed violence.
Crowds of wounded, doctors, nurses for the sick, and other
altogether peaceable persons, are conveyed on them. Is any
peasant or free companion to be allowed to tear up the rails
or lay stones across, so as at one blow to endanger tlie
lives of hundreds of these people ? Let the French see to
the safety of their trains, and their hostages will only be
taken little pleasure excursions, or, if they prefer it, we shall
make Germans accompany them to re-establish order along
the lines. We need say no more in answer to M. de
Chaudordy's complaints. The European cabinets know the
humane spirit in which we carry on war, and people here
will have little difficulty in rating the assertions of our
French accuser at their real worth.

" After all, war is war. Silk gloves are not in place, and
perhaps the iron gloves with which' we have had to handle

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

them would have been worn less frequently had the Govern-
ment of National Defence not passionately proclaimed a
people's war, which inevitably leads to greater cruelties than
one between regular armies."

In the afternoon I again visited the magnificent bronze
deities behind the chateau, and the moss-grown marble statues
on the main road through the park. Besides Bohlen, who
was still sick, we missed at dinner Hatzfeld, who had turned
unwell, and Keudell, who had been commanded to dine with
the King. This time Count Holnstein and Prince Putbus
were our invited guests. The conversation turned first on
the Bavarian Convention, and Holnstein expected that it
would be approved by the second Chamber, in which a two-
thirds majority is necessary, as it is already known that only
about forty votes are to be recorded against it. It is also as
good as certain that it will not be rejected by the Chamber
of the Royal Councillors. The Chief said, " Thiinger will
surely be for it." Holnstein said, " I believe so, for he
voted for our taking part in the war." " Yes, said the
Minister, " he is one of the honourable Particularists, but
there are others who have different ends in view." Holnstein
said, " Certainly some of the patriots have shown clearly
enough t hat they leave out the " For God and Fatherland,"
and hold only by the " With the help of God."

Putbus then turned the conversation to the approaching
festival, and said that it was nice that the men in the
hospitals were also to have their Christmas trees. A collec-
tion had been made for that object, and 2500 francs had
been gathered. " Pless and I signed," he went on to say.
" Then it was taken to the Grand Duke of Weimar, who
subscribed 300 francs, and the Grand Duke of Coburg 200."
" Of course he would have to subscribe neither more than
Weimar nor less than Pless.'' Putbus said they proposed to

XV.] A New French Loan. 123

lay the list before his Majesty, and the Chief asked, " Won't
you allow me to have a share in it ? "

It was then mentioned that a French air-balloon had
come down at Wetzlar, and that Ducrot was said to be in
it. " Well, he will be shot at last," said Putbus. " No,"
said the Chief, " if he comes before a council of war, it will
not shoot him, but a council of honour, the officers tell
me, would condemn him quickly enough."

" Is there anything else new in military matters ? " said
Putbus. The Minister said, " The general staff may know
something, but we don't. For our much asking, we get the
crumbs they let fall to us, and they are not many." Some-
body then said he had heard that another great sortie of the
Parisians was expected to-morrow : and one of those at
table added, that there was a report that a dragoon had been
shot on the road to Meudon, and an officer in the wood
between this and Ville d'Avray. (Hence the notice yester-
day ordering that no civilian is to be allowed in the woods
near the town between three in the afternoon and nine next
morning, and commanding sentries and patrols to fire on
any non-military man who shows himself there during
these hours.) " They appear to have air-guns,'' the Chief
conjectured. " Probably they are the old poachers of the
neighbourhood."

Finally we spoke of the report that the Government of the
National Defence was proposing to issue a loan, and the
Minister turned to me and said, " It might be worth while
to point out in the papers the risk people run who lend
their money to this Government. It may turn out that its
loans may not be taken up by the Government with which
we conclude peace, and we may make it one of the con-
ditions. You might get that specially into the English and
the Belgian papers."

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

After we left table, Abeken told me that Count Holn-
stein had asked who I was (probably because I am now
the only person at the Chancellor's table in civihan cos-
tume) ; was I, perhaps, the Minister's personal medical
attendant, as people called me Doctor? In the evening
L. told us that a Conservative of high position, who some-
times favoured him with communications, had told him
that, in his circles, people were anxious to see what the
King would say in reply to the deputation from the Reichs-
tag. He was supposed not to like their visit, for it was
only the first German Reichstag, and not the North German
Reichstag which would be entitled to offer him the Em-
peror's crown. (The King thinks much less about the
Reichstag, which does not propose to offer him the crown
on its own account, but to come, along with the princes,
asking him to accept it, than of the princes, some of whom
have not yet sent their answer to the proposition of the King
of Bavaria.) For his own part, L.'s high-placed Conser-
vative would rather have seen the King made Emperor of
Prussia (which is a matter of taste), in which case Prussia
would merge in Germany, and about that he confesses he has
his scruples. L. told us also that the Crown Prince was
indignant at certain correspondents in the German papers,
who had compared Chateaudun to Pompeii, and had other-
wise drawn hvely pictures of the desolation of the country
by the war. I suggested to L. to work on the subjects :
"A new French Loan" and "Chaudordy and Garibaldi's
ear-slitters " for a Belgian paper, to which he has access,
and he promised to do so to-morrow.

After he left I wrote an article on the former subject for
a German paper, which went into our letter-box, and ran
much as follows :

" The reckless ' devil-may-cares,' who are now attempting

XV.] The Loan may be repudiated. 125

to guide the destinies of France from Paris and Tours, want
to coax another loan for themselves out of the pockets of
foreigners. This measure has for some time been unavoid-
able, and there is no reason to be surprised at it. But we
may point out to the financial world that, besides the
advantages which will be offered them, there is a very in-
telligible risk, which we need only mention to show how
serious it is. The Government which raises the loan has
neither been accepted by France nor recognised by any
state in Europe. It will be remembered too that the
Germans notified that they would take care that certain
loans which it was tried to raise from the French Com-
munes for war purposes, should never be paid. That de-
claration may serve as a hint that the principle may receive
a wider application. Possibly, indeed probably, the French
Government will have to conclude a peace with Prussia and
•her allies — but to all appearance it will not be the existing
Government — and that Government of the near future may
not unlikely be required, as one of the conditions of peace,
to decline to be responsible for the responsibilities under-
taken by Messrs. Gambetta and Favre, either by paying
principal or interest. It would certainly be entitled to do
so, as these gentlemen are going to borrow in the name of
France indeed, but without being commissioned or charged
by her. Forewarned is forearmed."

After tea Wollmann came in, and told us that the deputa-
tion from the Reichstag had arrived, and that Simson, their
speaker, was already below with the Chief, who would
clearly explain to him the King's disinclination to receive
them before the arrival of letters from all the princes agree-
ing to what is proposed. These letters have to be sent first
to the King of Bavaria, and he forwards them to our King.
All the princes are believed to have already answered in the

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

affirmative by telegram — only Lippe seems not yet to have
quite got to the bottom of his meditations. To account for
this delay, probably a couple of the members of the depu-
tation will have to be taken ill. W. tells us also that the
last telegram, notifying the passage of the Convention with
Bavaria through the Reichstag, contained the words : " Even
the district magistrates were powerless to obstruct the
march of universal history."

Saturday, December 17.- — ^A yellowish-red as we looked
out at our windows on rising in the morning, and beautiful
weather outside. About nine, while I was taking a walk with
Abeken through the pleasure-grounds of the park, a thick
fog gathered suddenly, spreading itself over a small am-
phibious world. At present it is half winter, half summer.
The ground is covered with snow ; but the trees in the
park, with their branches intertwined with ivy, one side
of the enclosure wall also overgrown with it, and the plain
round the little waterfall, where the tender fohage of young
ferns is coming out — are all quite green. Violets are blow-
ing under the fallen leaves on the beds with their box
borders, and we gathered a charming bouquet for Abeken's
wife. It was not till about twelve that the fog dispersed.

In the course of the morning I wrote a second article on
the new French loan. During breakfast we were informed
that Vendome had been occupied by our troops. The
secretaries told us that when he is dictating, the Chief's
custom is to walk up and down the room, every now and
then giving a knock on a table, a chair, or a commode, some-
times with the tassel of his dressing-gown^ which he keeps
swinging about. He seems not to have had a good night
last night, for about half-past eleven he had not breakfasted,
and an hour afterwards he was still not to be spoken with.
There is to be a great council to-day of the military autho-

XV.] French Officers who break their Parole. 127

rities at the King's — perhaps about the bombardment ? In
the afternoon I read a paragraph giving increasingly nume-
rous instances of French officers who have broken their
parole, and run off from the places where they were " in-
terned " to take service against us afresh. There are already
more than fifty of them, among whom are officers of all
grades, including Generals Ducrot, Cambriels, and Barral.
After the battle of Sedan, it was in our power, by annihilating
it, to have rendered the French army shut up there harmless.
Humanity, and our faith in promises, induced us to refrain.
The capitulation was concluded, and we were entitled to
suppose that all the officers had accepted it, and were pre-
pared to live according to the conditions imposed upon them.
Wherever this was not the case, we were entitled to be warned
of the fact. AVe should then have dealt with these exceptions
as exceptions, and not have given such officers the privileges
which we gave the others : in other words, we should not have
allowed them that freedom of movement of which they now
take such shameful advantage. Certainly the majority of the
captive officers have been true to the word they gave, so
that we might pass the matter over with a mere shrug of
the shoulders. The thing looks differently the moment
the Provisional Government of France condones the breach
of an officer's word by restoring him to his position in a regi-
ment in active service against us. Has anyone ever heard
of a case in which such a deserter has been refused restora-
tion to his former place in the French army ? Or of
one where French officers have made any remonstrance
against the readmission to their ranks of comrades who
have broken their words in this way ? It is not merely the
Government, therefore, but the entire body of French officers,
which -considers such dishonourable conduct perfectly en
regie. The German Governments are consequently com-

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

pelled to ask themselves whether the amehorations of their
captivity hitherto granted to French officers are in harmony
with the interests of Germany. We must ask ourselves this
further question : whether we are justified in trusting the
engagements by which the present French Government binds
itself, in dealing with Germany, without material securities
or pledges in pawn for their full performance.

Herr von Amim-Kr5chlenburg, the brother-in-law of the
Minister, was at dinner, a gentleman with an energetic ex-
pression of countenance and a full reddish beard, apparently
going into fifty. The Chief was in excellent humour, but
the conversation this time had no special significance. It
turned chiefly on the bombardment and the position which
a certain party at head-quarters had taken up with respect
to it. The Chief suddenly asked Bucher, " Have you a
pencil and paper beside you ?" " Yes." — " Then telegraph "
(I suppose to Delbriick) : " The King will receive the
deputation from the Reichstag about two o'clock to-morrow
afternoon. Details to follow.' " (Probably he means to
signify to them that he is prepared to assume the dignity of
Emperor, as they wish him to do, but that he considers that
he owes it in the first instance to the requisition from the King
of Bavaria and the agreement of the other German princes
with him, and that that agreement has not yet been formally
expressed by everybody.) Arnim said he could eat no more,
as he had already had too much sausage, and the Chief
smiled and said, " Where did they come from ? I hope not
from Paris, for in that case they might perhaps contain
rat." We learn, in fact, that they are now very short of fresh
meat there ; and it is said that in some parts of the city a
regular rat-market has been established, which is abundantly
supplied with good stock from the sewers.

L. came in after eight o'clock, as usual, to exchange news.

XV.] Brown, Jones ^ and Robinson. 129

He told us that there was considerable excitement at present
among the English in Versailles. Several sons of Britain,
who are acting here as newspaper correspondents, and among
them a Captain Hosier, had had the misfortune, on a journey
from this to Orleans, to be arrested as spies and kept
prisoners in an inn, by German soldiers who did not under-
stand their English. They made an exception in favour of
Hosier only, who spoke some German. In spite of their
correct papers all the rest were kept in charge, put into a
conveyance and brought to Versailles. The Crown Prince
was very angry at the behaviour of the soldiers, and the
London papers would storm frightfully, and try to turn the
affair into a national insult. L. seemed a little warm over
it. I thought to myself, that he who thrusts himself into
danger must abide the consequences, and that the man who
goes a journey is likely to have something to tell. Bucher,
too, when I told him the story, seemed to think it rather
enjoyable than serious, and said that it was a continuation
of the well-known comic narrative of Brown, Jones, and
Robinson, who undertook their famous journey to foreign
parts without knowing any language but that of the London
Cockney, and who had fallen into all sorts of trouble.

Afterwards Bucher told us that the Chief was a great lover
of nature and of picturesque places. He had several times
rambled through the country near Varzin with him, and
about the close of the walk he often said, " You are
wearying for your dinner no doubt, but there is that one hill
for us to climb yet, to get the view from the top."

In the evening after ten there were repeated discharges
from the forts.

Sunday, December 18. — The weather is cloudy, but with-
out fog. In the morning a few shots were again to be
heard from the big guns. In the forenoon I wrote several

VOL. II. K

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

letters for Germany. About two the Chief went out to the
prefecture for the presentation of the people from the Reichs-
tag. In the interval before his probable return, I took a
walk through the Park with Wollmann, ending by way of
the Avenue de Paris, where the ceremony at the prefecture
seems to have been got through very simply. The Princes
present here went, I believe, to the King, as did also the
delegates of the Reichstag. After two o'clock the King
came into the audience-room, accompanied by the Crown
Prince and Princes Karl and Adalbert. The Grand Dukes
of Baden, Oldenburg, and Weimar, the Duke of Coburg and
Meiningen, the three actual Hereditary Grand Dukes of
Mecklenburg, Weimar, and Oldenburg, Prince William of
Wiirtemberg, and a number of other princely personages
were present, and the rest of the audience was grouped round
the Chancellor of the Confederation. Nobody was, it seems,
in full uniform. Simson made the address to the King, who
answered pretty much as had been expected. About five
o'clock, a dinner of eighty covers closed the ceremonies.

This afternoon I dined with Dr. Good,* and met there
another Kentuckian, Mr. Bowland, MacLean, and the Eng-
lish newspaper correspondent Conningsby. The Americans
were charming people. They were much astonished at the
accuracy with which I described to them Falmouth, Bow-
land's birthplace, and the way to it from Cincinnati. They
wanted to know my opinion about the United States, and
especially what I thought about the great Civil War, in
^hich Good had been a long time engaged. My answer,

* An unusually agreeable young doctor from Louisville, Kentucky,
who, being a complete master of German, had devoted himself to the
care of the sick at headquarters, and whose acquaintance I had made
through MacLean. Some time afterwards he was himself the victim of
a long and fatal illness, caused by the fatigues he had undergone during
the American Secession War.

XV.] TJie Britis]i, Lion and Civis Romanus. 131

in which I did justice also to the Secessionists, seemed to
please them greatly. Then Conningsby brought up the
incident with Hosier and his friends, and wished to know
what I thought about it. I told him that the gentlemen had
added a fresh chapter to the adventures of Brown, Jones, and
Robinson. It could not reasonably be expected that our
soldiers and subaltern officers should understand English,
and the thing appeared to me to be founded on a misunder-
standing. He replied that Hosier had certainly spoken
German, and that the papers which all the four gentlemen
had on their persons were written in German and signed by
Roon and Blumenthal. " In that case," I said, " it is in all
likelihood an instance of military over-conscientiousness ;
too much zeal and precaution.'' Mr. Conningsby replied that
he could not see it in that light ; he thought that the soldiers
had ill used the correspondents, because they were inoculated
with the bitter feeling in Germany about the English supply
of arms. We should see, however, what would come of it.
I did not want to say that what he called embittered
feeling was probably more like distrust, or that I thought
it quite intelligible. So I merely said, " Most likely it will
make a great noise, an angry effervescence in the news-
papers, and nothing more." I added that I could not
imagine that more could come of it. He replied that I
should not be too sure of that, and talked about the British
lion and civis Romanus. I answered that if the lion roared,
we should say, " Well roared, lion ;" " Roar again, lion." As
for the civis, times had a little altered since he used to be
the fashion. " People have their own thoughts about these
matters," I said. He replied that we were quite intoxicated
with our success, and that if the British Lion were not
satisfied he could fight as well as roar. The least that could
be asked would be the cashiering of the officer in command

K 2

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

when his countrymen had been arrested. I begged him not
to get excited, to look at the matter in cold blood. It could
not in any circumstances be serious. We should certainly
hot throw our people over at once as a sop to the Lion,
however that animal might rage. If injustice had been
really done to the correspondents, a point which an inquiry
would settle, they would undoubtedly get satisfaction. As
for our intoxication with our success, I must point out to
him that throughout this war we had as a nation shown
ourselves most modest, very free from conceit or vain-
gloriousness, especially when contrasted with the unmeasured
lying and boasting of the French. I ended by saying that
I repeated that I considered the whole affair a trifle, that it
was impossible that England should quar;:el with us, or, as he
seemed to expect, declare war against us, about trifles. But I
continued to believe that the matter would make a great
noise in the newspapers, and that nothing serious would
come of it. In the end he calmed down, and confessed
that he had himself been arrested during the engagement
near Bougival and Malmaison, and harshly used by the
Prussians, but even more harshly by his own countryman.
Colonel Walker, to whom he had appealed. Walker is the
English military plenipotentiary at headquarters. He had
received him gruffly, and told him in plain words that he
had no business in battlefields. He then described Walker
to us as a man of no ability. I suppressed the remark I
thought of making, that in that instance Colonel Walker
seemed to have shown himself a man of better judgment
than some other folks. The discussion at last dropped away
peaceably enough. Throughout, the American sided with me
and the Germans.

I told the Chief about the Hosier affair in the evening
about eleven. He had heard nothing whatever about it

XV.] The Germans and Cold Steel. 133

would not at first quite believe it, and to the last was unable
to take anything but a humorous view of the affair. He
then told me to despatch a telegram about a fresh victory,
of trifling importance over Chanzy's army, and a notice of
the King's reception of the deputation from the Reichstag.

Monday, December 19. — ^In the morning Abeken and I
again gathered violets in the garden, and found three
bunches, which I sent home. Afterwards I answered the
article on cold steel in the Kolnische Zeitung, in which the
French doctors are said to infer, from the circumstance
that they have seen very few Frenchmen wounded with
bayonet and sabre, that the Germans do not like hand-to-
hand fighting. I made the remark, that if these gentle-
men really judge from their own experience, their opinion
must be due to the fact that, in the first place, they never
had the opportunity of seeing the bodies of those who fell at
Spicheren, Gravelotte, and Le Bourget, pierced by German
bayonets or felled by German muskets ; and that, in the
second place, the French usually do not wait for the bayonet,
but take to flight before we can come up to them with cold
steel. Afterwards I again spoke of the international revolu-
tion which has brought so many free companions and heroes
of the barricades to fight against us. My line of argument
was something like this : At first we imagined we had only
France against us, which was the case up to Sedan. After
the 4th of September, however, another power appeared to
oppose us, — the Universal Republic, the International Union
of fanatics, without a native country, in the interests of the
United States of Europe — the Cosmopolitan Revolution.
To the devotees of this idea from every point of the
compass the standard of France is a centre and a gathering-
point. They troop together to fight us, who are supposed
to be soldiers of the monarchy, Poles, Irishmen, Spaniards,

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

Italians. Even a few casuals from Turkey have joined them-
selves, like brothers, to the French Republicans. Everybody
who wants the universal conflagration, in which the old
states are to be destroyed, and the Cosmopolitan Demo-
cracy, and all the Red Republicans who appear in congresses
at Basle and Geneva, look upon the France of the present
day as the hearth on which the great Revolutionary fire is to
be lighted. Mazzini, the forerunner of the Christ in the
Red Republican Evangel, looks for the beginning of the
bankruptcy of existing states and of society, not from his
native country, Italy, but from France, to which we owe
the Revolutions of 1789, 1830, and 1848. The power of
expansion which she has shown in these Revolutions gives
her a right to begin the "final war" demanded and pro-
claimed by the Peace Congress. The German Democrats
of all shades bow down before the Parisian spirit, recognise
in France their mother Republic, and consider the German
armies, with their loyalty to duty and their love of country,
as hordes of barbarians, from the hour when the Republic
was proclaimed in France.

We believe that France is not to be envied the tribute
paid her by these professional revokitionists. Nobody
considers her fortunate because these desperate men have
selected her soil as the battlefield on which they seek to
realise their dreams. The great majority of the French
people themselves have no wish for a triumph, which would
mean the annihilation of their nationality, the destruction
of their political and social arrangements, the abolition of
church and faith, the Revolution eti permanence, and universal
anarchy, which usually ends in despotism.

" God preserve us," says the New York Tribune — the
Republican convictions of which are above suspicion — " God
preserve us from wishing to see such a Republic estabKshed

XV.] The Jews and Landscape. 135

in unfortunate France, or anywhere in Europe ! " I shall
deal with the matter in this spirit in the Moniteur.

After two o'clock I made an excursion through the park,
meeting the Chief twice, with Simson beside him in his
carriage. The Minister was invited to dine with the Crown
Prince at seven, but half an hour or so before, he ate a little
with us. He told us about his drive with Simson. " The
last time he was here was in 1830, after the July revolution.
I thought he would have taken an interest in the park and
the beautiful views there, but he seemed to do nothing
of the sort. Apparently the feeling for landscape is com-
pletely wanting in him. There are many people in whom
it is so. As far as I know there are no Jewish land-
scape painters, and, indeed, hardly any Jewish painters of
any kind." Somebody mentioned Meierheim and Bende-
mann. " Meierheim," he said, "yes; but Bendemann had
only Jewish grand-parents. There are plenty of Jewish
composers — Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Haldvy ; but for
painters, a Jew paints indeed, but only when he does not
need to do it."

Abeken then told us about Rogge's sermon yesterday in
the church of the chateau, and said he had talked too
much about the deputation here from the Reichstag. The
Chief replied, " I am not at all of that mind, certainly not.
These people have once more voted us a hundred million
thalers (fifteen million pounds), and they have approved
the Versailles Conventions in spite of their own doctrinaire
views, and much to the disgust of many people. We
ought to recognise all, that. No; I cannot entertain such
an opinion of them. I am only cross with Delbriick, who
disturbed my mind greatly by saying that they were not
likely to agree to the Conventions."

The privy councillor talked of the incidents at Ems, shortly

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

before the war broke out, and told us that after a certain
despatch the King had said : " Well, even he (Bismarck)
will be pleased with us." " And I believe," added Abeken,
" that you were." From the Chancellor's reply, it must
have been a "partial satisfaction." "I remember,'' he
said, " how I received the news in Varzin. I had gone
out, and I found the first telegram waiting for me when I
came home. I went off at once, driving by our pastor's
house at Wussau. He stood right before his door, and
saluted me. I said nothing to him, but merely made this
cut (marking the crossing of swords in the air). He
understood me, and I went on.'' Then he told us how
the thing changed back and forward up to the point when
the declaration of war came. The Minister then said that
he had meant at first to go to church yesterday, " but I was
anxious,'' he said, " not to catch cold in the procession.
I caught a most frightful headache once before in it ; and,
besides, I was very much afraid that Rogge would say too
much."

Afterwards, in what connection I do not remember, he
began to speak of the " nut war,'' which was the result of
the battle of Tannenberg, in which the combatants are said
to have lost themselves in a large wood, which at that time
stretched from Biitow far into Poland, and consisted entirely
of walnut thickets and of oaks. In connection with something
else, though I do not remember this connection either, he
mentioned the battle of Fehrbellin, which brought him to
talk of old people who had outlived so-and-so. " We had
an old cowherd called Brand at home, who may very likely
have spoken to people who were at the battle of Fehrbellin.
Brand was one of those ancient pieces of furniture with
which the recollections of my youth are inseparably bound
up. When I think of him I seem to be smelling heather

XV.] Recollections of Youth. 137

and meadow flowers. Yes, it is possible; he was 91 or
93 years old, and died in 1820 or 182 1. He had seen
King Frederick William the First in Coslin, where he had
served with his father as a post-boy. If, then, he was born
about 1730, it is quite possible that he may have known
people who fought in Fehrbellin, for that is only fifty or
sixty years farther back."

Abeken had also his remarkable recollections of youth.
He had seen the poet Gockingk, who died in the course of
the last twenty years, from which we made out that the old
man was born in 1809. The Chief then said that he might
himself possibly have seen pig-tails when he was a child.
Turning to Abeken, he continued : " It is more likely that
you did, as you are five or six years older than I am."
Then he returned to Pomerania, and, if I do not mistake,
to Varzin, where a French Piedmontese had settled down
after the last French war. The man interested him, as
he had worked himself up to a respectable position, and
although originally a Catholic, had become one of the
churchwardens. As another instance of people settling
and becoming prosperous in some chance locality, he men-
tioned other Italians, who during the war of 18 13, had got
into this back region of Pomerania, remained there, and
founded famiUes, distinguishable from those of their neigh-
bours only through the cast of their features.

Finally, we spoke of Miihler, a friend of Abeken's, whom
he had that day, contrary to Keudell's opinion, declared to
be quite unreplaceable. From the influence of that minister's
wife upon his decisions, and his whole political attitude, the
conversation turned on the influence which energetic wives
usually exercise over their husbands. " Yes,'' said the Chief,
" in such cases one usually cannot tell to whom the merit or
demerit of a thing is to be attributed — quid ipse fecit et quid

138 Bismarfk in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

mulier fecit" (" which is his part and which his wife's") ; a
remark which he illustrated by many examples which cannot
be given here. It was after ten o'clock before the Minister
came back from the Crown Prince, and he then went out
to take the Crown Prince's Marshal of the Palace, who
returned with him ten minutes later, for a short walk in
the garden. Afterwards, when I was having tea in my own
room, Engel whispered me up the staircase, " Do you know,
doctor, that the Crown Prince is to dine with us to-morrow
evening ?"

Tuesday, December 20. — Mild, broken weather. I telegraph
again several small military successes, aind I prepare for the
King the paper in which the National Zeitimg has expressed
its opinion of Moltke's letter to Trochu, in its leading article
of the 15th of December. Afterwards I write, on the Chiefs
instructions, two articles, to be manifolded : one on a mis-
understanding, or perversion, of the King's proclamation
after he entered French territory, and the other upon Trochu's
relations with the remaining members of the Provisional
Government.

The first said something of this kind : " We have had
occasion several times to expose a misunderstanding, or
intentional falsification, of the words which King William
addressed to the French people in his proclamation of the
I ith of August. It appears once more, and this time, to our
astonishment, it comes from a usually estimable French
historical student. M. d'Haussonville has made an assertion
in his pamphlet, ' La France et la Prusse devant I'Europe,'
not very creditable to his love of truth, or perhaps to his
scientific thoroughness. The entire pamphlet is shallow
and superficial, full of exaggerations, errors, and assertions
founded upon nothing better than groundless reports.
Among other gross mistakes of the author — who is obviously

XV.] The King's First Proclamation. 1 39

blinded by patriotic passion — let us content ourselves with
mentioning 'one. According to him, King William was on
the throne during the Crimean war. But this by the way.

" We have to deal here only with the falsifying of the pro-
clamation addressed to the French in August, and printed
usually both in German and French, to prevent any mis-
understanding. According to M. d'Haussonville, the King
said in it, ' I make war with the Emperor, not at all with
France ' (' Je ne fais la guerre qu'k I'Empereur et pas k la
France '). In reality, what was said in the proclamation
was this : ' The Emperor Napoleon has attacked the German
nation, which wished, and still wishes, to live in peace with
the French people both by sea and land. I have taken
the command of the German armies to repel this attack.
Military reasons have induced me to enter French territory
to make war on French soldiers, but not on French citizens.'
(' L'Empereur Napoleon ayar^t attaqud par terre et par mer la
nation allemande, qui de'sirait et desire encore vivre en paix
avec le peuple fran5ais, j'ai pris le commandement des arme'es
allemandes pour repousser Fagression, et j'ai €t& amend par
les evenements militaires k passer les frontiferes de France.
Je fais la guerre aux soldats et non aux citoyens frangais.')
In order to make any misunderstanding impossible it went on
to say : ' These ' (viz., the French citizens) 'will accordingly
continue to enjoy full security in their persons and property,
so long, at least, as their hostile action against the German
troops does not deprive me of the right to extend my protection
to them' (' Ceux-ci continueront, par consequent, k jouir
d'une complete sdcurite pour leurs personnes et leurs biens,
aussi longtemps qu'ils ne me priveront eux-memes, par des
entreprises hostiles contre les troupes allemandes, du droit
de leur accorder ma protection.') The contrast between
d'Haussonville's quotation and the original of the pro-

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

clamation is manifest, and certainly no ambiguity is to be
discovered in it which could excuse the mistake."

The other article ran in this way : " The delegation of the
Government of the National Defence, at present in Bordeaux,
has convinced itself of the uselessness of further resistance
to the German arms, and would be ■ndlling, according to the
view of M. Gambetta, to conclude peace with Germany upon
the principles required by the latter. General Trochu, on the
other hand, is said to have decided to continue the war. In
reality, the delegation at Tours, which is now in Bordeaux,
pledged itself to General Trochu from the beginning, not
to treat for peace without his consent. According to other
accounts. General Trochu is supposed to have accumu-
lated provisions for several months on ]Mont Valerien, so
as to go there with whatever troops he can gather after the
capitulation of Paris has become a necessity, in order to in-
fluence the destiny of France after the conclusion of peace.
The object of this proceeding is believed to be to safeguard
the interests of the Orleans family, one of whose adherents
General Trochu is said to be.''

Whilst I was preparing this article in the Bureau, Keudell
told me that the Chief had decided that all State documents
as they came in and went out were from this time forward
to be open to my inspection on my request. He gave me
a telegram to read from the Minister himself, referring to
Luxemburg, and afterwards he sent me, through Wollmann,
the authority required for my better information.

After three o'clock the Minister went to the King, and I
took a walk with Wollmann through the town, and afterwards
through the Avenue de Saint-Cloud. On the main road, a
peculiar dark blue mass appeared in the distance coming
to meet us. They looked like soldiers, and yet not like
soldiers. They marched in close column and in regular

XV.] The German Marines, 141

step. There were muskets without bayonets ; there were
neither caps nor hehnets ; and there was no white leather.
It was only when the procession came nearer that I recog-
nised the black glazed hats of the sailors of our Marine,
their black belts and main braces, their shiny knapsacks,
their pea-jackets, and their cutlasses. There were some
hundreds of them, with five or six officers, from whom, when
the troop halted, we learned that they were the crews of four
of the Loire steamers which have been captured by Prince
Frederick Charles's troops. It appears that they are quar-
tered in the Rue de la Pompe, and in the Rue Hoche.
There were many strapping and good-looking fellows amongst
them. Numbers of French gathered round to watch these
mysterious foreigners, the like of whom they had never seen.
" They are German sailors," I heard somebody say ; " they
can speak many languages (ce sont des polyglottes), and are
to serve as interpreters for the Prussians."

Shortly after six o'clock the Crown Prince, with his adju-
tant, came to dine with us. He wore the ensigns of his
new military rank, a large cross and a field-marshal's baton,
upon the shoulder-plates. He sat at the top of the table,
with the Chief at his right and Abeken at his left. After
soup, we spoke first of the subject that I had been that
morning preparing for the press, namely, that according
to a communication from Israel, the secretary of Laurier,
the provisional government's London agent, Gambetta no
longer believes in a successful defence, and is inclined to
make peace upon our conditions ; that Trochu alone of
the present rulers of France wants to go on fighting, and
that the others pledged themselves, when he undertook
the conduct of the defence of Paris, to act always in har-
mony with him. On that point the Chief remarked, " He
is said to have provisioned Mont Valerien for two months,

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

so as to retire there with the regular troops who stay by
him, when the city is givea up, probably in order to in-
fluence the settlement of the terms of peace. I believe
for my own part," he continued, " that France will in future
break up into several fragments. It is broken up into
parties already. In the different districts people are of
very different parties. They are Legitimists in Brittany,
Red Republicans in the South, Moderates elsewhere, and the
regular army is still attached to the Emperor, at least the
majority of the officers are. Each of these parts of France
may follow its own convictions : one Republican, one for the
Bourbons, one where the Orleanists have most supporters,
and Napoleon's people — tetrarchies of Judea, Galilee, and
so forth."

•The Crown Prince said that it was believed that Paris
must have underground communication with the outside
world. The Chief supposed that it must be so, and said,
" They can't get provisions in that way, but they might get
news. I have already thought whether we could not fill up
the sewers with water from the Seine, and so flood at least
the lower-lying quarters of the city. These sewers go right
under the Seine." Bucher confirmed this statement, and
said that he had been in the sewers and had noticed their
side entrances at different points, where nobody, however,
was permitted to go. , Somebody said that if Paris were
now taken it would have an effect upon opinion in Bavaria,
the accounts from which were again not quite satisfactory.
The Chief said, "The King remains always the most
thorough-going German in these exalted regions." The
conversation then turned on another princely personage,
who was described as very hostile to Prussia, but is too old
and frail to be very dangerous. " There is very httle that
is natural left in him," somebody said. " That reminds me

XV.] The Poles and the Crown I'rince. 143

of Gr ," said the Minister, " who had pretty much every-
thing about him false — his hair, his teeth, his calves, and one
of his eyes. When he wanted to dress in the morning, the
larger and the better half of him lay round his bed on chairs
and tables. It was like the picture of the newly-married
man in the ' Fliegende Blatter,' whose bride, when she un-
dressed, put her hair in one corner, her teeth in another,
and other parts of her elsewhere, and the bridegroom asked,
' But what is there left for me ? ' "

The Chief went on to tell us that the sentry at the house
of the person he had been speaking of, who is a Pole,
refused, one evening recently, to allow him to go into the
house, and it was only when he made himself understood in
Polish that the man was persuaded to do so. " In the
hospital," he added, " I tried, a couple of days since, to
talk with the Polish soldiers, and they seemed quite to
brighten up when they heard a general using their native
tongue. It was a pity that I could not go on, and had to
leave. Perhaps it would be well if their commander could
talk to them.''

" Ah, Bismarck, you are going to attack me again on
that point, as you have done several times before," said the
Crown Prince, smiling. " No, I really cannot do it j I am
not going to learn any more languages."

" But they are really good soldiers, your Royal Highness,"
replied the Chancellor, " and brave fellows, only the majority
of the priests' party are against us, as well as the aristocracy
and their retainers, and those who hang on to them. A
nobleman, who is nobody himself, maintains a whole crowd
of persons and servants of all kinds, who have nothing par-
ticular to do, but who act as his house-servants, stewards,
writers, and so forth. If he is inclined to rebel, he has
these fellows on his side, as well as his day-labourers, the

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

Komorniks. The free peasants do not go with him, even
when the priest, who is always against us, stirs them up.
We saw that in Posen, too, where the PoHsh regiments
had to be withdrawn, solely because they were too rough
with their own country people. I remember not far from
our place in Pomerania, there was a market where many
Kassuben* had established themselves. There was a fight
there once, because a German had said to a Kassube that
he would not sell him a cow because he was a Pole. The
other took this very ill. ' You say I am a Polack,' he said ;
' No, I am a Prussack, like yourself.' A famous cudgelling
ensued, other Germans and Poles mixing themselves up in
the affair."

In this connection, the Chief added that the Great Elector
was able to speak Polish quite as well as German, and that
the later kings had also understood PoUsh. Frederick the
Great was the first who had not taken the trouble to do so,
but he had understood French even better than German.
" I don't deny that, but I am not going to learn Polish.
Let them learn German," said the Crown Prince, and the
subject dropped.

Excellent new dishes every now and then came in, and
the Crown Prince remarked, " You are really gourmets here.
I How well fed the gentlemen in your office look ! all but
1 Bucher, who has not been here so long." " Yes," said the
' Chief, " it all comes from love offerings. These contribu-
tions of Rhine wine and pasties, and smoked goose-breast,
and goose-Hver, are a speciality of the Foreign Office. Our
people are quite determined to fatten their Chancellor."

* A tribe of Wends in East Prussia, near Cbslin, on the Lieber and
the Baltic, who are almost entirely distinct from the Germans, who
maintain their own customs and language, and whose preachers address
them both in German and in their native tongue.

XV.] Presentations to the Crown Prince. 145

At this point the Crown Prince turned the conversation
round to ciphering and deciphering, and asked whether it
was difficult. The Minister explained to him the trick of
it in detail, and went on to say, " If, for instance, I want to
cipher the word 'but' {^ aber'), I write down the group of
numbers for Abeken, and after that the group signifying
' Strike out the two last syllables." Then I put the cipher
for Berlin, and tell the writer again to strike out the last
syllable. Thus I get ' aber.' "

At dessert the Crown Prince brought out of his pocket a
short tobacco-pipe, with a porcelain bowl with an eagle on
it, and lighted up, whilst the rest of us lighted our cigars.

After dinner, the Crown Prince and the Minister went
into the drawing-room for coffee with the Councillors. After
a while we, viz. myself and the secretaries, were brought out
of the office by Abeken, to be officially presented to the
future Emperor by the Chief. We were kept waiting perhaps
a quarter of an hour, as the Chancellor had got deep into
conversation with the Crown Prince. His distinguished guest
sat there in the corner, between Madame Jesse's cottage
piano and one of the windows, and the Chief spoke low to
him, for the most part keeping his eyes down, while the
Crown Prince listened with an earnest and almost gloomy
expression. In the presentation WoUmann came first, and
the Crown Prince remarked to him that he knew his hand-
writing. Then I came ; the Chief introducing me as Dr.
Busch, for the Press. The Crown Prince : " How long have
you been in the service of the ■ State ?" " Since February,
your Royal Highness." The Chief: " Dr. Busch is a Saxon
— a Dresdener." The Crown Prince said, "Dresden is a fine
city ; I always liked to go there. What was your previous
occupation?" I answered that I had been editor of the
Grenzboten. " I have often read it, so that I know you," he

VOL. II. L

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

replied. And then I had also been a great traveller, I told
him. " Where have you been ?" he asked. " I have been in
America, and three times in the East," I answered. " Did
you like it ? — should you like to go back again ?" " Oh yes,
your Royal Highness, especially to Egypt." " Yes, 1 under-
stand ; I myself had a great desire to go back there. The
colours in Egypt are splendid ; but our German meadows and
woods are far dearer to me." He then presented Blanquart ;
then Willisch, and finally Wiehr, who mentioned to him,
among other things, that he had studied music for several
years under Marx. Wollmann says that he was formerly a
music-teacher, after which he became a rifleman, in which
capacity he had come forward at the time the attempt of
Sefelog on the hfe of the former King had been baffled.
Then he was employed as telegraphist in the Foreign Office,
and when there was no more direct telegraphing to do, as
copyist and decipherer.

After the presentation, I read over in the Bureau the
diplomatic reports and minutes of the last few days : the
minute, for instance, on the King's speech to the deputation
from the Reichstag, which was drawn by Abeken, and very
much altered by the Chief. At tea Hatzfeld told me that he
had been trying to decipher an account of the condition of
Paris, which had come out with Washburne's messages, and
that he was doubtful only about a few expressions. He then
showed it me, and by our united efforts we managed to make
out the sense of some of them. It appeared to be based
throughout upon excellent information and to be in con-
formity with the facts. According to it, the smaller tradesmen
are suffering severely, but the people below them not very
much, as they are looked after by the Government. There
is great want of firing, especially of coals. Gas is no longer
burned. In the last sorties the French suffered considerable

XV.] A Domiciliary Visit. 147

loss, but their spirit is not yet broken. Our victory at Orleans
has produced no marked impression upon the Parisians.

I was called to the Chief about half-past ten. He wanted
an account of Gambetta's being disposed to give in, and of
Trochu's plan about Mont Valerien, to be inserted in the
Moniteur. .

Wednesday^ December 21. — In the morning I again looked
for .violets, and found some. Then I turned over the recent
publications. Afterwards I read a tract which I found among
them, of the treaty between Charles the B|ild and Louis the
German, at the time of the partition of Lothringen, in the
year 870, exactly a thousand years ago, establishing the
first Franco-German boundary. I made extracts from it for
the press.

In the afternoon the Chief rode out, and I took a walk
with Wolimann. There was a keen cold wind, and several
degrees of frost. We wanted to go to the garden of the
chateau, but the railings in front of the reservoir of Neptune
were closed, and the sentry at the post near the chapel would
not let us pass through. We learned that a domiciliary visita-
tion was being made in the town. We were told, also, that a
search was being pursued for hidden weapons, and some said
for certain persons who had managed to get into the town
with the intention of making a dash at us, which is hardly
credible.

We take a turn accordingly through the streets. The sailors
are drawn up on the Avenue da Saint-Cloud, and we notice
our Chief talking to their commander. In the Rue de la
Pompe, on the right hand, infantry posts are planted before
every house, and in the Place Hoche a company of dragoons
is stationed. All the roads out of the town are barred. We
see men in blouses arrested, and a gunsmith in the Avenue
de PariSj behind whom a soldier is carrying a number of

L 2

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

fowling-pieces. A priest is also marched in. Lastly, about
a dozen guilty or suspected persons are brought in together,
and taken across to the prison in the Rue Saint-Pierre, where
they are ranged in the courtyard. There are some very des-
perate-looking fellows among them. It is said that forty-
three fowling-pieces were found in the gunsmith's shop, and
a gun-barrel, which he had most likely not come by in a
good way.*

At table Dr. Lauer was the Chiefs guest. We talked about
the report that in Paris the people had already swallowed
all the eatable animals in the Jardin des Plantes, and Hatz-
feld told us that the camels had been sold for four thousand
francs (one hundred and sixty pounds) each, that the ele-
phant's trunk had been eaten by a company of gourmands,
and that it made an admirable dish. "Ah,'' said Lauer,
" that is very likely ; it is a mass of muscles woven together,
which accounts for its flexibility and for the force with which
it can apply it. It is something like the tongue, and must
taste like a tongue." Somebody remarked that the camels'
humps were probably not bad either, and another said that
the humps were a great delicacy. The Chief listened to
him for a while, and then said, thoughtfully, first a little
stooping, then taking a long breath and lifting himself up
as he usually does when he is joking, " H'm ! The hump-
backed men, what about their humps ? " Loud and universal
laughter interrupted him. Lauer, remarked, dryly and scien-
tifically, that men's humps were due to a perversion of ribs
or bones, or a sort of curvature of the vertebral column, so that
they could not be very good for eating, whereas camel's' humps
were flexible growths of cartilage, which possibly might not

* The man's name was Listray, and as probably only concealment of
weapons could be proved against him, he got off tolerably easily. He
was only compelled to take an involuntary journey into Germany.

XV.] An Ancestor. I49

taste badly. This thread was spun out a little longer, and
we talked of bear's flesh, then of bear's paws, and, lastly, of
the gourmands among the cannibals, about whom the
Minister wanted to tell a pleasant story. He began : " A
child, a fresh young maiden, certainly, but an old grown-up
tough fellow cannot be good for eating." Then he went on :
" I remember an old Kaffir, or Hottentot woman, who had
long been a Christian. When the missionary was preparing
her for her death, and found her quite ready for glory,
he asked her whether there was anything she particularly
wished. ' No,' she said ; ' everything was quite comfortable
with her ; but if anybody could oblige her with a pair of a
young child's hands for eating, she would regard them as
a great delicacy.'"

We then talked about sleeping, about to-day's domi-
ciliary visit, and about the sailors whom we met yesterday.
The Chief said, that if they could have brought the cap-
tured gunboats into the Seine, great services might have
been expected of them. He then began to speak once
more of the recollections of his youth, again mentioning
the cowherd Brand, and telling us about an ancestor of
his, who, if I understood him rightly, had fallen at Czaslen.
" The old people near us," he said, " had often described
him to my father. He was a mighty hunter before the
Lord, and a heavy drinker. Once, in a single year, he
shot 154 red deer; after which Prince Frederick Charles
will scarcely come up to him, though the' Duke of Dessau
raay. I remember how I was told things went in Gollnow,
where the officers ate together, and the colonel managed
the cooking. It was the fashion there for five or six
dragoons to march up and down in a sort of chorus, and
fire their carbines when the toasts were given. People
certainly went on curiously in those days. For instance.

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

instead of riding on a rail they had a wooden donkey with a
sharp back, on which dragoons against whom any fault had
been proved had to sit, often a couple of hours together —
a very painful punishment. Every now and then, on the
birthday of the colonel and of some others, they took this
donkey out to the bridge and pitched him over it ; but there
was always a new one made. They had had a new one about
a hundred times over. The burgomaster's wife (I could not
quite make out what her name was, but it sounded like Dal-
mer) told my father ... I have the portrait of this ancestor
of mine in Berlin. I am supposed to be his very image, at
least I was when I was young, so much so that when I looked
upon him it was like looking at my own face in the glass."

We went on in this way about old stories and people,
and ultimately agreed that many fashions of old days had
come down to the present time, especially among folks in
the country districts. Somebody spoke of the children's
song, " Flieg, Mai-Kdfer, flieg!" ("Fly away, maybug")
which, along with the ahgebrannten Pommerland (fire-
ravaged Pomerania), recalled to one the Thirty Years' War.
" Yes," said the Chief, " I know that expressions used to be
common with us which manifestly took' us back to the
beginning of last century. When I had ridden well, my
father said to me, ' He is just like ' (the name was not quite
distinct, but sounded like Pluvenel). At that time he always
said ' He ' in speaking to me. Pluvenel was a master of
the horse of Louis XIV., and a famous rider. When I had
ridden he also said sometimes, ' He really rides as if he
had learned it at Hilmar Cura's,' who had been riding-master
to Frederick the Great."

He went on to say that it was owing to a relation of his,
whose opinion had great weight with his parents, Finance-
Councillor Kerl, that he studied in Gottingen. He was

XV.] How to foresee a Sortie. 151

sent there to Professor Hausmann, and was to work at
mineralogy. " People at that time thought a good deal of
Leopold von Buch, and fancied themselves going about
through the world like him, chipping off bits of rocks with a
hammer. Nothing of the sort happened with me. It would
have been better if they had sent me to Bonn, where I
should have met young men from my own district. In
Gottingen there was nobody froin Pomerania, so that I
never came across some of my university friends again
until I met them in the Reichstag." Somebody then men-
tioned one of them, Miers, from Hamburg, and the Minister
said, " Yes, I remember, he was left-handed, but he was not
good for much."

Abeken told us that a sortie of the garrison of Paris had
taken place after the lively cannonade from the forts which
we had heard in the morning, and that it had been directed
especially against the hnes occupied by the Guard. It had,
however, resulted almost entirely in an artillery skirmish,
and the attack had been known beforehand, and prepared
for. Hatzfeld remarked that he would like to know how
they managed to foresee a sortie. He was told that it
must take place in open ground, that one could see the
waggons and the guns which had to be brought out, that for
any movement of great masses of troops nothing could be
arranged in a single night. " That is true," said the Chief,
smiling, " but a hundred louis d'or are often an essential
part of our military previsions.''

After dinner I read minutes and despatches. In the even-
ing I suggested to L. to write an article for the Independance
Beige upon the Gambetta-Trochu subject. He was also
informed that Delbriick would come back here on the 28th.

Thursday, December 22. — It is very cold, certainly, perhaps
fourteen degrees of frost. The ice flowers are all over my

1 5 2 Bismarck in the Frajico-German War. [Chap.

window pane in spite of the quantity of logs in my fire-
place. In the morning, early, I studied my sketches and
minutes, and then looked through the newspapers. The
article upon the Black Sea question, and that defending the
Luxemburg people against the complaint the Chief had
made against them because of their support of the French,
were of especial interest. There was a good deal said of
the echpse of the sun, which was to begin about half-past
one. Abeken did me the honour to present me with the '
photograph of the Councillors and the secretaries, which is
not very good, and the gentlemen propose accordingly to
be taken over again, when I mean to go with them.

There was no stranger at table to-day. The Chief was
in an excellent humour, but the conversation had no special
significance. I may however indicate what I remember of
it. Who knows to whom it may be agreeable ? First the
Minister said, smiling, and looking at the memi lying before
himj " There is always a dish too much. I had already
decided to ruin my stomach with goose and olives, and
here is Reinfeld ham, of which I cannot help taking too
much, merely because I want to get my own share," — he had
not been to breakfast. " And here is Varzin wild boar,
t!O0." Somebody mentioned yesterday's sortie, and the
Chief remarked, "The French came out yesterday with
three divisions, and we had only fifteen companies, and
not four complete battalions, and yet we made almost a
thousand prisoners. The persons who make these attacks,
here one time and there another, seem to me like a French
dancing-master^ who is leading a quadrille, and shouting
to his pupils, now ' Right !' now ' Left ! '

" ' Ma commere, quand je dansa,
Mon cotillon va-t-il bien ?
II va de cl, il va de la,

Comme la queue de notre chat.' "

XV.] Cardinal Antonelli expected. 153

During the course of ham he said, " Pomerania is the land
of smoked provisions : smoked goose-breast, smoked eels,
and smoked ham. They only want nagelholt, as they have
it in Westphalia,, to make smoked beef. The name, however,
does not explain itself very clearly — nails, I mean, on which
things hang while they are being smoked, but the ' holt,'
perhaps, ought to be written with a d. " Then we talked
about the cold, and, when the wild boar came on the table,
of a wild boar hunt which had taken place at Varzin during
Count Herbert's illness at Bonn. Afterwards the Chief re-
marked, " That Antonelli should, after all, be making ready
for a journey, and should be coming here must be quite be-
wildering to many people.'' Abeken remarked, " Antonelli
has been very variously estimated in the newspapers ; some-
times as a man of lofty and distinguished intellect, sometimes
as a crafty intriguer, sometimes merely as a stupid fellow or
a blockhead." "Yes," said the Chancellor; "but that is
not done in the newspapers only ; it is the same with the
judgment of many diplomatists — Goltz, for instance, and
our Harry. I shall say no more of Goltz ; he was not that

kind of man ; but for ■* , he is this way to-day and that ■

way to-morrow. When I was at Varzin, and had to read
his reports from Rome, his opinion about the people there
changed twice every other week, according as they had been
treating him in a friendly way or the reverse. Indeed,
he changed with every post, and frequently he had different
views in the same letter."

In the evening I read despatches from Rome, London,
and Constantinople, and the answers to them.

Friday, December 23. — Another very cold day. People
speak of twenty-two degrees of frost. The paragraph in the
Situation, which makes the Empress Eugdnie see reason
to conclude peace with us, was sent to the editor of the

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

Moniteur. An article of the Times, about Luxemburg,
defining our position, was forwarded to Germany. The
beginning of Treitsclike's pamphlet in the Preussische Jahr-
biicher was prepared for the King's reading. The article in
the Situation is dated November 17, and is as follows : " Yes,
we ask the reigning Erripress to negotiate peace with
Prussia; and we ask Prussia to negotiate with the reign-
ing Empress. From the moment when the distinguished
lady expresses her desire to put an end to the effusion of
blood, King William will owe it to his own dignity- to take
a step to meet her, and neither the originators of war to
the bitter end, nor the different pretenders each of whom
wants to utilise the misfortunes of his countr)' to set a
crown on his own head, could expect him to do so to meet
them.

" The Empress need not ask herself whether her idea is
really an expression of the mind of France. Let her speak,
and she will see that France never misunderstands heroic
sentiments. As for the Prussian Government, it is not neces-
sary for us that it should wish the return of the Napoleonic
dynasty ; it only needs to see that the greatest mistake it
could commit would be not to promote an alliance between
itself and a dynasty the destruction of which it can never
contemplate if it reflects seriously on its own real interests.
To mutilate us would be to kill it, and it cannot consent to
mutilate us if by its doing so no power would be left in
France strong enough not to be liable to be compelled to
violate even its own solemn pledges. The Empire alone
can relieve Germany, making it unnecessary for her to
conquer the whole country, and permitting her to moderate
her claims for a rectification of territory, because only the
Empire can discuss with France those serious alterations
jn the map of Europe which the attitude of the neutrals

XV.] A French Lady' s Visit. 155

renders indispensable, both for the repose of Germany and
for the restoration of France."

About breakfast time a French lady, whose husband has
been detected in treacherous relations with a band of Francs-
tireurs in the Ardennes, and been condemned to death for
it, is announced as, waiting for the Chief She is going to
beg his Hfe, and the Chief is to procure it for her. He will
not see her, since, as he sends her word, the matter is not
in his province. She must go to the War Minister. She
goes off to him, but Wollmann believes that she will get there
too late, as Colonel Krohn had received an order on the
14th to let justice take its course.*

In a cutting cold wind Wollmann and I drove out in the
afternoon, while vigorous firing was going on in the North,
in Rothschild's little coach, to the Villa Coublay, which
lies on the road which brought us here from Ferriferes, and
where the park of artillery destined for the bombardment
of the south side of Paris is collected. There were about
eighty cannon, and nearly a dozen mortars, arranged in four
long rows. I had pictured these instruments of destruction
to myself as something frightful to look at. Somebody
noticed clouds ascending in the north — perhaps the smoke
of cannon firing, possibly only from factory chimneys.

When I got back I discovered, on reading over the news-
papers, that one of the English reporters had already de-
scribed this siege park quite accurately in his journal, and
I marked the article for the Chief Hatzfeld handed it to
him, probably for forwarding to the general staff.

* This was a mistake. The letter may have gone off, but the person
concerned, the notary Tharel, from Rocroy, in the Department of the
Ardennes, was banished to Germany. In June 1871 he was still in
Verden, where he was liberated shortly afterwards on the application
of the French Government.

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

At dinner our guests were Baron and Deputy von Schwarz-
Koppen, and my old Hannoverian acquaintance, Herr von
Pfuel, who had in the meantime become district chief at
Celle. They were both to be appointed to prefectures, or
something of that sort. Afterwards Count Lehndorf, and
an uncommonly handsome man, von Donhoff, a lieutenant
of hussars, who, if I am not mistaken, was an adjutant of
Prince Albrecht's. To-day's menu may be given as a proof
that our table was excellently supplied at Versailles. It
included onion soup (with port wine), a haunch of wild
boar (with Tivoli beer), Irish stew, roast turkey, chestnuts
(with champagne and red wine, according to choice), and
a dessert of excellent Caville apples and magnificent pears.

We were informed that General von Voigts-Rhetz had
appeared before Tours, the population of which having
offered resistance, he had been compelled to fire grenades
at the town. The Chief remarked : " It is not as it should
be, if he stopped firing as soon as they showed the white
flag. I would have gone on firing grenades into the town
till they had sent me out 400 hostages." He again expressed
himself severely about the mild treatment that officers gave
civilians who resisted. Even, notorious treason is fre-
quently not suitably punished, so that the French think
they can venture to do anything against us. " That is
how Krohn behaves," he went on. " He first charges an
advocate with conspiracy with Francs-tireurs, and after seeing
that he is condemned to death, he sends us one petition for
pardon after another, instead of shooting him, and at last —
though he gets the credit of being an energetic officer — he
makes no difficulty about sending the man's wife on to me
with a safe-conduct round her neck."

From this foolish indulgence the conversation turned to
Unger, the chief of the general staff who had been sent

XV.] The Feuilleton at Versailles. 157

home, his mind liaving given way. He usually sits quiet,
brooding on vacancy, occasionally, however, bursting out
into loud sobbing. " Yes," sighed the Chief, " the chief
of the general staff is a sorely harassed man. He is inces-
santly at work, and always responsible ; he can carry nothing
through ; he is perpetually cheated ; it is almost as bad as
being a Minister." " I know, myself, what that sobbing is,"
he said ; " a nervous hysteria, a sort of feverish convul-
sion. I had it once at Inkolsburg, so badly that my gorge
rose. If a chief of the general staff has a bad time, so has
a Minister — every kind of vexation, gnat stings without end.
The other office may suit some people, but good manage-
ment is absolutely indispensable."

When the haunch of wild-boar from Varzin'was set on the
table the Minister talked with Lehndorf and Pfuel about
hunting, about these denizens of the woods and marshes, and
about his own exploits in the sport. Afterwards somebody
mentioned the Moniteur, which appears here, and the Chief
remarked, " During the last few weeks they have been print-
ing in it a novel by Heyse about Meran (a watering-place
in Austria). Such sentimental business is out of place in
a paper which is published with the King's money, as this
really is. The Versaillese don't want it. They want poli-
tical reports and military news from France and England,
— and I should like to see some from Italy — not this
sugary-tasted tittle-tattle. I have some poetry in my nature,
too, but I don't remember ever glancing at this feuilkto?i
after I read the first couple of sentences." Abeken, who
had induced them to publish the novel, stood up for the
editors, and said that it had been taken from the Revue
des deux Mondes, which was an eminent French paper, but
the Chief adhered to his opinion. Somebody then said that
the Moniteur was now writing better French. " That may

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

be," said the Minister ; " I don't care much about it. It is
the way, however, with us Germans. We are always, even
in the highest circles, asking whether we are pleasant and
agreeable to other people. If they don't understand it,
let them learn German. It is a matter of indifference
whether a proclamation is drawn up in an elegant French
style, so long as it speaks adequately and intelligibly. We
can never be quite perfect in a foreign language. It is
impossible that a person who uses it only now and then
during, perhaps, two years and a half, should be able to
express himself as well in it as one who has been using
it for fifty-four." Somebody ironically praised Steinmetz's
proclamation, and quoted some remarkable specimens of
language from it. Lehndorf said, " It was certainly not
elegant French, but it was quite intelligible." The Chief,
" Yes, understanding it is what they have to do with it. If
they can't, let them get somebody to translate it for them."

" Many people who are quite familiar with French are no
good for us. It is our misfortune that anyone who cannot
speak German decently is at once a made man, especially
if he mangles English. The old man (I understood him
to mean Meyendorfif) once said to me, ' Never trust an
Englishman who speaks French with a correct accent,' and
I have found that generally right. But I ought to except
Odo Russell."

He then told the story how old Knesebeck once, to every-
body's astonishment, got up to say something in the State
Council. After he had stood there a while, without saying any-
thing, somebody coughed. " I beg," he said," that you will not
interrupt me," after which, and after standing another couple
of minutes, he said, in a sorrowful way, " I have really
forgotten what I had to say," and sat down.

The conversation turned on the subject of Napoleon III.,

XV.] The Chancellor' s Opinion of Napoleon III. 1 59

and the Chief said he was not a man of large views. " He
is," lie went on, " a far kindlier man than he usually gets
credit for, but nothing like the clever fellow he used to be
thought." " That reminds me," said Lehndorf, " of a criti-
cism of the First Napoleon — a good fellow, but stupid."
" No," said the Chief, seriously, " in spite of what we may
think about the coup d'etat, he is really kindly, a man of
feeling, even sentimental ; but neither his intelligence nor
his information is much to speak of. He is especially poor
in geography, though he was brought up in Germany and
went to school there, and he lives in a world of all sorts of
fantastic ideas. In July he kept buzzing round and round
for three days without being able to decide on anything, and
even now he does not know what he wants. His knowledge
is of that sort that he would certainly be plucked in an
examination for admission to the bar. Nobody would
believe it when I said so, long ago. So far back as 1854
and 1855 I told the King so. He has absolutely no idea
how things are in Germany. When I was Minister, I had an
intendew with him in Paris. He then said that things could
not go on long as they were doing, that there would be a
rising in Berlin, and a revolution in the whol'e country, and
that the King would have everybody voting against him
in a plebiscite. I told him that the people in our country
were not barricade-builders, and that in Prussia revolutions
were only made by the kings. If the King could stand the
strain on him for three or four years, and I allowed that
there was one — the estrangement of the public being very
painful and disagreeable to him — he would certainly win
his game. Unless he got tired and left me in the lurch, I
would not fail him. If we were to appeal to the people,
and put it to the vote, he would even now have nine-tenths
of them in his favour. The Emperor, at the time, said of

i6o Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

me, ' Ce fUest pas un homme serieux ' (" He is not a man of
consequence ") — a mot of which I did not think myself at
liberty to remind him in the weaving-shed at Donchery."

Count Lehndorf asked if we need be in any apprehension
about Bebel's and Liebknecht's imprisonment, and whether
it would cause much excitement. " No," said the Chief,
" there is nothing to be afraid of." Lehndorf said, " But
Jacoby's case caused great disturbance and lamentation."
The Chief said, " He was a Jew, and a Konigsberg man.
Touch a Jew, and a howl is raised in every nook and corner
of the earth — or a freemason. Besides, they interfered in
a public "meeting, which they had no right to do." He
spoke of the Konigsberg people as always quarrelsome, and
inclined to go into opposition, and Lehndorf said, " Yes,
indeed, Manteufifel understood Konigsberg well when he said
in his address, ' Konigsberg continues to be — Konigsberg.'"

Somebody remarked that people began letters to Favre
with " Monsieur le Ministre," and the Chief said, " Next
time I must address him as ' Hochwohlgeborner Herr ' (' Right
Honourable Sir ').'' Out of that grew a long Byzantine
discussion about titles of honour, and the expressions,
Excellency, Right Honourable, and Honourable. The
Chancellor's views and opinions were decidedly anti-
Byzantine. "We ought to give up the whole thing," he
said. " In private letters I never use them at all now, and
officially I call councillors down to the third class, Right
Honourables.''

Pfuel remarked that in legal documents also these high-
sounding addresses were omitted. " You are to appear on
such a day at such a place." " Neither are these legal ad
dresses quite. my ideal. A trifle would make them perfect.
They should say, ' You are to appear, you scoundrel, on
such a day at such a place.' "

x\'.] A Byzantiiie Discussion. i6i

Abeken, who is a Byzantine of the purest water, said that
it had been already taken very ill in diplomatic circles that
people sometimes were not given their proper titles, and that
" Right Honourable Sir " was not proper below Councillors
of the second class. " And lieutenants," cried Count
Bismarck-Bohlen. " I shall quite do away with it among
our people," said the Minister; "there is an ocean of ink
wasted over it annually ; and the taxpayer is justly entitled
to complain of the extravagance. I am quite content when '
I am addressed simply as the Minister-President Count von
Bismarck. I beg you," turning to Abeken, " to draw up a
proposition on the subject for me. It is a useless pigtail,
and I wish it to be dropped." Abeken the cutter-off of
pigtails — what a dispensation !

In the evening I wrote another article on the perversion
of the words which the King addressed to French non-
combatants at the beginning of the war. The army order
from Homburg also is now brought forward to show that he
has not kept his word ; and it is not merely the French but
their good friends the Social Democrats in Germany who are
circulating these slanders. In the first week of the present
month, for instance, a meeting of the Workmen's Union in
Vienna passed a resolution charging the King with a breach
of his word of honour on the strength of these misrepresen-
tations. But neither the army order from Homburg (dated
July 8) nor the proclamation (dated on the nth) contains
any pledge to make war only against French soldiers. In
the former document are the words, " We make no war
upon the peaceable inhabitants of the country.'' The em-
phasis is on the word peaceable. But Francs-tireurs and all
who support them or actively resist our operations in that
or in any other way, are not peaceable inhabitants. And in

VOL. II. M

l62 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

the proclamation it is expressly stated that " the generals
in command of separate corps will specify the measures, of
which further notification will be given, which are to be
taken both against communes and individuals who set them-
selves in opposition to the usages of war. They will also
regulate everything referring to requisitions for what may
be thought necessary to supply the wants of the troops."
These notices were acted upon. The French certainly
had no right to complain of the severity of the Germans.
We never banished persons domiciled amongst us as they
did, hunting them for no reasonable excuse out of house
and home, into misery. We threw no crews of captured
merchant ships into our prisons. We destroyed no private
property except what was capable of doing us harm, and the
Geneva Convention was nowhere broken by us as it was by
them. It was perfectly regular, and it was not in contra-
diction to our promises, for us to use measures of constraint
with recalcitrant localities, or to make reprisals to prevent
further outrages against humanity and public rights. It is
under this head of complaint that we are charged with
throwing shells recently into Tours — but the inhabitants
had received us with hostility — and with breaking down
the railway bridge near the town — a fact which the Chief
ordered me to telegraph shortly before midnight. War
is war, but now that it comes home to themselves, the
French do not seem able to apprehend the fact. They
mastered it more rapidly in other countries, as, for instance,
in Algiers, in the States of the Church, in China, or in
Mexico.

Saturday, Beceynber 24. — Christmas Eve in this foreign
land ! It is very cold, as it was both yesterday and the day
before. I telegraph that with two divisions Manteuffel
yesterday defeated Faidherbe, the general of the French

XV.] The Trojans and the Greeks. 163

army of the North, which is reckoned at 60,000 men, and
compelled him to retreat.

At dinner Lieutenant-Colonel von Beckedorfif is the
Chiefs guest, so old a friend of his that they " thou" each
other. On the table stands a miniature Christmas tree, a
span high, and beside it a case with two cups, one in the
Renaissance style and one of Tula work. They are both
presents from the Countess to her husband. Each holds
only two good drinks. The Count sent them round the
table for inspection, and said, " I am really silly about cups,
although there is no sense in such a fancy. As these come
from home, if you bring them under my eye when I am
away from the country, nothing in the town will trouble me
any longer."

Then he said to Beckedorff that his promotion had surely
been slow, and added, " Had I been an officer — and I wish
I had been — I should have had an army now, and we
should not have been stuck here outside Paris.''

This remark was followed by further discussion of the
conduct of the war, during which the Chief said, " It
is sometimes not so much the generals as the soldiers
themselves that begin our battles and take direction of
them. It was the same with the Trojans and the Greeks.
Two combatants launched words of scorn at each other,
they came to blows, spears were thrown, others rushed up,
who also threw their spears and dealt their blows, and out
of all this came a battle. The fore-posts first fire at each
other needlessly, others cluster up to them when things are
getting brisk, at first a subaltern in command of a few men,
then the lieutenant with more, after him the regiment, last of
all, the general and his whole army. It was in that way
that the battle of Gravelotte came about, which was meant
for the I gth. It was different at Vionville. They had to

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

fling themselves on the French lines there as a mastiff flies
at a terrier."

Beckedorff then told us how he had been twice wounded
at Worth, once between the neck and the shoulder-blade,
certainly he believed, by an explosive bullet, and another
time in the knee. He had dropped off his horse on the
ground. As he lay there a Zouave or a Turco, leaning
against a tree, took deliberate aim at him, and the bullet
grazed his head. Another of these half-savages, he said,
had thrown himself into a ditch during the flight of the
French, and when our men had passed by without finding
him, he got out and shot at them from behind. Some
of them turned back to run after him, and one of them,
as it was impossible to fire on account of our own troops,
knocked him down. In that way they mastered and killed
him. " There was not the least reason for his firing, for
nobody had meddled with him in his ditch," said the
narrator ; " it was the mere passion for murder."

The Chief recalled other stories of the barbarity of the
French, and asked Beckedorff to write his case down for
him, and to allow the doctors to examine medically into the
evidence about the explosive bullet. Then he began to talk
about country life, saying that he was not very fond of hilly
country, both because of the usually confined prospect in
the valleys, and because of the going up and down hill.
" I like the level country better," he said, " though it need
not be quite as flat as at Berlin ; but little heights, with
pretty trees in leaf, and swift, clear brooks, such as we have
in Pomerania, and especially on the Baltic coast." From
which he diverged to the different Baltic watering-places,
mentioning some as extremely agreeable and others as
dull.

After dinner I went out for a couple of turns in the

XV.] The German Conventiojt. 165

avenue made by the rows of trees before our street. Mean-
while they were getting up their Christmas tree in the
dining-room, and Keudell was showering about cigars and
ginger-bread. As I came back too late for the festivity, my
presents were sent up to my room. I then read, as I do
regularly now, all that has been done during the day in the
way of minutes and despatches. Afterwards I was called to
the Chief twice over, one time immediately after the other,
and then a third time. There are to be several articles
about the horrible way in which the French are carrying on
the war, not merely the Francs-tireurs but the regular troops,
who violate the provisions of the Convention of Geneva
almost daily, and appear to remember and claim the execu-
tion of only so much of it as seems advantageous to the
French. I am to dwell on the firing on flags of truce^ on
the ill-usage and looting of doctors, sick carriers, and
hospital assistants, on the killing of the wounded, the misuse
of the Geneva band by the Francs-tireurs, the use of ex-
plosive bullets (as in Beckedorff's case), the treatment,
contrary to the law of nations, of ships and crews of the
German merchant navy, captured by French cruisers. I
am then to add, that the present Government of France is
chargeable with a great deal of the blame of these things.
It was they who let loose on us a people's war, and who
are now unable to control the passions they have kindled,
which carry people beyond all public rights, and all custom
of war. On them, therefore, rests the responsibility for all
the severity with which we have been compelled to act in
France upon our rights as combatants, against our own
wishes, and, as the wars in Schleswig and Austria prove,
contrary to our natural inclinations.

In the evening, about ten, the Chief receives the Iron
Cross of the first class. Abeken and Keudell had been

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

already made happy in the afternoon by the second class of
the same Order.

Sunday^ December 25. — In the morning it is again cold,
but Abeken goes notwithstanding to hear sermon in the
chapel of the chiteau. Theiss pointed out to us his coat
with the cross on it, and said, " The Privy Councillor won't
certainly wear his cloak to-day." In the Bureau we learn that
Cardinal Bonnechose, from Rouen, proposes to come here.
He and Persigny want the summoning of the whole Legis-
lative Body, and, perhaps even more urgently, of the Senate,
which is made up of calmer and maturer elements, to deli-
berate on peace. It appears, moreover, to be certain that
people are in earnest about the bombardment of Paris,
which will take place in a very few days now. So at least
we understand the King's order, just issued, appointing
Lieutenant-General von Kameke, at present commanding
the 14th Division of Infantry, to the supreme command
of the Engineers, and Major-General Prince Hohenlohe-
Ingelfingen to the supreme command of the siege artillery.

To-day we had nobody at dinner, and during the conver-
sation almost nothing was said worth noting. I may perhaps
mention, that Abeken remarked, I forget now in what
connection, that I was keeping a very exact diary. Bohlen
confirmed this, and said in his lively way, " Yes, he writes,
' At 3-4S, Count, or Baron So-and-so said this or that to
me,' as if he expected some day to have to swear to it."
Abeken was of opinion that it would one day be a valuable
source of historical knowledge, and he hoped he might live to
read it. I said that it certainly would be, and trustworthy,
too, even, if it were thirty years before it appeared. The
Chief smiled, and said, " Yes, people will then say, ' Cf.
Buschii cap. 3, p. 20.'"

After table I read documents, and found in them that the

XV.J Drinking and Cards. 167

idea of pushing the boundaries of Germany farther westward
was first laid before the King officially on August 14th, at
Horny. On September 2, the Government of Baden had
sent in a memoir pointing in a similar direction.

Monday^ December 26. — That on Boxing-day of the year
70, I should be eating genuine Saxon Christmas cake in a
private house in Versailles is what I should have refused to
credit, if all the twelve minor prophets had told me of it
beforehand. Yet this morning I had a large slice of one,
a gift from Abeken's liberality. He has received a box with
these sorts of baked things from Germany.

Except for indispensable work, to-day was a complete
holiday. The weather was not so cold as it had been, but
as clear as yesterday. About three there was brisk firing
again from the forts. Perhaps they have had a note of the
fact, that we are pretty nearly ready to reply to them ? Last
night they certainly fired fiercely for a while out of their
big mouths of thunder.

Waldersee was with us at dinner, and the subjects spoken
of were almost wholly military.

At length the conversation turned on the power of
drinking a good deal, and the Minister said : " Once I
never thought of the amount I was drinking. What things I
used to do — the heavy wines, especially the Burgundies !"
The conversation then turned on cards, and he said that he
used formerly to do a great deal in that way, and that once,
for instance, he had played twenty rubbers at whist, one after
the other, " equal to seven hours of time." He only took '
an interest in it when the play was high, but high play was
not for the father of a family. The discussion rose out
of the Chiefs happening to say that he had called some-
body a " Riemchenstecher ;" and after asking whether any
of us understood it, he explained the word as follows :

1 68 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap. xv.

" Riemchenstechen is an old game of soldiers ; and a
Riemchenstecher is not exactly a rogue, but a crafty and
subtle sort of person."

In the evening I wrote another article on the barbarous
way in which the French are carrying on the war, and pre-
prepared for his Majesty's perusal a paper in the Staats
hiirger-Zeitung, which recommends less tender dealing with
the French.

( i69 )

CHAPTER XVI.

FIRST WEEKS OF THE BOMBARDMENT.

At last, at last! On December 27 the long-desired bom-
bardment of Paris began on the east side of the city. As
what follows will show, we knew nothing at first about it,
and even afterwards our fire made an impression of great
power only on certain days. One very soon got used to it
— it never distracted our attention from trifles, and never long
interrupted the course of our talk or the flow of our thoughts.
The Diary will tell us more about it in due time.

On Tuesday, from early morning till well into the day
there was a heavy snowfall with tolerably hard frost. In
the morning the man-servant attached to the Chancellor's
office, who attended on Abeken and me, told me about our
old privy councillor, whom he evidently considered to be a
Catholic : " He reads his prayers in the morning. I believe
they are in Latin. He reads them quite loud out, so that I
hear them often in the ante-room. Probably it is the Mass.''
He added that Abeken was of opinion that th6 heavy thunder-
ing of cannon which had been going on in the distance
since seven o'clock was probably the beginning of the bom-
bardment.

I wrote several letters with instructions for articles. After
twelve I telegraphed, by the Chief's command, to London
that the bombardment of the outworks of Paris began this
morning. Mont Avron, a work near Bondy, seems to be the
first point aimed at by our artillery, and the Saxons have
had the privilege of firing the first shot. The Minister stays

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

the whole day in bed, not because he is particularly unwell,
but, as he says, because he cannot keep himself reasonably
warm in any other way. He did not come to dinner. Count
Solms dined with us. The only thing to note in the conver-
sation was that Abeken said that there was a very good
poem on the Duke of Coburg in Kladderadatsch — probably
a eulogy.

The Bonapartists appear to have become very active
and to have great plans. Persigny and Palikao want us
to neutralise Orleans, to let the Corps Ldgislatif be sum-
moned there, to put the question to it. Whether it wishes
a Republic or a Monarchy, and if it votes for a monarchy
which Dynasty it prefers. We shall wait a little yet before
that, till greater dejection makes people even more pliable
than at present. Bonnechose, the archbishop of Rouen,
wants to make an attempt to negotiate a peace between
Germany and France. He was at one time a jurist, and
later in life became a clergyman. He is supposed to be an
intelligent man, and is on terms with the Jesuits. For
himself, he is a Legitimist, though he holds Eugenie in great
respect for her piety. He was an eager champion of the
Infallibility dogma, and expects to be Pope, and so indeed
he has some prospect of being. According to what several
people say, he hopes to induce Trochu, with whom he is
acquainted, to agree to the surrender of Paris, provided we
renounce our territorial claims ! In place of making them
we might, the archbishop thinks, require that Nice and
Savoy should be given back to Victor Emmanuel, and then
compel him to restore their territories to the Pope, the
Duke of Tuscany, and the King of Naples. Thus we
should acquire the credit of being the champions of order
and the restorers of right all over Europe. What a comical
plan !

XVI.] A)i American Lady's Christmas Card. 171

The Chief has given orders for the most stringent measures
against Nogent-le-Roi, where a surprise by the Francs-tireurs
was supported by the population ; he has also refused to
receive the petition of the mayor and municipality of
Chitillon, for a remission of the iine of a million francs,
imposed on them because something of the same sort hap-
pened there. His principle in both cases is, that the people
in the country districts must be made to realise what war is,
so as to incline them to think of peace.

I was called to the Chief about eleven. He gave me
several Berlin newspaper articles for " my collection " (made
by his order, of instances of the barbarous way in which the
French carry on the war), and two other papers which are
to go to the King.

Wednesday, December 28. — A snowfall, and moderate cold.
The Chief does not leave his room to-day either. He gives
me a letter in French to do what I like with, which " an
American" lady had sent him on the 25th December. It
says : " Count von Bismarck, — Enjoy the pleasant climate of
Versailles as much as you can, Coimt, for one day you will
have to endure the flames of hell for all the misfortunes you
have caused France and Germany." That is all. It is not
easy to see the lady's object in writing the letter.

At breakfast, his Excellency Delbriick is again with us.
He is convinced that the Second Bavarian Chamber will
ultimately adopt the Versailles Convention just as completely
as the North German Reichstag did. Before their final
decision he had really had some very anxious days.

The French papers make out that nearly every German
soldier is uncertain about the duties imposed on him by the
eighth commandment. According to a notice issued by the
prefect of the Department of the Seine and Oise, there must
be exceptions, and very splendid exceptions, even to this

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

rule. It says : " The public is informed that the following
objects have been found by the soldiers of the German
army : (i) In the house of the notary Maingot, at Thyais,
which is now standing empty, at the corner of the street
leading to Versailles and to Grignon, a packet containing
valuables estimated at 1 00,000 francs {£,^,000). (2) At
Choisy-le-Roi, in a house in the Rue de .la Raffinerie,
No. 29, deserted by one of the inhabitants, a packet with
valuable papers. (3) On the road from Palaiseau to Ver-
sailles a purse of money with ten Prussian thalers (thirty
shillings), and several small French and German coins.
(4) In the deserted house of M. Simon, at Ablon, two
packets with nearly 3000 francs in them. (5) In the garden
of M. Duhuy, adjunct at Athis, a box with railway shares
and other valuable papers. (6) In the deserted house of
M. Dufoss^, at Choisy-le-Roi, Rue de ViUiers, No. 12,
papers of the value of 7000 francs. (7) In the convent at
Hay 11,000 francs worth of valuable papers. (8) In a
house deserted by its owner, on the bank of the Seine, at
Saint-Cloud, a packet with valuable papers, (g) In a de-
serted house at Brunoy a small mantelpiece clock.'' (A kind
of thing which, according to the assertions of the French
journals, we are particularly fond of packing up and carrying
away with us.) " (10) In the garden of the house near the
church, at the corner of the street between Villeneuve-le-
Roi and the churchyard of Orly, several articles of jewellery
of antique and of modern workmanship. (11) In the garden
near the conservatory of the Chateau Rouge, at Fresnes-les-
Rungis, a milk-pail containing articles in gold and silver,
drafts payable to bearer, and other things."

Thursday, December 29. — Much snow, and not much cold.
The Minister remains in bed as he did yesterday, but con-
tinues to work, and there does not seem to be very much

XVI.] The New German Constitution. 173

wrong with him. He tells me to telegraph that the First
Army, in pursuit of Faidherbe, has pushed forward to Ba-
paume, and that Mont Avron, which was under fire yester-
day — thirty or forty guns were employed in bombarding it —
has ceased to reply. At breakfast we learn that the Saxon
artillery had four men killed and nineteen wounded during
yesterday and the day before.

In the afternoon Granville's despatch to Loftus about the
Bismarck circular on the Luxemburg affair was translated
for the King. I then studied official documents. About
the middle of October a memorial was sent from Coburg
to the Chief, proposing a new constitution for Germany.
Among its suggestions is one pointing to the restoration of
the dignity of Emperor, and to the ultimate substitution for
the Confederation Council of Confederation Ministries, and
the creation of a United Council of the Empire out of repre-
sentatives of the Governments and delegates from the dis-
trict Parliaments. The Chief answered that it had long been
contemplated to carry out one of the ideas involved in these
proposals. He must guard himself against the suggestion
about Confederation Ministries and the Council of the
Empire, as he considered that it might stand in the way
of any other new arrangements. . . . From Brussels we are
informed that the King of the Belgians is well disposed to
us, but that he sees no way of interfering with the press in
his own country, which is hostile to Germany. The Grand
Duke of Hesse has gone so far as to say that Elsass and
Lothringen must become Prussian provinces. Dalwigk, on
the other hand, who is as much against us as ever, wants
the provinces which are to be taken from France to be
incorporated with Baden, which could give the district of
Heidelberg and Mannheim to Bavaria, so as to restore the
connection with the Palatinate on the left bank of the

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

Rhine. In Rome the Pope will undertake " mediation "
between us and France.

In the evening I gave Bucher, for action on the subject,
my collection of newspaper accounts of the inhuman way in
which the French are carrying on the war contrary to the
laws of nations. About ten the Minister sent for me. He
was lying on a sofa before the fire, covered with a blanket.
He said, " Well, we have it." " What, your Excellency ?"
" Mont Avron." He then showed me a letter from Count
Waldersee, to say that the fort was occupied this afternoon by
the troops of the Twelfth Army Corps, who' had found there
numerous gun-carriages, rifles, and munitions of war, and
many dead bodies. The Minister said, " I hope there is no
mine there to blow up the poor Saxons." I forwarded the
account of this first success by telegraph to London, in
cipher, for fear the general staff might take offence.

Afterwards the Chancellor sent for me again, to show me
a paper in the Kolnische Zeitung, reproducing an article from
the Vienna Tageblatt, in which it was said that Bismarck
had been completely wrong about the French capacity for
resistance, and, in consequence of this over-confidence, to
which hundreds of thousands of men (they might as well
have said millions) had been sacrificed, he had advanced
demands far too extravagant as conditions of peace. The
answer on our side was, that nobody could tell the Chan-
cellor's peace conditions, as he had not yet had any oppor-
tunity to formulate them officially, but that they were cer-
tainly not so exacting as those of public opinion in Germany,
which was almost unanimous in demanding back the whole
of Lothringen. Neither could anybody be sure of his views
as to the capacity of Paris for resistance, as he had never
had an opportunity to state them either.

Firing, several times renewed, was carried on all day from

XVI.] The Word of Hoiioitr of French Officers. 175

heavy ordnance, and also through the night up till mid-
night.

Friday, December t,o. — The bitter cold of the last few
days continues. The Chief still keeps his room, on account
of illness, and is mostly in bed. In the morning, at his
request, I telegraph fresh details about the occupation of
Mont Avron, and about the shameful bribe offered, accord-
ing to official admissions, by the Government of TOurs to
tempt the captive French officers to break their word of
honour. I wrote articles also for the German press, and
one for the Moniteur here, on this subject, much as follows :

We have several times taken occasion to point out the
depth of degradation in the ideas certain statesmen and
officers of the French army entertain on the subject of
military honour. A communication which reaches us from
a good source, proves that we had not yet realised how
deeply this evil is seated, and how widely it has spread. We
have before us an official decree issued by the French
Ministry of War, from the 5th bureau of the 6th division,
and which is headed Solde et revues, dated Tours, No-
vember 13, and signed by Lieutenant- Colonel Alfred Jerald,
and by Colonel Tissier, the chief of the general staff of
the 17 th army corps. This document, which refers also
to another issued on November 10, promises a reward in
money to all French officers without exception, who, being
now prisoners in Germany, can make their escape. We
say without exception— that is, to those officers even who
have given their word of honour not to attempt to escape.
The bribe offered for such a shameless proceeding is 1750
francs {£to). This fact needs no comment. It will probably
excite indignation throughout France. Honour, the most
precious possession of every German officer — and, duty and
justice compel us to add, in old days of every French officer

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

also — is regarded by the men whom the 4th of September
raised to power, as a matter of sale and purchase, and at a
very moderate rate too. In this way French officers will be
driven to see that France is no longer directed by a Govern-
ment, but by a business house of loose principles in the
matter of honesty and decency, trading under the name of
Gambetta and Co. " Who will buy our goods : any words
of honour for sale ?"

Afterwards I sent off a short article on a mistake which
cropped up again in the Kolnische Zeitung on the occasion
of the despatch sent by the Chancellor to Vienna. The
great Rhenish newspaper says : " Since 1866 we have been
among those who have incessantly entreated Vienna at one
time, and Berhn at another, to be done with their mutual
jealousies, which then became meaningless, and to draw as
close as possible one to the other. We have often regretted
the personal rivalry between Bismarck and Beust, which
appeared to be an obstacle to this reconciliation," Src. My
answer was : " We have already had occasion repeatedly to
notice that the Kolnische Zeitung perpetually attributes what
the Chancellor does and leaves undone to personal motives,
personal likes or dislikes, inclinations, or ill-tempers, and we
find here a new proof of this unjustifiable prejudice. AVe
cannot make out how people can keep coming forward
continually with such suspicions. We know this, however,
that there is no personal rivalry between the Chancellor of
the North German Confederation and the Imperial Chan-
cellor of Austro-Hungary ; that the two statesmen were on a '
very good footing with each other before 1866, when they
often came into personal relationship, as Count Bismarck
has mentioned several times in the North German Reichs-
tag. Since that they have had no private intercourse to
create bitterness, for the simple reason that they have had

XVI.] Bismarck and Beiist. i "JJ

none at all. If they have been hitherto more or less op-
posed to each other as statesmen, the reason is no secret.
They have been the representatives of different political
systems, endeavouring to realise different political ideals
between which it is not easy to find a point of reconcili-
ation, though it may not be absolutely impossible. This and
nothing else is the explanation of what the KolniscJie Zeiiung
tries to explain through personal motives, by which no
statesman of the present day is less influenced in feeling or
action than the Chancellor of the Confederation. Let us
take the opportunity to remark that Count Bismarck has
never been utterly wrong, as the Rhine paper, echoing the
opinion of a Vienna paper, says he has, and that indeed he
has never been wrong at all about the resistance of Paris.
He was never asked about it, but we know from the best
sources that he considered the taking of the city in less than
several months a very difficult thing, and that he was against
investing it before the fall of Metz."

In the evening I read documents in the Bureau, and
among them interesting reports from Bavaria. Afterwards
a hint was sent to Elsass that the chief point at present was
not to alleviate the misery of the country, or to reconcile
the population to their approaching incorporation with
Germany, but to secure the object of the war, which ic to
be attained by a speedy peace, and by looking to the secu-
rity of the troops. Accordingly, all French officials who will
not place themselves at our disposal, and judges who are
not willing to act under us, are to be sent into the interior
of France. For the same reason, pensioners are not to be
paid their pensions. Let them go to Bordeaux, and they
will be much more eager for the conclusion of peace.

In the evening at ten I telegraphed the successes of the
first army against the Mobiles and the Francs-tireurs. After

VOL. II. N

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

eleven I was again called to the Chief. Then I corrected
a false representation of the situation before Paris, which
had appeared in the Kreuz-Zeitwig. The people there
seem to think that we are already bombarding the city. It
is a mistake, and this generally well-informed paper is in
error through its defective knowledge of the lie of the
country round Paris. Our first business is with the forts,
which are a good way outside Paris. To try to bombard
the town across the forts would be as if somebody on the
Miiggelsberg had forts of the size and strength of Spandau
before him at Kopnik, and on the hills near Spandau, and
were to try to bombard Berlin away across these fortifica-
tions. We must take the forts first before we can fire into
the town. Till that time only the suburbs, or parts of the
city which it is no use to fire at, are v/ithin the range of our
guns.

After tea, when I make my last entries in the diary, till
nearly eleven, there is tolerably brisk firing from Mont
Valdrien or from the gun-boats.

Saturday, December 31. — Everybody here is out of sorts.
I myself begin to be languid, and will have to cut down the
nightwork my diary requires, or to break it off altogether for
a couple of days. The severe frost, too, from which the fire
protects one only partially, disinclines me to sit up long
after midnight, as I have been in the habit of doing.

Gambetta and his colleagues in Bordeaux grow every day
more violent in their capacity of dictators. The Empire
itself, against the arbitrary action of which they used to pro-
test, was scarcely so despotic, and would hardly have set
aside lawful institutions or arrangements as summarily or
autocratically as these republicans of the purest water.
MM. Cr^mieux, Gambetta, Glais-Bizoin, and Fourichon,
issued a decree on December 25, in which, with reference

XVI.] Africans for Germany. 179

to previous notices, it is summarily enacted that " th,e
General Councils and Councils of Arrondissement are
dissolved, as well as the departmental commissions, where
they have been established. For the general councils de-
partmental commissions are to be substituted, which are
to consist of as many members as the Department con-
tains cantons, and are to be appointed by the Government
on the proposal of the prefect." Where we are, naturally
nothing of the kind will happen. I send the decree to
be printed to the editors of the Moniteur.

Monday, January 2. — The languor and the cold both
continue. The Chief is still unwell. So are Hatzfeld
and Bismarck-Bohlen. Gambetta's war a outra/tce is to be
carried on now with the assistance of a sort of Arabian
Francs-tireurs. What will M. de Chaudordy, who recently
complained of us as barbarians to the Great Powers, say
to the article in which the Indtfendance Algerienne explains
the views these savage hordes entertain of what is permitted
in war, or which it tries to inspire in them ? Several journals
in France itself openly approve, for they have reprinted this
absolutely brutal article without a word of remonstrance,
and if they can venture to do so, we m^y assume that they
reckon on the approval of their readers. I quote it as an
evidence of the boiling heat which passionate hatred has
reached in the hearts of a great number of our enemies.
This outburst of fury of the African journalist, which many
of his French brethren adopt, is as follows : —

" The moment has come ! Let each of our provinces
raise ten Gums of 200 men each ! They will be commanded
by their Cadis and some officers from the Arabian bureaux.
As soon as they are ready, these Gums will sail for Lyons,
where they will be used as flying sharpshooters and scouts,
a service which our light cavalry does not understand.

N 2

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

Their first service will be to annihilate the Uhlans, or at
least to frighten them, by cutting off a few heads. In two or
three bodies, each of which must be supplied with a few
German-speaking officers and subalterns, these brave chil-
dren of the desert will throw themselves on the Grand
Duchy of Baden, where they will burn down all the villages,
and set fire to all the woods. It will be easy at present, as
the leaves are dry. The Blatk Forest will light up the
Rhine Valley with its flames. The Gums will then push
forward into Wiirtemberg, where they will lay everything
waste. The ruin of the countries in alliance with Prussia
will doubtless precipitate the defeat and ruin of Prussia
herself.

" The Gums carry with them nothing but their cartridges.
Wherever they go they will take what they need to live
upon. If they starve and ■ suffer thirst for several days
they will burn down towns and villages. We shall say to
these valiant sons of the prophet, ' We know you, we esteem
your courage, we recognise that you are energetic, enter-
prising, vehement. Go and cut off their heads ; the more
heads you cut off the more highly we shall value you'

" When the news of the invasion of these Africans is
Carried into the enemy's country, a universal terror will run
through all Germany, and the Prussian armies will rue the
day they left their wives and daughters to pay the debts of
their fathers and their husbands. Away with pity ! Away
with feelings of humanity ! Neither pity nor mercy for our
modern Huns ! This burst into Germany is the only thing
to raise the siege of Paris. The Gums will rise to the
height of their task. It is enough for us to lay the reins
loose on their necks, and say to them, ^Murder, pillage,
burn I' "

The writer must be a pleasant person. Agreeable sug-

XVI.] Concentration called for. i8i

gestions, especially as French officers are, it is proposed, to
lead these savages to the murder, pillaging, and incendia-
rism they are to commit. And such Gums appear in reality
to have already disembarked on French soil, for we saw a
notice recently of the fortunate arrival of reinforcements
from Africa.

Tuesday, January 3. — The idea that the wide dispersion
of. the German armies over the North and South- West has
its dangers, and that concentration is called for finds sup-
porters elsewhere also. The Vienna Presse, for instance,
has just published a memoir from a military critic, which
represents a concentration of our troops at present in France
as essential if we want to avoid their being broken in detail,
so as to hinder and diminish our offensive power. The
author points to a concentration.of our troops within a circle
of from seventy to ninety miles round Paris. Then the
French armies, gathering together from all quarters to raise
the siege, would be met and shattered by the whole force of
the German armies. Even the gigantic and hitherto unin-
terrupted streams of force which Germany has sent out, are
not sufficient, says our military critic, simultaneously to do
all the work which the Germans have undertaken. The
wish to accomplish it all at the same time must lead to a dis-
persion of the army corps full of all kinds of risks, a state
of affairs the more serious as long marches in severe winter
weather weaken and waste the men. The article accord-
ingly warns us against large-looking military enterprises like
advances on Havre and Lyons, and recommends the esta-
blishment of entrenched camps at a suitable distance from
Paris, and the destruction of the railroads outside the circle
of these camps, so that the districts of France in the circum-
ference not yet occupied by us should become incapable of
communicating with each other except by shipping.

1 82 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

This renunciation of any farther advance and concentra-
tion of the German fighting power is recommended also by
the National Zeitung, in an article which expresses even
better than that I have quoted, the ideas of certain people
here in Versailles. It is said there (in the number for De-
cember 31) " The evacuation of Dijon and the non-occupation
of Tours, to the very gates of which, it is well known that
a division of the Tenth Army Corps had advanced, may,
perhaps, indicate the views which ought to be decisively
adopted on the German side, especially in the case of the
war being continued. Perhaps it is not to be expected that
France will give up her resistance after the fall of Paris,
and accept the German conditions of peace. Certainly, we
cannot reckon on it as assured, so that we must be prepared
what to do in the opposite event. In any case, there cannot,
after the fall of the city, be any regularly recognised Govern-
ment supported bythe representatives of the nation with which
conditions of peace can be settled with adequate guarantees
of permanence. If the war is to go on, it is impossible that
its object can be the complete subjugation of a country so
extensive as France. Our armies might be as victorious as
ever, and might destroy the fighting power of the enemy,
but that would not suffice. We should have to establish a
new civil government in every one of the conquered dis-
tricts, and to see that it was obeyed by the inhabitants. In
the strip of country between the Loire and the English
Channel our troops are hardly numerous enough now to
make intercourse everywhere secure, to sustain the dignity
of a foreign administration in every town and village, to
guard against assassinations and surprises, and, above all, to
collect the taxes, as well as the contributions and levies
which are the unavoidable consequences of war. To spread
this net out immeasurably farther would overtax our mill-

XVI.] Everybody unwell. 183

tary power, highly as we may think of it ; and we at home
should find the strain on the strength of our civilian staff
which Such an attempt would necessitate too considerable.
If peace, therefore, is not to be obtained immediately, our
military authorities must see clearly what they are aiming at,
and resolutely confine themselves to it. They must settle on
a well-defined portion of French soil, which they must occupy
in such force that we are able to hold it thoroughly in hand,
and to keep it under our authority as long as we choose.
This portion would include the capital and the best provinces,
with the ablest and most warlike populations of France ;
and it would naturally have to bear all the burdens and ex-
penses of the war until a peace party grew strong enough
throughout the country to impose its will on the authorities
of the moment. The district to be held in military occupa-
tion would have to be so bounded as to be militarily defens-
ible with the least possible difficulty. Across this line there
would naturally be expeditions every now and then for tem-
pbraiy objects ; but the intention ought to be to abstain
from permanently overstepping it. In the districts which
Germany requires for the security of her frontier, the pro-
cess of incorporation should go steadily forward without
waiting for the conclusion of peace."

Friday, January 6. — Till yesterday the cold was very
intense, I believe as much as nine or ten degrees below zero.
AVith it there was generally fog, which was particularly dense
on Wednesday. The Chief has been unwell almost the
whole week. Yesterday he drove out a little in the after-
noon for the first time, and again to-day. Hatzfeld and
Bohlen are ill. My own depression of spirits and disin-
clination for work have only begun to diminish to-day,
probably because I have had two nights of abundant sleep,
and perhaps also on account of the improvement in the

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

weather; for the mist, which changed this morning into
hoar frost and hangs in sparkhng crystals on the branches
of the trees, has been followed by a fine day, though portions
of its withdrawing veil still hang about the wooded heights
between this and Paris. Thus we commence a new life, like
our guns, which have been doing little work these last few
days on account of the mist, but which have begun to shoot
away briskly enough. I may best insert here, perhaps, a few
notes for my diary, which have been omitted. In the inter-
val the Upper Governmental Councillor Wagner has been my
fellow-worker in the office, and a Baron von Holnstein, who
is, I believe, a secretary of legation, also came in. Among
the articles I sent out during the last six days there was one
on the measure which detached great numbers of railway
carriages from the objects and necessities of German in-
dustry for the purpose merely of bringing up provisions
for the time when Paris, after being really starved out, will
be compelled to surrender. I described such a proceeding
as humane, but impracticable and impolitic, as the Parisians,
when they learn they are provided for outside, will hold
out till their last crust of bread or joint of horse, so that all
our humanity will end only as a kind of contribution towards
the protraction of the siege. It is not our business, by esta-
blishing magazines or supplying means of transport for re-
provisioning the city, to avert the danger of famine which "
menaces the Parisians. It is their business to do so by
capitulating at the proper time. Yesterday I translated into
German for the King two English protests against the si ik-
ing of English coal vessels at Rouen, which our troops hid
considered a necessary measure. Early this morning I
telegraphed, according to advices from the general staff,
to London, that the result of the bombardment directed for
three days past against the forts on the Eastern front, and

XVI.] The German Railways and Paris. 185

since yesterday also against those on the Southern front, has
been very satisfactory, and that our loss is quite inconsider-
able. Yesterday I again visited the officers of the 46th, who
have established themselves in the farmhouse of Beauregard,
and made themselves extremely comfortable with furniture
which they have sent in from Bougival. To-day I visited with
Wagner the point of view I have several times spoken of at
Ville d'Avray, and from it we watched the bombardment.
Wagner has found accommodation not far from us at the
corner of the Rue de Provence and the Boulevard de la
Reine, in the main door flat of a Frenchman, under all sorts
of oil paintings. Paris seemed to be on fire in two places,
and white clouds of smoke were rising. In tlie evening
I read despatches and also minutes. It appears that 2800
axles have been required from the German railway for
waggons for collecting provisions for Paris. The Chief
protested energetically against this measure as politically
disadvantageous, seeing that the Parisian authorities, know-
ing that provisions have been collected for them outside, can
delay their surrender till the very last possible moment, by
using up every scrap in the city. Bonnechose has, at the
suggestion of the Pope, written a letter to King William, from
whom he wants peace, an " honourable" peace, one. that is to
say, without any surrender of territory, such as we might have
' had twelve weeks since from M. Favre if the Chief had not
preferred one that was advantageous. Prince Napoleon is
to come to Versailles to mediate. He is a talented and
estimable man, but not of much consideration in France. In
the London Conference on the Black Sea question we are to
support the Russian claims with all our strength.

Saturday, January 7 . — We have now — perhaps have had
for the last few days — a body-guard of bright green Land-
wehr riflemen, oldish men with long wild beards. They are

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

said to be all admirable shots. On the suggestion of H.
that there might possibly be something found of political
importance in Odillon Barrot's house at Bougival, Bucher and
I took a carriage there this morning. The weather was dull
and cold. Mist drizzled down on us. We first sought out H.
at Beauregard to get him to describe to us the exact position
of Barrot's villa. Our drive took us by all sorts of defence
preparations, walls pierced with loop-holes for shot, half-
wrecked country houses, a ruined nursery garden, and so on,
down the hill of Saint-Cloud into the valley under La Celle,
where the long street of Bougival lies with its pretty church.
On the way through the town we were told we should see
soldiers, as no civilian had been allowed to peep behind the
windows of the houses, the population having had notice to
quit after the last sortie, or the last but one, in this direction.
In the middle of the village, where two streets cross
at the little square, and where the Prussian sentry stood,
we left the carriage, and asked the sergeant-major in com-
mand to supply us with a soldier as guide and companion.
We first passed the druggist's shop, frightfully wrecked ; near
it a sentry had been posted to protect the entrance to the
immense deposit of wines discovered here some weeks ago.
We then crossed a strong barricade which bars the outlet of
the street in this direction towards the Seine. It consists of
barrels and casks filled with earth and stones, and all sorts
of house furniture. Then we looked for the house of which
we were in search, in the narrow street leading to Mal-
maison. In it also there were several barricades with ditches,
and the side lane which leads down from the middle of it
to the left towards the river contained several more. The
houses here, too, all of them unoccupied, and most of them
damaged by shells, were prepared for defence. There was
very little furniture left. We managed to pass the first bar-

XVI.] Bojigival in Ruins. 1 87

ricade in the street by going in on some boards, turning to
the left through the window of the house next it, and out
through the house door on the other side of the ditch of the
barricade. We passed a second small fortification to the
right in a similar way.

Where the street opens on the high road by the river,
the pavement of which was torn up, we saw before us a
third system of barricades and ditches. It was the "musical''
barricade, described so frequently b y th e correspondents
of German and foreign newspapexs, with no fewer than
six cottage pianos stowed away in it. We could not
look after them particularly, as at this point we dared not
show our heads outside for fear of the Gauls on Mont
VaMrien, who would have been ready for us immediately
with half-a-dozen of their shells. Here I discovered, three
or four houses further on, the little green balcony which H.
had mentioned as indicating Barrot's house, for which we
were looking, but we were not allowed to approach it in
front, the sentry who was posted here allowing nobody
to pass. So we had to work round^by the back, and a
narrow foot-path between the houses and gardeas [enabled
us to do so. In the steeply-sloped gardens behind the row
of houses, all sorts of pieces of furniture were standing or
lying about, and among them a desolate-looking chair in red
plush, soaked through and througli with snow and rain, with
only one leg left. Books and papers were strewn plentifully
round. After entering several houses, every one of which
was terribly wrecked, we found the one we were looking
for. A board across a deep ditch conducted us first into
a room for flowers. From it we passed into the library,
which consisted of two rooms. There might be a couple
of thousand volumes, most of them lying on the floor in
confused masses, possibly the work of the Mobiles and the

i88 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

Francs-tireurs, who wrecked the surrounding neighbourhood
before the investment of Paris. Many of them were torn
or trodden under foot. Looking through the books, we saw
that it had been a well-selected library, with books of history,
politics, belles-lettres, and some English books ; but there
was nothing of the description of what H. had conjectured
we might find.

When I got back to the Rue de Provence, I wrote -two
articles, at the Chiefs direction, one of them a statement
referring to a passage in the Kreuz-Zeitung, which is com-
forting itself in a straggling sort of fashion about the delay
in the bombardment.

In the evening the Minister again dines with us. We
learn that the fortress of Rocroy has fallen into our hands,
and that the Saxon Minister, von Fabrice, has been ap-
pointed governor-general of a district of country including
six departments. At tea we learned that the bombardment
of Paris, or rather of its forts, had begun on the North side,
too, and with good results. , There had been conflagrations
in Vaugirard and Crenelles, which, perhaps, might account
for the smoke we saw rising yesterday from the hill-tops
between Ville d'Avray and Sfevres. Keudell said that I
should mention it to the Chief At a quarter past ten
I went up to him. He thanked me, and asked, " "What
time is it now?" I said, "It will soon be eleven, your
Excellency." He replied, " Tell Keudell, then, to prepare
the writing for the King about which I spoke to him."

Sunday, January 8. — In the morning I telegraphed the
victory at Vendome, and an account of the progress of
the bombardment, and then wrote for the Moniteur a note
on the lying spirit of boasting in which Faidherbe had once
more claimed a victory over our troops, the fact being that
he had been again compelled to retreat

XVI.] Drunkenness in Paris., 189

These last few days the Chief appears to be allowing his
beard to grow. Delbriick tells us at breakfast that, in 1853,
he was in North America,- and got as far as Arkansas. In
the afternoon Prince Hohenlohe was with the Chief, to
inform him of the progress and success of the bombardment,
probably on account of his remonstrances.

In the afternoon I read a report of La France on the state
of health of Paris, and sent it to the Moniteur. According to
it, the deaths in the week, from the nth to 17th December,
rose to the enormous number of 2728. Smallpox and typhus
especially had carried away many people. Mortification is
extending in the hospitals. The doctors complain of the
bad effects of alcoholism on the sick, which makes slight
wounds serious, and which appears to be dreadfully common
among the soldiers in Paris. Their statement concludes
with these words : " On this occasion we must remark, as
we have done so often, that the crime of drunkenness, in
its grossest form (Ivrognerie Crapuleiise), is on the increase
in Paris, and neither the doctors nor we need an order of
the day signed by Trochu and Cle'merit Thomas to prove it,
or to make us groan over it. Yes, we must say once more
that the blush mounts to our foreheads when we see men
every day, to whom the country has entrusted its defence,
lowering and disgracing themselves by shameful potations.
Can we wonder at all the unfortunate accidents which have
happened through the careless use of guns, at the disorders,
the insubordination, the deeds of violence, the plunderings
and wreckings, which are reported every day by the public
newspapers, at a time when the country is in mourning,
when a hostile fate is heaping defeat after defeat on this un-
fortunate land, and visiting us with redoubled blows without
intermission and without pity ? People are indeed of a
frivolous kind, who are simple enough to beheve that this

1 90 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

frightful war will infallibly reform our manners and make
new men of us."

At dinner the Chief again spoke of his youth, especially
of his earliest recollections, one of which related to the
burning of the Berlin theatre. " I was then hardly three
years of age. It was in the Gendarmes Market, on the
Mohrenstrasse, opposite the Hotel de Brandebourg, at the
corner of the street, one story up, that my parents then
lived. I myself remember nothing of the conflagration,
which I must have seen, but I know, perhaps only because
I have often heard the story told, that we raised ourselves
on the chairs and on my mother's sewing-table, a step or two
in front of the windows. As the fire progressed I mounted
up there, putting my hands on one side of the window-
panes and pulling them back at once, because they were
so hot. Afterwards I went to the right window, and it was
just the same. I remember, too, that I once ran away
because my elder brother had used me badly. I got as far
as the Linden, where they caught me. I ought to have
been whipped for it, but somebody interceded for me, and
I got off."

He then told us that from his sixth to his twelfth
year he was in Plahmann's Institute, one of the educa-
tional establishments on the principles of Pestalozzi and
Jahn, and that he had nothing but unpleasant recollections
of the time he wasted there. At that time an artificial
Spartanism was the rule. He never had enough to eat,
except when he was occasionally invited out. At the
Institute they always got "elastic" flesh, not exactly hard,
but so that the teeth could not easily manage it, and parsnips.
" I would have been glad to eat them raw, but they were
boiled; and there were hard potatoes in the dish, four-
cornered bits,"

XVI.] Fish at Dinner. 191

The conversation next turned on the luxuries of the table,
and the Chief expressed himself vigorously about his likings
for different kinds of fish. He always liked fresh lampreys.
He Avas very fond of snipe-fish and Elbe salmon, just the
proper mean between Baltic salmon and Rhine salmon
" which is too fat for me." He then spoke of the dinners
given at bankers' houses, where nothing is counted good
unless it is dear. " They won't have carp, because in Berliii
it is a moderately low-priced fish. They prefer perch, which
cannot be brought there without difficulty." For my own
part I don't care for perch, and I never liked Pomeranian
salmon {Maraenen), the flesh of which is flabby. On the
other hand, he could eat sea lampreys (Muraenen) &itT^
day : " I like them almost better than trout, and I don't care
for any trout but those of moderate size, say half-pounders.
The big ones, which are common in Frankfort at these
dinners, and which usually come out of the Heidelberg
Wolfspring, are not worth much, but they are dear enough,
so that they must be on the table.''

The conversation then turned on the Arc de Triomphe at
Paris, which was compared with the Brandenburg Gate.
The Chief said that the latter was very fine in its way.
" I have, however, advised them to remove the sentry-boxes
at the side, so as to show it. It would then be reckoned even
a finer thing than now, as it is shut in and partly hidden."

While we were smoking our cigars, he said to Wagner,
speaking of his old journalistic experiences : " I remember
that my first newspaper article was upon hunting. I was then
nothing more than a rough country squire. Somebody had
written a spiteful article on hunting. My huntsman's blood
warmed at this, and I set myself to and wrote an answer,
which I forwarded to the editor, Altvater. It was unsuc-
cessful. He answered me very politely, but said it did

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

not suit, and he could not take it. I was in a rage that
anybody should claim the right, or be allowed the privilege
of attacking sportsmen without their being allowed to
contradict him ; but that was the way at the time."

In the evening I was told to send the following article
from the Fran^ais to the English press and to the Mojiiteur :
" From different quarters we are informed of acts of violence
by certain battalions of the Mobilised National Guard, the
proofs of which we hold at the disposal of General Clement
Thomas. According to our accounts, these battalions have
allowed themselves, at Montrouge and Arcueil, to wreck
private houses, to break the window panes, to plunder the
cellars, and needlessly to burn expensive pieces of furniture.
In Montrouge a collection of rare copper-plate engravings
was committed to the flames. Acts of this sort demand the
interference of the authorities. General Trochu's proclama-
tion of the 26th December, in which he announces the
establishment of courts-martial, was placarded all over the
neighbourhood of Paris. That threat of repressive measures
ought surely not to be allowed to lie dormant in view of
such plundering and insubordination.'' The article finally
expresses a wish for an inquiry into the following incident :
"On the 1 6th December the men of a battalion of the
National Guard, then stationed at Arcueil, are said, on their
way back to Paris, to have sold to shopkeepers in the
neighbourhood a number of objects, the results of their
plundering in that town. They were mostly copper kitchen-
vessels." It would be well that people in Versailles and its
neighbourhood, as well as in England, should know these
facts, so that after the peace they may not charge these
disorderly proceedings on our soldiers.

Similarly, in the Moniteur, we have the report of an
attendant on the sick from Thorn, who was made prisoner,

XVI.] Prince Napolemis Plan. 193

contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Convention, and
who was afterwards spat upon in Lille, and threatened with
death. I telegraplied to BerHn afterwards that our news-
papers should remind the public that the elections for the
Reichstag were to take place this month.

The defence of the Luxemburg Government against the
complaint we made of their breach of neutrality is not
sufficient. It proves only that they are not themselves in
a condition to maintain their neutraUty. Accordingly they
are again warned, and new proofs to support our complaints
are forwarded to them. If this is not sufficient, we shall
certainly be compelled to occupy the Grand Duchy.

Moiiday, January 9. — The weather was cold and foggy,
and a good deal of snow fell. There was very little firing,
either from our side or the enemy's ; but during the night
our fire was very violent. We learn from London that
Prince Napoleon is going about with a plan, proposing to
sign a peace on his own authority, which we might accept,
and after the capitulation' of Paris to summon the Senate
and the Legislative Body, to lay the treaty of peace before
them for ratification, and to ask them to vote upon it, on
the form of the future Government, and ultimately on the
future dynasty.

Vinoy and Ducrot are said to be in favour of this plan.
On the other hand, the Orleanists are moving, .and they
hope to win Thiers to their side.

In the afternoon I sent a telegram about the further
successful progress of the bombardment. When I laid it
before the Chief, he struck out the passage in which I had
mentioned that our shells had fallen into the garden of the
Luxembourg, as "impolitic."

The following pleasant story is going the round of the
newspapers. It first appeared in the Leipziger Tagebiatt, as

VOL. II. o

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

taken from a private letter of a German officer. " One day
Adjutant-Major Count Lehndorfif paid a visit to Captain
von Strantz, at the outposts in Ville d'Avray in Paris. He
asked him how things were going, with him, and von Strantz
answered, ' Capitally ; for I have just come from my dinner,
where I have been eating my sixty-seventh leg of mutton.'
The Count laughed, and after some time went away. Next
day the guard brought the captain the following communica-
tion : ' As his Excellency Chancellor Count Bismarck has
been informed that Captain von Strantz is about to have
his sixty-eighth leg of mutton this afternoon, he takes the
liberty to send him four ducks for his dinner, as a little
variety.' " This anecdote has the advantage over others in
the newspapers, that it is substantially true, only the Count
did not appear quite the next day. Lehndorff was dining
with us some days before Christmas.

The Chief again appeared at dinner, shaven as usual. He
spoke first of Count Bill having received the Iron Cross, and
he seemed to think that it would have been better to have
given it to his elder son, who was wounded in the cavalry
charge at Mars-la-Tour. " That was an accident," he re-
marked ; " others who were not wounded may have been
quite as brave, but it is a sort of compensation to the
wounded. I remember when I was a young man, that a
certain von R., who had received the Cross, used to go
about Berlin. I wondered what he could have done, but I
learned afterwards that he was the nephew of a Minister,
and that he had been acting as equerry to the general staff.

Delbriick remembered the man too, and told us that he
had afterwards cut his throat, in consequence of an inquiry
about difficulties in some bill transactions.

" In Gottingen," the Chief went on, " I once called a
student a ' Dumme Junge ' (a ' stupid fellow '). He demanded

XVI.] Shooting Pheasants in self-defence. 19S

an explanation, and I said that I had no wish to insult him,
but merely intended to express my conviction as to the
fact."

When the venison and sauer-kraut were on the table,
somebody remarked that the Minister had not gone out
shooting for a long time, though there was plenty of game
in the woods between this and Paris.

"Yes," he said; "but something always happened to
interrupt me. The last time was at Ferriferes, when the
King was away. He had forbidden us to shoot in the park.
We went out accordingly, but not in the park, and there was
plenty to shoot, but not much was shot, as either the cart-
ridges or the fowling-pieces were poor." Holnstein, who
usually shows himself an uncommonly estimable, most indus-
trious, and serviceable person, thereupon remarked, " This
is the way, your Excellency, that people tell the story. They
say that you were well aware of his Majesty's command,
and naturally anxious to respect it. You had gone out for a
walk, when you had the misfortune to have three or four
pheasants suddenly flying at your head, so that you were
compelled to shoot them in self defence." ,

The French Rothschild was mentioned, and then we
spoke of the German Rothschild, of whom the Chief told
us a diverting story from his own experience.

The conversation turned ultimately upon elegant literature.
Somebody spoke of Spielhagen's Problematische Naturen,
which the Chancellor had read, and of which he thought
not unfavourably, remarking, " I will certainly, however, hot
read it a second time. I have no time here for that." But
even a much-occupied Minister may take a book in his
hand, and allow himself the luxury of a couple of hours with
it before he has to go back to his documents. Somebody
then spoke of Councillor Freitag's Sollund Haben, and praised

2

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

the description of the Polish disturbance, and the accounts
of the balls with the young girls, but the guests appeared to
think his heroes insipid. Somebody said that they had
no passion, somebody else that they had no soul. Abeken,
who took eager part in the conversation, made the remark
that he could not read any of these things twice, and
that most of the better known new writers had published
only one good book. " Well," said the Chief, " I will allow
you that three-fourths of Goethe's works are good; I do
not care for the rest, but I should not mind being shut up a
long while on a desert island with seven or eight of his forty
volumes." Finally, somebody spoke of Fritz Renter. " Yes,"
said the Minister, " Aus der Franzosenzeit is very pretty, but
it is not a novel." Somebody then mentioned the Stromtid.
" H'm," said he, " that is as one finds it ; that is certainly a
novel — plenty that is good, much that is middling — but the
country people are exactly as they are described there."

In the evening I translated a long article from the Times
for the King, going into full details about the situation in
Paris. Afterwards, at tea-time, Keudell spoke cleverly — and
indeed, charmingly — about certain qualities in the Chan-
cellor which reminded him of Achilles — his genial, youthful
nature; his easily excited temperament; the deep sym-
pathies which he not infrequently manifests ; his inclination
to take himself away from the pressure of business, and his
victorious way of carrying things through. Certainly, we had
Troy still with us, as well as Agamemnon, the shepherd of
the people.

After eleven I was again called to the Chief, and tele-
graphed further results of the bombardment.

Tuesday, January 10. — The cold was moderate, and it
was cloudy, so that one could not see far ; sky and earth
were filled with snow. Only now and then a shot was to

XVI.] International Societies. 197

be heard from our batteries, or from the forts. Count Bill
was with us, and about one o'clock in the day General
Manteuffel. They were passing through to the army which
is to operate in the south-east against Bourbaki, and which
Manteuffel is to command.

In the afternoon I telegraphed twice to London^ — the
retreat of Chanzy upon Le Mans, with the loss of 1000 men
in prisoners, and Werder's successful resistance against the
overwhelming forces of the French, who were pressing for-
ward to the relief of Belfort, and attacked him at Villersexel.
At dinner we spoke first of the bombardment, and the Chief
said that most of the Paris forts, with the exception of Mont
Valdrien, were little worth, hardly better than the fortifica-
tions at Diippel. The fosses, for instance, were only of
moderate depth, and the enceinte^ too, used to be very weak.

The conversation then turned upon the International
Peace Association, and its connection with the Social De-
mocracy, the head of which, for Germany, was Karl Marx in
London. Bucher said that he was a very able man, with a
good scientific training, and was the real leader of the
International Workmen's Society. Speaking of the Inter-
national Peace Association, the Chief said that its efforts
were of very serious importance, and that its real objects
were altogether different from peace. Communism was
hiding behind it.

The conversation then turned to Count Bill, and the
Chief remarked, " He appears at a distance like an elderly
staff officer, he is so stout.'' Somebody spoke of his
luck in being ordered to accompany Manteuffel. It would
only be a temporary position for both of them, but he
would see a great deal of the war. " Yes," said the Chief,
" He is learning something for his age. In our days not
much could be learned at eighteen. I would have needed

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

to have been born in 1795 to have had the chance of fighting

in 1 8 13. Since the battle at " (I could not catch the

name, but it was some battle during the wars of the Hugue-
nots that appeared to be meant), " there is not one of my
ancestors who has not drawn sword against France : my
father, for instance, and three of his brothers, and my
grandfather at Rossbach. My great-grandfather fought
against Louis XIV., and his father also against Louis XIV.,
in the battles on the Rhine, in 1672 or 1673. Several
of us fought in the Thirty Years' War, on the Em-
peror's side, and others for the Swedes. Finally, there
was one who was with the Germans who fought for the
Huguenots as hired troops. One of them — his portrait is at
Schonhausen — was an original. I have a letter from him to
his brother-in-law, in which he says : — ' The cask of Rhine
wine has cost me thirty reichsthalers. If my brother-in-law
thinks it too dear, I will, so may God preserve me, drink
every drop of it myself.' Then again, ' If my brother-in-
law asserts so-and-so, I hope I may, so may God preserve
me, get some day closer to him than he will like,' and in
another place: ' I have spent 12,000 reichsthalers on the
regiment, and I hope, so may God preserve me, to get it
back in time.' As for this getting back, he probably meant
it in this way, that people used then to be paid for the
soldiers who were absent with leave, and for those who had
not yet presented themselves with their regiments. Cer-
tainly the commander of a regiment was in a different
position in those days." Somebody said that the same thing,
perhaps, happened nearer our own time, as long, in fact, as
the regiments were levied, paid, and clothed by the colonel,
and only hired by the Prince, and the practice might pos-
sibly still prevail here and there. The Chief answered,
" Yes, in Russia, for example, in the big cavalry regiments

XVI.] How Russian Officers used to live. 199

in the southern districts, which often consist of sixteen
squadrons. There were there, as there still are, other
sources of revenue. A German once told me this. He
had been appointed to a regiment, I beheve somewhere in
Kursk or Woronesch, one of those rich districts. The
farmers came to him with carts laden with straw and hay,
and hoped their ' little father ' would graciously receive
them. ' I did not know,' said he, ' what they wanted, so I
sent them away, and told them to leave me quiet and go
about their -business.' Surely their ' little father ' would be
reasonable. His predecessor had been quite contented
with this ; they could not give more ; they were poor people.
At last I took the whole of it, especially as they pressed me.
They fell on their knees, and entreated me most graciously
to keep it, and then I drove them away. When others
came, with waggons laden with wheat and oats, I understood
them, and took the present as others took it, and when the
forrner people came back with more bay, I told them that
they had misunderstood me, that what they had given me
before was sufficient, and that they had better take home
what they now brought. In this way, as I charged the hay
and the oats to the Government for the troops, I made my
20,000 roubles yearly.' He told me this quite openly and
unblushingly in a company at Petersburg, and I had nothing
to do but to wonder at him." " Yes, but what could he
have done to the farmers ? " asked Delbriick. " Done ? "
said the Chief, " he could have done nothing ; but he could
have let them be ruined in another way; he had only to
allow the soldiers to do anything they liked."

The conversation came back to Manteuffel, and somebody
said that he had broken his leg at Metz, and made himself
be carried into the battle. He had wondered a good deal,
somebody remarked, that nobody knew anything about

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

it- here. Certainly, he must have thought how badly we
were informed about the chief events of the war. "I
remember," said the Chief, in the course of further conversa-
tion, " once sitting with Manteuffel and " (name unintelli-
gible) " on the stone before the church at Beckstein. The
King came past, and I proposed to greet him as the three
witches did : ' Hail, Thane of Lauenburg ! All hail. Thane of
Kiel ! All hail, Thane of Schleswig ! ' It was at the time
I concluded the Treaty of Gastein with Blome. That was the
last time in my life that I played piquet, though I had given
up play a long while before. I played so recklessly that the
rest could not help wondering at me, but I knew quite well
what I wanted. Blome had heard that piquet afforded the
best possible opportunity for discovering a man's real nature,
and he wanted to try it on with me. I thought to myself. You
shall have your chance. I lost a couple of hundred thalers,
which I would have been honestly entitled to have charged
as spent in the service of his Majesty. I put him all wrong ;
he considered me a reckless fellow, and gave way."

The conversation then turned to Berlin, and somebody
remarked that it was growing year by year more of a great
city, even in its ways of thinking and feeling, and that
that must have some effect upon its representatives in
Parliament. " During these last five years they have certainly
changed greatly," said Delbriick. " That is true," said the
Chief. " In 1862, when I first had to do with these gentle-
men, if they had known the degree of heat to which my
contempt for tjiem rose, they would certainly never have .
forgiven me."

The conversation then turned to the subject of the
Jews, and the Minister wanted to know why the name
Meier was so common among them. It was of German
origin, and signified landowner in WestphaUa, whereas the

XVI.] Jewish Names. 201

Jews formerly had no land anywhere. I replied, " I beg
your Excellency's pardon, but the name comes from the
Hebrew. It is in the Old Testament, and in the Talmud,
and signifies properly Meir, something connected with gold,
light, splendour, so that it signifies something like the
enlightened, the illustrious, the magnificent." The Chief
went on to say, " Then there is the name Kohn, which is
very common among them ; what may that mean ? " I
replied that it meant a priest, which was originally Kolien.
" From Kohen came Kohn, Kuhn, Cahen and Kahn, and
Kohn or Kahn sometimes got transformed into Hahn '' (a
cock), a remark which occasioned some merriment. " Yes,''
said the Minister ; " but I am of opinion that they are
improved by crossing. The results are not bad." He
mentioned several noble families, and remarked, " All
of these are clever and cultivated people." After a little
musing, and omitting something he had said between, which
probably referred to the marriage of Christian girls of dis-
tinguished families, German baronesses and so on, with
rich or talented Jews, he proceeded to say : " Probably it
is better the other way, when, for instance, the Christian
horse of the German breed is mated with a Jewish mare.
The money then circulates, and the race produced is not a
bad one. I do not know what I may advise my sons to do
some day."

The Roumanians appear to be in the greatest perplexity,
but the Powers will not help them. England and Austria are at
least indifferent. The Porte is not convinced that the union
of the principalities would not be injurious to it. France is
at present out of the question. The Emperor Alexander
has a very kindly feeling to Prince Charles, but will not
meddle in the business, and there is certainly no interfer-
ence to be expected from Germany, which has no vital

202 Bismarck itt the Franco-German War. [Chap.

interest in Roumania. If, therefore, the Prince cannot
help himself out of his trouble, the best thing he can do will
be to draw back before he is compelled.

Beust appears to have entered into a new phase of his
political way of looking at things in the despatch in which
he replied to the notification of the impending union of the
German South with the North, and it is possible that under
his advice satisfactory relations may be developed and
maintained between the two newly organised powers of
Germany and Austro-Hungary.

About half-past ten the Chief comes down to tea, which
Count Bill also drinks with us. Abeken returns from Court,
and brings the news that the fortress of P^ronne has capitu-
lated, with its garrison of 3000 men. The Chief, who was
at the time looking at the Jlhistrirte Zeitung, sighed, and
said, " Three thousand more ! they might at least have
drowned the commandant in the Seine, remembering the
fact that he broke his word of honour." The remark gave
rise to a conversation about the numerous prisoners in
Germany, and Holnstein said it would be a good thing if
they could be let out to Strousberg for the railways he is
constructing. "Or if," said the Chief, "the Emperor of
Russia could be induced to settle them in military colonies
in the Empire on the other side of the Caucasus. They
would become admirable properties. These crowds of
prisoners will certainly cause us serious perplexity after
the peace. They will then have an army ready made, and
soldiers who have had time to rest. We can do nothing
more for them but present them with Napoleon, who needs
200,000 Praetorians to maintain himself in power." " Does
he really then expect to come back as the governor of
the country?" Holnstein asked. "Very much so," said
the Chief; " extraordinarily so, enormously so. He thinks

XVI.] The Empress and Peace. 203

day and night of nothing else, and the EngHsh do the
same."

Finally, somebody told us what had happened in Spandau,
where people from the English embassy had behaved them-
selves improperly, and at last violently, in front of the place
where the French prisoners were kept in charge, and had
got badly out of the affair.

Wednesday, January 11. — The weather was again less
foggy, and the cold moderate. During the night there was
heavy firing. In the morning afterwards, and for most of
the day, the thunder of the heavy guns on both sides was
very loud ; those on ours apparently from new batteries,
one of which is between Saint-Cloud and Meudon. Several
times I counted more than twenty shots a minute, but the
echo might make the number seem larger.

The Minister got up before 9 o'clock. In the morning
several telegrams were sent off about the bombardment
of Paris, and the battles of Le Mans, and two articles were
written, one defending Beust against the reproach of double
dealing which the Vaterlajid in Vienna had raised against
him, founded on a comparison between his despatch to
Wimpffen and articles hostile to Prussia in the official news-
papers.

It is said that Clement Duvernois, who was formerly
one of Napoleon's ministers, is coming here to treat for
peace in the name of the Empress. She is said to admit
the principle of territorial compensation and of the boundary
which we want. She will consent to pay the costs of the
war, and allow us to occupy certain portions of France with
our troops in pledge for the money, and she will promise to
enter into no negotiations for peace with any power but
Germany. Duvernois believes that though she is not popu-
lar, she will show energy, and as lawful regent will have a

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

better position and will give us more security than any
person who might be chosen by the representatives of the
country and who would necessarily be entirely dependent
upon them. Is he to be received or not ? Perhaps he may,
so that the authorities in Paris and Bordeaux may note the
fact, and be more ready on their part to decide to give in.

After three o'clock we went to our post of observation on
the roof of the country house between Sfevres and Ville
d'Avray, to watch the bombardment. One sees there clearly
the flashes of the guns in the French battery at the railway
viaduct. We came back by a field way, which took us
first over the ridge to the left from the valley of Ville d'Avray,
and then past the frozen pond. Not far from the latter,
where the road goes down the hill again, a herd of five roe-
deer sprang up suddenly from a cover in the snow.

During dinner we spoke first, as we usually do now, about
the bombardment, and somebody said that there was a
conflagration in Paris. Somebody else remarked, that thick
clouds of smoke could be distinctly seen there. The Chief
said, "That is not enough; one must first smell it here.
The conflagration at Hamburg could be smelt twenty miles
off'."

Somebody then mentioned the opposition of the " patriots "
in the Bavarian Chamber to the Versailles Convention, and
the Chancellor said, " I wish I could go there and speak
with them ; they have obviously lost their way, and cannot
get either forward or backward. I should soon bring them
right again, but one is so necessary here."

Afterwards he -spoke of all sorts of hunting adventures of
his own — one, for instance, in Russia, where Holnstein had
scared away a bear which he had rashly shot at ninety
paces. Afterwards the bear had come up to within twenty
paces, and ogled the Chief. " I managed, however," he

XVI.] Firing at the Hospitals. 205

continued, " to shoot the brute so badly with a conical
bullet, that he was afterwards found dead a little bit off."

Thursday, January 12. — In the morning, after seven
o'clock, I went with Wollmann and MacLean to Ville
d'Avray, but we saw little on account of the fog. We had
fourteen degrees of frost. About midday it cleared up, and
there was heavy firing again. The conversation at dinner
turned first upon the performances of our siege artillery
against the town. Somebody remarked, that the French
complained that we aimed at their hospitals, but the Chief
said, " Certainly that is not done on purpose. There are
hospitals of theirs at the Pantheon, and the Val de Grace^
where a shot or two might have accidentally fallen. H'm !
Pantheon ? Pandemonium."

Abeken said he had heard that the Bavarians intended to
storm one of the forts on the south-east, where our fire was
very feebly answered. The Chief was pleased, and added,
"If I were now in Munich among the deputies, I could
easily put it before them so that they would make no more
difficulties." Somebody said that it was believed that the
King preferred the title " Emperor of Germany " to that of
"German Emperor," and it was remarked that the former
would be a new title which, at all events, had no historical
basis. Bucher dwelt a great deal upon that point. He said
that there had never been an Emperor of Germany, and,
that indeed, there had been no German Emperor either,
only a German King. Charles the Great had called himself
" Imperator Romanorum," but afterwards the name given to
the Cffisars had been " Imperator Romanus semper
Augustus," Enlarger of the Empire, and German King.
The Chief so expressed himself as to show that he at-
tached little importance to the difference between the
titles.

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

In the evening, after nine o'clock, it looked as if a great
conflagration had burst out in Paris towards the North.
There was a peculiar " shine " beyond the wood, and flames
above the horizon in that direction. Several of the gentle-
men came out to see it. Holnstein looked out of the window
in the cook's room, and believed that the city was really
burning ; so did WoUmann, but it was probably a mistake, for
the " shine " was not red, but whitish. The Chief, who called
me up to him to give me an order, and whom I told about
the appearance, said, " It is possible ; I had already remarked
it, but it seemed to me to be more like the shine from snow.
One must first smell it."

Afterwards, I made an extract for the Moniteur from
Braun's dissertation on France, and the rights of nations. It
was something of this sort :

The war has been conducted on the German side with a
desire to treat France with the greatest consideration. We
have acted upon the Convention of Geneva, though the
French have violated it in a frightful and horrible way,
especially by their neglect and ill-usage of our wounded,
and by plundering the sanitary columns. Sheridan won-
dered that the conqueror allowed himself to be plundered by
the conquered, by paying patiently and readily the enormous
prices demanded by the population for what he wanted.
On the other side, English correspondents declare that the
war is assuming more and more the character of a war of
annihilation, like those of the Middle Ages. If it is so,
the French alone are to blame. The King said at the
beginning of the war in his proclamation, that he was going
to wage it only against the armed power of France, not
against its peaceful citizens. From these words it has been
attempted to infer that we ought only to have fought against
the Empire and not against the Republic, in presence of

XVI.] Peaceful Citizens and Soldiers. 207

which it is supposed to have been our duty to lay down our
arms. As for the peaceful citizens, the Franc s-tireurs and
tliose who support them are certainly not peaceable citizens.
All the authorities on the law of nations, from Vattel to
Bluntschli and Haller, agree in this, that the considerate
treatment of the peaceable population rests on the assump-
tion that an absolutely distinct line of demarcation is drawn
between soldiers and civilians, and that the civilian abstains
from those hostile acts which are the duty of soldiers. What
the soldier must do the civilian must not do, and if he takes
hostUe action against the foreign troops invading his country,
he loses the rights of a civilian without acquiring those of
the soldier. When the soldier is no longer in a condition to
do injury, he can demand to be treated mercifully, but the
civilian who kills without being bound to do so, and who
thereby wipes out the line of demarcation, cannot be dis-
armed except by death. The condition of a prisoner of
war does not exist for him ; he must be annihilated in the
interests of humanity. At the very moment when King
WiUiam was beginning the war with the declaration, " I
wage war against the armies of the enemy and not against
peaceful citizens," Prince Joinville published an appeal to
the French peasantry, in which he called upon them to
destroy our soldiers by assassination.

About eleven o'clock at night the King sends the Chief a
bit of letter paper, with the words writteii in pencil that we
have just had a great victory at Le Mans. The Minister,
who was obviously touched and delighted at this attention,
handed me the paper, so that I might telegraph the news,
saying, " He thinks that the military authorities would not
have sent it to me ; that is why he writes himself."

Afterwards I prepared for the King an article from the
Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, giving an account of Roon's

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

jubilee. Before going to bed, we learned that a breach had
already been noticed in Fort Issy.

Friday , January 13. — Mist in the morning, and blue sky
after twelve o'clock. There was heavy firing. Harless
applied to the Chief with a petition on behalf of the Lutheran
church, concluding with a request, that in consequence
of an illness which has again attacked him, he should be
allowed soon to lay down his pilgrim's staff. He and his
party want an orthodox Lutheran German National Church,
that is to say, that he is an enemy of the union, and accord-
ingly of Prussia, which is for the union. Recently he has
taken part with the Catholic bishops. -His object is a
Protestant Pope, and he would like the place himself.

The delegation in Bordeaux has made an attempt to
induce the Pope to offer his mediation for peace ; and at
Rome they do not seem disinclined to take the matter up,
as they believe they might give it such a turn that the Pope
might come by his own again.

After three o'clock I took a walk with Wagner through
the park. At dinner we had the Government president,
von Ernsthausen, a large-built man, still young. The Chief,
who had to dine later with the Crown Prince, stayed with us
only till the Varzin ham came on the table, saying : " Give
me a little ; as I am here I must help you to eat it. It
Wives me home feelings." He said to Ernsthausen : " I am
invited to dine with the Crown Prince. As I have an
important discussion before me, I am strengthening myself
for it. To-day is the 13th, and a Friday. Sunday is the
iSth, so the 1 8th is Wednesday. That is the great day,
and the proclamation to the German people about the
Emperor and the Empire, on which Bucher is now at work,
will then be issued."

Turning to Ernsthausen, he said : " The King still has

XVI.] Tweedledum and Tweedledee. 209

his difficulties between German Emperor and Emperor of
Germany, but he rather inclines to the latter. I cannot see
much difference between the two. It is a little like the
question of the Homousians and the Homoiusians, in the
days of the Councils." Abeken corrected him : " Homou-
sians.'' The Chief said : " We call it ' oi ' in our parts.
In Saxony they are provincials. I remember that somebody
at our school from Chemnitz read in this way" (and he
quoted a Greek sentence). " The master said, ' Stop. JVo.
We don't speak here as you do in Saxony.' "

In the evening new despatches came in, and old minutes
were read over. The Chief came back at 9.30 from the
Crown Prince, and told me to telegraph that at Le Mans
we had made 18,000 French prisoners, and captured twelve
guns, and that Gambetta, who wanted to be present at the
battle, nearly fell into our hands. He managed, however,
to escape in good time.

Afterwards, .Unruh's speech upon the deficiency of
locomotives on the German railways was made ready for
report.

VOL. II.

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

CHAPTER XVII.

THE LAST WEEKS BEFORE THE CAPITULATION OF PARIS.

Saturday, January 14. — Moderately cold ; the weather in
the morning somewhat foggy, tolerably clear towards mid-
day, but so bad later on that one cannot see ten yards
in front of one. The firing, both from the forts and the
town, goes on without a break from morning till evening.
At night we repulsed a sally of the Parisians, directed
against the troops of the Eleventh Army Corps stationed at
Meudon, the Bavarians at Clamart, and the Guards at Le
Bourget. I despatched several telegrams, then wrote an
official letter to M., and, as usual, read newspapers for
the King and the Chief. After breakfast, where we heard
that yesterday's sally had ended in places with the hasty
flight of the French, and that the southern forts had well
nigh ceased to reply to our fire, I took another walk with
Wagner in the park behind the castle.

Count Lehndorf dined with us. The Chief told us he
had heard from Jules Favre. He wished to go to the Con-
ference in London, and declared he had only heard on the
loth that a safe-conduct would be provided for him. He
would like to take out with him an unmarried daughter, a
married daughter, with her husband, with a Spanish name,
and a secretary. What he would like best would be a
pass " for the minister and suite." He was not, however,
to have any pass, but the military authorities were simply to
be instructed to let him through. . Bucher is to write to him

XVII.] Jicles Favres proposed journey. 211

that his best way will be to go by way of Corbeil^ so
as not to have to leave his Paris carriage, have to walk
some way, and then take another carriage. He had also
better go to Metz by Lagny, instead of Amiens. Should
he not wish to go by Corbeil, would he say so ? Other
instructions should then be given to the military. " As for
his wish to travel with his family," added the Chief, " one
would almost think that he wanted to make his escape.''

In the course of further conversation the- Minister ob-
served : " Versailles is just the most unfit place possible
for the conduct of business. We had better have stayed in
Lagny or Ferribres. But I know very well why : many people
who have nothing to do would have been bored to death
there. For the matter of that, such people are bored here
and would be so, anywhere."

In the evening I wrote an article upon the difficulties of
victualUng Paris after its surrender, which was to appear in
thQ Moniteur. " We find," so it runs " in the Journal Officiel,
the following paper on the victualling of Paris : ' From
a Bordeaux despatch, dated January 3, it appears that the
Government of National Defence have collected consider-
able stores of provisions in view of the revictualling of Paris.
Besides the articles comprised in the regulations, for which
arrangements are being made, the stores of provisions
already delivered, massed close to the transport waggons
outside the range of the enemy's operations, and ready
to be sent off at the first signal, consist of the following :
more than 15,000 head of cattle, more than 40,000 sheep,
which, thanks to the foresight of the authorities, are penned
at the railway stations ; and more than 300,000 (metrical)
hundredweights of food of all kinds, which are stored in
magazines and belong to the State. These supplies are ■
destined solely for the revictualling of Paris.'

p 2

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

" When we come to consider this attempt at revictualhng
from a practical point of view, we encounter serious diffi-
culties. If the assertion of the Journal Officiel, that the
magazines stand beyond the range of the German operations,
is well founded, one must assume a distance of at least
one hundred and forty miles. But the condition to which
the French themselves have reduced the railways which run
into Paris is such that it would take at least several weeks
to bring these provisions into the city. Nor must it be
forgotten that besides the starving population of Paris, the
German army has also a right to have its supplies recruited
by means of the railways, so that with the best will in the
world, the German authorities could not allow more than a
portion of the railway material to be used for the revictualhng
of Paris. It follows, therefore, that if the Parisians, in view of
the possibility of considerable stores of victuals becoming in
■ the end available to them, should put off their surrender of
the city till their last crust has been devoured, their inaccurate
estimate of the state of matters would expose them to severe
disappointment. The Government of National Defence
should therefore give most careful consideration to the
circumstances of the case, and not leave out of sight the
grave responsibility they undertake in carrying out their
principle of resistance to the uttermost. The distance
between the armies raised in the provinces, whose approach
is so impatiently expected, and Paris, utterly blockaded
and cut off, does not diminish, but increases day by day.
It is not lying reports that will save Paris. The calculation
that to hold out to the last was feasible on the simple
ground that neither the provinces nor the enemy would give
over a city of two and a half milUons of inhabitants to the
pangS' of hunger, might break down in the face of inexorable
impossibilities, and the capitulation of Paris might at the very

XVII.] Boxwood over the Bedhead, 2 1 3

last moment (which God forbid) be the beginning of a really-
terrible calamity."

Sunday, January 15. — The weather is moderately clear
and cold. Fewer shots are heard than during the last few days.
The Chief passed a sleepless night, and had Wollmann
awakened by four o'clock, in order to telegraph to London
about Favre. Andrassy, the prime minister of Hungary,
has declared that he not only shares the view of matters
expressed in Count Beust's despatch on the New Germany,
but has always been in favour of this policy and recom-
mended it. The reservation in the preamble of that document
might have been omitted, as the new organisation of Germany
does not violate the treaty of Prague. The letters in which
the German princes assent to the proposals of the King of
Bavaria regarding the restoration of the Imperial dignity,
express nearly the same sentiments. Only Reuss was
incUned to explain his consent in a somewhat different way.
On the side of Bavaria pretensions are put forward which
cannot at all be admitted.

The Chief dines to-day with the King. In our party
nothing worth notice was said at table.

Bamberg, who comes every evening after news for the
Moniteur, explains to me the meaning of the branch of box-
wood on the wall over my bed. It is consecrated in the
church on Palm Sunday, and remains in its place all the year
round. It serves, probably, as a safeguard against illnesses,
evil spirits, and witches, and so plays its part in the popular
superstitions of the French. . . . The Chief calls for me at
nine o'clock. I am to make an article from the official reports
on our position towards American ships laden with contra-
band of war. The point lies in the thirteenth article of the
treaty of 1799. We cannot capture these ships, but can only
detain them while the war lasts, or have the contraband

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

goods handed over to us on our giving a receipt. In either
case we must pay a moderate compensation. The paper
was written forthwith and deposited in the letter-box of
the office.

Monday, January 1 6. — A thaw, the sky cloudy, with a
high south-west wind. The view is clearer again, but since
yesterday evening not a shot has been heard. Has the
bombardment ceased ? or does the wind blow away the
report of the shots ?

In the morning I read Trochu's letter to .Moltke, in which
he complains that our fire in the south of Paris has struck
hospitals and asylums, although these are distinguished by
flags. He thinks this cannot be by chance, and refers to the
international treaties, by which these establishments are in-
violable. Moltke has defended himself stoutly against any
idea of design. The humanity with which we have carried
on the war, so far as the character which has been given
to it by the French since the 4th of September allows
us to be humane — protects us against such a suspicion.
So soon as the air clears, and the distance between our
batteries and Paris enables us to distinguish the Geneva
flags on the buildings in question, even chance injuries
will be avoided. Later on, we learn by telegraph of the
pursuit of Chanzy by our troops. Before noon a telegram
is despatched, telUng of the capture of the camp at Conlie,
and the successful resistance offered by General von Werder,
south of Belfort, to the overwhelming superiority of four
French corps.

Prince Pless and Maltzahn dined with us. We learn that
the proclamation to the German people is to be read out
to-morrow on the occasion of the festival, which will take
place in the grand reception-room of the Palace here. The
King will be hailed as Emperor in presence of a brilliant

XVII.] Fox in the Hole. 215

assemblage. Deputations, with banners, from the army, the
Generals, the Chancellor of the Confederation, and a number
of Princes will be there. We hear, too, that the Chancellor
has changed his mind about letting Favre out of Paris, and
has written him a letter, which is practically a refusal. The
Chancellor says : " Favre seems to me with his request to
be allowed to attend the conference in London, just like
children in the game of ' Fox in the hole.' They shut the
door to, and then contrive to come out at a place where
you cannot do them any harm (like the ' pax ' in our Dresden
game of ' Last man '). He m ust eat the soup he has
crumbled his bread in. I have written to him that his
honour requires it." Possibly this change of mind may
have been caused by an article in Gambetta's organ, Le
Sikk, printed also in the Nord-Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung,
and marked for him. It was to the eflfect that the permission
to Favre to go to London amounted to a recognition of the
present French government on our part.* The article went
to the King and to London.

In the evening I saw the correspondence between Favre
and the Chancellor.

I insert here a rksume of this affair, based on documents
afterwards made public.

On the 17 th of November, Favre, as Minister for Foreign
Affairs, learnt from a despatch dated Tours, November 11,
and forwarded by Chaudordy, that news had come from
Vienna that the Russian Government considered itself no
longer bound by the Treaty of 1856. Favre at once replied,
recommending strict reserve until the arrival of official

* This supposition was wrong. The Chancellor changed his mind
because of Favre's circular on January I2.

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

information, and pointing out how, witliout neglecting to
assert the claims of France on every opportunity, she
must be invited to the discussion of the Russian declara-
tion. Communications on the subject, both by word of
mouth and in writing, then passed between the different
Powers and the Provisional Government of Paris, in which
the French tried hard to induce the representatives of the
other Powers to admit, that the French representative
at the Conference would be bound to open a discussion
of quite other importance (than that upon the Treaties
of 1856), in respect to which they were not disposed to
give any negative reply. The Delegation at Tours shared
this opinion, though it thought that the invitation of Europe
to the Congress, if one were to take place, must be assumed,
even though neither a pledge nor an armistice had been
obtained beforehand. Gambetta wrote to Favre on the 31st
December i " You must be prepared to leave Paris to attend
the London conference if, as is asserted, England has suc-
ceeded in obtaining for you a safe-conduct." Before these
lines were received, Favre had told Chaudordy that the
Government had decided that France, " if she were invited
in regular form,'' should be represented at the London
conference, provided that the Parisian deputy could procure
from England, who had sent a verbal invitation, the neces-
sary Safe-conduct. This was undertaken by the English
Cabinet, and Chaudordy informed Favre of the fact in a
despatch which reached Paris on January 8, adding also
that he, Favre, had been appointed by the Government to
represent France at the conference. This communication
was confirmed in a despatch written to Favre by Lord
Granville under date December 29, which reached Paris on
January 10. It ran as follows :

"M. de Chaudordy has informed Lord Lyons that your

XVII.] Lord Grativille and the Passport. 217

Excellency proposes to represent France at the conference,
and he has begged me to procure a safe-conduct for
your Excellency through the Prussian lines. I at once
requested Count Bernstorff to ask for this safe-conduct and
to have it conveyed to yourself by the hands of a German
officer sent under a flag of truce. Herr von Bernstorff
yesterday informed me that a safe-conduct should be at the
disposal of your Excellency, whenever it was applied for by
an officer from Paris at the German headquarters. He
added that it could not be conveyed by the hands of a
German officer until satisfaction had been given to the
officer who had been shot at when bearing a flag of truce.
M. Tissot gives me to understand that it would take a
long time for this communication to reach you through the
Delegation in Bordeaux. I have, therefore, suggested to
Count Bernstorff another means of conveying it to you.
I hope your Excellency will allow me to take this oppor-
tunity of expressing the satisfaction I feel in dealing with
you personally," &c. &c.

Favre saw in this letter a recognition of the existing
French Government and an invitation which he might turn
to account in opening the discussion upon the situation
of France before the Powers in London. In the circular
issued to the French Ambassadors on January 12, he
said :

" Directly invited by this despatch, the Government could
not refuse the invitation received in her name without
neglecting the rights of France. It may no doubt be main-
tained on the other hand that the time for such a discussion
of the neutralisation of the Black Sea is not well chosen.
But the very fact that this formal step is taken by the
European Powers towards the French Republic at the critical
moment when the country is fighting single-handed for

2i8 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

her honour and her existence, lends to it an exceptional
gravity. It is a beginning, too long delayed, of the practice
of justice, a pledge which cannot be recalled. It consecrates
our change of government with the authority of international
rights ; and leaves on the stage where the fate of the world is
being decided, the nation freed in spite of its afflictions, face
to face with the power which has brought it to ruin, and
with the pretenders who would fain hold sway over it. Who,
moreover, does not feel that France, admitted among the
representatives of Europe, has an indisputable right to raise
her voice in their presence ? Who will be able to hinder
her, when, taking, her stand upon the everlasting ordinances
of justice, she shall vindicate the principles which assure
her independence and dignity ? Not one of these will she
abandon. Our programme remains unchanged, and Europe,
in inviting him who has laid it down, knows very well that
he has both the will and the obligation to maintain it. We
must hesitate no longer, and the Government would have
committed a grave mistake if it had rejected the proifered
opening.

"While recognising this, however, the Government thought,
as I do, that the Foreign Minister could not, unless higher
interests were at stake, leave Paris during the bombardment
which the enemy is directing against the city.'' (Here
follows a long sentimental lamentation over the damage
which " the fury of the invaders '' has, intentionally, " in
order to spread terror," inflicted by their shells upon churches,
hospitals, orphanages, and so on.) Then he proceeds: "Our
brave Parisians feel their courage rise with the danger.
Firm, animated, and determined, they are neither exas-
perated nor bowed down by their sufferings. They will fight
and conquer more than ever, and we shall do so with them.
/ cannot think of deserting them at this crisis. Probably

XVII.] Difficulties about the safe-conduct. 219

the protests we have addressed to Europe as well as to
menabers of the diplomatic corps still remaining in Paris,
will soon attain their object. England will understand that
till that hour my place is in the midst of my fellow-citizens.^'

The same expression had been used by Favre in the
following answer of two days before to Lord Granville's
letter, but only in the first part, where he said : " /" cannot
consider myself justified in leaving my fellow-citizens at a
moment when they are the victims of this violence " (" against an
unarmed population " he had written in the lines immediately
before, from a strong fortress with nearly 200,000 soldiers
and militia!). Then, however, he proceeded : "Moreover,
communication between London and Paris is, thanks to the
commander of the besieging army (how naive I) so tedious
and uncertain, that I cannot, with all my goodwill, answer
your summons according to the letter of your despatch.
You have informed me that the Conference will meet on
February 3, and probably last for a week. This informa-
tion having reached me on the evening of the loth of
January, I could not have availed myself of your invitation
in proper time. Besides, Herr von Bismarck in forwarding
it to me did not accompany it with a safe-conduct, which
is absolutely indispensable. He requires that a French
officer should go to his headquarters to fetch it, and he
bases this request on a reclamation addressed to the Governor
of Paris, in consequence of an incident which a messenger
with a flag of truce had to complain of on the 23rd of
December. Herr von Bismarck adds, that the Prussian
commander-in-chief has forbidden any communication by
flag of truce until satisfaction for this has been obtained. I
do not inquire whether such a decision, directly contrary to
the rules of war, does not amount to an absolute denial
of those higher claims of the amenities of warfare which

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

necessity and humanity have always upheld. I content
myself with remarking to your Excellency, that the Go-
vernor of Paris lost no time in instituting an inquiry into the
incident indicated by Count von Bismarck ; and that in
announcing the fact to him, he brought very numerous
cases to his knowledge, laid to the charge of the Prussian
sentries, of which he had himself never taken advantage to
interrupt the exchange of ordinary communications. Count
von Bismarck seems to have admitted, partially at least,
the justice of these observations, for he to-day asked the
United States ambassador to inform me that, pending the
reciprocal inquiries, he is re-establishing' communications
by parley. There can, therefore, be no necessity for a
French officer going to the Prussian headquarters ; and
I will put myself into communication with the United
States ambassador, in order to receive the passport which
you have taken the trouble to procure for me. As soon as
I- have this in my hands, and the condition of Paris permits
me, I will take the road to London, sure beforehand that I
will make no vain appeal in the name of my Government
to the principles of justice and morality which Europe
is so vitally interested in seeing respected."

So far, M. Favre. The condition of Paris had not
changed, the protests addressed to Europe had not yet put
an end to the crisis. Indeed it was not yet possible that
they should, when Favre, on the 13th of January, three days
after his letter to Granville, and the day after the issue of
his circular to the French representatives in foreign parts,
sent the following despatch to the German Chancellor : — ■

" M. le Comte ! Lord Granville has informed me, in
a despatch dated December 29 of last year, which I received
in the evening of the loth of January, that your Excellency,

XVII.] Favre and Bismarck. 22 1

by request of the English Cabinet, holds at my disposal
a safe-conduct, which is necessary to enable the plenipo-
tentiaries of France at the London Congress to pass the
Prussian lines. As I have been appointed in this capacity
I do myself the honour to request your Excellency to send
this passport, made out in my name, with the least possible
delay."

My only object in quoting all this is to show the difference
between the character and ability of Favre, and Bismarck
as he really is. Compare the writings of the one, as they
have been given in detail above, with the following utterance
of the other. There we have indecision, ambiguity, conceits
of pose and phrase, and, lastly, contradiction of what had
been said emphatically a few lines before, and expressed
with equal emphasis in other documents. Here, on the
contrary, speaks a man who is sure, simple, natural, and
always to the point. The Chancellor answered Favre on
January i6 (I leave out the opening words) as follows :

" Your Excellency assumes that on the application of the
Royal government of Great Britain a pass to enable you to
attend the London Conference lies ready for you with me.
This assumption, however, is not correct. I could not have
entered upon an official negotiation resting on the supposi-
tion that the National Defence Committee is, by the law
of nations, in a position to act in the name of France,
so long as it has not been, in the least degree, recognised
by the French nation itself

" I presume that the commander of our outposts would
have granted your Excellency the warrant to pass the
German lines had your Excellency applied for it to the
general of the besieging army. The latter would have had
no occasion to consider your Excellency's political station

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

and the purpose of your journey, while the fact of the warrant
to pass our hnes being granted by the military authorities,
to whom it would not have seemed, from their point of view,
a matter for much hesitation, would have left the hands of
his Majesty's ambassador in London free in regard to
the question whether your Excellency's declarations could,
by the law of nations, be regarded as the declarations of
France, so that he could have taken up his ground, and on
his part adopted some form by which prejudice might have
been avoided. In addressing to me, by way of an official
announcement of the object of your journey, an official re-
quest for a passport, in view of the representation of France
at the Conference, your Excellency has debarred us from
this course. Political considerations, in support of which
I refer to the declarations published by your Excellency,
forbid me to accede to your request by sending such a
document.

" While making this communication I can only leave you
to consider for yourself and your government, whether any
other way can be suggested for removing the objections indi-
cated, by which any prejudice arising out of your presence
in London can be avoided.

" But even if such a way should be found, I venture to
ask whether it is wise for your Excellency to leave Paris
and your post as member of the Government there, to take
part in person in a Conference about the Black Sea, at a
moment when interests are at stake in Paris which are of far
greater importance, both to France and Germany, than the
nth article of the Treaty of 1856. Your Excellency would
also be leaving behind in Paris the diplomatic agents and
attaches of the neutral states, who have remained, or rather
been detained there, long after they received permission to
pass through the German lines, and have therefore all the

XVIL] Results at Le Mans. 223

greater claims upon your protection and forethought as

Minister for Foreign Affairs in the actual Government.

" I can therefore scarcely suppose that your Excellency,

in the critical situation which you have so essential a part

in conducting to its issue, will willingly deprive yourself of

the opportunity of assisting in the solution, for which the

responsibility rests on you."

*******

It is now the turn of the journal to speak again.

Tuesday, January 17. — The weather is warm, with much
wind. No shots are heard. The bombardment, however, was
carried on yesterday, satisfactorily, and with but trifling loss
on the German side. I telegraph to this effect by command
of the Chief, mentioning at the same time that the French
loss during the six days' fighting at Le Mans has been far
more considerable than was supposed. Nineteen guns and
22,000 unwounded prisoners have there fallen into our
hands.

At dinner we had as guests the Saxon Count Nostitz-
Wallwitz, who is to be appointed to the administration here,
and a Herr Winter, or von Winter, who has been made
Prefect of Chartres. On some one turning the conversation
upon the future operations of the war, the Chief observed :
" I think, if by God's help we take Paris, we will not occupy
it with our troops. The National Guard might serve there
under a French commandant. We should occupy only the
forts and the outskirts. Every one would be let in, but no
one let out. It would be a great prison until it came to be
a small one on the conclusion of peace." He then spoke
with Nostitz about the General Councils, and said that every
attempt should be made to procure the goodwill of their
members. Here would be a good field for further political
operations. " As for the military side of the question," he

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

went on to say, " I am for more concentration, not
covering a certain quantity of ground, but so holding it
in hand that the authorities can conduct the administration,
and especially collect the taxes in a regular way. The
military has a centrifugal plan of operations, I a centri-
petal." . . . " If we cannot provide every place within our
circle with garrisons, we can send a flying column from
time to time to such places as prove troublesome, and shoot,
hang, and burn. If that is done twice they will soon listen
to reason.'' Winter thought that the mere appearance of
the party to do execution in such places would produce
the desired effect. "I don't know," said the Chief; "a
moderate amount of hanging does much better ; and if a
few shells are thrown in, and a few houses burnt. That
reminds me of the Bavarians, who asked the Prussian artillery
officer, ' What think you, comrade ; are we to burn this
village to the ground, or only wreck it in moderation V
I don't know what the answer was."

He told us then that he- had many well-wishers in Bremen.
" They have lately made for me there a number of excel-
lent cigars, very strong, but praised by all connoisseurs.
In the press of business I have forgotten the name of the
company " — (Bucher named, if I remember right, " Jacobi
Brothers") — " and now they send me again a fine polar bear's
skin. It is too good for the campaign ; I shall send it
home." ,

This led him to observe that, at St. Petersburg once,
he wanted to go on a. bear's hunt, down the Dwina to
Archangel, but his wife would not let him ; besides he would
have been obliged to take at least six weeks' leave. In the
woods up there, is an incredible quantity of game, especially
blackcock and woodcock, which are killed in thousands by
the Finns and Samoyeds, who shoot them with small rifles

XVII.] Let them learn German. 225

without ramrods, and bad powder, " A woodcock there,"
added he, " lets itself, I will not say be caught with the
hand, but killed with a stick. In St. Petersburg they come
to the market in heaps. On the whole a sportsman is
pretty well off in Russia, and the cold is not so bad, for
every one is used to struggling with it. All the houses
are properly warmed, even the steps and the porch as well
as the riding paths, and no one thinks of visiting with a tall
hat in winter, but goes instead in furs with a fur-cap."

He came to speak again, I do not remember how, of his
yesterday's letter to Favre, and said, " I have given him
clearly to understand that it will not do, and that I could not
believe that the man who helped to bring about the business
of the 4th of September, would not wish to await its
issue. I wrote in French, partly because I look upon it not
as official, but as private correspondence, but also that
it may be read, not only by him, but by everybody
in the French army before it gets to him." Nostitz asked
iiow diplomatic correspondence was generally conducted.
" In German," said the Chief; " formerly it was in French,
but I have changed this. Only with those cabinets, how-
ever, whose language we ujiderstand — England, Italy, and
Spain ; these can be read at a pinch ; — not with Russia, for
I am about the only man in the Foreign Office who under-
stands Russian. Nor again, with Holland, Denmark, or
Sweden, for their languages are not learnt as a rule. They
write in French, and are answered in the same way.'' " The
King has, moreover, given orders that the soldiers are only
to converse with the French in German. Let them learn it.
We have had to learn their language." " With Thiers (he
meant Favre), at Ferriferes, I conversed in French. But
I told him that it was only because I was not dealing with
him officially. He laughed at that. I said to him, however,

VOL. II. Q

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

' You will see when we are discussing terms of peace that
we shall speak German.' "

At tea we were told that the bombardment in the South
had ceased, because one of the generals (who was supposed
to have been always against it) had managed to get his
own way. It is hoped, however, that the Crown Prince of
Saxony will press rapidly forward, and keep up a sharp fire
on the North. On our side we shall not then allow him to get
in advance of us, for fear of giving justification for supposing
that the Saxons have compelled the capitulation. This is
clearly only a rumour. At least. Count Dorfhoff, who came
in just now, declared that our guns on the South side of
Paris were not idle, only we do not hear the shots because
of the south-west wind, and certainly there was not so
much firing as on the previous days. Moreover, fire will
probably be opened to-morrow upon the city from Saint-
Denis, which will considerably astonish the Parisians in the
Northern quarters.

In the evening, we find from the Moniteur that twenty-
eight French officers, among them a major and seven
captains, have recently broken their parole, and escaped
from confinement. Altogether io8 of these men of honour
have escaped already from the territories of the North
German Confederation. Some of them, for example Lieut.
Marchesau, who sneaked away in woman's clothes from
Altona, have been caught a second time, and Colonel
Saussier, who fled from Graudenz over the Russian frontier,
was seized by the authorities there, and handed back again
in Thorn.

Wednesday, January i8. — The sky is cloudy; the air
clear. An extensive view; the temperature warm, with
a little wind. In the morning I read letters and news-
papers. Wollmann told me an order had come in promoting

XVIL] The Proclamation of the Empire. 227

our Chief to the rank of Lieutenant-General. Hatzfeld
and Bohlen have received the cross to-day. The others
are expecting it, and the longing for it seems with some
of them to be very great. What store even the lower
officials set by it, and how useful the custom of decorations
consequently is to the state, was shown by what our excel-
lent T. said to me this morning, " God knows, doctor, I
would gladly even give up all my extra pay, if you will
believe me, if I could get the Iron Cross." I believed
him, although it was hardly conceivable ; for the extra pay
to which he referred comes to one and a half times as
much as his ordinary income.

Between twelve and half-past one there was the banquet
of the knights in the great hall of the castle, and the
proclamation in military splendour of the German Empire
and Emperor. It must have been a very grand and im-
posing sight. Meanwhile I took a long walk with Woll-
mann. As we were on our way back, going from the
railings of the Avenue de Saint-Cloud, up the alley, and
through the Rue de Saint-Pierre, we heard the thunder-roll
of loud hurrahs from the Place d'Armes ; these were for the
King, who was returning home from the ceremony. I
should have said for the Emperor. At dinner the Chief
was absent, as he was dining with the Emperor. Twice in
the evening I was summoned to receive instructions from
him ; he spoke with an unusually weak voice, and seemed
tired and exhausted.

The Minister has received a letter written by Kern, the
Swiss ambassador, on behalf of a number of diplomatists
remaining in Paris, requesting him to see that measures are
taken to enable the protegds of the writers to escape, before
the bombardment, to a distance from the town. This is
to dispute our right to bombard Paris, and to infer that

Q 2

228 Bismarck iJi the Franco-German War. [Chap.

we purposely fire upon buildings which ought to be spared.
In reply, we can say that we have repeatedly (as early as
towards the end of September, and once more in October)
drawn the attention of those of the inhabitants of Paris who
are citizens of neutral countries, through their embassies, to
the damage which the town must be exposed to from a pro-
longed resistance. For months, we allowed all neutrals
who could show themselves to be such, and who wished to
leave, to pass our lines without difficulty. On military grounds
we can now grant this privilege only to members of the diplo-
matic body. If a number of neutrals have still not availed
themselves of this permission to take themselves and their
chattels to a place of safety, it is not our fault ; they
must either not have wished to go, or been hindered by the
authorities of Paris.

If we bombard Paris, we are fully entitled to do so by
the law of nations : for Paris is a fortress, nay, the prin-
cipal fortress in France — an entrenched camp for a large
army, which, after starting from it to take up the offensive
against us, returns to it for shelter. Our general, therefore,
could never be required to leave uncaptured this vantage
point of his adversaries, or to touch it with velvet gloves.
Our object in the bombardment is not to destroy the city
but to storm the fortress. Allowing that our fire makes
residence in Paris uncomfortable and dangerous, those who
were warned of that should not have entered or remained
in a beleaguered city, and their complaints should be
addressed, not to us, but to those who have turned Paris
into a fortress, and are using its fortifications as weapons
against us. Lastly, our artillery does not fire intentionally
upon private houses, or philanthropic establishments, such
as hospitals and the like, and this ought to have been self-
evident, from the careful respect we have shown to the

XVIL] A Serious Sortie. 229

stipulations of Geneva. Only by accident, from the great
distance at which we are firing, have houses or persons,
not concerned in the carrying on of the war, been hit. But
Paris, from which the war was suddenly let loose upon us,
and from which the war is now principally conducted, cannot
be allowed to make use of such cases to prevent a severe
bombardment, intended to make it untenable. I wrote an
article in this sense.

Thursday, January 1 9. — The weather is dull. The post is
delayed, and we learn on inquiry that at Vitry-la-Ville, in the
neighbourhood of Chalons, the railway has been broken up.
After ten a.m. we again hear a moderately brisk cannon-
ade, in which field-pieces ultimately join. I write two articles
upon a sentimental statement in the Journal des Debats to
the effect that our shells have taken for their mark only
ambulances, mothers and daughters, sick ladies^ and cradles
with infants in swaddling clothes — what horribly ill-disposed
shells !

To-day's firing, Keudell tells us at breakfast, is due to a
fresh and important sortie which the Parisians, with twenty-
four battalions and numerous guns, have made against our
positions between La Celle and St. Cloud, Towards two
o'clock, when the whirr and rattle of the mitrailleuses are
plainly heard, and the French artillery is at the most two
miles in a direct line from Versailles, the Chief mounts to
ride to the aqueduct of Marly, whither the King and Crown
Prince have also gone. I set off thither likewise, with
WoUmann.

On our way we meet, in Roquencourt, a musketeer
coming back from the fight, who, on our asking how things
are going, gives us to understand we are in a bad way, the
enemy being already in the wood on the hills behind La
Celle. We cannot believe it, because in that case there

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

would have been more signs of life here, and we should
have heard the firing more distinctly. Some way beyond
we meet the Crown Prince returning to Versailles. There
cannot then be any further danger. When we come to the
heights in front of Marly we are not allowed to go further
along the high road, which strikes north here, as straight as a
line. We wait a while in a cutting wind and under a cloud,
from which falls a dense shower of snow-flakes, among the
long-bearded sons of Anak of the militia guard who are
posted here. The King and the Chancellor are, I suppose,
on the aqueduct. When the cloud lifts we see Mont
Valdrien deliver three shots in succession, and the redoubts
beneath its walls fire eight times. Now and then too a
flash comes from our batteries in the west beyond the Seine,
and a house seems to be burning in one of the river-side
villages. When the fire ceases we return home.

In Versailles, however, the situation must have caused
uneasiness ; for, as we pass through the town, we find that
the Bavarians have entered it. Formerly one only caught
sight of them here by ones and twos. They are posted,
we are told, in dense masses in the Place d'Armes and
the Avenue de Paris. The French, however, are encamped,
they say, about 60,000 strong, under Mont Valerien, and in
the fields east of it. They are supposed to have taken the
Montretout redoubt, and to hold in their hands also the
village of Garches, not much more than a couple of miles
from here, and the western portion of Saint-Cloud. It was
feared that to-morrow they might press on further and force
us to evacuate Versailles. This cannot be true, or at least
it is exaggerated.

The conversation at dinner seems to confirm this impres-
sion. The danger was not spoken of as imminent. We
had as our guest Privy Councillor von Loper, who is to be

XVII.] Bourbaki, Werder and Manieuffel. 231

Under-Secretary of State in the Household. At first the pur-
port of the talk was that the danger which had threatened
our communications with Germany on the South-East had
passed away, as General Bourbaki, who had pressed hard
upon Werder for three whole days without being able to
beat him back, had, probably on the news of Manteuft'el's
advance, given up the attempt to relieve Belfort, and was
in full retreat. The Chief then alluded to a statement that
the taxes could not be got in from different communities
in the parts of France which we occupy, and said it was
difficult, nay impossible, to plant garrisons everywhere, to
compel the people to pay them. Then he went on to
say, " That, however, is not at all necessary. The thing
can be managed by flying columns of infantry, with some
horse artillery and a couple of guns. They need not even
enter a place, but simply send in a message, ' If you do not
produce the outstanding taxes — in two hours shells will be
thrown in.' Then they see you are in earnest, and they pay.
In some instances a place will really be bombarded, so as
to encourage the others. They must learn what war is."

Later on the conversation turned upon the indemnity
that might be expected when peace was concluded, and
this led the Chief to speak of that paid in 1866. He said,
" We ought not to have made them pay in money. I at
least resisted it for a long time, but at last I gave way to the
temptation." " We ought to have been paid in land, as in
1815, and it would have been a good opportunity.''

Friday , January 20. — The weather is rather cloudy, and
no more firing is heard. In the course of the morning we
hear that the Parisians have abandoned their positions of last
evening, and marched back into the town with drums beating.
Our losses in the fight are said to be trifling, while those of
the enemy are very severe. From the West comes the news

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

that Tours has been occupied by our troops, without resist-
ance ; from the North, that Goeben has beaten the French
at Saint-Quentin, in a battle lasting seven hours, and taken
4000 unwounded prisoners. At twelve o'clock I am sent
for by the Chief. He wishes his answer to Kern's memorial,
and the letter in which he refused Favre his passport, to
appear in the Moniteur.

At dinner, Bohlen was again present, as well as Lauer and
von Knobelsdorff. The Chief was good-humoured and
talkative. Among other things he told us that, when he
was in Frankfort, he had constantly had invitations to the
Grand-Ducal Court at Darmstadt, and accepted them.
There was an excellent hunt there. " However," he went
on, "I have reason to suppose that I was not a favourite
with the Grand-Duchess Mathilda. She said once to some-
body, ' He is always there, and looks as if he were as big
a man as the Grand Duke.' "

As we sat over our cigars, the Crown Prince's Adjutant
(Major von Hanke, or Kameke), came in suddenly, in a

waterproof cloak, to tell us that Count (the name was

unintelligible) had come out, ostensibly in the name and by
order of Trochu, to request a two days' truce for carrying
away the wounded in yesterday's sally, and burying those
who had fallen there. The Chief repHed, that the French
must not have this conceded to them, as it would only
take a few hours to carry off the wounded and bury the
dead; besides the dead would rest just as well above as
beneath the earth. Soon after the Major reappeared and
said the King was coming ; and, true enough, scarcely a
quarter of an hour afterwards his Majesty walked in, and
the Crown Prince along -with him. They went with the
Chancellor into the drawing-room, where a refusal of
Trochu's request was agreed upon.

XVII.] Held, the Father of the People. 233

About nine o'clock, Bucher sent me a few lines, in pencil,
to say that, by the Chiefs orders, the letter to Kern was to
be printed in to-morrow's Moniteur, while that to Favre was
to stand over till further notice. I at once sent instructions
to that effect to Bamberg, who must by this time have
received the letters through the office.

At tea, Wagner told us various anecdotes of the year
1848. He had made an agreement with the famous Miiller,
in the Linden, that if Miiller's party would do the same when
their turn came he would take care that his opponents did
not get hanged when the Conservative party had the upper
hand. " When, therefore, our side got quite the best of it,"
he went on, " I went to the head of the police, and asked him
to allow me to have Miiller's confinement somewhat abated ;
and I sent him, in memory of our agreement, a dozen
bottles of wine and six smoked geese." This was another of
his stories : " On one occasion when Held, who once played
a leading part in Berlin, and was a great favourite with the
lower classes, was having a public meeting, we had a handbill
printed and posted up at the street corners, somewhat to this
effect : ' Held, the father of the people, yesterday, at the
meeting at ' (such-and-such a place) ' made a collection for
the sick and needy, which reached the considerable sum of
II 93 thalers, so many silver groschen and so many pfennigs.
Those in want should present themselves, therefore at his
house ' (such and such a number in such and such a street) ;
' and receive their share.' Of course he had made no such '
collection. But we had the satisfaction of bringing about
his ears a number of people who would not believe a word
of it."

Saturday, January 21. — A dense fog in the morning. No
firing going on. At half-past nine the Moniteur comes in,
and — contains the Chiefs letter to Favre ! Unfortunate ; but

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

my letter to Bamberg only reached him when the number
was printed. About ten I was summoned to the Chief, who
however said nothing of the mishap, though the paper was
lying before him. He was still in bed, and wished Count
Chambord's protest against the bombardment of Paris cut
out for the King. I then wrote an article for the German
papers, and an occasional note for the paper here.

At dinner in the evening, Voigts-Rhetz, Prince Putbus, and
the Bavarian Count Berghem were the Chancellor's guests.
The Bavarian had brought the pleasant news that the Con-
ventions of Versailles had passed the Second Chamber in
Munich by two votes to spare over the required majority of
two-thirds. The German Empire then is formally esta-
bhshed. The Chief accordingly proposed to the company
to drink the health of the King of Bavaria, " who had really
brought the matter to a satisfactory conclusion." " I always
thought," he added, " that we should carry it through, if
only by one vote ; I had not hoped for two. The last
good news from the seat of war probably contributed
to it."

It was then mentioned that in the great sortie the day
before yesterday the French had deployed against us more
men than had been hitherto believed, probably over 80,000,
and that the Montretout redoubt had actually been in
their hands for some hours, as well as part of Garches and
Saint-Cloud. They had, however, suffered frightful losses in
storming them ; as many as 1200 dead and 4000 wounded
were talked of. The Chief observed, " The capitulation
must soon come now ; next week, I should imagine. After
the capitulation they are to be supplied by us with provisions
— that is understood — but, until they have given up 700,000
stand of arms, and 4,000 cannon, not a morsel of bread
shall they touch, and no one will be let out. We occupy

XVII.] A High-Class Spy. 235

the forts and the suburbs, and put them to a little cost until
they can bring themselves to agree to a peace that will
suit us. There are still many intelligent and respectable
people in Paris for us to deal with.''

Afterwards we came to speak of a Madame Cordier, who
stayed here some time ago, and had spent several hours
each day walking up and down on the bridge of Sevres,
apparently with the intention of getting into Paris or con-
vejang something in. She seems to be a pretty, somewhat
elderly widow ; and if I understood right, is a daughter of
Lafitte and a sister of the wife of the Marquis de Gallifet,
commander of cavalry, who was conspicuous among the
elegant women of Napoleon's court. She seems to have
been looked upon among us as a high-class spy, and the
wonder was that she was tolerated here; but probably
she had many friends and admirers among the higher
officers.

The Chief remarked, " I remember when she came
to Frankfort fifteen or sixteen years ago. There she un-
doubtedly expected to play the part of a beauty and a
Parisian. But it did not succeed. She had common
manners and but little tact, and was not so well-educated
as the bankers' wives in Frankfort, who soon made out the
fact. I know she went out one day in dirty wet weather
with a rose-coloured satin cloak on, all covered with lace.
' If she got sovereigns sewn all over her dress,' said the
ladies of Frankfort, ' we should see better what she wanted
to show off.' "

The conversation then drifted into a learned discussion
upon the difference between the titles " German Emperor ''
and " Emperor of Germany ;" the possibility of an " Emperor
of the Germans" being also mentioned. After the discussion
had lasted for some time the Chief, who had hitherto

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

remained silent, asked " Does any gentleman know the
Latin for sausage ? " " Farcimentiim," replied Abeken.
" Farcimen," said I. " Farcimentum or farcimen, whichever
you please," said the Chief, smiling, "nescio quid mihi magis
farcimentum esset." (I don't know which of the two I
should consider the more made-up name.)

Sunday, January 22. — The weather is bright, but not cold.
As yesterday, so to-day, only a few shots are heard. It is
time for me that we should get away from here, for I feel
quite tired and exhausted again. In the forenoon I wrote
two articles for the German papers, and one for the
Moniteur ; and was twice with the Chief about them. At
dinner there were present the Saxon von Konneritz —
a handsome man with an aquiline nose and a large beard
— General von Stosch, and Loper. There was nothing re-
markable in the conversation but that the Chief again
spoke of its being only fair to give the Iron Cross to .the
wounded. After dinner I read drafts and other documents,
among others Heffter's extremely exhaustive report upon
the Emperor's title. This conscientious scholar has studied
a large number of documents bearing upon the point,
which to the Chief is a question of sausages ; but, if in the
hurry of the moment I rightly understood his treatise, he
has not come across any one of the titles put forward :
German Emperor, Emperor of Germany, German King, or
King of Germany.

In the evening I drew attention in two articles to a piece
of cruelty on the part of the French, highly characteristic of
the war set on foot by Gambetta, and, as the following
statements show, thoroughly well attested :

"At the request of the battalion the undersigned states
that on his march to Vendome on the ist of January, he

XVII.] The Horrors of War. 237

received information that a dead cuirassier had been found
in Villaria, with both his eyes gouged out. The under-
signed saw this cuirassier lying on an ambulance waggon,
escorted by his comrades. He had several knife and
bayonet wounds in the abdomen, and a shot in the shoulder,
and his eyes were cut out of their sockets. The body seems
to have been found in this condition a day or two ago.

"Von LtJDERiTZ,

' ' First Lieutenant in the 4th Westphalian
"Infantry Regiment, No. 17."

" I certify that at Villaria on January i, I saw the corpse
of a cuirassier, with both his eyes gouged out. I made no
detailed examination of the body, but I believe more
accurate information could be obtained. The body was
escorted by dragoons of the 1 6th Regiment.

"D. Halle,

' ' Surgeon of the Second Battalion of
" Regiment No. 17.
" The Tuileries, January 9, 1871."

" The Division (20th Infantry Division) submits to the
commander-in-chief, in the accompanying papers, the state-
ment of First-Lieut, von Liideritz, of the 4th Westphalian
Infantry Regiment, No. 17, respecting the mutilation of a
cuirassier of the No. 3 East Prussian Cuirassier Regiment,
which may serve as material for the list which is to be
drawn up of breaches of international law committed by the
French. The Division further draws attention to the fact
that in the battle of the nth instant the enemy used
explosive bullets in their rifles, which was remarked by the
privates as well as by most of the officers, so that Major
Blume is in a position to certify this on oath.

" Mantz.

"Chapelle, January 16, 1871."

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

Monday, January 2 3. — Weather dull and mild. I telegraph
that the bombardment from our northern batteries is doing
good work : the fort at Saint-Denis is silenced, while confla-
grations are noticed in the town of Denis, as well as in
Paris. I then wrote an article, with an appropriate moral
upon the poisoning of four Prussians in Rouen, and com-
pleted the collection of French cruelties and breaches of
international law, by the report of Dr. Rosenthal upon his
imprisonment with the Red-breeches. The post is delayed
again to-day, because the Francs-tireurs have blown up a
bridge over the Moselle between Nancy and Toul. A
vigorous fire is kept up by all our batteries, though we do
not hear it. So says Von Uslar, lieutenant of hussars, who
comes from the outposts to bring the Chief a letter from
Favre. What does he want now ?

General von Kameke, commander-in-chief of the engi-
neers employed in the siege, and the light blue hussar and
Johanniter, von Frankenberg, were present at dinner. There
was no conversation worth noticing.

In the evening, soon after seven, Favre himself came in,
and the Chancellor had an interview with him up in the little
room next his own, where the widow Jesse's eldest son
used to live. The conference lasted about two hours
and a half. Meanwhile Hatzfeld and Bismarck-Bohlen
entertained Favre's companion, his son-in-law, whose name
was Del Rio, in the drawing-room below. He was, it
appears, properly speaking a portrait-painter, but had come
out as secretary with his father-in-law. Both of them got
something to eat, whatever was to be had at a moment's
notice, cutlets, buttered eggs, ham^ &c., which will do them
good, poor martyrs to obstinacy ! Shortly before a quarter to
eleven they both set off to return to their lodging here in a
carriage standing at the door. Accommodation had been

XVII.] In at the Death. 239

found for them on the Boulevard du Roi, where Stieber and
the field poUce happen to be quartered. Hatzfeld escorted
the gentlemen there. Favre seems depressed, and his
dress somewhat neglected; his son-in-law, who is a little
man of southern type, the same. Uslar had accompanied
them here from the outposts.

After half-past ten the Chief goes to the King, and comes
back in about three-quarters of an hour. When he came to
us in the tea-room he seemed unusually pleased, sat down,
let me pour him out some tea, and took a few bites of
dry bread with it. After a while he said to his cousin,
" Dost thou know this ?" whistling a few bars — a hunter's
signal, which signifies that the stag is killed. " Yes," said
Bohlen ; " a famous hunt." " No," said the chief, " that
goes so," whistling a different air. " It was the signal to
be in at the death. I think it is all over." Bohlen then
remarked that Favre had looked " very shabby." The
Chief answered : " I find him grown much greyer than in
Ferriferes — stouter, too, probably from the horseflesh. Other-
wise, he looks like a man who has lately passed through
much trouble and agitation, and to whom everything now
has lost its taste. He was quite frank, and confessed that
things were going on badly inside. I learnt from him, too,
that Trochu is superseded, and Vinoy is now commander in
the city." Bohlen then told us that Martinez del Rio had
been extremely reserved. They had not, indeed, attempted
to question him, but once they had asked how things were
at Rothschild's villa at Boulogne, where Thiers said the
staff of the Parisian army were quartered. He had replied
quite curtly that he did not know. They had been talking
to him all the rest of the time, somewhat ill-naturedly, about
the first-class restaurants of Paris. Hatzfeld informed us,
when he came back from accompanying the two Parisians,

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

that Favre was glad that he had arrived in the dark, and
would not leave to-morrow during daylight, lest he should
attract attention, or be recognised by the people of Ver-
sailles. Before the Chancellor went up to his room, he
asked whether anyone was left in the office who wrote
legibly, if so, he must go up with him. Willisch was there,
and accompanied him upstairs.

To go back a little. This afternoon I was in the Hall " du Jeu
de Paume," the famous " tennis court " (German, Ballhaus)
of 1789, which stands in a small street named after it near
the Place d'Armes and the upper end of the Avenue de
Sceaux. From reading of the Revolution in German books
I had formed quite a different idea of the place ; I imagined
a stately house with a fine large hall for balls and concerts.
I now saw that this was a mistake. It is a quite insignifi-
cant building, and the hall, which is not for dancing, but for
playing ball, is neither elegant nor spacious. The door is
approached from the outside by some small steps. The
porter's wife led the way to the hall, which is very simple
and without any adornment whatever. It is about 40 paces
long by 20 broad, and about 30 feet high. The lower part
of the wall is of stone, which is painted black, the upper part
being boarded. The ceiling is of wood. In the woodwork
are windows large and small, protected against the balls
by wire gratings. Below, round the long side of the room,
which is turned to the street, and the two short sides, runs
a covered wooden corridor, with windows also protected
by wire gratings. In the wall on the fourth side, about
a man's height from the ground, a four-cornered brass slab
is let in, containing the oath of June 20, 1789.* It was
brought here in 1790 by a company of "patriots."

* This declared indirectly the sovereignty of the National Assembly,
into which the third Estate of the States-General, shortly before led by

XVII.] The Tennis Court. 241

There is nothing else to remind one of what happened
here. When I was examining this historical spot, clothes
were hanging up in the corridor to dry, and cabbage leaves
lay strewn about the floor. Probably the porter kept a
rabbit-hutch where Mirabeau once thundered. A leather-
covered ball and a bat reminded one of the proper use of
the room.

Tuesday, January 24. — The day is cloudy and foggy. The
Chief got up before nine o'clock, and worked with Abeken^
Shortly before ten he went to the King, or as we now
sajf, the Emperor. He did not come back till about one.

Bailly and Mirabeau, had been recently changed, after certain members
of the other two Estates had been added to it. It ran thus : "The
National Assembly, which is to give the kingdom a new constitution,
must not be hindered in its deliberations ; its members hereby pledge
themselves by an oath not to break up, but to meet again continuously
in one place, till the constitution is complete and firmly established."
Three days after, on the 23rd of June, the Revolution began on the
basis of this oath. The king caused a Constitution to be submitted
to the Assembly of the three Estates, to which were prefixed fifteen
articles, expressly forbidding a thorough reformation of the State,
such as the Liberals desired and contemplated. The speech, dfawn
up for the king by his ministers, ended with these words: "I com-
mand you, gentlemen, to break up immediately, to meet to-morrow
in the hall appointed for each individual Estate, and there to begin
youir sittings again." These were strong words, but they were spoken
by a weak prince. The deputies of the Commons remained assembled
in spite of the king's command, and when the Grand Master of the
Ceremonies, the Marquis de Dreux-Breze, required them to depart,
Mirabeau answered him, "My lord, you cannot be the king's organ
with the National Assembly, for you have neither seat nor voice here,
nor even the right to remind us of what the king has said. Tell your
master that we are assembled here by the will of the people, and that
we can only be dispersed at the point of the bayonet." In answer to
this opposition the king did nothing ; when he was told of it, he
replied : " Very well, if the gentlemen of the Third Estate will not leave
the hall, we must let them stay there."

VOL. II. R

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

when we were sitting at breakfast. He ate a piece of fried
ham, drank a glass of Tivoli beer, sighed, and said : " Till
now I have always thought that the parliamentary method
of conducting State matters was the most wearisome con-
ceivable. I think so no longer. At any rate there is an
escape with the last motion that is made. Here every one
brings forward his individual opinion, and when one is
deluded into hoping that the matter is settled, some one
comes out with an opinion which he has already expressed,
and which has been refuted, and we are back again where
we started, and nothing gets done. No ; I shall be pleased,
nay thankful, if anything is yet decided, or will even be
decided by to-morrow." He then observed that he expected
Favre back, and had advised him to be off by three o'clock
for he is going back to Paris, lest the soldiers should chal-
lenge him in the dark, and he not be able to answer them.

At half-past one, Favre again called on the Chancellor,
talking with him for nearly two hours, after which he re-
turned home, Bismarck-Bohlen accompanying him as far
as the Bridge of Sfevres.

A,t dinner, where we had lobster mayonnaise, the talk did
not turn upon this interview. But it seems to be under-
stood as a matter of course that the preliminaries of the
capitulation were discussed at it. The Chief first spoke of
Bernstorff, and said : " I have not arrived at the point of
writing with complacent diffuseness sides and sheets on the
most unimportant things. A heap so high '' (he showed it
with his hand) " has come in to-day. And then come
always back-references — ' as I had the honour to inform
you in my despatch of January 3, 1863, Number so-and-so ;'
or 'as I said, with the utmost respect, in my telegram,
Number i665.' Then I send it to the King, and he wants
to know what he means, and pencils on the margin, ' I

XVII.] What a Barbarian ! 243

don't know this.' " Some one wanted to know whether
Goltz had written as much. " Yes," said the Chief, " and
sometimes, besides, private letters to myself, of six or eight
closely-written sheets. He must have had a fearful amount
of time on his hands. Luckily I quarrelled with him, and
that blessing ceased." One of the company wondered :
' What he would have said if he had seen the Emperor in
prison, the Empress in London, and Paris besieged and
bombarded by us?' "Well," repHed the Chief, "the
Emperor was no such favourite of his, but — in spite of his
being enamoured — he would not have been as pleased with
all this as other people are."

The death of a Dutch or Belgian princess was mentioned,
and Abeken, as in duty bound, expressed his sorrow. The
Chief, however, said, " How can you take it to heart like
that? There is no Belgian here at table, and no relation."

He then told us that Favre had complained to him that we
fired upon the sick and blind in the Blind Institute. " I do
not know what you find hard in that," said I. " You do far
worse ; you shoot at our men who are in sound and vigorous
health. ' What a Barbarian ! ' he no doubt thought tq
himself."

Mention was made of Hohenlohe and his services in
securing the success of the bombardment. "■ I have de-
termined," said the Chief, " to confer on him the title of
Poliorcetes (sacker of cities)." The conversation turned
upon the statues and pictures of the Renaissance^ and their
want of naturalness and good taste. " That reminds me,''
said the Chief, "of the Minister Schuckmann, whom his
wife painted — en coquille, I think it was called — in a rose-
coloured cockle-shell, and dressed in a kind of antique
costume, naked down to here — pointing to the bottom of
his waistcoat — as I certainly never saw him." " He belongs

R 2

244 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap. XVII.

to my earliest recollections. They often gave what were
then called Assemblies, and are now called Routs — an
Evening without supper. My parents usually attended
them." He then again described the dress of his mother,
and went on, " Some time after, there was an ambassador
in Berlin, who also gave similar balls, where we danced
till three o'clock, and there was nothing to eat. I know
that, for I and a couple of good friends often went to them.
At last we young people rebelled. When it grew late we
produced bread-and-butter from our pockets and devoured
it. Food was provided the very next time, but we were
never invited again."

( 245 )

CHAPTER XVIII.

NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE CAPITULATION OF PARIS.

Wednesday, January 25. — In the morning I wrote letters,
wrote out an article and a telegram, and read despatches
and drafts. The latter contained nothing worthy of note.
In the afternoon I looked up Dr. Good in the cloister in
the Rue Saint-Honor^, where he had been taken on account
of his iUness. He pronounced himself past cure, and
spoke of his death as imminent. Alas for a most amiable
man !

Count Lehndorff dined with us. The conversation first
turned upon the heavy losses sustained by the French in
their sally of the 1 9th, and then upon our own during the
whole campaign. After this the fish we are eating — mullet,
as I understand, native to the Adriatic, and the gift of
Bleichroder the banker — gave a topic for further conversa-
tion, in which the Chief took part with the animation of a
connoisseur. ' As I have already said, he is extremely fond
of fish, and of water animals generally.

From fish we pass to oysters, and after dwelling on their
virtues, come to speak of bad oysters, which Lehndorff
justly pronounces to be the most horrible things one can
imagine.

Lehndorff told us then of the fine hunting grounds and
numerous foresters of Prince Pless. The King had lately
asked him : " Tell me now, has the calhng out of your fores-
ters inconvenienced you very greatly ? " " Oh, no, your
Majesty," replied the Prince. " How many of them then

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

were called out?" "Oh! only forty, your Majesty." I
fancy that I came across a similar story some years ago,
only, if I recollect right, the Prince was an Esterhazy, and
the foresters shepherds.

The Minister then spoke of his first journey to St. Peters-
burg. He set off in a carriage, because at first no snow
had fallen. Later on, however, there was a heavy storm,
the road was completely buried, so that his vehicle only got
along, and very slowly. He passed five days and six nights in
the narrow carriage, without sleep, and at thirty degrees of
frost, before he reached the first railway station. But the
moment he was in the railway carriage he fell so fast asleep
that when he arrived at St. Petersburg, after a ten hours
journey, he fancied he had only stepped into the train five
minutes before.

"They had their good side, though, those days before
railways," he went on ; " one had not so much to do then.
The post-day only came round twice a week, and then we
worked with might and main. But the moment the post
was off we got on horseback again, and had a good time till
next post." Some one observed that the work in the Em-
bassies as well as in the Foreign Office had been increased
far more by the telegraph than by the railway. This led
the Chief to speak of the reports of ambassadors and diplo-
matic agents generally, and he remarked that many of them,
pleasant enough in form, contained nothing. " It is news-
paper work, written just for writing's sake. Such, for
example, were the reports of our Consul (name, unim-
portant). I read them through, and am always thinking,
' Now it must be coming.' But nothing comes. It sounds
very nice, and one reads on and on. At the end, however,
one finds that there really is nothing in it — it is all barren
and meaningless." Another example is mentioned, a military

XVIII.] A long ride at Kdniggratz. 247

commissioner, who had also come out as an author. On
him the Chief passed judgment. " It was thought he would
do something, and in quantity he has done a good deal, and
the form is good. He writes pleasantly, as he would for a
newspaper, but when I get to the end of his reports, closely
written in a small neat hand, there is positively nothing in
them for all their length."

Coming to speak once more of tiring journeys, and
of long rides, he said, " That reminds me of the battle of
Koniggratz — I was the whole day in the saddle, on my
big horse. I particularly wished not to ride it, because it
was so high, and gave me so much trouble to mount. In the
end, however, I did so, and had no reason to regret it. It
was an excellent beast. The long ride across the valley
had made me very tired, and my seat and legs were very
sore. But I had not overridden myself. In my whole
life I have never done that; but when I sat down after-
wards on a wooden bench and began writing, I felt as if
I was sitting on something else — some strange substance
between me and the bench. It was only the swelling
produced by the long ride.

"After Koniggratz we arrived late in the evening at the
market-place of Horsitz. Here the word was that gentlemen
were to look out for their own quarters. It was easier said
than done. The houses were shut up, and we ought to have
had pioneers at hand to break open the doors. But they
would not have come to their work till five o'clock in the
morning." " Your Excellency got over that difficulty at
Gravelotte," remarked Delbriick. "Well, I went then,"
proceeded the chief with his story, " to several houses
in Horsitz — three or four, and at last I found a door open.
When I had gone in a few steps I fell into a sort of
wolf s-trap on the floor. Luckily it was not deep, and I

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

was convinced there was horse-dung in it. At first I
thought ' how would it do to stay here ' ? but I soon became
aware by the smell that there was something else there ;
and, strangely enough this occurred to me among other
things : ' If the hole had been twenty feet deep, and full,
they would have had to look in the morning a long time
for their Minister.' Well, I got out again, and found a
place under the arcades of the market-place. There I laid
down a couple of carriage cushions for myself, made a
pillow out of a third, and settled myself to sleep. When I
had lain down, my hand came in contact with something wet ;
and when I examined it I found it was a product of the
country. Later on some one woke me. It was Perponcher,
who told me the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg had a shelter
for me, and a bed into the bargain. That was all right, only
the bed was a child's bed. I stretched myself straight out,
put the back of a chair at my feet, and fell asleep. But in
the morning I could scarcely stand, from lying with my
knees on the chair-back. If only one has a sack of straw,
one can make oneself comfortable, even if there is very
little in it, as often happens. You cut it open in the middle,
shove the straw back, and lie in the trough thus formed.
I have sometimes done that in Russia, when out hunting.''
" That was when the despatch came from Napoleon," ob-
served Bohlen, " and you promised you would pay the Gaul
out for it when an opportunity came."

Finally the Chief said, " The day before yesterday Favre
told me that the first shell which reached the Pantheon had
knocked the head off the statue of Henri Quatre." " That
must have affected him very much ? " asked Bohlen. " Oh,
dear, no ! " replied the Chief. " I am inclined to think
that he mentioned it as a democrat, glad that it should have
happened to a king." "Well," said Bohlen, "this is the

XVIII.] A nother Interview "with Favre. 249

second bad time the king has had ; the French stabbed him
in Paris, and we have beheaded him there."

The dinner lasted this evening unusually long, from half-
past five till after seven, and every moment Favre was
expected back from Paris. After half-past six he came
at last, again accompanied by his son-in-law with the
Spanish name. Neither of them seems to have struggled
against eating more than the first time. Like reasonable
people they did justice to the good things set before them.
One may conclude that in the main point which is being
discussed they have either hearkened, or will hearken, to the
voice of reason. That will appear when Favre again confers
with the Chancellor in young Jessd's room.

After dinner I read drafts. Orders are sent out to Reims
prescribing the course of procedure in the collection of taxes.
Arrears are to be demanded of the communities at the rate
of five per cent, increase for every day on the amount due.
Flying columns with artillery are to present themselves at
places which show themselves obstinate, to order them to
pay at once. If they don't do so without delay, they are
to proceed to bombard and burn the place. Three ex-
amples would make a fourth unnecessary. It is not our
business to win the French by mildness, or to care for them.
Judging by their character it is far more essential for us to
infuse into them a greater terror of us than they have of
their own government, which is also bringing stringent
measures to bear upon them. On the night before last the
Reds in Paris made a daring rush, set some of their ring-
leaders free from prison, and then got up a fight in front
of the Hotel de Ville. The National Guard fired upon the
Garde Mobile, killed some, and wounded others, but quiet
at last was restored. This information is to be relied on.

About ten o'clock, when Favre was still here, a brisk

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

fire of heavy artillery began, which lasted^ about an hour.
After half-past ten I went down into the tea-room, where I
found Hatzfeld and Bismarck-Bohlen talking to del Rio. He
is a man of middle height, with a full dark beard, a bald
patch on his crown, and an eye-glass on his nose. Soon
after my entrance, he went home to his quarters at Stiebefs,
accompanied by Mantey, and a quarter of an hour later
Favre followed him. Del Rio spoke of Paris as the centre
of the world ; so that in thja bombardment the centre of
the world is our bull's-eye. He said that Favre had a villa
in Rueil, and a large cellar in Paris full of all kinds of wines,
and that he himself had a property in Mexico, of a hundred
and twenty square miles. After Favre left, the Chief came
down to us, ate some cold partridge, ordered back a
slice of the ham, and drank a bottle of beer. After a
while he sighed, pulled himself straight, and said, " Ah, if I
could only, settle things myself and give my orders." He
was silent a minute, then went on. " The wonder to me is
that they do not send out a General. It is hard to make him
understand military matters." He gave a couple of French
words : " That means the mound in front of the trench on
the outside," then another two : " and that is the inner side.
He did not know that." " Well, I 'hope you found he had
had a reasonable dinner to-day." The Chief said. Yes, and
Bohlen remarked here that a rumour had spread below that
this time he had not even despised champagne, but drunk
it like any one else. " Yes," said the Chief, " the day
before yesterday he refused it, but to-day he allowed some
to be poured out for him. Even now, he had conscientious
scruples about eating, but I talked him out of them, and
hunger must have helped me ; for he ate quite like a man
who has long fasted."

Hatzfeld informed us that Rameau, the mayor, had been

XVIII.] The Mayor of Versailles. 251

here an hour ago to ask whether M. Favre was with us.
He wished to speak to him, and to place himself at his dis-
posal. Might he be allowed to visit him ? Hatzfeld said
that he, of course, did not know. Hereupon the Chief
observed : " Any one who comes in the night to a man who
is going back to Paris, deserves to be brought before a
court-martial.. Impudent fellow!" "Well," said Bohlen,
" Mantey has no doubt already told Stieber. This M.
Rameau probably has a longing to get back to his cell."
(For writing in an impudent way about the arrangements
for provisioning Versailles, he — with, I think, other magis-
trates — had been obliged to make acquaintance for some
days with the inside of a room in the prison of Saint-Pierre.)
The Minister told us something of his interview with
Favre. " I like him better than I did in Ferriferes," said he.
" He speaks fluently, and in long, well-balanced periods —
often one is not obliged to attend to or answer him. He
told some stories of old times, and he tells a story very
well." " He did not take my last letter at all amiss. On the
contrary, he said he was indebted to me for pointing out
what he owed to himself." " He mentioned also that he
owned a villa near Paris, which, however, had been plun-
dered and ruined. I had it on my tongue to say, ' Not by
us though / but he at once added, of his own accord, that
it might have been by the Garde Mobile." " He then com-
plained that the town of Saint-Cloud had been burning for
three days, and wanted to convince me that it was we who
had set the castle there on fire." " Apropos of the Francs-
tireurs and their misdeeds, he wished to refer me to our free
companions in 1813, who had behaved far worse. I said
to him, ' That I will not deny, but you must remember that
the French shot them down whenever they could catch
them. And they did not shoot them all at one time, but

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

five at the place where the deed was done, then five more
at the next halting-place, and so on, to spread terror.' He
asserted that in the last action, on the 19th, the men of the
National Guard who belonged to the better classes had
fought best; the battalions taken from the lower classes
of the population being of least worth.''

The Chief was silent for a time, and wore a thoughtful
expression. Then he went on, " If at first the Parisians
get a supply of provisions, then are again put upon half
rations, and have to starve a little, that will work, I think.
It is just the same with flogging. If a man gets too many
lashes one after the other, not much effect is produced.
But when the flogging is stopped for a time, then begun
again, it is very disagreeable. I know that from the
criminal court in which I used to work. There flogging
was still practised."

The conversation then passed to flogging, generally ; and
Bohlen, who regards it as useful,* observed that even the
EngUsh had re-introduced it " Yes," said Bucher ; " first,
for personal assaults upon the Queen — on some occasion
when some one struck at her — then for garotters." The
Chief then told how in 1863, when they infested London,
he had often had to pass, after 12 o'clock at night, from
Regent Street to his house in Park Street, through a
lonely lane where there was nothing but stables and heaps
of horse litter. To his horror, he read in the papers that
several such attacks had taken place in that very lane.

After a while he said : " That is an unheard-of pro-
ceeding on the part of the English ! They wanted (Odo
Russell intimated as much, but the Chief refused it, as not

* Expressing thereby the feeling of nine-tenths of the German people
— I mean the actual people, not the people of the liberal press and
the public meetings. ^

XVIII.] The Luxemburg Question. 253

permissible) to send a gunboat up the Seine, as they say,
to fetch away such of the English families there as wished to
come. They really want to see whether we have laid down
torpedoes." " They are out of humour because we have
fought great battles here, and won them by ourselves.
They grudge the little, shabby Prussian his rise in the
world. They look upon us as a people who are only here
to make war for them, and for pay."

He was again silent for a while, then said : " I remember
when I was in Paris in 1867, I thought, 'How would it
have been had we let ourselves out about Luxemburg —
should I be now in Paris, or the French in Berlin?' I
believe that I was right in advising against it at that time.
We were not then, by a long way, so strong as we are
now. At that time the Hannoverians were not in the
way of making such good soldiers as they do now. Of
the Hessians I will say nothing of course. The Schleswig-
Holsteiners, who have now fought like lions, at that time
had no army at all. The Saxon army was broken up, and
would have had to be reconstructed ; and of the South
Germans little was to be expected. What admirably prac-
tical fellows the Wiirtembergers are now ! In 1866, every
soldier would have laughed to see them march into Frank-
fort like a militia. The Baden men, too, were in a poor
way, and the Grand Duke has done much since then."
" Of course pubHc opinion in Germany would have been
with us, if we had wished to make war about Luxemburg.
But it was not enough to make up for these shortcom-
ings. And then the right was not on our side. I have
never openly admitted it, but I may say so here : after the
breaking-up of the German Confederation the Grand Duke
became sovereign, and could do what he chose. His
wishing to sell his dominions was mean, but he could have

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

sold them. And our rights of occupation were not at all
clear. We certainly were not entitled after the breaking-up
of the confederation still to occupy Rastatt and Mainz.
I said so in council, and I had then the idea of giving
Luxemburg to Belgium. We should thus have connected
it with a country on behalf of whose neutrality England, as
was then thought, would step in. And we should, more-
over, have strengthened the German element against the
Fransqidllons, and secured a good frontier to boot. But I
found no support in this."

When the Minister left us, some one remarked that he
had said nothing at all about the other side of the question.
The French were not at that time so well-prepared for war
as now. Their military stores had been exhausted by the
war with Mexico, and the army was not yet provided with
Chassepots. However, the reasons by which the Chief
justified his moderation seem to me considerably to out-
weigh others.

About two o'clock in the morning, as I finished writing
down this conversation, the heavy artillery in the north
were still thundering, shot after shot, and Mont Val^rien in
particular hammering away like a Vulcan.

Thursday, January 26. — Bright weather, and again rather
cold. Vigorous firing, while I was still in bed. To my
jottings of last night I have to add an interesting speech of
the Chancellor's. When at tea Bismarck-Bohlen said, " That
is a happy idea, the picture in Kladderadatsch ; Napoleon
waiting for the train and saying, 'There is the whistle.'
He has his ermine cloak round him for the journey back
to Paris, and his travelling-bag in his hand." "Yes,"
replied the Chief; " so he really thinks, and he may be
right. But I fear he will be too late in jumping in. At
the end there may be no other way. It may be easier than

XVIII.] Marie's Excitement. 255

Favre can be got to believe. But he will need half the
army, to establish his authority."

At this point I may also mention the patriotic fury
displayed on the morning before last by the", gardener's
wife, who cleans out my room and makes the bed. Her
name is Marie Lodier, a little person, of somewhat hectic
appearance, with large dark eyes, rather lively and sprightly,
tliough she can neither read nor write. When I told her
that Paris would now be in our hands in a few days,
she utterly refused to believe it. "Paris," she said, "was
impregnable, invincible, not to be subdued by artillery,
though possibly by hunger. But if she were commanding
inside," she continued, with flashing eyes, and in the utmost
excitement, "she would not give it up, even if she had to
starve."

About half-past ten the Chief went to the King. We
meanwhile had ourselves taken, a large group, by a Berlin
photographer in front of the garden side of the house; the
Minister is to be introduced later into the middle foreground
of the picture. After breakfast B. told me a number of
amusing stories of the English court, especially of the
Prince of Wales — a pleasant personage, which is a hopeful
fact for the future — and may he be found to agree with his
disagreeable countrymen !

About two o'clock, not long after the Chief had returned
from the King, Favre came again. When he went away in
about an hour's time to go back to Paris, we heard that it
was decided he should come again at eight o'clock in the
morning, with a general, to settle the military questions —
the military questions, that is, connected with the Capitula-
tion ! That then is the position ! Paris is giving in. The
bombardment has done good service in the South, and still
more in the North, and the bread-basket is getting empty.

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

I go with L. to the town of d'Avray, where we see brisk
firing proceeding in every direction. Short ruddy flashes dart
from a French battery lying in the distant gloom. Our firing
comes from the right hand, probably from Meudon. Again
there seems to be burning in the town. We come back by
Sfevres, where we notice marks of French shells on four
houses.

When I told Hatzfeld of our excursion, he said, " I wish
I had seen the Firing and the Burning ! This is probably
my last opportunity. At night one could make the fire out
much better, if one only knew where to go for it." I promised,
if the Chief would give me leave, to go out with him this
very evening, and give him a good view of it. (He went out
later — with Bohlen, I think — but they saw nothing.)

Mr. Hans von Rochow and Count Lehndorfif were present
at dinner. The Chief spoke of Favre, and among other
things said, " He told me, that on Sundays the boulevards
were still crowded with well and gaily dressed ladies with
pretty children." I replied, ' I wonder they have not eaten
you up before this.' It was then mentioned that to-day the
bombarding had gone on with unusual vigour, and the
Minister remarked, " I remember we once had an under-
ofiicial in our Court — Stepki, I think his name was — ^who
had to look after the flogging. He had a way of always
applying the three last lashes with special force— as a whole-
some reminder." The conversation passed to Stroussberg,
and some one observed that he now was likely " to go to
the dogs." On which the Chief said, " He once said to me,
' I know I shall never die in my house.' But the crash need
not have come so quickly. Perhaps not at all, except for the
war. He always covered his advances with fresh bonds, and
that worked — although other Jews, who had got rich before
him, tried with all their might to spoil his game. Then

XVIII.] Morny arrives in Russia. 257

came the war, and down went his Roumanians, so low that
they might be valued at so much the hundredweight. For
all that, however, he is a clever fellow, and of restless
activity."

The cleverness and restlessness of Stroussberg led some
one to speak of Gambetta, who, he claimed to know,
" had made his five millions out of the war," a statement
which others of the guests, I think, reasonably doubted.
After the Dictator of Bordeaux came Napoleon, of whom
Bohlen said it was asserted that he had saved at least fifty
millions during the nineteen years of his reign. " Others
say eighty," added the Chief " I look upon it as doubtful.
Louis Philippe spoiled the game. He allowed emeutes to
be got up, and then bought on the Amsterdam Bourse, till
at last the commercial world saw what he was driving at."
Hatzfeld or Keudell remarked that the industrious King
had fallen ill from time to time with the same object in
view.

It was then observed that under the Empire Morny in
particular had known how to make money in every possible
way, and the Chief told us " When he was appointed ambas-
sador to St. Petersburg, he came with a whole long train of
elegant carriages, and all his trunks, and chests, and boxes,
full of laces, and silks, and woman's finery, for which as an
ambassador he had not to pay duty. Every attendant had
his own carriage ; every attache, or secretary, at least two,
and he himself five or six. After he had been there a few
days he • sold all his things by auction — carriages, and lace,
and fineries. He is said to have made 800,000 roubles
by it. He was unscrupulous, but a good fellow — in fact, he
could be a very good fellow." He illustrated this by
examples, then went on ; " In St. Petersburg, too, they had

VOL. II. s

2S8 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

a very good notion of such things — the influential people,
I mean. Not that they took money directly. But when
any of them wanted anything, he went into a French shop
and bought expensive lace, gloves, or jewellery, for thousands
of roubles. But the shop was carried on in the interest of
the official they wanted to get at, or his wife."

He then told us once more, but in rather a different form,
the story of the Finn from whom he had wanted to buy
wood. " He was at first quite willing to let me have it,"
said he. " Probably he took me for a merchant or some-
thing like it, from the Baltic. But when I told him it was "
(a Russian word) " for the Prussian Embassy, he was startled ;
he was evidently very uneasy. He asked whether the "
(Russian word) "was for the Crown? Perhaps Prussia
was a province of the Russian empire? I told him, not
quite that, but the Embassy had to do with the Crown.
That was imprudent and undiplomatic; it clearly did not
satisfy him, and it was no good my offering to pay him on
the spot. He undoubtedly feared that I should extort the
money from him again, and that he would be clapped in
prison into the bargain and flogged." After giving an
instance of that being done, he ended, " The next morning
he did not come back.''

Bohlen called across the table, " Pray tell the good story
of the Jew with the worn-out boots, who got five-and-
twenty." " Yes," said the Chief, " that was so. One day
there came into our Chancery a Jew, who wished to be
conveyed back to Prussia. But he was very ragged, and
had particularly bad boots. He was told, yes, he should
be taken back. But he wished first to have another pair of
boots, claimed it as a right, and behaved so boldly and im-
pudently, shrieking and using violent language, that the
gentlemen of the office did not know what to do with him.

XVIII.] The Jerv's New Boots. 259

Even the servants did not feel safe with the raving fellow.
At last, when the thing got too bad, I was summoned to
give aid in person. I told him he must be quiet or I would
have him locked up. He answered, defiantly, ' You cannot
do it, for in Russia you have no such power.' ' We will see,'
said I. ' I am bound to send you home ; but I feel no
call to give you boots, though I might have done so, had
you not behaved so outrageously.' I then threw open the
window and beckoned to a Gorodowoy, or Russian police-
man, who was stationed a little way off. My Jew went on
shrieking and scolding till the policeman, a big strong fellow,
came in. To him I said " (some Russian words, not trans-
lated), " and the great policeman carried off the little Jew,
and put him in prison. The morning after next he came
back, quite a different man, and declared himself ready to
go without new boots. I asked him how he had got on in
the meanwhile. ' Badly — very badly ! ' ' What had they
done to him ?' ' Ah ! they had — they had actually — ill-used
him personally !' I expressed my regrets, and asked whether
he would like to make any complaint. He preferred, how-
ever, to start off at once : and I have never heard of him
since."

In the evening I studied drafts, while in the world without
cannon were roaring, between nine and ten especially,
louder than usual. The Chief was working alone in his
room — probably upon the terms of the Capitulation and
Armistice — and nothing was heard of him. Below it was
rumoured that a negotiator from Napoleon at Wilhelmshohe
was on his way to us. The ever-accumulating business has
caused the despatch to Versailles of a fourth secretary, who
has arrived to-day. He is a Herr Zesulka, who will be
useful as a copyist and decipherer, though he is still un-
employed.

s 2

26o Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

In the tea-room towards half-past ten I came upon the
Chief in conversation with the deputies von Koller and von
Forckenbeck. The former was saying that we should soon
want money again. " We did not intend to ask any more
from the Reichstag," said he, " for we never thought the
war would last so long. I wrote to Camphausen, but he
advises requisitions and contributions. These, however,
are difficult to collect, for we have not enough troops
in proportion to the large extent of ground which we
cover, to exercise compulsion. To hold a country two
hundred and forty thousand miles square completely in
hand, one wants two millions of soldiers. War has raised
the price of everything. When we make requisitions, we
get nothing. When we pay cash, enough always comes
upon the market, and cheaper than in Germany. A bushel
of oats here costs four francs, but imported from Germany,
six. At first I thought of having the matriculation fees
paid in advance. But that only yields twenty millions,
while Bavaria has seventy-two millions to her own account.
I then thought of the plan of applying to our Diet, to
advance us a sum. Only first we must find out what we
can squeeze out of the Parisians, that is out of the city of
Paris, for it is with her only we have now to deal."
Forckenbeck was of opinion that the Chiefs plan would
meet with no insuperable difficulties in the Diet. Of
course the Doctrinaires would oppose the claim, and others
would say that Prussia must always be ready to help in
return and make sacrifices for the rest, but we should in
all probability have the majority, as Koller would confirm ;
which he did.

An officer of the dark blue hussars came in afterwards,
an unusually handsome young fellow. He was a Count
Arnim, who had just arrived from Le Mans, and had all

XVIII.] End of the Bombardment. 261

sorts of interesting news from there. The inhabitants of
the place, he said, seemed very sensible people, who con-
demned Gambetta's policy, and were always expressing
their desire for peace. " Yes," replied the Chief, " that is
very fine of the people, but how does it help us if, with all
their good sense, they allow Gambetta to be constantly
calling up from the earth fresh armies of 150,000 men with
a stamp of his foot ? " And when Arnim told us further
that a great many prisoners had been again taken, he
remarked, " That does not please me. What are we to
come to at last with thsm all ? Why do they make so many
prisoners ? "

Friday, January 27. — The bombardment ceased, they
say, at twelve o'clock last night. It was, we are told, to
have been resumed again, at six o'clock this morning, if the
Parisian Government did not agree to our terms for the
Armistice. As silence reigns, I presume the gentlemen
have given in. But Gambetta ?

In the morning I despatched a telegram upon the suc-
cessful operations of our armies against Bourbaki. At half-
past eight Moltke came, and was closeted with the Chief
for about three-quarters of an hour. Shortly before eleven
appeared the Frenchmen : Favre (who had cut short his
grey demagogue's beard) with his pronounced underlip, his
clear eyes and yellowish complexion ; General' Beaufort
d'Hautpoule, with his adjutant Calvel, and a " chief of the
engineers of the Eastern Railway," Diirrbach. Beaufort seems
to have led the attack upon the fort at Montretout, on the
19th. The negotiations of these gentlemen with the Qhief must
have either been quickly brought to a point, or broken off;
for soon after twelve, while we were seated at breakfast,
they went out at the back of the house and got into the
carriage which brought them here. Favre looks depressed.

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

The General had a remarkably red face, and seemed not
quite firm on his legs. This was noticed also by the others.
Soon after the Frenchmen had gone, the Chancellor came
in to us, and said, " I only want a little fresh air ; pray
don't disturb yourselves, gentlemen." Then, turning to
Delbriick with a shake of his head, he said, " There is
no getting on with him ! Really not a responsible person,
I beheve, a little tipsy. I told him he had better think it
over till half-past one, and perhaps he may come to his
senses. Hot-headed ! ill-mannered ! What does he call
himself? Something like Boufifre or Bauffre?" " Beaufort,"
said Keudell. " Ah," said the Chief, " the name, but not
the manners of a man of rank." The good general seems
in fact — probably his ordinary capacities have been weak-
ened by hung&r — to have attempted more than he could
stand, and eaten too good a dejeuner.

At breakfast it was mentioned that Fontenay, which was
set on fire by our troops by way of punishment for the
destruction of the railway bridge by the insurgent peasants,
had been seen blazing by Forckenbeck, on his way here.
Delbriick rejoiced with us " that at last once more a proper
punishment had been inflicted."

When I remarked to our gardener's wife to-day that now
surely she would no longer doubt that the fall of Paris was
at hand ; she must have seen the general who had come out
to arrange matters, " This general " ishe answered, raging
like an angry cat, " is a traitor " (she pronounced the word
traitre like trait), "just like Bazaine and Napoleon, the
Swine, who began the war with the Prussians before we
were ready for it. All our- generals are traitors, and
M. Favre is another. But wait till we have a firm Govern-
ment, and make war on you again, then tous les Frussiens,
capot, capot, capotf" ("All the Prussians are done for, done

XVIII.] An English Letter to the Cha?tcellor. 263

for, done for "). I remarked, " You will probably have your
Emperor back in eight weeks." She answered, savagely,
putting her arms a-kimbo, " Mais non. Monsieur ! He must
stop in Germany. If he comes to Paris, we shall send him
to the scaffold, and Bazaine too." Lastly, she said that
France was ruined, and she and her family also, for
Madame Jessd was " near" ; she had lost some of her pro-
perty, and would no longer keep a gardener, but have her
garden looked after by simple day labourers. Poor little
woman ! Let us hope things turned out better.

In the afternoon we heard that shortly before one o'clock
the Chancellor had first gone to the King, and then called
on Moltke, where besides Podbielski, he had again met the
Frenchmen. The latter had gone back to Paris about four,
and will come again to-morrow about twelve to conclude
the Capitulation. I read a letter to the Chief with news-
paper cuttings, which he handed over to me this morning to
use at my discretion, and which contained much the same
thing as English fools are always boring the Minister with
in their sentimental epistles. It runs thus :

" I send you cuttings from the Standard and the Times,
in which you will see something of the cruel and inhuman
conduct of the Prussians during this war. Would to God
you could deny it 1 In this country our heart bleeds at the
thought, and we wonder how the soldiers of a civilised
nation can commit such frightful acts, and how their officers
can allow, or even encourage, them. You, my lord Count,
will one day, and that before very long, have to regret the
horrible and diabolical way in which this most cruel war
has been conducted." This letter was signed, " A Soldier —
but no murderer.''

This " Soldier " was evidently not in the field in India
against the Sepoys, and has not seen his countrymen in the

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

Crimean war burning down harmless Russian villages and
towns on the Baltic. He has not even heard of these
things. He has not even read his newspaper cuttings care-
fully, or he could scarcely have missed seeing, in one of
them, a report upon the reprisals made for the slaughter of
the men of the Landwehr by the Garibaldians (neat
Chatillon), and a remark by the writer, one of our artiller-
ists, to the effect that " We are fighting no longer against
the French army, but against assassins."

Later on I went with L. to Bougival, where we inspected
more closely the famous barricade at the end of the place, and
noticed the ravages which the war had made, in some of
the houses near Barrot's. Here things looked worse in
some ways than at Barrot's, and the library in particular, and
a collection of old maps in one of the houses, had come off
very badly. The soldiers told us that the German batteries
planted above the place, not being informed of the com-
mencement of the armistice, had fired a number of shots
this morning; We, however, had heard nothing of it, and
the story probably arises from a simple rumour, founded
on some misunderstood speech.

At dinner the Chief said of Beaufort : " This officer be-
haved like a man of no education. Blustering, and shouting,
with great oaths, and his ' Moi, general de Tarmke fran^aise,'
he was hardly to be borne. He was always playing the
' plain soldier ' and the ' good comrade.' Moltke was once
or twice impatient, and as things went he might have burst
out fifty times." "Favre, whose own manners are not 'first-
rate,' said to me, ^fen stds hiimilie P (I am ashamed of
this.) However, it was drink, a common thing with him."

" On the general's staff" it was believed that he had been
chosen to settle matters, with the intention of letting it all
come to nothing. 'On the contrary,' said I, 'they have

XVIII.] The Land of Freedom. 265

chosen him because it makes no difference to him that he
will sink in public opinion for signing the Capitulation.' "

He then told us : " At our last interview I said to Favre,
in French, ' Vous avez He trahi — par la fortune ' (' You have
been betrayed — by fortune '). He saw the point well
enough, but he only said, 'To whom do you say that?
Why, in three or four hours I also shall be numbered
among the traitors.' He added that his position in Paris
was a hazardous one. I proposed to him : ' Provoke an
tmeute then, while you still have an army to suppresf it
with.' He looked at me in horror, as much as to say,
' What a bloodthirsty fellow you are !' He has, moreover,
no idea of how things are with us. More than once he
pointed out to me that France was the land of Freedom,
while Despotism reigned with us. I had told him, for instance,
that we wanted money, and Paris must let us have some.
He said that we might raise a loan. I told him that could
not be done without the Reichstag or Diet. 'What!' said he,
'why, surely 500,000,000 francs could be raised without the
Chamber.' ' No/ replied I, ' not five francs.' He could not
believe it. But I told him I had had four years' experience
of popular representation in time of war, and to raise a
loan without the Diet had always been the point to which
I had got, but it had never occurred to me to go beyond
it. That seemed rather to shake him in his opinion. He
only said that in France they would not stand upon
ceremony (on ne se generait pas). Then he always came
back to the assertion that France enjoyed infinite liberty.
It is really very comical to hear a Frenchman talk like this —
especially Favre, who has always belonged to the opposition.
But they are constituted so. You may give a Frenchman
iive-and-twenty (lashes). If only you make a fine speech at
the same time about Liberty, and the Dignity of man which

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

f it expresses, and make the appropriate attitudes, he imagines
he is not being flogged."

" Oh, Keudell," he then said, suddenly, " that reminds
me : I must have in the morning a commission from the
King — in German, of course. The German Emperor must
only write German. His Minister may be guided by circum-
stances. Official correspondence must be conducted in the
language of the country, not in a foreign language. Bern-
storff first decided to introduce this with us, but he carried it
too far. He wrote in German to all the Diplomatists, and
they all answered him — by arrangement of course — in their
own languages- — Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and I know
not what; so that he had to establish a regular swarm
of translators in the bureau. I found matters in this
state when I came into office. Budberg (the Russian
ambassador in Berlin in 1858) sent me a note in Russian.
That would not do. If they had wanted to revenge them-
selves Gortschakoff would have been entitled to write in
Russian to our ambassador in St. Petersburg. That would
have been right enough. It is reasonable to wish that all
the representatives of foreign Powers should understand
and use the language of the country to which they are
accredited. But for me in Berlin to answer a German
letter in Russian was unreasonable. I made up my
mind therefore — whatever comes in, that is not German,
or French, or English, or Italian, remains as it is, and
goes into the cupboards. Well, Budberg wrote reminder
upon reminder, always in Russian. No answer ; the things
were always passed on to the cupboard. At last came
the man himself, and asked why he had had no answer.
' Answer,' said I, in astonishment ; ' to what ? I have
seen nothing from you.' Well, he had written four weeks

\ ago, and sent several reminders since. ' Indeed ! Ah,

XVIII.] The Rtiin of the Railways. 267

now I think of it, there is a heap of documents in Russian
writing, lying below ; they may perhaps be among those.
But no one downstairs understands Russian, and whatever
comes in, in an unintelligible language goes into the cup- '
board.' " It was then agreed, if I understand rightly, that
Budberg was to write in French, and the Foreign Office
might occasionally do so also.

The Chief then began talking of the French negotiators,
and said : " Monsieur Diirrbach has represented himself as
a member of the administration of the Eastern Railway, and
as having a great interest in it. Yes ; what would he say if
he knew of our intentions ?" (He meant probably that the
Eastern Railway was to be conceded to us.) Hatzfeld
observed : " He clasped his hands above his head when
it was pointed out to him on the staff-map what destruc-
tion they themselves had done on bridges, tunnels, &c.
' I have always spoken against that/ said he, ' telling people
that a bridge can be put up again in three hours, only
they would not Hsten.'" "Yes," added the Chief; "a
bridge for us certainly; but the railway bridges with the lines
along them ? They will find it hard to bring up provisions,
especially if they have committed similar follies in the west.
I suppose they count upon Brittany and Normandy, where
sheep are in plenty, and upon the sea-ports. To my own
knowledge there are many bridges and tunnels there, if they
have only not destroyed them too. Otherwise they will be
in a great scrape. I hope, too, that people in London will
only send them presents of bacon, and not of corn."

In this wise the conversation turned for a while upon the
satisfaction of the Stomach of Paris. At last the Chief told
us a little story of his " good friend Daumer who would hear
nothing of death. We were once out hunting in the Taunus,
and had just breakfasted. 1 called attention to the beautiful

268 Bismarck 171 the Franco-German War. [Chap.

view which the spot commanded. How prettily the village
below lay among the trees, with its white church, and how
lovely the churchyard looked beneath it! 'What?' asked
he. ' I mean the graveyard there.' ' Ah ! let me alone
with your graveyards ; you have quite ruined my appetite
with them,' said he. ' How many sausages are there left ? '
said I. ' As many as you please ; I can eat no more.' The
recollection of death had quite upset him."

Saturday, January 28.— Like yesterday, it is rather
cold, some four degrees of frost, and the sky is clouded.
About eleven the French negotiators come in again :
Favre, Diirrbach, two others who I suppose are also
high railway officials, and two military men, another
general with another adjutant, both stately persons of
decorous bearing. They breakfasted with us. Then a
long conference in Moltke's house. Afterwards the Chief
dictates to his secretaries Willisch and Saint Blanquart two
copies of the terms of the Capitulation and the Armistice,
which are signed and sealed by Bismarck and Favre after-
wards, at about twenty minutes past seven, in the green room
next to the Minister's study.

Meanwhile my time had been free, and I employed it in a
walk to the castle of Meudon and the batteries there, in
which L. and another Saxon, Kohlschiitter (belonging to
the Government or the Civil Commissariat), joined me.
The paved way through the wood had been very much
broken up by our heavy artillery. At a little opening in
the trees, where the paths cross one another, we passed a
beautiful fir-tree. Farther on was a place arranged for an
outpost; Barracks and walls pierced with loopholes were
on the right, heaps of gabions and fascines on the left of
the path. We pass through a door of open ironwork
to the castle, on which the trees press closely, and which

XVIII.] The Castle at Meudon. 269

is surrounded at the back by a strong earthwork. Here
we picked up some spUnters of the shells which had
been flying about, and which had torn many holes in the
trees and knocked off branches. The castle, a stately
but not very ornamental building of two stories, with no
projecting buttresses, had suffered very little on the outside.
Only the front turned towards Paris and Issy shewed some
conspicuous traces of shells, and the ground immediately
in front was strewn with petards great and small. The
inside of the building, the steps, halls, and rooms were
terribly wrecked, full of debris and shreds of furniture,
splinters and crushed glass. On the walls soldiers and
other visitors had made attempts at writing up their names
and their mockery of the Gauls in German and outlandish
tongues.

The terrace in front of the castle was upturned with
pick and shovel, and converted into a sort of subterranean
camp with deep ditches. In one of these had been set up
a little block-house room with an oven, in which the field-
telegraphist lived. In front, on the terrace, and imme-
diately behind the stone breastwork, which runs round it
towards the Parisian basin, was the battery with its high-
mounted guns. We conversed for some time with the
Prussian officer in command here, a very spruce and com-
municative young warrior. Below us lay, partly on the
slope of the hill and partly at its foot, the houses and
streets of Meudon, still deserted by their inhabitants. On
our right we looked across to the pleasant wooded glen of
Clamart. Far away on our left the bend of the Seine shim-
mered in the afternoon sun, and between the two, rather
more towards the right on a bare piece of rising ground,
rose in front of us. Fort Issy, the barracks of which had
been reduced to ruins by our shells.

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

Returning to Versailles, I spent half an hour at the Hotel
de Chasse with H. and F., who have both been made lieu-
tenants.

In the evening the Frenchmen dined with us. In conse-
quence of the numerous company we sat farther apart than
usual, and as the Parisian guests generally did not talk loud
the conversation yielded little matter for jotting. The
general (whose name was Valden) ate little, and hardly
spoke at all. Favre, too, was dejected and sparing of his
words. The adjutant, a M. d'Hdrisson, seemed not to take
the matter so much to heart, and the railway ofiScials devoted
themselves with praiseworthy zeal to the long-withheld
eatables. As far as I could make out from their talk, dreadful
scarcity has actually existed for some time in Paris, and in
the past week the mortality, if I understood right, reached
the total of about five thousand deaths. A great many
children, especially between one and two years old, had died,
and everywhere one met people with coffins for such little
Frenchmen. " Favre and the general," said Delbriick after-
wards, " looked like poor culprits, who are to-morrow to go
to the scaffold. They made me sorry for them."

Keudell is very hopeful about the conclusion of peace ; he
thinks we may probably be back in Berlin in four weeks.
Shortly before ten, a gentleman with a full beard and appa-
rently between forty and forty-five, came in, who called himself
Duparc, and was at once conducted to the Chief, with whom
he remained for about two hours. He came, it is said, with
proposals of peace from Wilhelmshohe. Capitulation and
Armistice do not, then, mean quite the end of the war with
France.

Sunday, January 29. — A cloudy sky. Our troops march
to occupy the forts. In the morning I read despatches upon
the London conference, and other business, as well as the

XVIII.] The Armistice. 271

Armistice and Capitulation convention signed yesterday. The
latter fills, in our copy, ten folio pages, and is sewn together
with threads in the French colours, to the ends of which
Favre has affixed his seal. The contents are briefly as fol-
lows : An armistice of twenty-one days is agreed upon, which
is to hold good over the whole of France. The contending
armies maintain their positions, which are signified by a line
of demarcation, defined in the memorandum of agreement.
The object of the armistice is to enable the Government
of National Defence to summon a freely-elected assembly
of representatives of the French people, to decide the ques-
tion whether the war is to be continued, or peace concluded,
and on what conditions. The elections are to be perfectly
free and undisturbed. The Assembly meets at Bordeaux.

The forts of Paris are to be handed over to the German
army, which is to occupy other parts of the outer line
of defence of Paris up to an appointed boundary. During
the armistice German troops are not to enter the city.
The enceinte loses its guns, the carriages of which will be
taken into the forts. The whole garrison of Paris and the
forts, with the exception of 12,000 men, who are left to the
authorities for service inside, become prisoners of war, and
must, officers excepted, give up their arms and remain in the
city. After the armistice has run out, in case peace is
not then concluded, they are to give themselves up to the
German army as prisoners of war. The Francs-tireurs will
be disbanded by the French Government. The National
Guard of Paris retain their arms, so as to preserve order in
the city, and the same appUes to the gendarmes, the repub-
lican guard, the excise officers, and the firemen. After the
surrender of the forts and the disarming of the enceinte, the
revictualHng of Paris will be allowed by the Germans.
Only the provisions destined for this object must not be

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

taken from regions occupied by our troops. Whoever
wants to leave Paris must have a pass from the French
mihtary authorities, with a vis'e by the German advanced
posts. This pass and vise is to be given to those who
wish to canvass the provinces, as well as to the deputies
elected to the National Assembly at Bordeaux. The town
of Paris pays within fourteen days a war-contribution of two
hundred million francs (;^8, 000,000). During the armistice
none of the public property which might contribute to this
payment, is to be removed. During this time also the
introduction of arms or ammunition into Paris is forbidden.

Count Henckel, who has been appointed prefect in Metz,
was present at breakfast. He maintaiiied that in his province
the elections, after some five years or so, would turn out in
favour of the government ! He would even pledge himself
to bring that about. In Elsass, on the other hand, things
did not promise so well, for the Germans were not so com-
pliant to all authority as the French were. He told us also
that his province had certainly suffered greatly. At the
beginning of the war it had probably from 32,000 to 33,000
horses, but now he believed it had not more than 5000.
At breakfast the rumour was spoken of that Bourbaki had
shot himself, in despair because he had had no success with
his army against Werder, and was now forced to retreat
before him and Manteuffel.

In the afternoon I made an excursion to Petit Chesnay,
where I wished once more to look up my friends of the
Forty-sixth, who had marched in and halted there. I found
an officer whom I did not know, who told me that the
regiment had been ordered this morning to occupy Mont
Valerien, which it had probably done by this time. Before
dinner I again read drafts, and among them a letter in which
the Chief explains to the King the impossibility of demand-

XVIII.] Dogs, Cats, and Pigeons. 273

ing from Favre, in addition to what he has granted, the flags
of the French regiments interned in Paris.

Count Henckel and the French adjutant of yesterday
dined with us. The latter, whose full name is d'H^risson de
Saulnier, wore a black hussar's uniform, with yellow epau-
lettes, and embroidery on the fore arm. He is said to under-
stand German, and to speak it, though the conversation, in
which the Chief took an active part, was carried on mostly
in French. To-day, when Favre and the General were not
present— rthe former was in the house, but he was so busy he
had his dinner taken to him in the little drawing-room — the
Frenchman was even more lively, sprightly, and amusing than
yesterday. For a long time he bore the whole burden of the
conversation, telling us good stories and anecdotes one after
the other. He stated also, that the starvation in the city
had latterly been very much felt, though he appeared to
know the cheerful, better than the serious aspect of it. He
said that the period in the fast which he had found most
interesting was when they "ate up the Jardin des Plantes.''
Elephant's flesh, he told us, cost 9 francs the pound, and
tasted like coarse beef. Then there had been actually yf/^/
de chameau and cotelettes de tigre — on which, as on other
points in his narrative, we made no remarks. The dog's flesh
market was set up in the Rue Saint - Honor^, and a
pound cost about a shilling. There were hardly any dogs
now to be seen in Paris, and when one came round the
corner three or four people at once started off' in chase.
The same with the cats. Whenever a pigeon was seen on a
roof the street was in a moment full of men anxious to catch
it. Only the carrier-pigeons were spared. These carried
the despatches in the middle of their tail-feathers, of which
they ought to have nine. If one had only eight, it was at

VOL. II. T

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

once said, " He's only a civilian, and he must go the way of
all flesh." A lady is supposed to have said, " I shall never
eat pigeon again; I should always be feeling that I had
swallowed the letter carrier."

In return for these and other stories the Chief told him
various things that could not have been known of in the
Paris clubs and salons, and which he might like to hear,
as, for instance, the ordinary behaviour of Rothschild in
Ferriferes, and the metamorphosis by which the Elector of
Hesse had converted grandfather Amschel from a small Jew
into a big one. He called him repeatedly " Juif de la cour,"
and thereby hit off a characteristic of the household Jews
of the Polish nobility.

After dinner I read drafts and reports ; among the latter
a very interesting one, recommending that we should leave
Metz and German Lothringen to the French, and appro-
priate Luxemburg. The suggestion was declined, because
we regarded Metz as indispensable for securing Germany
against the French, and because the German nation would
not tolerate any departure from the programme drawn up
five months ago.

Favre, with the other Frenchmen, stays till late. He does
not go till about a quarter to eleven, and then not back to
Paris, but to his lodgings in the Boulevard du Roi. He will
come again to-morrow at noon.

Later on the Chief came in to tea. The talk was of the
capitulation and armistice. "But how," asked Bohlen, "if
the others refuse — Gambetta and the Prefects in the South ? "
" Well, in that case,'' replied the Chief^ " we have the forts,
and with them control of the town. If the people in Bor-
deaux do not accept the convention, we remain in the forts,
and keep the Parisians shut up, and in that case may pos-
sibly not prolong the armistice to the 19th of February.

xviil.] The Duke of Pekin. 275

Meanwhile they have given up their arms and gun-carriages,
and must pay the contribution. It is always the worse for a
man who has given a pledge like what Faust gave for his
agreement, and then cannot keep it."

Bohlen .then turned the conversation upon d'H^risson, and
the bright and amusing way in which he had told us of the
dog-hunts in Paris. He had been with them in China, and
it was supposed that he had carried away a memorial or two
from the Emperor's summer palace. He mentioned that
on his way home from that country, Montauban, who
was in great favour with the Emperor, and thought it
probable he might be raised to a peerage, sent him, d'H^-
risson, on in advance, in order to prevent his being made
Count or Duke of Pekin, which, from the word peqtdn, might
have given an opening for bad jokes.* He had accordingly
been named Palikao, which meant "the bridge with nine
arches,'' and was a place near which the troops of the French
expedition had routed the soldiers of the Celestial Empire
in -battle. It was then mentioned that Bourbaki had really
intended to shoot himself, but had not injured himself
mortally. The Chief afterwards remarked that Favre had
admitted to him to-day that he had acted a little rashly in
the matter of revictualling. He really did not know whether
it would be possible to provide the many hundred thousands
of people in the town with food in time. Somebody said,
"Storch can hand over some oxen and flour in case of
need." "Yes," replied the Chief, "that he must do, but he
must see that we come to no harm by it." Bismarck-Bohlen
thought we need not give them anything ; they might see for
themselves where they could get it, and so on. " What ?
said the Chief, " Do you want, then, to let them starve } "

* Pequin in French military slang means " the civilian," with a touch
of " the stay-at-home."

T 2

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

" Certainly," said Bohlen. " Then," said the Chief, " how
should we manage to raise our war contribution ? "

In the course of further conversation he said : " Important
State business and negotiations with the enemy do not worry
me. If they make objections to my ideas and demands,
even when I am unreasonable, I take it calmly. But the
small wrangling of mere land-lubbers in political aifairs, and
their ignorance of what is or is not possible ! First comes
one and wishes this, then another who considers that indis-
pensable. When you have got rid of them, up comes a
third, an adjutant or adjutant-general, who says, ' But,
your Excellency, that is impossible,' or ' We must have that,
else — ' Why, yesterday they actually wanted a clause which
had never been discussed to be inserted in a document
already signed ! "

Bohlen or Hatzfeld then recurred to another of d'H^ris-
son's anecdotes. After the 4th of September the police-
sergeants of Paris appeared in altered guise. Moustaches
and imperials were cut off, and only a small peaceable-
looking whisker left. The curl on the left ear was also gone,
and the side arms, and the whole military uniform — all but
the policeman's helmet. So it had been ordained by the
democratic wisdom of Kdratry. All Paris laughed. The
guardians of public order were instructed moreover always to
parade the streets in threes. This went on for some weeks,
when the order fell into oblivion, and they were always to
be seen in pairs. When provisions had become scarce, the
street wits said, " Look, there are two sergeants ; they must
have eaten the third ! "

Hatzfeld told us that a Spanish secretary of legation had
been here, who had come from Bordeaux, and wanted to get
into Paris. He wished to fetch out his countrymen, had
with him a letter from Chambord to Favre, and seemed in

XVIIL] The Spanish Envoy. 277

a great hurry. What is to be said to him ? The Chief bent
forward a little, then sat upright again, and said, " The
attempt to carry, despatches tlirough our headquarters from
one member of the hostile government to another is matter
for a court-martial. When he comes again treat the matter
very seriously, be cool, look astonished, and tell him what I
liave said, and that we shall bring against the new King of
Spain the charge of violating neutrality, and shall demand
satisfaction. I wonder, too, how the military came to let
him through. They always are absurdly over-respectful in
dealing with foreign diplomatists. Even if he had been an
ambassador, they ought to have turned him back, though he
might have died of hunger and cold in consequence. Such
letter-carrying borders very closely upon spying.''

We then talked of the general rush into and out of Paris
that would likely follow. He replied, however, " Oh, the
French will not let many out, and we only let those through
who have a passport from the authorities inside — perhaps
not even all of them."

Some one then said that Rothschild had been supplied
with a passport, and wanted to be let out. Thereupon the
Chief remarked, " It would be a good thing to detain him
as a Franc-tireur — to be reckoned among the prisoners of
war." (To Keudell) : " Just find out about that." " Then
Bleichroder will appear," cried Bohlen, " and beg on his knees
in the name of the entire Rothschild family.'' Reference was
then made to the surprising fact that an accurate resume of
the convention signed yesterday was already to be seen in
the Daily Telegraph. Then we talked of Stieber.

" How often one is deceived about people," the Chief
struck in. " I hardly recognise people till I hear them speak.
When I went within the last few days to call upon Favre, I
saw a man standing before the door in the dusk, who made

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

me uncomfortable. I thought it must be his son-in-law's
servant who was lounging about there, for he looked like
a Spaniard. When he came up to me I half drew my sword
so as to have it ready. Then he greeted me : ' Good
evening, your Excellency,' and when I examined him
more closely, it was Stieber."

Monday, January 30. — A foggy morning, moderately
cold, somewhere about freezing-point. Favre seems not
to have stopped in Versailles, but, late as it was, to have
gone back to Paris. I despatch various telegrams to
Berlin, Cologne, and London, concerning our completed
occupation, without hindrance, of the forts of Paris, the
possibility of a famine there, the difficulty of bringing pro-
visions quickly from a distance, and our readiness to avert
the momentary danger by the use of our own stores.
Warning, too, is to be given in the press against a rush
to the headquarters.

I went out in the afternoon with L. to the bridge at Sfevres,
and thence as far as Bellevue on the way to Meudon. On
the road there, which at the end rises very steeply from the
river, we saw hardly anybody but soldiers. A barrier,
guarded by riflemen, prevents our further progress. We
learn from the soldiers, to our astonishment, that the castle
at Meudon is in flames. A French shell seems to have hit
the wall of one of the rooms during the last few days of the
bombardment, remained sticking there, and later on been
exploded by accident. Probably the accident was due to
some carelessness. It will, however, make a lovely ruin,
something like the castle at Heidelberg.

Favre, and other Frenchmen, such as the President or
Prefect of the Paris police, were again working busily
with the Chief in the afternoon, and dined at half-past five
with him and the Councillors. The secretaries and I

XVIII.] Served and not Dommated. 279

were to dine this time in the Hotel des Reservoirs, there
being no room for us at table. I, however, stayed at
home, translated Granville's latest peace proposals for the
Emperor, and then dined in my room.

Abeken came up to me in the evening, to fetch away the
translation. He expressed regret that he had not known I
was in, or they would have made room for me below. It
was a pity I had not been there, as the conversation had
been particularly interesting. The Chief had said, among
other things, to the Frenchmen, that consistency in politics
often became simply blundering, obstinacy, and self-will.
One must be ruled by facts, by the position of things, and
by probabilities, taking into account the conditions, and
serving one's country according to circumstances, and not
following one's own opinions, which are often mere prejudices.
When he first entered upon political life, as a green young
man, he had had very different ideas and aims. But he had
changed, his mind after thinking the matter over, and then
had not shrunk from sacrificing his own wishes, if anything
was to be gained thereby, to the necessities of the day. One
must not force one's own inclinations and wishes upon one's
country, he said further, and then concluded, " Lapatrie
veut etre servie et pas doraine'e,'' This saying made a great
impression upon the Parisian gentlemen (particularly, of
course, its form), and Favre said, " C'est bien juste. Mon-
sieur le Comte, c'est profond !" Another Frenchman ex-
claimed with equal enthusiasm, " Oui, messieurs, c'est un
mot profond !" Bucher, while confirming this report, told
me further that Favre had been foolish enough to follow up
the Chiefs speech — which had, of course, been intended to
convey a hint to the French, as many earlier sayings had been
aimed at other guests — and his own praise of its truth and
profundity, by saying, " Nevertheless it is a fine thing to see

28o Bismarck in the Franco- German War. [Chap.

a man who has never changed his principles." The railway
director, too, whom Bucher, however, thought a far shrewder
person than Favre, had added, a propos of the expres-
sion " servie et pas dominde," that this of course would
imply the subordination of individual genius to the will and
opinion of the majority, and majorities had always shown
but little understanding, experience, or character. To this,
however, the Chief answered finely, in a sense which showed
conclusively his consciousness of responsibility before God
as one of his guiding stars. In opposition to the claims
of genius, exalted by the former speaker, he said that duty —
by which he meant what is defined by Kant as the Cate-
gorical Imperative — is the weightier and more excellent of
the two.

Late in the evening — it was past eleven— the Chief came
down to take tea with us. There were assembled on this
occasion, besides Wagner and myself. Barons Holnstein and
Keudell, and a regular shoal of counts : Hatzfeld, Henckel,
Maltzahn, and Bismarck-Bohlen. The Chief remarked, " I am
still curious to know how Gambetta will take it. Gambetta
— the Italian partner ! — the smallbone d- I'ltalienne!^ He still
seems to intend thinking over it ; for he has not yet answered.
I fancy that he, too, will give in in time. However if he does
not, there is no harm done. A little of the line of the Maine
business in France would be by no means unacceptable."
Then he continued, " These Frenchmen axe really the oddest
fellows. Favre comes to me with the face of an injured
saint, and an air of having the most important communi-
cation to make. When I notice it I say, ' Shall we go
upstairs ?' ' Yes,' says he, ' by all means.' Once up there
he sits down and writes letter after letter, and I wait in

* Gambetta is the name of a little long-legged stork, or marsh-bird,
of the heron tribe.

XVIII.] Danger of Famine. 281

vain for any important utterance or information. He had
nothing at all to say to me." " Two small pages of note-
paper would contain all that he has done here.'' "And
this Prefect of Police ! I never in my life saw a more im-
practicable fellow. We have to advise and assist him in
everything. In a single half-hour he made me requests of
every possible kind, till at last I almost lost patience, and
said to him : ' But, my dear sir, had you not better give it
me in writing? It is impossible for me to carry everything
in my head, and it is only in this way that the matter can
profitably be settled. Thousands of things pass through my
brain, and when I begin thinking carefully about one of them,
I lose sight of the others.' "

We then spoke of the difficulties which we should in
all probability afterwards encounter in providing the Paris-
ians with food. Several of the railways, for the time at
least, are not available. To draw provisions from the parts
of France lying behind those which we occupy, might
bring ourselves into want and embarrassment, and the
harbour of Dieppe, which was counted upon for supplies
from foreign countries, was only fit for small ships. The
Chief calculated roughly how many portions a day would be
needed, and about how many could be brought in, suppos-
ing that the conditions were not too abnormal, and found
that the supply could only be a scanty one, and that many
people may yet have to succumb to hunger. He added,
" Favre himself told me they had held out too long. But
he admitted it was only because they knew there were stores
in our hands ready for them in Lagny. They were quite
correctly informed about this. We had there for them at
one time about 1400 loaded waggons."

The talk then turned upon the difficulties we encountered
in collecting the taxes and contributions, and the Chief

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

explained to Maltzahn what arrangements he had made ac-
cordingly. " We must, as far as possible," he added, " avoid
scattering our troops, keep them together as a rule at the
chief places in the Departments or Arrondissements, and
from these centres operate with flying columns against the
refusers of taxes, the free companions, the people who hide
away their property, and all their accomplices."

Some one spoke of the ten million francs which had been
imposed upon the district of Fontenay on account of the
destruction of the railway bridges, and Henckel declared,
with an air of authority, that it was a demand that could
not be met ; they would not be able to wring two millions
out of the people. " Probably not one," said the Chief.
" But it is our way. We have always been threatening all kinds
of horrible things, and then been unable to carry them out.
The people notice this at last, and get used to our threats."

Count Maltzahn told us he had been to Fort Issy. It
looked very horrible there, holes, coals, splinters, and
rubbish, and above all heaps of filth, and an abominable
smell. " Had they no latrirjes ?" asked some one. " Ap-
parently not," answered Maltzahn. "Ove? dove volete, as
the Italians say," remarked another. " Yes, they are an
uncleanly people, the French," said the Chief, reminding us
of the horrible arrangements in the town school-house at
Clermont, and the similar state of things at Donchery.

Then followed a very interesting and detailed account of
the various phases of the scheme for uniting the South
German States with the Northern Confederation. " At
last, after many difficulties," he went on to say, " we came
to deal with the Bavarians, and people said, ' Now there is
only one wanting' — but that was the most important of
all. I saw a way out of it, and wrote a letter ; then a high
Bavarian official did good service. In fact, he almost

XVIII.] Jacoby in Rhinoceros Cutlets. 283

accomplished an impossibility. He made the journey,
there and back, in six days, eighty miles without a rail-
way, and up the mountain to the Castle where the King
was living. All the while his wife was ill. Yes, it was a
great thing for him to do."

In the course of conversation the imprisonment of Jacoby
was mentioned, and the Chief observed, " Falkenstein
behaved very reasonably, but that measure of his was the
reason why we were unable to summon the Diet four weeks
earlier, as he would not consent to let Jacoby go when I asked
him. If he had eaten him in rhinoceros cutlets, well and
good ; but to put him in prison — he could get nothing out of
that but an old dried-up Jew. Other people, too, would at first
listen to none of my remonstrances, so we had to wait ; for the
Diet would have had a right to insist on his liberation."

The conversation drifted from Jacoby to Waldeck, whom
the Chief described as of " a similar disposition to Favre, always
logical, and true to principle, with his opinion and conclusion
ready made beforehand; a handsome figure ; a white venerable
beard ; phrases in the chest tones of conviction, even about
trifles. That impressed people. In a voice which quite
shook with the earnestness of his feeling, he would declare
that this spoon here was in this glass, and proclaim that
every one who would not admit it was a scoundrel. Every
one admitted it and praised him in all possible keys for the
energy of his nature."

Ttiesday, January 31. — In the morning I telegraphed
various small successes in the South-Eastem departments,
where, by agreement, the armistice does not at present hold
good. The King of Sweden has delivered a warlike sounding
speech from the throne. Wherefore, ye gods ? I prepare
two articles by command of the Chief, and then a third,
describing the sufferings endured through the siege by a

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

number of unoffending German families, who for one cause
or another had remained in Paris during the siege; and
mentioning with praise the services in alleviating the lot
of these unfortunates rendered by Washburne, the United
States ambassador. His conduct in this respect is really
most worthy of our gratitude, and his subordinates faithfully
seconded his efforts.

The Parisian gentlemen are here again, with Favre,
who is urgently entreating Gambetta, by telegram, to
give in. It is to be feared that he will not do so. The
Prefect of Marseilles at least has mounted the high horse,
and snorted down upon poor Favre the patriotic speech :
" Je n'obeis k capitule de Bismarck. Je ne le connais plus.''
(" I owe no obedience to the man who has capitulated to
Bismarck ; I know him no longer.") Proud and valiant ;
but it is well to be far away from the firing. It is not yet
certain whether Bourbaki has shot or only wounded himself :
his army, however, is clearly in a bad way. It will turn out
to have been made up like the other creations of the Dictator
of Tours.

Our Frenchmen again dine with the Chief, and I with
Wollmann at the Hotel des Reservoirs, where we see at

table, among others, the Marquise with some young

lieutenants. She is the fair-haired, spare, and rather free-
living lady I have already met with her dogs several times
in the streets and in the Park. She came from London, and
is serving under the Geneva Cross.

We have again several degrees of frost. Bucher told
me at tea that the Chief spoke strongly again at dinner
about that old visionary. Garibaldi, whom Favre declared
to be a hero. In the evening Duparc is with the Minister.
After ten o'clock the latter came down and sat with us.
He began talking directly about the unpractical character of

XVIIL] Male and Female Europe. 285

the Frenchmen who had been working with him lately.
Two Ministers — Favre, and the Finance-Minister, Magnin,
who had come out with him this time — had actually spent
half an hour toiling over a telegram. He then took occasion
to speak of the French generally, and the whole Latin race,
and to compare them with the German nations. " The
Teutonic, or Germanic race," said he, " is, so to speak, the
masculine element, which goes all over Europe and fructifies
it The Celtic and Slav peoples represent the female sex.
The former element extends up to the North Sea, and across
it to England," I ventured to say: " Even to America; to
the Western States of the Union, where men of our race are
the best part of the population, and influence the morale
of the rest." " Yes ; these are its children, its fruits," replied
he. " We have already seen in France what the Franks are
worth.. The Revolution of 1789 meant the overthrow of
the German element by the Celtic ; and what is the result ?
" In Spain, too, the Gothic blood long preponderated ; and
the same in Italy, where the Germans had also taken the
lead in the northern provinces. When that died away,
farewell to order. It was much the same in Russia, where the
German Warager, the Ruriks, first gathered. If the national
party were to overcome the Germans who have settled there,
or those who cross over from the Baltic provinces, the people
would not remain capable of an orderly constitution." " Cer-
tainly things don't as a matter of course, go straight, even
with full-blooded Germans. In our South and West, for
example, when they wei'e left to themselves there was
nothing but Knights of the Empire, Towns of the Empire,
and Villages of the Empire, each for itself, so that the
whole thing went to pieces. The Germans are all right
when they are united by compulsion or by anger — then they
are excellent, irresistible^ invincible — otherwise every man

286 Bis7narck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

'gangs his ain gate.'" "After all, a kindly, upright, and
sensibly-conducted absolutisnTis the best form of govern-
ment. Unless there is something of that kind everything
goes wrong ; one man wishes one thing, another another,
and there is perpetual hesitation, perpetual delay." " But we
have no longer any thorough-going Absolutists. They have
gone — the species has died out." I took the liberty to tell
him that when I was a small child I had imagined the king
to be like the king on German cards, with crown and ermine,
sceptre and ball, stiff, gaily-dressed, and always the same, and
I had been bitterly disappointed when my nurse took me
one day to the walk between the castle at Dresden and the
Catholic Church, and pointed out a little, crooked, feeble
old man as King Antony. " Yes," said the Chief, " the
peasants also about -us had the most extraordinary ideas.
There is a story that some of us — ^young people— were
assembled in a public place, and had said something against
the King, who was present incognito. Suddenly he stood up,
threw open his cloak, and showed the star on his breast.
The others were frightened, but I was believed not to have
cared, and to have treated him rudely. For this I would
have got ten years' imprisonment, and not been allowed to
shave. Well, I grew a long beard at that time, to which
I had been used in France in 1842, when the fashion came
in, and the story went that every year on St. Sylvester's
Eve the executioner came and cut it off. This story was
told by well-to-do and in other respects not stupid country
people, who repeated it, not out of spite to me, but quite
in good faith, and full of pity for the poor young man."

A propos of this myth it was said that even to this day
sayings spring up, with little or no foundation in fact. In
this connection I said, " Might I ask, your Excellency,
whether there is any truth at all in the story of the beer-

XVIII.] The Beer-jug Story. 287

jug, which you are supposed to have broken in two over
some one's head in a Berlin public-house, because he had
insulted the Queen^ or had refused to drink to her ?"

" Yes,'' replied he^ " but the circumstances were different,
and there were no politics in the matter. I was going home
late one evening — it must have been in the year 1847 — when
I met a man who had had too much^ and wanted to pick a
quarrel with me. When I upbraided him for his offensive
language I found he was an old acquaintance. I think it
was in the Jagerstrasse. We had not met for a long time,
and when he proposed to me to go to such-and-such a place
I went with him, though he had clearly had enough. After
we had our beer, however, he fell asleep. Well^ near us was
a party of people, one of whom had also had more than was
good for him, as was evident from his boisterous behaviour.
I was quietly drinking my beer. My being so quiet vexed
him, so he began to taunt me. I sat still, and that made
him only the more angry and spiteful. He went on taunting
me louder and louder. I did not wish for ' a row,' but I
would not go lest they should think I was afraid. At last
his patience seemed exhausted, he came to my table and
threatened to throw the jug of beer into my face, and
that was too much for me. I told him he must go, and
when he then made a gesture as if to throw it, I gave him
one under the chin, so that he measured his length on the
floor, smashed the stool and the glass, and went clean to
the wall. The hostess came in, and I told her she might
make herself quite easy, as I would pay for the stool and
glass. To the company I said, ' You see, gentlemen, that
I sought no quarrel, and you are witnesses that I restrained
myself as long as I could, but I was not going to let him
pour a glass of beer over my head, because I had been
quietly drinking mine. If the gentleman has lost a tooth

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

by it, I am sorry. But I acted in self-defence. Should
any one want more, here is my card.' They turned out
to be quite sensible people, who took much the same view
of the matter as I did. They were indignant with their
comrade, and said I was right. I afterwards met two of
them at the Brandenburg Gate. ' You were present, gentle-
men, I think,' said I, 'when I had the adventure in the
beerhouse in the Jagerstrasse? What became of your friend?
I should be sorry if he sustained any injury.' They had
been obliged to carry him out. ' Oh,' said they, ' he is
quite well and lively, and his teeth, too, are all right again.
He kept very quiet, and was very sorry. He had just
entered upon his year's service as a doctor, and it would
have been very unpleasant for him had the affair come to
the ears of people, especially of his superiors.' "

The Chief then told us that, when a student in Gottingen,
he had twenty-eight duels in three terms, and had always
come well out of them^ " But once," said I, " your Excel-
lency got hit. What was the name of the little Hannoverian
— Biedenfeld ?" " Biedenweg,'' he replied ; " and he was
not little either, but nearly as big as I was. But that only
happened because his sword-blade, which was probably
screwed in badly, came off. It flew into my face and stuck
there. Otherwise I was never once hit. Once, however, in
Greifswald, I came near it. They had introduced there a
marvellous sort of head-dress — like a felt coffee-bag. They
had broadswords too, to which I was not accustomed. Now
I had taken it into my head that I would cut off the peak
of my opponent's coffee-bag, and in so doing I exposed
myself, and his stroke whistled quite close to my face j but
I sprang back just in time."

Wednesday, February i. — In the morning the sky was
moderately clear, with a slight rain and sleet. At breakfast

XVIII.] The Capitulation of Belfort. 289

we are told that Gambetta has consented to the armistice,
but expressed surprise that the French are still being at-
tacked by us in the South. Of course, Favre, in his un-
businesslike way, has omitted to telegraph to him that the
war is kept up there by his own wish. We have company
at breakfast Besides Privy Councillor Scheidtmann, of the
Exchequer, a rather pecuKar gentleman, Count Donhoff (the
blue and handsome, not the red and corpulent one), and
" my nephew. Count York," honour us with their presence.
It is said that none of the Frenchmen are coming out to-day.
This was a mistake. About one, Favre appeared, and
set to work for two hours upstairs with the Chief. Mean-
while I went with L. through the Ville d'Avray, and the
park of Saint-Cloud, to the town of that name, or, more
properly speaking, to the heap of ruins to which the raging
conflagration of the last few days has reduced it. On
the way there I learn the welcome news that Belfort has
capitulated, and that the remnant of Bourbaki's army, 80,000
strong, and commanded by Clinchant, has retired before our
troops into Swiss territory. So the war here also is ended,
as Bismarck-Bohlen informed me on the stairs.

In the Park of Saint-Cloud we saw, immediately behind the
open ironwork gate at the entrance, under some trees on the
left hand, a little neglected graveyard, with ten or twelve
graves of German soldiers who had fallen there. Farther on
we passed some more graves of the same kind, and a redoubt
and a barricade stretched across the street. Under a bridge,
crossing the road, tunnelwise, the troops had found quarters
for themselves, as in a casemate. On the right and left as
one enters the town, and at the edge of the wood, block-
houses had been built against a wall, and behind them, in a
long street, stands for cannon were put up. The town here
consists first of broad streets of detached villas, surrounded by

VOL. II. u

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

gardens ; farther on, of narrower streets, with rather tumble-
down houses closely packed, and running finally down the
hill-slope to the bank of the Seine. Without exception the
villas were either wholly or partly burnt down. Of the more
slightly-built ones only a level heap of bricks, slates, plaster,
and coal remained. In the more confined streets of the
inner town hardly anything was left standing but outside walls,
and even these had fallen in here and there, bringing down
with them the flooring of the different stories. On what
remained of these were still to be seen standing book-
shelves, plate-racks, writing-desks, washhand-stands, 8z:c.,
while pictures and mirrors hung on the papered walls. Whole
house fronts, three stories high, were lying in the side and
main streets, and others bending forwards or backwards, ap-
parently ready to fall. Everywhere smoking ruins and the
smell of burning. In three or four buildings flames still
flickered about the chimneys, the framework of the walls,
and the wooden dressings. The church, a newly-built
edifice in a pleasing Gothic style, was uninjured, save for a
few holes in the roof. All around was ruin — a frightful
picture of the seriousness of war ! From the heights of the
demolished town we had a lovely view of the valley of the
Seine, of the bridge with one of its arches broken, and of
the South side of Paris, with the Bois de Boulogne. We
did not stop here, but hurried on to the castle, which before
the war was Napoleon's summer retreat, nov/ also a
silent heap of ruins. French shells had done it. Only the
enceinte and a few of the partition walls were still standing.
We scrambled through its heaps of rubble, climbed over
the fallen remnants of ceiling and roof from room to room,
wherever no further downfall seemed imminent, and carried
away with us souvenirs from the prostrate marble capitals
and mutilated statues.

XVIII.] Garibaldi and Bismarck. 291

As we went home to Saint-Cloud we met several small
parties of people returning from Paris to their native villages
with beds and household gear, and at Ville d'Avray a
company of Prussian artillery passed us on its march to
Mont Val^rien.

When I got back to the Rue de Provence, at half-past
five, I found the Chief and the rest of the party already at
dinner. There were no guests present. As I entered, the
Minister was just speaking of Favre : " I believe he came
only because of yesterday's discussion, when I would not
admit that Garibaldi was a hero. He was clearly uneasy
about him, because I refused to include him in the Armistice.
Like a true advocate he drew attention to the first article.
I, however, told him, ' Yes, that was the rule, but next came
the exceptions, and he was one of them.' If a Frenchman
bore arms against us, I maintained, he was fighting for his
country, as he had a right to do. .But as for this foreign
adventurer, with his Cosmopolitan Republic and his band of
revolutionaries from all quarter? of the globe, I could not
recognise his rights. He then asked what we should do
with him if we caught him. ' Oh,' said I, ' we will show
him about for money, with a placard round his neck, labelled
" Ingratitude." ' "

He then asked, " Where is Scheidtmann ?" .Some one
said what he knew about him. " I had thought of him as
a legal assistant in the matter (referring to the contribution
of two hundred milHon francs to be paid by Paris) — he is
a lawyer?" Bucher repUed, No, he had not studied at all;
he had originally been a merchant, or something of the kind.
" Well," said the Chief, " Bleichroder must go to the front.
He must go into Paris at once, to ferret among his col-
leagues, and consult with the bankers how it is to be done.
Fle is coming, is he not ?" " Yes," said Keudell, " in a

u 2

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

few days." The Chief, " Please telegraph to him that we
want him immediately. Then comes Scheidtmann — he
speaks French?" No one knew. "As a third man I
think of Henckel. He is at home in Paris, and known
among the financial people. 'We on the Bourse,' one of
the leading financiers once said to me, ' are in the habit of
spotting lucky speculators, and if we want to spot one here,
it is Count Henckel.' "

The conversation afterwards turned upon the story of the
fortunes and development of the German question. The Chief
observed, " I remember, thirty or more years ago, in Gottin-
gen, I made a bet with an American as to whether Germany
would be united in twenty years. We wagered five-and-twenty
bottles of champagne, which the man who won was to
stand, while the loser was to cross the sea for it. He was
against and I for the Unity. I thought of it in 1853, and
intended to go across.. But upon inquiry I found he was
dead. .He had just the sort of name which promised no
length of life — Coffin ! The most remarkable thing is that
I must at that time, in 1833, already have had the ideas and
hopes, which now by God's help have been realised, although
then my relations with the party that wished for Unity
had only been antagonistic.''

The Chief lastly expressed his belief in the influence of
the Moon upon the growth of hair and of plants, and then
proceeded to joke Abeken upon the excellence of his
barber. " You look quite young again, Mr. Privy Coun-
cillor," said he ; " would I were your wife ! You have had
it cut just at the right time, when the moon was waxing. It
is just so with trees. If they are wanted to grow again, they
are felled during the first quarter ; if you wish to cut them
clean away, you do it when the moon is on the wane, and
then the root decays more quickly. There are people.

XVIII.] Rules for the French Elections. 293

scholars, who do not believe this; but the State itself
acts on the belief, though it will not openly confess it. No
forester is allowed to fell a birch-tree, which is to throw off
suckers again, when the moon is waning."

In the evening I read a number of documents, bearing
upon the armistice and the revictualling, and among them
several autograph letters of Favre, who writes a neat legible
hand. In one of them it is stated that Paris only has meal
up to the 4th of February, afterwards nothing but horse-flesh.
In another letter Moltke is entreated not to put Garibaldi
on the same footing with the French, and in any case to
grant the complete laying down of their arms by him and his
people. The Minister asks for this on political grounds. In-
structions are sent to Elsass not to hinder the elections to
the Assembly at Bordeaux, which is to decide the question of
war or peace, and eventually the conditions of the latter.
They are to be ignored. In the regions occupied by us, not
the Prefects but the Mayors will guide the elections. The
instructions issued by the Parisians on this subject are to
this effect. "The Mayors of the chief places in the De-
partment will put themselves in communication with those
of the chief places in each Arrondissement, and these again
with the mayors of the chief places in the Cantons and
Communes. They will appoint a day on which the deputies
to the National Assembly are to be nominated. The Mayor
of each commune will furnish every enrolled elector with
the list from which he has to choose. In default of a list
the electors will be allowed to vote notwithstanding, after
their identity has been estabUshed. The Mayor of the
chief place in the department will determine the number
and limits of the electoral circles. The election will be
decided by casting up the votes according to the relative
majority. In consequence of difficulties arising from the

294 Bismarck in the Franco-German Wan [Chap.

war, the election is to be valid whatever the number of
voters." The Parisian members of the French Government
further issued the following directions on January 29th :

" Considering the importance, in present circumstances, of
allowing the electors perfect liberty of choice, , so far as is
consistent with a true expression of the will of the people,
the Government of National Defence enacts : that articles
81 to 90 of the law of March 15, 1849 — with the exception
of the provisions made in paragraph 4 of article 82, and para-
graph 5 of article 85 — are not to apply to this election to the
National Assembly. Accordingly, prefects and sub-prefects
are not eligible in the departments where they exercise their
functions."

Thursday, February 2. — The weather is bright and mild,
as if spring were close at hand. Betimes in the morning I
was summoned to the Chief. I am to telegraph that 80,000
Frenchmen of Bourbaki's army have been driven across the
Swiss frontier at Pontarlier, while only 8000 have escaped to
the south. Soon after, I am called up once more, to draw
attention in the press here, as well as in Germany, to a
circular from Laurier (inspired by Gambetta) which has just
reached us by telegraph, and to state our views thereupon.
I write the following article on the subject at once :

"A circular was issued to the Prefects, signed by C. Laurier,
from Bordeaux, on January 31, after the conclusion of the
Convention of January 28 had become known there. It
contained this passage : ' The policy maintained and carried
out by the Ministers of the Interior and of War remains
the same as before : War to the last. Resistance till every
resource is exhausted. Lend, therefore, every aid in your
power to maintain a good spirit among the population.
The interval of the armistice must be devoted to strengthen-
ing our .three armies with men, ammunition, and provisions.

XVIII.] The Elections and the German Authorities. 295

Our aim must be to turn the armistice to account at any
price, and we are in a position to do so. In short, before
the elections the wliole advantage rests with us. What
France needs is a representative body which wishes for war,
and is determined to carry it on at all costs.'

" So runs the circular signed by Laurier. In the eyes of
sensible people it passes judgment upon itself; we might
therefore refrain from commenting upon it. It is, however,
important to remark that the German authorities have been
very mild and liberal both in their interpretation and admi-
nistration of the Convention of January 28th. They have
given effect to the proposals of the Parisian government
in a far greater degree than was implied in that Convention.
They have granted full liberty of election to the assembly
which is to meet in Bordeaux, to decide the question of
peace or war. In spite of this, the pubUc authorities in Bor-
deaux proceed to preach war to the last, and are working
openly for the election of such people as they hope will vote
for carrying on the war till the resources of France are
exhausted. Is this conduct not such as to suggest to the
German authorities the question, whether their magnanimous
reading of the obligations entered into by France is not
a case of misplaced confidence, and whether they ought not,
in the interests of France herself, to substitute a stricter
interpretation of the Convention of January 28th?

" As to the three armies mentioned by M. Laurier, we
may remark that since Bourbaki's troops have partly been
made prisoners, partly escaped into Swiss territory, France
has only the remnants of two armies. In conclusion, com-
pare with M. Laurier's manifesto the following extracts from
the Daily Telegraph, upon M. Gambetta's views of the
position of things and the course which France ought to
take. The correspondent of the English paper says :

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

" ' The conversation turned upon the war in general, and
on my asking whether it was at an end with the surrender
of Paris, Gambetta answered, that the surrender of Paris had
no bearing on the question of the continuance of the war, if
the Prussians persisted in their present schemes. " I am
speaking now," he continued, " not only in my own name
or in that of the Government Delegation here. On the
contrary, I am repeating, the final decision of my Col-
leagues both in and out of Paris, that the war must be
continued whatever the cost and whatever may be the
consequences. If Paris falls to-morrow, it will have nobly
fulfilled its duty to France, but I cannot believe that
Paris will ever surrender. I believe that the inhabitants
would themselves burn it to the ground, and turn it
into a second Moscow, rather than allow it to fall into
the hands of the enemy." " But just suppose," replied I,
"that in spite of this the capitulation should take place."

' "In that case," answered Gambetta, "the struggle must be
continued in the provinces. Without counting the army of
Paris, we have actually at the present time half a million of
troops, and 250,000 men more behind, ready to join the
army, or to leave their depots. We have never called out
the Contingent of 187 1, and we have not yet pressed
married men into the regiments. The former will yield us
300,000 recruits, the latter will furnish two millions of strong
men. Arms are coming in to us from all sides, and there
is no lack of money. The nation, including all shades of
political opinion, is on our side, and the only question will
be, which is the stronger and more persevering race, ours
or the German." " No," he continued, bringing his fist
down heavily on his writing-table, " I look upon it as a
mathematical impossibility for us, if we persevere and con-
tinue the war, not to succeed in the end in driving the

XVIII.] Bismarck's Letter to Favre. 297

invader out of France. Every four-and-twenty hours is for
us only one day, but for our enemies each hour's delay
brings fresh difficulties. England has made a great mistake
in not having stepped in before now, to tell Prussia that
her passing a certain limit would be in the eyes of England
a casus belli" ' "

Soon after one, the "Frenchmen came again, but the Chief
had ridden out with the War Minister, as was supposed, to
one of the forts, or to some more commanding point of
view, for they had taken field-glasses with them. Gerstacker
and Duboc called on me, and with the latter, who is living
as correspondent in the Saxon camp, I went for an hour into
the castle park. On the way home I learnt that the Chief
had been to Saint-Cloud, and the Frenchmen were waiting
for him meanwhile in our park.

At dinner Odo Russell, and a tall, strong young man in
dark blue uniform, were our guests. The latter, I was told,
was Count Bray, son of the Minister^ and formerly in the
Bavarian Embassy at Berlin. The Chief said to Russell,
" The English papers, and some German ones too, have
found fault with my letter to Favre, and called it too
harsh. He himself does not seem to be of that opinion.
He said to me of his own accord, ' You have done right to
remind me of my duty. I ought not to go away before
the end.' " After praising this self-renunciation, the Minister
repeated that our Parisians were unpractical people, and
that we were continually obliged to advise and assist them.
He added, that they now showed signs of wishing amend-
ments in the Convention of January 28. Outside the city
of Paris very little willingness to help in its re-provisioning
was displayed. The directors of the Rouen and Dieppe
Railway, for instance, whose assistance had been counted
upon, said they were short of working stock, as their loco-

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

motives had been taken to pieces^ and carried over to
England. Gambetta's action was still doubtful, though he
seemed to be thinking of continuing the war. It was neces-
sary that France should soon have a regular Government.
" If they do not soon establish one," he went on, " we will
give them a king. Everything is ready for it. Amadeo,
with a travelling-bag in his hand, entered Madrid as King
of Spain. Our King is coming immediately with a train,
with ministers, cooks, chamberlains, and an army."

The conversation then turned upon the property of
Napoleon, which was very .differently estimated, now as
great, and again as inconsiderable. Russell seemed to
doubt whether he -had much. The Empress, at least, he
thought, could not have much, for she never had more than
six thousand pounds deposited in the Bank of England.

It was then said that Count Maltzahn had already gone
into Paris, and when some one added that he had not
yet appeared again, the Chief said, " I only hope nothing
has happened to that stout person." He then told us that
on his way to Saint-Cloud to-day he had met many people with
beds and household gear, probably inhabitants of the vil-
lages hereabouts, who had not been able to get out of
Paris. " The women looked quite friendly," he said, " but,
as soon as they caught sight of our uniform, the men
assumed a hostile expression and a heroic attitude. It
reminds me of the old Neapolitan army, which had a word
of command, answering to our ' Arms to the charge ! right !'
— "■ Faccia feroce!' With the French, everything lies in a
magnificent attitude, a pompous speech, and an impressive
theatrical mien. If it only sounds right and looks like
something, the meaning is all one. They are like the
Potsdam burgher and householder, who once told me
that a speech of Radowitz had touched and affected him

XVIIL] The Danger of Oratory. 299

deeply. I asked him whether he could point out any
passage which had specially gone to his heart, or seemed
particularly fine. He could not name one. Thereupon I
read the whole speech out to him, and asked him what was
the affecting passage. It turned out that there was nothing
of the sort there, nothing either striking or affecting. It
was nothing but the manner and attitude of the orator
Which looked as if he were saying the deepest, most im-
portant, and most striking things — the thoughtful glance, the
devout eyes, the voice full of tone arid weight. It was the
same with Waldeck, though he was not so able a man or of
such distinguished appearance. In this case it was rather
the white beard, and his intellectual force.

" The gift of oratory has ruined much in parliamentary life.
Time is wasted because every one who feels ability in that
line, must have his word, even if he has no new point to
bring forward. Speaking is too much in the air, and too
little to the point. Everything is already settled in com-
mittees : a man speaks at length therefore only for the public,
to whom he wishes to show off as much as possible, and still
more for the newspapers, who are to praise him. ^ratory
will one day come to be looked upon as a generally hafmful
quahty,3nd a man will be punished who allows himself to
be guilty of a long speech. We have one body," he con-
tinued, "which admits no oratory, and has yet done more
for the German cause than almost any other — the Council of
the Confederation. I remember that at first some attempts
were made in that direction. But I put a stop to them.

" I said to them something like this : ' Gentlemen, we
have nothing to do here with eloquence and speeches inr
tended to produce conviction," because everyone brings his
conviction with him in his pocket — I mean, his instructions.
It is so much time lost. I propose that we confine ourselves

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

here to the statement of facts.' And so it was ; no one
again made a long speech. We get on so much the faster
with our business ; and the Council of the Confederation
has really done a great deal."

In the evening I read despatches, as well as some drafts ;
then drew up and sent off three telegrams, one upon Belfort
and the three South-Eastern departments, one upon the
hindrances in the way of revictualling Paris, and one upon
the difficulties raised by Faidherbe and d' Argent.

Friday, February 3. — Weather damp and cold. In the
forenoon, while the Chief was busy, I went again with
Wollmann to Saint-Cloud, the ruins of which still smoke con-
tinually, and smell of burning, and then beyond to the first
houses of Suresnes, at the foot of Mont Valdrien. Our
sentries are still posted along the banks of the Seine, but
everything has the most peaceable look, and one is struck
only by the deep stillness which reigns on the further side
of the stream, though a great town lies close to it. No
people are to be seen on that side, and the only sign of life
is on the water, where two boats, apparently fishing-smacks,
are gliding along.

At breakfast Bucher told us all kinds of characteristic
stories from the life of Gladstone. About one, I have a call
from Wachenhusen, who wishes to smuggle himself into
Paris.

About a quarter to four I was sent for by the Chief.
Gambetta has followed Laurier's example, and himself made
a declaration which is thoroughly warlike and despotic. A
proclamation to the French, signed by him, was issued on
January 31, and contained these words : —

"The enemy has inflicted on France the most grievous
injuries which our people have been fated to endure in this un-
fortunate war. Impregnable Paris, sorely pressed by hunger,

xvill.j Gambetta on the Armistice. 301

has been unable to keep the German hordes any longer at a
distance. On January 28th it fell." " It seems as if a gloomy
fate had in store for us still greater calamity, and even
bitterer pain. Without our being taken into counsel, an
Armistice has been signed, the reprehensible wantonness of
which we have only learned too late ; an armistice which
hands over to the Prussians the Departments still occupied
by our troops, and obliges us to remain quiet for three
weeks, while, in the present unfortunate condition of the
country, a National Assembly is being called together. We
have demanded explanations as to the state of Paris, and
remain silent till they are vouchsafed. We wish to wait for
the expected arrival of some member of the Government
from Paris, into whose hands we may resign our authority."
" No one has yet come from Paris. We must therefore, at
any price, take steps to frustrate the shameful plans of the
enemies of France. Prussia counts on the armistice un-
nerving and breaking up our armies. It lives in hope
that an assembly, meeting after a long train of disasters,
and under the terrible shock of the fall of Paris, will be
disheartened and ready to agree to an ignominious peace.
It lies with us to disappoint this calculation, and to use
every endeavour, that the means intended for stifling the
spirit of resistance may, in fact, add to it fresh life and
strength. Let us employ the Armistice in drilling our young
soldiers, and in bringing the organisation of Defence and
of the War to a state of greater efficiency than ever. Let
us do our utmost that, instead of the reactionary and faint-
hearted body of representatives expected by our enemies,
a truly national and republican assembly may meet, ready
for peace if the honour and inviolabihty of the country
is secured, but equally able and ready to vote for war,
to prevent France becoming the victim of assassination.

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

Frenchmen, let us think of our fathers, who handed France
down to us as a United and Indivisible State. Let us
guard against treason to our history, let us see that our
inheritance does not pass into the hands of barbarians ! "
This fanatic document ends with the appeal " To arms ! Vive
la France ! Long live the Republic One and Indivisible ! "

Gambetta issued at the same time a document in which
a number of persons were declared ineligible. In it he
observed : —

" Justice demands that all the accomplices of the Govern-
ment which began with the Coup d'etat of December 2,
and ended with the capitulation of Sedan, should be struck
for the future with the political impotence of the dynasty,
whose tools and abettors they were. This is the neces-
sary consequence of the responsibility which they undertook
in assisting the Emperor to carry out a certain policy. To
this category belong all persons who, between the 2nd of
December, 185 1, and the 4th of September, 1870, have held
the rank of minister, senator, privy councillor, or prefect.
Furthermore, all individuals who were in any way concerned
as Government candidates in the elections to the legislative
body during the same period, and the members of those
families who have ruled in France since 1789, are debarred
from election to the National Assembly."

In reference to this last manifesto, I telegraphed by the
Chiefs orders to London and Cologne, that the Government
in Bordeaux has, by an election circular, declared whole
classes of the population ineligible — ministers, senators,
councillors, and all who were formerly ofiScial candidates.
The fear expressed by Count Bismarck during the negotia-
tions for the Convention of January 28, that free elections
would not be allowed, has thus been justified. On this
account the Chancellor proposed at the time to summon the

XVIII.] French Journals on Gambettds Circiilar. 303

Legislative Body, but Favre would not consent. He has now
protested in a note against the exclusion of those men, and
it is only an Assembly constituted by free election, in the
sense of the Convention, that will be recognised by the
Germans as representative of France.

The Chief went with Gambetta's election circular to the
King, while the Parisian prefect of poHce was waiting to
speak to him in the drawing-room. He did not come to
dinner, but stayed to dine at the Prefecture. Abeken there-
fore took the head of our table, Scheidtmann and Count
Henckel being present as guests.

Summoned to the Chief at eight o'clock, I received
instructions to send for insertion in the Moniteur a copy of
a Reuter's telegram dated Bordeaux, February 2. It ran
thus : —

" The journals La Liberie, La Fatrie, Le Fran^ais, Le
Constitutionnel, L' Universel, Le Courrier de la Gironde et
Frovence, publish a protest against the Manifesto issued
by the Delegation of Bordeaux on January 31st, restricting
the freedom of election. They say, that before publishing
this protest they considered it their duty to send three
deputies to M. Jules Simon, to ask whether there was
not existing a proclamation bearing upon the elections,
which had been issued by the Parisian Government and
published in the Journal Officiel. M. Jules Simon answered,
that this manifesto did exist, that it bore date January 31st,
and had been unanimously accepted by the members of the
Government ; and that in it there were no restrictions on
the liberty of election. The only point insisted upon had
been that prefects were not eligible in the provinces where
they exercised their functions.* The elections in Paris have

* The main heads of this manifesto have been given above.

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

been fixed for February 5th ; in the provinces for February
8th. The Deputies are to meet on the 12th. The Journal
Officiel, containing this proclamation, has been sent out,
by order of the Parisian Government, into all the Depart-
ments. Jules Simon obtained a passport on January 31,
and started off on the same morning. On his arrival at
Bordeaux he summoned a meeting of the members of the
Delegation, in order to explain fully to them the state of
matters. At four o'clock in the afternoon a long dis-
cussion took place. Jules Simon declared to the repre-
sentatives of the press that he was prepared to stand by
the proclamation of the Parisian Government, and authorised
them to publish this declaration. The undersigned repre-
sentatives of the press have therefore only to await the
execution of the Parisian proclamation." Then follow the
signatures. Gambetta's dictatorship, then, has probably at
last come to an end. His stubbornness has cut the ground
from beneath his feet.

I was once more summoned to the Chief I telegraphed
the news of the successful battles of Manteufifel's southern
army at Pontarlier. We have taken there 15,000 French
prisoners, including two generals, nineteen guns and two
eagles.

Count Herbert has returned to-day to his father's house
from Germany. He was w:ith him at nine o'clock.

Saturday, February 4. — The weather is warmer than yes-
terday. In the morning I read the news and some drafts. I
see that the Chief has protested against Gambetta's Election
Circular in a double way — in a telegram addressed to himself,
and in a note to Favre. The former runs : — " In the name
of the freedom of election guaranteed by the Armistice-Con-
vention, I protest against the instructions issued in your name,
depriving numerous classes of the French people of the

XVIIL] Cofidition of Free Elections. 305

right of election to the Assembly. The rights, which are
given in the armistice-convention to freely-elected deputies,
cannot be acquired through elections carried on under the
influence of oppression and despotism." After briefly sum-
marising the contents of Gambetta's election-decree, the
despatch to Favre proceeds : — " I take the liberty of putting
to your Excellency the question whether you consider this
in accordance with the provision of the convention, that the
Assembly is to be constituted by free election. Will your
Excellency allow me to recall to your recollection the
negotiations which preceded the convention. Even then
I expressed my fear that it would be found difficult under
existing conditions to secure full liberty of election, and to
prevent any attempt that might be made against it. Having
this fear, which has now been justified by M. Gambetta's
circular, I raised the question whether it would not be
better to summon the Legislative Body, which was a lawful
authority, elected by universal suffrage. Your Excellency
declined this, and gave me your express promise that no
pressure should be put upon the electors, and the fullest
freedom of election should be assured to them. I appeal to
your Excellency's sense of fairness in asking you wliether
you think the exclusion of whole categories of candidates,
declared fundamentally in the decree now in question, is
compatible with the liberty of election guaranteed in the
convention of January 28th. I consider myself entitled to
express a confident hope that that decree, the application of
which would appear to contradict the provisions of the Con-
vention, will be immediately withdrawn, and that the Govern-
ment of National Defence will take such measures as will
efFectually guarantee the carrying out of the second article
of the convention, regarding the liberty of election. We
could not allow to persons elected according to the stipu-

VOL. II. X

3o6 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

lations of the Bordeaux Circular, the rights guaranteed to
the deputies of the National Assembly by the Armistice-
Convention."

As early as nine o'clock two officers of the National Guard
of Paris, an old man and a young one, appeared, bringing
a letter for the Chief — probably Favre's answer.

After ten the Chief sent for me, to say, " Here is a com-
plaint from Berhn that the English papers are far better
informed than ours, and that we communicated to our papers
so little of the negotiations for the armistice. How is this ? "
"Well, your Excellency," rephed I, "it is because the
English have more money, to go everywhere and pick up
information. And then they are so well recommended to
eminent personages, who tell them about everything — and,
besides, the military are not always quite close about things
which ought to be kept secret. I could only allow such of
the negotiations for the Convention to be published as it was
proper should appear." " Well, then," said he, " write,
pray, on this subject, and say that circumstances, and not
we, are to blame."

I ventured then to congratulate him upon the announce-
ment of honorary citizenship, which he is said to have re-
ceived lately, and to remark that Leipzig was a good town,
the best in Saxony, and one that I had always held dear.
" Yes," replied he, " an honorary citizen — I am a Saxon,
now, and a Hamburger, too, for I have one from there also.
That could not have been hoped for in i865."

I was going, when he said, " That reminds me — it is one
of the marvels of this time — write, please, something in
detail upon the singular fact that Gambetta, who has so long
had the character of representing liberty, and of fighting
against the influence of Government in the elections, now,
when he is himself in power, authorises the most flagrant

XVIIL] A Constitutional Barba7'ian. 307

encroachments upon freedom of election, and is de-
barring from the privilege of being elected all whom he
believes not to hold his own views — that is, the whole
of official France, with the exception of thirteen repub-
licans. That I should have to restore to the French their
liberty of election, in opposition to this Gambetta and
his accomplice and confederate. Garibaldi, is another won-
derful thing.'' I said, "I do no.t know whether it was
intentional, but in your protest to Gambetta it had a very
strange effect : the contrast between the sentence where ' in
the name of the freedom of election ' you guarded yourself
against ' the directions issued in your (Gambetta's) name for
depriving numerous classes of the right of election.' Might
that be pointed out?" "Yes," said he; "pray do so." —
" You may also," he added, smiling, " remind people that
Thiers, after his negotiations with me, called me an amiable
barbarian. They now call me in Paris a shrewd barbarian
(' un barbare asiutieux '), next time I shall probably be the
constitutional barbarian."

I here insert, by way of comparison, other remarks upon
the Prince from French papers and books of 1870-1874.
The record is given in a German paper, the name of
which I cannot give, as the label stuck upon the cutting
which contains it came off It runs somewhat as follows : —

* * -K * * *

The Chancellor remarked of himself in the Reichstag this
spring (1874) that he was the best hated man in Europe,
from the banks of the Garonne to the Neva. The following
may help to show the feelings entertained towards Bismarck
by his chief enemies the French, and to illustrate that
soon celebrated utterance. The German Chancellor occu-
pies the same place in the thoughts of the French, as
Hannibal did in those of the Romans. If the great Car-

X 2

3o8 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

thaginian was to the minds of the Quirites, the incarnation
of all that went against the grain with them or could thwart
their plans, the expression of every perfidy and intrigue,
these are also the relations between Bismarck and the French
to-day. His name has become a bugbear to France, just
as the HaJinibal ante portas (Hannibal at the gates) was a
terror to Rome. Wherever anything happens in the world
which goes against the grain with the French, Bismarck is
the cause of it. In this way this utterly hated man has
qualities attributed to him which no mortal is conscious of
possessing : omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence. With
the outbursts of hatred, however, there is always mingled
a good deal of involuntary admiration. Like Balaam, the
French must now and then bless when they mean to curse.
This phenomenon may be traced in the French press with
tolerable accuracy. The French papers usually speak of
the Chancellor, if they have no quarrel with him, without
ceremony as M. de Bismarck. They do not, however, always
ignore the elevation of rank which he has acquired ; at
times, though not very frequently, they have to do with
le Prince de Bismarck. The title of Prince reminds them
at once of the services by which it was won, connected
as they are with the repulse of French insolence, and the
weakening of the French power of offence. OfScially
speaking he is, according to his friends west of the Vosges,
Chancellor, to which is usually added some epithet, such
as Prince Chancellor, Illustrious Chancellor, Arch-Chan-
cellor, or Grand Chancellor. In regard to his political
bias, the French are not all of one opinion, but maintain
in that respect very various views. At one time the papers
call him " the defender of aristocratical ideas," at another
"the champion of modern Liberalism and of human reason,"
or again, " the apostle of Liberalism." In the French papers.

XVIII.] Bismarck as seen by the French. 309

which hold liberal views, these designations, which pre-
suppose Bismarck to have two souls, appear harmoniously
side by side. The Legitimist and clerical prints express
themselves more logically ; with them he is always " this
revolutionary." The Chancellor's high statesmanlike quali-
fications are fully recognised by the French.

From a diplomatic point of view he is " the illustrious
diplomatist,'' " I'homme de Biarritz^' which seems to
signify a magnificent success, just as " rhomme de Sedan "
implies a frightful defeat. He is " an able man, always on
the spot, with his finger in everything. He sees in the most
trifling opportunities the way to attain his end." Apropos of
the policy by which the Chancellor triumphed over France,
they say, " He profits by our perplexities with admirable
skill ; and always turns them adroitly to account." As
opposed to poor innocent France, who has troubled no
man's water, who loves peace, who has no other ambition than
to live and prosper quietly, he is " the implacable German
Chancellor." A phrase is used to express Bismarck's home
and foreign policy, borrowed from the party of progress, " the
man of might above right." Like the German democratic
papers, the French papers also speak of him as a politician
of blood and iron. He is " the celebrated author of the
policy of blood and iron." Again, he is "the Machiavellian
Chancellor," while he is at the same time described (ironi-
cally, no doubt), as " the high-minded and God-fearing man."
As is known, this expression is properly used only of the
country of Prussia, but from the French point of view the
country has become incarnate in Bismarck ; the Chancellor
is the collective embodiment of Prussian qualities, their type
and quintessence : " le Grand honime Prussieii" "/^ Grand-
Frussien." The last expression was invented by the
" Union," and is clearly modelled upon the Grand Turk.

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

To the French Ultramontanes Bismarck is neither more
nor less than the Turk, the incarnation of the Evil Principle
itself, the Antichrist, Beelzebub, as the clerical Revue de
la Fresse may boast to have dubbed him. With extremely
abortive envy and Jealousy the Constitutionnel calls him
further "the pivot of society," the pole round which the
whole of existing society revolves. If the French wish to
sum up in a word the magnificent successes of Bismarck
they call him in characteristic fashion not " the conqueror
of Sedan" or the like, but " the conqueror of Sadowa." His
victories over the French are ignored, they have no existence
as such, they are regarded rather as the treasons of the Em-
peror Napoleon and his generals. The poor Austrians must
suffer accordingly for not being invincible like the French.
To express his greatness the proud title is given him
of "Z^ Richelieu de la Frusse," which in a Frenchman's
mouth sums up all statesmanlike and diplomatic ability.
Others again cannot put him so high ; but bring him
down one place and call him only "Foligitac en politique"
but certainly " Polignac successful, the bold and powerful
minister.'' Finally Bismarck's Creation, tlie new German
Empire, is called by the clerical press in France, " the
Godless Empire of M. de Bismarck " — of course, why what
else could be expected of Beelzebub ? Their doubts as to
the permanence of this creation are expressed by the French
in these words, " He is a terrible gambler." That there is
nothing so very extraordinary in their eyes in the establish-
ment of the Empire they signify by saying, " Bismarck is

only a plagiarist."

******

I return to what the journal has to tell of events in
Versailles on February 4, 187 1.

This morning the Chief had more time and interest than

xvill.] A French Life of Bismarck. 311

usual recently for the papers. I was sent for six times before
noon. At one of them he gave me a lying French brochure:
" War as made by the Prussians," and remarked thereupon,
" I should like you, please, to write to Berlin. They must
draw up something similar on our side, with reference to the
cruelties, barbarities, and breaches of the Convention (of
Geneva) committed by the French. But not too long, or
no one will read it, and it must appear quickly." The next
time the question was of several newspaper cuttings " for my
collection." Then again, he showed me a small paper, pub-
lished by a certain Armand le Chevalier, 6, Rue Richelieu,
with a woodcut portrait of the Chancellor on the frontispiece,
and said, " Look here, here is a recommendation with refer-
ence to Blind's attempt to assassinate me, and my portrait is
given too — like the photographs of the Francs-tireurs. You
know that in the forests of the Ardennes, photographs of
such of our skirmishers as were to be shot were found in
the pockets of the Francs-tireurs. Luckily no one can say
that my likeness is specially well hit off in this — nor for the
matter of that my biography either. This passage " (he read
it aloud and then handed me the paper) " should be sent to
the papers with a moral to it, and then appear as a
pamphlet."

Finally he gave me some more French newspapers, saying,
"Just look whether there is anything there for me or the
King. I shall be off, or the gentlemen from Paris will catch
me again."

In M. Chevalier's paper it is in fact stated in rather plain
terms by a certain '' Ferragus," that France would welcome
with approval the Chiefs assassination, although he is,
properly speaking, a benefactor to the French. The author,
whose style savours of Victor Hugo's school, says :

" Bismarck has probably done better service to France

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

than to Germany. He has worked for a false unity in his
own country, but very effectually for a regeneration of ours.
He has freed us from the Empire. He has restored to us
our energy, our hatred of the foreigner, our love for our
country, our contempt for life, our readiness for self-sacrifice,
in short, all the virtues which Buonaparte had killed in us.

" Honour therefore to this grim foe who saves us, when
seeking to destroy us. Meaning to kill us he summons us to
immortality, at the same time adding impetus to our earthly
life. The blood which he spills fructifies our country ; the
twigs which he lops off allow the tree to absorb more sap.
You will see how much greater we shall be when we escape
from these fearful but wholesome toils. We have to expiate
twenty years of forgetfulness of duty, of luxury, and of
servility. The visitation is severe, but the result will be
glorious. I call to witness the manly attitude of Paris, and
the hunger after justice and honour with which our bosoms
swell. To-day when one passes the door of the opera-house,
one is smitten with shame. Those nudities, which were so
brightly illumined by the sun of the Empire, shock the
modesty of the Republic ; we turn away from this typical
memorial of another age, another grade of civilisation. It
is Bismarck who has imbued us with this Puritan pride. Let
us not thank him for it, but pay back with manly hatred
this involuntary benefit from a man who, mightier' to destroy
than to construct, is more easily cursed than hailed with
applause. Prussia has made him its great man, but on the
8th of May, 1866, the whole country mourned the fate of a
young fanatic, a student, who seeing in Bismarck an enemy
of freedom, fired five' pistol-shots at him.

"Bind [as the author further on calls Blind's stepson]
belonged to that class of inspired people, represented by Karl
Sand, the murderer of Kotzebue, Stapss, who tried to stab

XVIII.] Should he be Assassinated f 313

Napoleon at Schonbnmn, and Oscar Becker, the author of
the attempt upon the King of Prussia. Bind was not
deceived when he gave himself credit for a Roman soul,
for he behaved like a Stoic after his capture, and himself
opened the artery in his neck, to rob the executioner of
his victim.

" If we were to hear to-day that a more successful attempt
had been made upon Bismarck, would France have the
generosity not to applaud it ? So much is certain that this
frightful question of political assassination will always remain
one of relative morality, until it is eradicated from the minds
of nations together with capital punishment and war. At
this time, in October, 1870, one would hail as saviour a
man, who, three months before, would have been branded as
a common ' murderer,' " — a fine sign truly of the regenera-
tion, which, according to the opening words of the article, is
supposed to have taken place in France, and of the hunger
after justice and honour, with which the writer sees his
countrymen's bosoms swelling.

The Chief rode out about one o'clock, but was " caught "
after all by Favre, who came in in the meantime, and worked
with him up in the little drawing-room.

Prince Putbus and Count Lehndorff were present at
dinner. The Chief told us first that he had called Favre's
attention also to the remarkable fact that he, who was
decried as the despotic and tyrannical Count von Bismarck,
had been obliged to protest, in the name of freedom, against
the proclamation of Gambetta, the advocate of freedom,
who wished to deprive many hundreds of his countrymen of
eligibility, and all of freedom of election. He added that
Favre had acknowledged this with a " oui, dest Men drble."
However, the restrictions upon free election, authorised by
Gambetta, had been by this time withdrawn and repealed

314 Bismarck in the Fj-anco-German War. [Chap.

by the Parisian part of the French Government " He told
me so," said he, " this morning by letter (that which was
brought by the officers of the National Guard), and has now
confirmed it by word of mouth."

It was then mentioned that several German papers had
been discontented with the Capitulation, having expected
our troops to march at once into Paris. Thereupon the
Chief remarked : " That arises from total ignorance of the
situation here and in Paris. I might have arranged it
with Favre, but the population — They had strong barri-
cades, and 300,000 men, of whom certainly 100,000 would
have fought. Enough blood — German blood — has been
shed in this war. If we had tried to use force, far more
would have been spilt in the irritation of the inhabitants.
Merely to inflict another humiliation upon them, — it would
have been bought too dear." After a little meditation
he went on, "And who told them we should not still
march in and occupy a part of Paris ? Or at least march
through, when they have cooled down and listened to
reason. The Armistice will probably have to be prolonged,
and in return for this concession we can demand to occupy
Paris on the right bank. I think we shall be there in
some three weeks." "The 24th" — he thought a little —
"yes, it was a 24th when the Constitution of the North
German Confederation was proclaimed. It was on the
24th of February, 1859, that we lived to see a, shameful
event in Frankfort. I told them at the time that they would
be paid out for it. You will soon see. Exoriare aliquis —
I am only sorry that the Wiirtemberger (the ambassador of
the Diet), old Reinhart, has not lived to see it. But
Prokesch has, I am glad to say, who was the worst. He
is now quite at one with us, praises the energetic and
spirited poHcy of Prussia, and always " (here the Minister

XVIII.] Cest la Guerre. 3 1 5

laughed ironically) "or long ago, at least, recommended
Union with us."

The Chief then mentioned that he had been to-day at
Mont Val&ien. " I was never there before,'' said he, " and
when one sees the strong earthworks and numerous pro-
visions for defence — we should have left many men lying
there if we had attempted to storm it ; I cannot think of it."

He next informed us that Favre had to-day come over to
ask us to let out of Paris the crowds of country people who
took refuge in the town in September. They were mostly
people from the suburbs, and must number about 300,000.
" I refused him," he went on ; " giving him for answer, ' Our
soldiers are occupying their houses, and if the possessors
come out and see how their property has been carried off
and ravaged, they will be furious (and I cannot blame them),
and tax our people with it ; and that might lead to awkward
scuffles, and perhaps something worse.' " He then recurred
to his excursion to Saint-Cloud and Suresnes, and said
incidentally : " When I was looking at the place in the
castle where the fire was, and thinking of the room where
I had dined with the Emperor, a well-dressed gentleman,
who had probably come from Paris, was there, being taken
about by a man in a blouse. I could easily make out what
tliey were saying, for they spoke loudly, and I have good
ears. ' C est l' eeuvre de Bismarck,' said the man in the blouse.
But the other only answered : ' Cest la guerre.' If they had
known that I heard them ! "

Count Bismarck-Bohlen then told us that the Landwehr
somewhere hereabouts had punished a Frenchman who
resisted an officer and struck at him with a penknife, by
giving him seventy-five blows with the flat of a sword.
" Seventy-five !" said the Chief; " H'm, that is too much."
Some one told of a similar case that had happened near

3i6 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

Meaux, where, when Count Herbert lately passed through,
the soldiers had laid hold of a miller, who had abused
Count Bismarck and expressed a wish to have him between
two mill-stones, and had flogged him with such terrible
severity, that he was not able to move for several hours
after.

The Election Programmes, which the candidates for
the National Assembly had posted at the street corners to
recommend themselves to their dear fellow-citizens, were
then spoken of Some passages were quoted from them, and
it was remarked generally, that they still rode very much the
high horse in Bordeaux, and promised to do mighty things.
"Yes," said the Chief, "that I can imagine. Favre even
tried once or twice to assume the high-heeled buskin. But
it did not last long. I always brought him down at once
with a light jest."

Some one spoke of Klaczko's speech iiji the Senate on
January 30, against a combination between Austria and
Prussia, and of Giskra's disclosure which appears in the
morning edition of the National Zeitung for February 2.
The latter had said that Bismarck sent him from Briinn to
Vienna with peace proposals to the following effect : a
statics quo ante bellum except in Venetia ; the Prussian Hege-
mony to be bounded by the Maine ; no war expenses, but
the mediation of France to be declined at the conclusion of
peace. Giskra sent Baron Herring to Vienna with the pro-
posals, but he had been coldly received by Moritz Ester-
hazy, and sent away with an evasive answer after waiting
sixteen hours. He then went to Nicolsburg, where he met
Benedetti, and received the answer, " You come too late."
The French mediation, therefore, as Giskra maintained, cost
Austria a war indemnity of thirty milliotis.

It was remarked that Prussia might at that time, have

XVIII.] Hurrah for Bismarck ! 317

easily taken more from Austria, even in land, as for in-
stance Austrian Silesia, and perhaps Bohemia. The Chief
answered, " That is possible. But money — what more
could they give ! Bohemia might have been of some use,
and there were people who thought of it. But it would
have involved us in difficulties, and Austrian Silesia would
have been of little value to us.. It is just there that the
sympathy for the Imperial house, and the attachment to
Austria are strongest. The question in such cases is not
what one can get, but what one wants.''

A propos of this, he continued, that once in Nicolsburg he

had gone out in plain dress, and had met two gendarmes,

who had arrested a man. " I asked them what he had done,

but of course as a civilian I got no answer,'' said he. " I then

enquired of the man himself, and he told me it was because

he had spoken disrespectfully of Count Bismarck. They

were nearly carrying me off, too, because I said that many

people had done that. That reminds me that I was once

obliged to give a cheer for myself It was in 1866, after the

entry of the troops, in the evening. I happened to be

unwell, and my wife would not let me go out. I slipped

out, however, and when I wanted to cross the street back

again by Prince Karl's palace, there was a great crowd

of people collected, with the intention of giving me an

Ovation. I was in plain clothes, and in my broad hat, which

for some reason I had pressed down over my brow, must

have looked suspicious, for some of them looked askance at

me. I thought it best, therefore, to join in with their

hurrahs.''

From eight o'clock I read drafts and letters, including
Favre's answer to the Chiefs inquiry about Gambetta's
election manceuvre. It runs thus : —

" You are right to appeal to my sense of justice, in which

3i8 Bismarck in the Franco-German War. [Chap.

you will never find me wanting. It is quite true that your
Excellency urged me strongly to adopt as the only possible
expedient — the summoning of the former Legislative Body.
I declined this on several grounds, which I need not recall,
but which you have certainly not forgotten. In answer to
the remonstrances of your Excellency, I said that I believed
myself sufficiently sure of my country to be able to assert
that its only wish is for free election, and that the principle
of the Sovereignty of the People is its only resource. That
will be enough to show you that I cannot agree to the re-
striction which has been laid on the elector's right of voting.

" I have not fought against the system of official candi-
datures, to re-introduce it for the benefit of the present
Government. Your Excellency may therefore rest assured
that if the decree, of which you speak, has been issued
by the delegation at Bordeaux, it will be recalled by the
Government of National Defence. I only ask to be
allowed to procure for myself an official assurance of the
existence of this decree, which I can do by a telegram to
be despatched to-day. Accordingly there is no difference of
opinion between us, and we must work each with the other
for the execution of the convention we have signed."

At nine o'clock I am called to the Chief, who wishes an
article written to the effect that the entry of our troops
is impracticable just now, but possible later on. It was a
criticism of the armistice in the National Zeitung, which
suggested this. It began : — " As a war is at any time fertile
in inscrutable surprises, we find that great event, the fall
of Paris, accompanied in its last phases by unexpected cir-
cumstances. Most people, not in Germany alone, had assumed
that our armies would one day make a brilliant entry through
the open gates of the enemy's capital, and these brave armies
themselves had counted upon this well-earned satisfaction

XVIII.] An Entry into Paris. 319

of war. Instead of this, they are content with the occupa-
tion of the outworks, from which they look down upon the
vanquished city, in which all the soldiers of the line and
the Garde Mobile, except 12,000 men, lay down their arms
and remain prisoners." " This Convention of Versailles not
only appears on the face of it wanting in brilliancy, but it
gives the impression of our acquisition being less complete
than if we had at once marched into the city and seized
upon all their materials of war.'' Further on it is asserted,

" In November Favre thought of war ; in January, of
peace." I am to say, on the other hand, that the " brilliant
entry" might have been an entry over barricades. To wish
for it is completely to mistake the position of things, and to
show total ignorance of what is possible, or likely, under
existing circumstances. The French Government might
probably have agreed to an occupation of Paris by our
troops, had we insisted upon it ; but a very large mass of
the population would, in their present state of excitement,
have taken up arms to resist it, and the entry would have
cost us further bloodshed, when surely enough blood has
been shed in this war already. Let us wait awhile, till cir-
cumstances have changed, till people in Paris have cooled
down. The brilliant entry, the occupation of some part of
Paris, is by no means excluded by the convention of
January 28 j it is even suggested in it. Article 4 only says :
" During the armistice the German army will not enter
Paris." The armistice will, in all probability, have to be
extended, and then, as a compensation for our consent to
this, we can impose the condition that we march into Paris,
and so, in about three weeks' time, this may be done
without a struggle and with no loss to us. The National
Guard will also be disbanded and reorganised, but gradually,
by the French Government. We can do nothing towards

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

that ; we have not to help in the government. Favre
dechned to negotiate about peace, with the remark that
the representatives of the people were alone competent to
the task.

Later, I am once more called to the Chief. An article in
the Volks-Zeitung, from Cologne, points out that the Ultra-
montanes have offered money support to the leaders of the
Universal German Workmen's Union, if they will work for the
election of clerical candidates. We shall remark upon this,
and at the same time speak in the press of a Savigny-Bebel
party, or of the Liebknecht-Savigny fraction.

Sunday, February 5. — A milder day ; the spring seems
already drawing near. In the morning I worked diligently.
The Chief's guests at dinner are Favre, d'H^risson, and the
Director of the Western Railway, a man apparently about
thirty-six years old, with a broad, jolly-looking, laughing
countenance. Favre, who sits at the upper end of the
table, looks anxious, harassed, and depressed, hangs his
head on one side or by way of a change upon his breast,
drops his under-lip. When he is not eating he folds his
hands upon the table-cloth, in token of his submission to the
will of fate, or crosses his arms like the first Napoleon, to
show that on a closer consideration of matters he still feels
like himself. During dinner the Chief speaks only French,
and mostly in a subdued voice. I was too far off to be
able to follow him distinctly.

In the evening I am several times sent for by the Chief,
and various matters are prepared for the press. The four
members of the Bordeaux Delegation have, we learn by
telegraph, issued a proclamation confirming Gambetta's
decree about the elections. It is stated therein that Jules
Simon, member of the Parisian Government^ has brought
news to Bordeaux of an election decree^ which does not

XVIII.] Bordeaux and Paris. 321

tally with that issued by the government in Bordeaux. The
Government in Paris had been shut up for four months,
and cut off from all connection with public opinion ; nay
more, they are at the present time in the position of pri-
soners of war. There is nothing against the supposition
that, had they been better informed, they would have acted
in accord with the government in Bordeaux ; and as little
to prove that, when they gave Jules Simon orders to see
after the elections, they would have expressed themselves
in unqualified and offensive terms against the ineligibility of
certain persons. The Bordeaux government therefore con-
siders itself bound to abide by its election decree ; and, in
spite of the interference of Count Bismarck in the internal
affairs of the country, maintains its position in the name of
the honour and the interests of France.

An open quarrel has thus been introduced in the enemy's
camp, and Gambetta's retirement may be looked for at
any moment. The Parisian Government, in a proclama-
tion to the French on the 4th, which appears in the
Journal Officiel, and will be printed in the Moniieur, has
branded Gambetta as " unjust and foolhardy " {si injusteet si
iemeraire), and then declared : " We have summoned France
to the free election of an Assembly, which shall make
known her wishes at this extreme crisis. We recognise no
man's right to force a decision upon the country, whether
it be for peace or for war. A nation which is assailed by
a powerful foe, fights to the uttermost, but retains the
right of judging at what moment resistance ceases to be
possible. This, then, is what the country will decide when
questioned as to its destiny. In order that its will may be
imposed on all as recognised law, we need the sovereign
expression of the free votes of all. We do not admit

VOL. II. Y

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

that arbitrary restrictions can be put upon the voting. We
have overcome the Empire and its practices, and we do not
intend to begin them over again by introducing the expe-
dient of an official exclusion of candidates. Nothing is more
true than that great mistakes have been made, entailing
severe responsibilities, but all this is hidden by the mis-
fortunes of the country. Should we condescend to the role
of partisans, by pointing the finger at our former opponents,
we should bring upon ourselves the pain and the disgrace of
punishing men who are fighting and shedding their blood
in our cause. To remember past dissensions at the moment
when masses of the enemy are in occupation of our blood-
drenched soil, is so far, to injure the great work of delivering
our country. We place our principles above these expe-
dients. We do not wish the first proclamation summoning
the Republican Assembly in the year 1871, to be an act of
disrespect to the electors. To them belongs the ultimate
decision; let them give it without weakness, and our country
may be saved. The Government of National Defence rejects,
therefore, the illegally-issued decree of the Bordeaux Dele-
gation, and declares it, as far as is necessary, null and
void ; and it calls upon all Frenchmen without distinction to
give their votes for such representatives as seem to them
best fitted to defend France."

At the same time to-day's Journal Officiel publishes the
following proclamation : — " The Government of National
Defence, in regard to a decree dated January 31st, issued by
the Delegation in Bordeaux, in which various classes, of
citizens, who are eligible according to the Government
decree of January 29, 1871, are declared ineligible, gives
notice as follows : ' The before-mentioned decree issued by
the- Bordeaux Delegation is annulled. The decrees of
January 29, 187 1, remain in full force throughout.'"

XVIII.] Scientific principles on Tree-felling. 323

The Kolnische Zeitung has become, with some reservations
certainly, an organ of complaint against the asserted de-
struction of the French forests by our officials. It might,
one would think, do better than trouble itself as to whether
we are taking toll from the state forests of France on a
right system. We act upon scientific principles, if not ac-
cording to French ideas about tree-felling. Moreover, the
most reckless exhaustion of this source of help to the enemy
would be justifiable, on the ground that it might induce him
to make peace with us sooner.

The conduct of the Duke of Meiningen deserves warm
recognition. Instead of sitting still in Versailles, consulting
his comfort, and enjoying the sight of an action from a safe
distance, he has followed his regiment in the army corps
commanded by Prince Albert ; has taken his share in all its
hardships, privations, and dangers, and many times over has
helped his subjects, who are fighting for their fatherland in
the ranks of the German army.

Monday, February 6. — Mild weather. In the morning the
Chief wishes an article written against Gambetta. I drew
up the following : —

" The Convention of January 28, concluded between
Count von Bismarck and M. Jules Favre, raised to new life
the hopes of all true friends of peace. Since the events of Sep-
tember 4, enough satisfaction had been given to the military
honour of Germany, so that there was room for the wish to
enter into negotiations with a Government really represent-
ing the French nation, for a peace which should guarantee
the fruits of victory, and place our future upon a safe footing.
When the Governments represented in Versailles and
Paris were able to come to terms about a convention,
in accordance with the urgent pressure of circumstances,

Y 2

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

and which would restore France to herself, they were justified
in the expectation that this first step in a new era of mutual
relations between the two countries would be generally-
approved. The decree of M. Gambetta, which declared the
former high officials and dignitaries, senators and official
candidates, ineligible, was probably necessary to show France
the whole depth of the abyss which lay open before her,
when the Dictatorship, lavish of the most precious blood
of France, refused to call regularly together the repre-
sentatives of the nation.

"Article 2 of the Convention of January 28 is thus
worded : ' The Armistice thus agreed upon has for its
object, to allow the Government of National Defence to
call together a freely-elected Assembly, which shall decide
whether the war is to be continued, or whether, and
under what conditions, peace is to be concluded. The
Assembly will meet in the town of Bordeaux. The com-
manders of the German army will afford every facility for
the election and the assembling of the Deputies, of whom
it will consist.'

" In this sentence it is clearly and unmistakeably implied
that liberty of election is one of the conditions of the Con-
vention itself, and it would be wholly out of the question for
any one to seek to avail himself of its other advantages,
and to limit the area of the conditions, which in their
entirety alone contain the elements of reconciliation. When
Germany lent its aid to the elections, it had in view only
the laws actually existing in France, not the whim and
pleasure of this or that popular tribunal. On this principle
it would be quite as easy to summon a Rump Parliament in
Bordeaux, and create an instrument with which to strike
the other half of France. At the outset we are convinced
of this : that all true and honourable patriots in France

XVIII.] Hunger in Paris. 325

will protest against the act of the Delegation in Bordeaux,
which every man in his senses would call sheer despotism.
If this act had as its object to rally all those anarchical
parties, which endure a Dictatorship, when it promotes their
pet ideas, complications of the worst kind would infallibly
have resulted from it.

" Germany has no intention of in any way interfering
in the internal affairs of France. But by the Convention of
January 28th she acquired the right to see a public power
appointed, with the necessary qualifications for carrying on.
peace negotiations in the name of France. If Germany's
right to treat for peace with the assembled nation is ques-
tioned ; if the representation of one party is to be put in
place of the representation of the nation, the Armistice-
Convention itself will become null and void. We freely
admit that the Government of National Defence has lost no
time in acknowledging the justice of the complaints made
by Count Bismarck in his despatch of February 3rd. In
noble and honourable language this government has given
its account to the French people of the difficulties of the
situation, and the exertions it has made to avoid the last
consequences of an unfortunate campaign. It has at the
same time declared the decree of the Delegation in Bordeaux
null and void. Let us then hope that M. Gambetta's attempt
will meet with no response in the country, but that the elec-
tions will take place in complete accordance with the letter
and spirit of the Convention of January 28th."

I wrote another article to the following effect : Hunger
in Paris cannot yet be very extreme, or at least cannot be
so dangerous as one might suppose from Favre's expres-
sions. Though our stores have been at the disposal of the
Parisians for the last eight days, no use has yet been made
of them. General von Stosch reports that not a pound of

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

meal or of meat has yet been carried away by them. They
left moreover considerable stores of biscuits and salt meat
behind them in the forts which they evacuated, and our
people, who have been in Paris, have seen a great quantity
of meal — even considering the number of the inhabitants —
in one of the magazines there. "The reason, it must be
remembered," remarked the Chief, " for the re-provisioning
going on so slowly is, that the necessary orders have a long
way to go from the general to the sentry."

About eleven o'clock I am once more summoned to him.
I am to defend Favre against certain attacks of a severe
character, which have been published in some French papers.
" The Paris journals reproach Favre for having dined with
me," said the Chief " I had great trouble in bringing him
to it. But it is quite absurd to expect that after working
eight or ten hours with me he was either to starve, like a
staunch Republican, or go to a hotel, where people would
run after him as a notable personage, and the street boys
would stare at him."

From two to four o'clock the Frenchmen are here again,
six or seven strong, including Favre, and, if I heard aright.
General Leflo. The Chief's elder son and Count Donhoff
were our guests at dinner.

In the evening I drew up a paragraph upon the Times
telegram from Berlin, to the effect that at the conclusion of
peace we shall demand from the French twenty ironclads,
the colony of Pondicherry, and ten Milliards of francs as
war indemnity. I described, it as a downright invention,
which one could hardly imagine would have been believed
or would have given anxiety in England; and I indicated
the source from which it was probably derived — the brain
of some clumsy person in the diplomatic world, who wishes
us ill and is spinning intrigues against us.

XVIII.] GambettoHs Resignation. 327

Tuesday, February 7. — The weather is mild ; in the morn-
ing there was a fog, which did not hft till noon. The
government of Prince Charles seems really likely to come
to an end soon in Bucharest. In Darmstadt, owing to Dal-
wigk's staying in office, the old party opposed to the Empire
remains firm, and the well-known Cabal goes on weaving its
intrigues. From Bordeaux the expected news is telegraphed,
that Gambetta has informed the prefects by circular, that in
consequence of the annulment of his election decree by his
Parisian colleagues, he has sent them his resignation — a
good sign. He must know that he has no strong party at
his back, or he would not have gone so easily. In Paris the
mobilised National Guard, the regiments of Paris, have been
disbanded by the Government.

General von Alvensleben, Count Herbert, and Bleichroder,
the banker, dine with us. There is nothing remarkable in
the conversation, the Chief speaking mostly in a low voice
to Alvensleben. I feel exhausted, probably on account of
my sitting up every night over my journal. I must stop
it, or cut it shorter. There is to-day a fine additional
trait to be noted in Gambetta's activity. The Soir states,
that some days after the last sortie of the Parisians the
following despatches were publicly posted up by the Dic-
tator's orders in all the country communes not occupied
by us :

" Three days' battle ! On the 17th, i8th, and 19th,
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. On the last day, Friday,
a magnificent sortie ; 200,000 men, the troops commanded
by Trochu, broke through Saint-Cloud and over the heights
of Garches. The Prussians were driven out of the park of
Saint-Cloud, where terrible slaughter took place. The French
forced their way up to the toll-gate of Versailles. Result :
20,000 Prussians hors de combat, all their works destroyed,

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

their guns taken, spiked, or thrown into the Seine. The
National Guard fought in the van." If Gambetta talks like
this of Paris, where his statements can easily be checked,
what fictions may he not have imposed upon the pro-
vincials !

Wednesday, February 8. — The air mild, as yesterday, the
sky bright and sunny. I am still more worn out, and I am
so giddy that I am like to fall. It may only be the ordinary
spring languor ; I will keep it under as well as I can. The
Chief is up in unusually good time, and goes to the King as
early as a quarter past nine. Shortly before one comes
Favre with a whole swarm of Frenchmen, as many as ten or
twelve. He has an interview with the Minister, who had
previously breakfasted with us. There were also present
Donhoff and Hatzfeld's brother-in-law, a Mr. Moulton, a
somewhat confident, but amusing young gentleman.

In the evening the Chief dines with his son at the Crown
Prince's, but first he was with us for a while. He again
observes that Favre had not taken his " malicious letter "
amiss, but thanked him for it, and adds that he (the Chief)
had repeated to him by word of mouth that it was his duty
to help to eat up the broth he had had a hand in brewing.
He then mentioned that to-day the bringing in of the con-
tribution from Paris had been spoken of, that they wanted
to pay part of it in bank-notes, by which we should have
been losers. " How much what they offer comes to I know
not," said he. " In any case they would gain by it. But
they must pay all that has been agreed upon ; not a franc
will I abate." As he rose to go, he gave Abeken a telegram
on pink paper, and said, " This is mere bosh. I can get
on without Orleans, and if need be without Louis too.''

Thursday, February 9. — To-day, for once in a way, the
Parisians did not come. In the morning I read the text of

XVIII.] Pondicherry and German Colonies. 329

the address, with which Gambetta, at 6 p.m., took his leave
of the French people. It runs —

" My conscience obliges me to resign my office as member
of a government whose views or hopes I am no longer
able to share. I have the honour to inform you that I have
to-day sent in my resignation. I thank you for the patriotic
and indulgent support I have always received from you
when it was a question of carrying to a satisfactory conclusion
the task I had undertaken, and I beg to be allowed to tell
you that my deeply-formed conviction is, that considering
the short notice and the grave interests which are at stake,
you will do a great service to the Republic, if you take in
■hand the elections on the 8th of February, and reserve to
yourselves the right of coming after this period to such con-
clusions as become you. I pray you to accept the expression
of my fraternal sentiments."

The Chief rode out to-day before two o'clock with Count
Herbert, and a young lieutenant of the body-guard, the son
of his cousin Bismarck-Bohlen (who is Governor-General in
Elsass). He did not come back till after five. Qf the conver-
sation at dinner, where both these gentlemen were present,
the following is noteworthy. The Chancellor, speaking
again of the Paris contribution, said, " Stosch told me he
could use fifty millions in bank-notes to make payments
inside France for provisions and the like. But the other
hundred and fifty must be funded in due course." Speak-
ing afterwards of the fable of our thinking of taking posses-
sion of Pondicherry, after giving other explanations of this
clumsy invention, he said, " I want no colonies. They
are good for nothing but supply stations. For us in
Germany, this colonial business would be just like the

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

silken sables in the noble families of Poland, who have
no shirts to their backs." He added further remarks in the
same sense.

In the evening the Chief sent me for consideration a very-
confused and wrong-headed letter from Jacoby, teeming with
slanders and misrepresentations, in La France. I afterwards
prepared three articles, including the following for our
Moniteur.

" The line of demarcation defined in the Convention of
January 28 divides the town of Saint-Denis in such a way
that the greater part of it falls into the neutral zone. Now
as the inhabitants of this part being without certificate have
no claim on provisions in the German zone, and can no
longer enter Paris, the consequence is that considerable '
scarcity has arisen, during which this hard-pressed population
has unceasingly besieged the stations of the German oflScers
charged with the scrutiny of certificates. Being informed of
this state of things. Count Bismarck wrote to Jules Favre a
letter which we here publish in full. At the same time the
Chancellor applied to the German military authorities, and
induced them to let the inhabitants of Saint-Denis have food
provisionally and as a present. His Majesty the Emperor
issued orders accordingly, and 15,000 portions have been
distributed from the magazines of the German army.

Count Bismarck's letter runs ' The commune of Saint-Denis
has been so cut in two by the line of demarcation, that the
greater part of it falls within the neutral zone. Up to the
time of the Convention provisions were procured from the
city of Paris and distributed through the mayoralty of Saint-
Denis. The inhabitants who are in the neutral zone now
see themselves cut off from Paris, which no longer gives
them anything, and they are forbidden to look for food out-
side the line of demarcation. This unfortunate population,

XVIII.] Between Two Stools. 331

therefore, which has already suffered severely by the war, has
now fallen into a condition which calls for aid in the interests
of humanity. I have the honour to direct your Excellency's
attention to this point, and to ask you to take the necessary
measures to secure means of sustenance to that portion of
the inhabitants of Saint-Denis which is in the neutral zone.
Pending these measures I have requested the German mili-
tary authorities to assist in providing for this population by
handing over to them as a present some food from our own
stores.' "

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

CHAPTER XIX.

FROM GAMBETTA'S RETIREMENT TO THE CONCLUSION" OF
THE PEACE PRELIMINARIES.

Friday, February lo. — Fresh complaints about the intrigues
of Dahvigk, and especially about measures which threaten
the national constituencies of Hesse with the loss of their
representatives and the victory of the combined Ultra-
montanes and Democrats. It will be necessary at once to
set on foot an active campaign in the press against these
and other mischievous proceedings of our good friend Beust.
The Chief wishes printed in the Moniteur the long list
of French officers, who have broken parole and escaped
from Germany. I send it on. There are altogether (not
counting the three well-known generals) 142 names, in-
cluding Colonel Thibaudin, of the 67th regiment of the
line, two lieutenant-colonels^ three majors, and thirty cap-
tains. The Mot d' Ordre gives the following strange story :
"M. Thiers is carrying on his intrigues in the provinces.
He is attempting to represent to Herr von Bismarck the
possibility of a combination worthy of his advanced age,
by which the crown of France is to be offered to the King
of the Belgians, who, in order to obtain this extension of
territory, would gladly sign with both hands the cession of
Elsass and Lothringen, and in the end even that of Cham-
pagne itself This wonderful idea is moreover not new.
M. Thiers proposed it four or five months ago in Vienna
and Petersburg, when the Government of National Defence,
in spite of the energetic protests of Rochefort and Gambetta,

XIX.] The Jews in the French Government. 333

despatched him to plead in the name of the Repubhc for the
intervention of the Emperors of Austria and Russia. So
that at the very time when France arose to repulse the
invader, Thiers, with 'bold front, was ready to betray
the Republic, and cover his own white hairs with dis-
honour.'" It can do no harm and may possibly do good for
the Mordteiir to bring this information to-morrow^ without
comment, before the notice of the public. The paper is
not writing history, but it will help in the making of it.

At dinner the Duke of Ratibor and a Herr von Kotze,
the husband of the Chiefs sister's daughter, were present as
guests, two men to outward appearance strikingly different
from one another. The Minister remarked, inter alia, when
Strousberg had been spoken of, that all or many of the
members of the Provisional Government were Jews : Simon,
Crdmieux, Magnin, as well as Picard, which he would not
have believed, " very probably Gambetta, too, to judge from
his face.'' " I suspect even Favre of it," he added.

Saturday, February 11. — Fine bright weather. In the
morning I read newspapers, and especially certain pro-
ceedings of the English Parliament down to the end of last
month. It would seem as if our good friends across the
Channel were seriously leaning to the French side, and
were not indisposed to interfere once more, so that an
Anglo-French alliance might possibly come to pass. Let those
who have this in their eye take care that they do not fall
between two stools. There is another result more probable.

From what one hears and reads in the papers, the feeling
here towards England is almost as unfavourable as towards
us, in some circles even more so, and it might quite easily
happen in case of our seeing ourselves threatened by the
attitude of England, that all at once the very contrary of an
Anglo-French alliance against Germany might astonish our

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

cousins in London. We might see ourselves obliged to take
into serious consideration the bringing back of Napoleon,
which hitherto we have been far from entertaining.

About mid-day a number of shots were heard from heavy-
artillery, as if the bombardment were breaking out again.
It turns out, however, to be only the bursting up of the guns
which have been handed over to us with the fortresses, and
which are not worth thfir carriage into Germany.

Count Henckel and Bleichroder were the strangers pre-
sent at dinner. It was mentioned that Scheidtmann,
in his dealings with the French financiers, had used ex-
pressions about them that were more forcible than com-
plimentary, not knowing that some of the gentlemen under-
stood German. The Chief, speaking of the insolence of
the Parisian papers, who behaved just as if the town were
not in our hands , said, " If this goes on, they must be told
plainly that we will put up with it no longer ; it must cease,
or we will throw in a few shells from the forts in answer to
their articles." When Henckel spoke of the bad feeling in
Elsass, he remarked further that the elections ought never
to have been allowed there at all, indeed his wish had been
against it. But by an oversight the same instructions had
been given to the German authorities there as everywhere
else. Mention was then made of the sorrowful situation
in which the Prince of Roumania found himself, and from
Roumanian Radicals the conversation turned to Roumanian
bonds. Bleichroder said that the speculation of financiers in
stocks was always based upon the ignorance of the masses,
and their blind desire to get money. This was confirmed
by Henckel, who said, " I had many Roumanians, but after
I had made about & per cent, on the rise, I took care to
get rid of them, for I knew they could never bring in 15 per
cent, and this alone could keep them lively." It was men-

XIX.] Paris Newspapers on the Germans. 335

tioned that the French were carrying on all kinds of smug-
gling in the provisioning of Paris. It was not from pride
that they had not availed themselves of our contributions;
but simply because nothing was to be made out of them.

This extends even to Government circles, as during

these few days has made 700,000 francs by the purchase of
sheep. " We must let them see that we are aware of this,"
said the Chief, glancing at me ; " it will do us a turn in the
peace negotiations." It was attended to at once.

In the evening I prepared several articles by the Chief's
instructions. We ought no longer to allow the shameless-
ness of the Paris Journalists. It passes the bounds of en-
durance, and the limits of reasonable toleration, when
the French press presumes to mock and insult us to
our faces, their conquerors, before the walls of their capital,
which is wholly in our power. Besides, their lies and in-
sults are hindrances to the conclusion of peace, by embit-
tering both sides and delaying the approach of a calmer
state of feeling. This behaviour could not have been fore-
seen at the conclusion of the Armistice-Convention ; and in
the case of a prolongation of the armistice, which may be
necessitated by this delay, we shall be obliged to consider
what means there are of effectually preventing further insults.
The best means would undoubtedly be the occupation of
the city itself by our troops. We should thus relieve the
French Government of a grave anxiety ; and in regard to
the prevention of worse consequences from irritating press
manifestations we may perhaps do on our side what probably
it might be impossible to do on theirs.

The Progres de Lyon has asserted that the Chancellor
duped Favre in the matter of Belfort and the three South-
Eastern departments. This is a falsification and mis-state-
ment of the circumstances, which were as follows : In the

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

negotiations for the armistice the Chief wanted the siege
of Belfort not to be included in it, but things there to be
allowed to take their course. Thereupon Favre, misled
probably by the fictitious successes of the French arms re-
ported in the provincial papers, and with the idea that
Bourbaki might still do great things against us and relieve
Belfort, made the proposal that the latter also should retain
his full liberty of action. We had not certainly calculated
upon this request, but still we saw no reason to oppose it.
On the contrary, had we shown ourselves unfavourable to
it, the French would have considered it a great hardship.
It is therefore mere impudence for the Lyons paper to
charge us with foul play in this affair. The lying reports of
the French, and the proposal they induced Favre to make,
were alone to blame for what happened.

A leader for the Moniteur discussed the two subjects
jointly, and was as follows :

" The Progrh de Lyon of February 4 writes : ' It will
be noticed that Herr Bismarck has not forgotten to in-
troduce a characteristic trick of the trade of which he
is such a master, into the conditions of the armistice,
which bears a great resemblance to a surrender. Ac-
cording to Jules Favre's despatch the military operations
in the East were only to last till the moment when an under-
standing was arrived at in respect of the line of demarcation,
the drawing of which across the three Departments in ques-
tion was reserved for a final settlement. Bismarck, like a
crafty trickster (roue comphre), says in few words, but very
plainly, that hostilities continue before Belfort, in Doubs,
in Jura, and the Cote d'Or. Favre was apparently bam-
boozled here, and it is possible that he deserves the charge
of levity which Gambetta has brought against him on
the score of the armistice. This slight misunderstanding

XIX.] ' Belfort and the Convention. 337

has brought on terrible consequences. In Jules Favre's
sense but little time was needed to mark off the neutral
territory between the combatants ; it should have been
accomplished without delay, and our army in the East
would have remained unimpaired till the peace. Bismarck,
on the other hand, construes the matter like a disciple
of Escobar : instead of giving orders to have the limits
of the armistice immediately traced out, he instructs his
armies to press on the pursuit with the utmost zeal, so
as speedily to complete the ruin of the French army in
the East. We all know the rest : Bismarck's dishonest
interpretation of the armistice costs us the complete anni-
hilation of a fresh army of some 100,000 men, in the event
of the National Assembly deciding to continue the War.'

" This is a statement which must be decidedly refuted,
and shown to be what it is, a dishonest misrepresentation.
In reality the case was as follows :

" In the negotiations for the armistice-convention of
January 28 a request was made on the German side that the
siege of Belfort should be continued, even after the conclu-
sion of the convention, unless Belfort should at once sur-
render, on the garrison being allowed to retire. This request
was refused on the French' side, and a fresh one put forward ;
that, if the siege were to continue, fuU liberty of action
should also be reserved to the army of Bourbaki. This
was conceded by the Germans, and that was the reason
-why hostilities went on before Belfort and in the three
departments mentioned above.''

The preceding article, however, is only an example of
the heaps of misrepresentations and inventions, silly fables
groundless accusations, mean aspersions, and barefaced in-
sults, which the French press, headed by the papers of Paris,
fabricate and circulate day by day, no less since than before

VOL. II. 2

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

the armistice. It is, however, asking too much that the
Parisians should have the right to insult and defy the
conqueror at their gates, during an armistice which is to
pave the way for peace. This attitude of the Parisian
press, which after all was one of the chief causes of
the whole war, is one of the main hindrances to peace.
It prevents the French from seeing the necessity for it, and
makes the Germans less willing to conclude it, and to trust
to it for the future. When the expected negotiations for
some extension of the armistice come on, the Germans will
have to consider that the occupation of the city of Paris is
the most effective means of putting a stop to these excitations
against peace.

Sunday, February 12. — We learn by telegraph that Napo-
leon has issued a proclamation to the French. The tele-
gram is to be printed in our paper to-day. The Chief seems
to be unwell. He does not come to dinner. Abeken there-
fore takes the chair, in virtue of the position he delights
to feel that he occupies in the office, of Vice-Secretary
of State. The entry into Paris is spoken of as inevi-
table, and the old gentleman wishes to ride in the train
of the Emperor. He intends, therefore, to send for his
three-cornered hat from Berlin : " It would never do to
put on a helmet for the occasion," said he ; " although,
when one comes to think of it, Wilmowski has one." Hatz-
feld thought that a Greek helmet with big white feathers
would look fine. " Or one with a visor, that could be dropped
at the moment of the entry," put in another guest. Bohlen
finally proposed a velvet cloth, trimmed with gold lace, for
the Privy-Councillor's gray horse. He took all these quizzing
suggestions as put forward quite seriously for discussion.

I wish I were rid of this limpness and giddiness, which
constantly recur.

XIX.] Irritation at the Press of Paris. 339

Monday, February 13. — Yesterday and the day before I
worked, though I was not well. To-day the same. I again
called attention to the incivility of the Paris press, hinting
that the irritation it created must be regarded as delaying
peace, and could most surely be removed by the Occupation
of Paris. The article is intended for the Moniteur, which is
to append extracts from the insulting and threatening
papers. The main substance is as follows : —

" History will point to the Convention of January 28 as
a conclusive proof of the moderation shown by Germany
to France on that day. The Government of National De-
fence itself recognised this when, in its proclamation of the
loth inst. it says, ' Never has a besieged town surrendered
under such honourable conditions, and these conditions
were accepted, because outside help is impracticable, and
our bread is eaten up.' At the very moment, however,
when Germany is giving to conquered France the means of
freeing herself from the burden of a Dictatorship, and becom-
ing once more mistress of her own destinies, the Parisian
and provincial press spits at the German army, the German
princes, and the political and military leaders of Germany,
so as to call an angry blush to the cheek of even the
mildest man, and embitter those who have directed their
efforts to saving thousands of innocent persons from the
punishment which has been brought on by the blunders of
the Demagogues, and of a press drivelling in madness. If the
French armies remained uninjured ; if ' the elected of eight
milhons ' were not a prisoner of war in Germany ; if more
than half a million Frenchmen, in consequence of number-
less defeats, were not sharing his fate, interned partly in Ger-
many, partly in Belgium, and partly in Switzerland ; if, in a
word, the fortune of war had not already clearly been de-
cided— -these incessantly repeated swaggerings and affronts

z 2

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

would in any case have seemed most unseasonable. But
what are we to say of the ideas and behaviour of this section
of the French nation, in its own opinion so particularly pru-
dent and high-toned, if while the public welfare depends
on the conqueror's clemency, it takes pleasure in insulting
him aimlessly and without cause ? Germany might treat these
manifestations with the contempt that they deserve, had she
not to keep in view the object which she has proposed to
herself to attain.

" This object is Peace, and Peace of a nature to last
as long as possible. The excitement which the Parisian
press is stirring up works against this in two ways : it in-
fatuates the French, and it embitters the Germans. In Paris
the true state of affairs — namely, that the city is in our
hands — is not clearly understood. People do not see that
these manifestations cannot further a reasonable decision of
the question of war or peace, to which the National Assembly
is now addressing itself. The entry of the German army,
and the occupation of the city appear, therefore, to be the
only means of hastening the work of peace, and removing
the opposition, which has long been a matter of offence
to Europe."

Wednesday, February 22. — I wrote last week articles of
all kinds, large and small, and sent off about a dozen tele-
grams. I have been in the meantime at Fort Issy, at Mont
Valdrien, and at the Castle of Meudon, reduced to ruins
by fire. We came to Mont Val^rien just at the time when
our people were carrying away the biggest of the cannon
there, festooned with leaves. The remaining guns, both here
and in Fort Issy have either been blown to bits, or pointed
at the city. To enable them to do this, the walls and
breastworks have been rebuilt.

The Assembly in Bordeaux shows an intelligent regard

XIX.] The Price of Metz. 341

for the situation which the last four weeks have pro-
duced. They have turned out Gambetta and elected
Thiers as chief of the Executive Power, and spokesman
for France in the peace negotiations, which began here
yesterday. A profos of this, the Chief said yesterday at
dinner, where Henckel was present, " If they gave a
Milliard more, we might perhaps let them have Metz. We
would then take eight hundred miUion francs, and build our-
selves a fortress a few miles further back, somewhere about
Falkenberg, or towards Saarbriicken — there must be some
suitable spot thereabouts. We should thus make a clear
profit of two hundred millions. I do not like so many
Frenchmen being in our house against their will. It is just
the same with Belfort. It is all French there too. The
mihtary, however, will not be willing to let Metz slip, and
perhaps they are right."

Generals von Kamecke and von Treskow were our guests
to-day. The Chief told us of his second interview to-day
with Thiers. "When I demanded that of him" (I missed
hearing what) " though he is usually well able to control
himself, he rose to his full height and said, ' Mais dest
une indigniie t ' (That is an indignity !) I would not allow
myself to make a blunder, but I spoke to him in Ger-
man after this. He listened for a time, and probably
did not know what to make of it. Then he began in a
querulous tone, ' But, M. le Comte, you are aware that I
know no German.' I replied to him — this time in French,
' When you spoke just now of " indignity," I found that I did
not understand French sufficiently, so I proceeded to speak
German, where I know both what I say and what I hear.'
He at once caught my meaning, and as a concession wrote
out what I had proposed, and what he had formerly con-
sidered an indignity.

34^ Bismarck iti the Franco-German War. [Chap.

" ' And yesterday,' he went on, ' he spoke of Europe as
hkely to- step in if we did not abate our demands.' I
answered him, ' If you speak to me of Europe, I speak to
you of Napoleon.' He would not believe in this : ' From
him there was nothing to fear.' But I proved to him that
he must think of the plebiscite, the peasantry, and the
officers and soldiers. The Guard could regain their old
position only under the Emperor, and, with a little address,
it would not be hard for him to get for himself a hundred
thousand of the soldiers who were prisoners in Germany.
Then all we had to do was to let them go armed across
the frontier, and France would be his again. If they would
grant no good terms of peace, we would, in the end, put
up even with an Orleans prince, though we knew that with
them the war would break out again in two or three years.
If not, we would interfere, which we have hitherto avoided
doing, and they would get Napoleon again.' That must
have made an impression upon him ; for to-day, when he was
going once more to speak about Europe, he pulled himself
up suddenly and said, ' I beg your pardon.' He pleases me,
however, very much ; he has a fine intellect, good manners,
and can tell a story very agreeably. I was often sorry for
him, too, for he is in a bad position. But' all that cannot
help him."

The Chancellor came afterwards to speak of the conversa-
tion he had had with Thiers about the cost of the war, and
said, " His idea throughout was to agree to a war indemnity
of only 1500 millions, for it could not be believed what the
war had cost them ; and besides^ everything that had been
supplied to them had been bad. If a soldier only tripped
and fell down, his breeches were at once torn, so wretched
had* been the cloth. The same with the shoes with the
pasteboard soles, as well as the arms, especially those from

XIX.] The War Indemnity. 343

America. I replied, Yes, but just suppose that a man
were to attack and try to flog you, and after having beaten
him off, you came to settle with him and demand reparation,
what would you answer were he to appeal to you with ' You
must take into consideration that the rods with which I
tried to beat you cost me a lot of money and were so badly
made ? ' Besides, thefe is a very considerable difference
between 1500 and 6000 millions."

The conversation hereupon, I do not remember how, lost
itself in the gloom of the Polish forests and their swamps, and
turned for a while upon the great solitary farms, and upon
the colonisation of these " Backwoods of the East," and the
Chief remarked, " In former days when so many things were
not and did not seem likely to be as they should be, I
often thought, if things did not get better, I would take my I
last thousand thalers, put up a farm for myself in the I
woods, and keep house there. But matters turned out
differently."

The talk turned at last upon ambassadors' reports, of
which for the most part, the Chief seems to have a low
opinion. " Great part of them is mere paper and ink,"
said he. " The worst is when they make them long.
With B. one is used to his sending every time such a ream of
paper, with antiquated newspaper cuttings. But if any one
else writes much, one gets disgusted, because as a rule there
is nothing in it." "If people write history out of them,
there is no proper information to be got there. I be-
lieve the archives will be opened to them after thirty years ;
they might be allowed to see them much earlier. Despatches
and reports, even if they contain anything, are not intelli-
gible but to those who know the persons and circumstances.
Who knows after thirty years what sort of a man the writer
was, what view he took of the case, and how far his

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

representation of it was biassed by his individuality ? And
who has any intimate acquaintance with the persons of whom
he writes ? It ought to be known what Gortschakoff, or
Gladstone, or Granville thought of their ambassador's report.
Better information may be gleaned from the newspapers,
of which even governments avail themselves, and where
one often says more plainly what one thinks. But in
this case, too, knowledge of the conditions is necessary.
The main points always lie in private letters and confidential
communications, even by word of mouth, nothing of which
finds its way into the records." He added a number
of examples, and concluded, " This is only to be learned
confidentially, not officially."

Thursday, February 23. — We are to keep Metz. The
Chief announced this distinctly to-day at dinner. Belfort,
on the other hand, there seems no desire to keep. The
entry of a part of our army into Paris is now quite decided.
I wrote this evening in the Moniteur to the following effect :

" We have repeatedly characterised as it deserved the
unmeasured abuse which the Parisian press is heaping upon
the victorious German army, while it stands at the gates of
their capital. We have also remarked that the Occupation
of Paris by our troops would be the most effective means of
putting a stop to this insolence. Their swaggerings, lies,
and slanders have to-day quite passed bounds. Read for in-
stance the Yxgzxo feuilleton for February 21, entitled '■ Les
Prussiens en France^ and signed Alfred d'Aunay, in
which the most shameful outrages, thefts, and plunder-
ings are laid to the charge of the German officers and
the Germans generally. We understand that this be-
haviour, which escapes the notice it deserves, has rendered
perfectly fruitless the strenuous efforts made by the" Parisian
negotiators to prevent the entry of the German army into

XIX.] The Occupation of Paris. 345

Paris, and that all hope of avoiding this entry has gojie by.
We are assured on good authority that this will take place
immediately after the expiry of the armistice.''

Friday, February 24. — In the morning we had the brightest
and loveliest spring weather, and the garden behind the
house was filled with the twitter of birds. Thiers and
Favre were here from one till half-past five. When they
were gone the Due de Mouch}- and Comte de Gobineau
called to complain, they said, of oppression on the part of
the German prefects, like the one in Beauvais, who is
apparently governing harshly, or at least not with winning
mildness. The Chief appeared at dinner in plain clothes
- — for the first time during the war. Can this mean that
peace has been concluded ?

Saturday, February 25. — -Again unpleasant news from
Bavaria. Odo Russell is supposed to have called in the
course of the day, but not to have presented himself to the
Chief This has led to people saying that England intends
to interfere in the peace negotiations.* In the evening there
is a rumour that the war indemnity to be paid by the French
has been reduced from 6000 to 5000 million francs, and
that the preliminaries of peace will probably be signed to-
morrow, the consent of the National Assembly in Bor-
deaux being alone wanting. Metz is handed over. Our
soldiers are to enter Paris next Wednesday, in order to
occupy, to the number of 30,000 men, that part of the inner
town which lies between the Seine, the Rue du Faubourg
Saint-Honord, and the Avenue des Ternes, until the
National Assembly has declared its concurrence in the pre-
liminaries of peace. This will undoubtedly come soon, and so
we may turn our faces homewards in the first week of March.

* The Chancellor told me later, that on March 4th, they had only
attempted it in regard to the money question, when it was too late. '

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

March i, Wednesday. — In the morning I went out to the
bridge of boats at Suresnes, and across to the grassy plain of
Longchamps, as far as the Bois de Boulogne, and looked on
from the roof of the half-ruined View-house of the racecourse
at the review which the Emperor is holding of the troops which
are to enter Paris. There were Bavarian regiments among
them. They say that the Guard is to go home to-morrow.
At dinner, where the AViirtemberg Minister von Wachter and
Mittnacht joined us, the Chief told us he had ridden into
Paris, and been recognised by the populace. No demonstra-
tion, however, had taken place against him. One person,
who threw at him a very sinister glance, and up to whom
he accordingly rode to ask for a light, readily complied
with his request. Mittnacht told another story about the
high personage whose curiosity had already formed the topic
of conversation. " I don't know whether you have heard
before," said he, " how he remarked to some one who was
presented to him, ' Ah, I am delighted ; I have heard so
very much to your credit — what was it, pray ? " General
laughter. OnlyAbeken seems as usual to hear such frivolous
talk with pity and surprise.

Thursday, March 2. — Favre comes as early as half-past
seven in the morning, and wishes to be announced to the
Chief Wollmann, however, refuses to wake him, and
his Parisian Excellency is much put out. Favre has to
communicate the news received during the night that the
National Assembly in Bordeaux has assented to the Peace
Preliminaries, and he wishes therefore to claim the evacua-
tion of Paris, and of the forts on the left bank of the Seine,
a request which he left in the form of a letter.

Monday, March 6. — A beautifully fine morning. Thrushes
and finches warble the signal for our departure. We must
breakfast at the Sabot d'Or, for all our plate is already

XIX.] The End of the Seven Months' War. 347

packed up. About one o'clock the carriages are put into
motion, and we pass with a light heart out of the gate
through which we entered five months ago, by way of the
Villa Coublay, Villeneuve Saint-Georges, Charenton, and the
pheasantry, to Lagny, which we reached after seven o'clock,
taking up our quarters in two summer-houses on the right
bank of the Marne, about three hundred paces beyond the
fallen bridge.

From Lagny we went next day by express train to
Metz, which we entered late in the evening, putting up
at an hotel, while the Chief lodged with Count Henckel' at
the Prefecture. The next morning we walked through the
town in various directions, went to see the Cathedral, and
had a view from one of the forts over the country to the
north-west. Shortly before eleven we again took train to go
by way of Saarbriicken and Kreuznach to Mainz, and thence
to Frankfort. The Chief was enthusiastically received
everywhere, especially in Saarbriicken and Mainz. It was
only in Frankfort that there was no demonstration. From
this city, though we reached it late in the evening, we
went on still further in the night, and by the next morning
at half-past seven we were in Berlin, from which I had
been absent exactly seven months. It was clear, on con-
sideration, that as much as was possible had been done in
the interval.

THE END.

LONDON: PRINTED EV WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET
AND CHARING CROSS.

Bedford Street, Strand, London, W.C,
October 1878.

Macmillan 6- Co:s Catalogue of Works
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Law, etc.; and Works connected with Lan-
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HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY. TRAVELS, &c.

Albemarle.— FIFTY YEARS OF MY life. By George
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Anderson. — MANDALAY TO MOMIEN; a Narrative of the
Two Expeditions to Western China, of 186S and 1875, under
Colonel E. B. Sladen and Colonel Horace Browne. By Dr.
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peditions. With numerous Maps and Illustrations. 8vo. 21^.
"■A handsome, well-timed, entertaining, and instructive volume." —
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'■^ a pleasant, useful, carefully-written, and important work." —
Athen^um.

Appleton. — Works by T. G. Appleton :—
A NILE JOURNAL. Illustrated by Eugene Benson. Crown

8vo. 6s.
SYRIAN SUNSHINE. Crown 8vo. 6s.

Arnold. — ESSAYS in criticism. By Matthew Arnold.
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Atkinson.— AN ART TOUR TO NORTHERN CAPITALS
OF EUROPE, including Descriptions of the Towns, the Museums,
and other Art Treasures of Copenhagen, Christiania, Stockholm,

2 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN

Abo, Helsingfors, Wiborg, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kief.
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Awdry.— THE STORY OF A FELLOW SOLDIER. By
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Extra fcap. 8vo. y. 6d.

' ' This is a life of ihat brave, single-minded, and untiring Christian
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Baker (Sir Samuel W.)— Works by Sir Samuel Baker,
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ISMAILIA : A Narrative of the Expedition to Central Africa for
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by ZwECKER and Durand. New and Cheaper Edition. Crown
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"A book which will be read with very great interest." — Times. " Well
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' ' Adds another thrilling chapter to the history of African adventure. " —
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THE ALBERT N'YANZA Great Basin of the Nile, and Explora-
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" Charmingly written;" says the SPECTATOR, "full, as might be
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THE NILE TRIBUTARIES OF ABYSSINIA, and the Sword
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HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 3

7'he Times says : "It adds much to our inf ormation. respecting Egyftian
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it abounds in animated tales of exploits dear to the heart of the British
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tells a story well, and can describe nature with uncommon pozuer. "

Bancroft. — the HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
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Beesly.— STORIES FROM THE HISTORY OF ROME. By
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Blackburne.— BIOGRAPHY OF THE RIGHT HON.
FRANCIS BLACKBURNE, Late Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
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Blanford (W. T.)— GEOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY OF
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Bronte. — CHARLOTTE BRONTE. A Monograph. By T.

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Mr Reid's little volume, which is based largely on letters, hitherto
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4 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN ^

she was by nature {as Mr. Rod puts it) "a haipy and high-spirited girl,
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T/ie book is illustrated by a Portrait of the Rev. Patrick Bronte, several
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^Brooke. — the RAJA OF SARAWAK: an Account of Sir

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— wUl see how incident is crowded upon incident, and struggle upon

struggle, till in the very abundance of materials that come to her hana

the authoress can scarcely stop to give sufficient distinctness to her

wonderful narrative. " — Academy.

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Crown 8vo. 4?. itd.

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THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. Sixth Edition, Revised and

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TRANSCAUCASIA AND ARARAT: being Notes of a Vacation
Tour in the Autumn of 1876. With an Illustration and Map.
Third Edition. Crown 8vo. gj.
"Mr. Bryce has written a lively and at the same time an instructive
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so well-informed a jurist travels into regions seldom visited, and even
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ing that the impressions he brings home arc worthy of being communicatea
to the world at large, especially when a terrible war is casting a lurid glow
over the countries he has lately surveyed'' — Athen^um.

Burgoyne. — political and military episodes

DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE REIGN OF
GEORGE III. Derived from the Life and Correspondence of

HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 5

the Right Hon. J. Burgoyne, Lieut. -General in his Majesty's
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Burke. — EDMUND BURKE, a Historical Study. By John
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" The style is terse and incisive, and brilliant wUh epigram and
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Burrows. — WORTHIES OF ALL SOULS : Four Centuries of
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Montagu Burrows, Chichele Professor of Modern History at
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"A most amusing as well as a most instructive book. — Guardian.

Campbell.— LOG-LETTERS FROM THE " CHALLENGER."
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"A delightful book, which we heartily commend to the general reader."
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" We do not hesitate to say that anything so fresh, so picturesque, so
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"A more lively and amusing record of travel we have not had the
fortune to read for some time. The whole, book is pervaded by a spirit of
life, animation, a«(/ /««."— Standard.

Campbell. — MY circular notes : Extracts from Journals (
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Campbell. — TURKS AND GREEKS. Notes of a recent Ex-
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CarstareS. — WILLIAM CARSTARES : a Character and Career
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6 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN

Chatterton : A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY. By Daniel
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TVJf Examiner thinks this "the most complete and the purest liio-
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Chatterton : a STORY OF THE YEAR 1770. By Professor
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Combe.— THE LIFE OF GEORGE COMBE, Author of "The
Constitution of Man." By Charles Gibbon. With Three
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"A graphic and interesting account of the long life and indefatigable

labours of a very remarkable man." — Scotsman.

Cooper. — ATHENyE CANTABRIGIENSES. By Charles
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Correggio. — ANTONIO ALLEGRI DA CORREGGIO. From
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found in the English language." — Academy. "By its pictures alone

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Cox (G. V.)— RECOLLECTIONS OF OXFORD. By G.
V. Cox, M.A., New College, late Esquire Bedel and Coroner
in the University of Oxford. Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. ds.
"An amusing farrago of anecdote, and ■will pleasantly recall in many

a country parsonage the memory of youthful days." — Times.

"Daily News."— the daily news' correspond-
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with Notes and Comments. New Edition. Complete in One
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THE DAILY NEWS' CORRESPONDENCE of the War between
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FROM THE FALL OF KARS TO THE CONCLUSION OF
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HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 7

Davidson.— THE LIFE OP A SCOTTISH PROBATIONER ;
being a Memoir of Thomas Davidson, witii his Poems and
Letters. By James Brown, Minister of St. James's Street
Church, Paisley. Second Edition, revised and enlarged, with
Portrait. Crown 8vo. "js. 6d,

Deas; — THE RIVER CLYDE. An Historical Description of the
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Denison.— A HISTORY OF CAVALRY FROM THE EAR-
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Duff. — NOTES OF AN INDIAN JOURNEY. By M. E. Grant-
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8vo. IOJ-. td.
" These noucs are full of pleasant remarks and illustrations, borrowed

from every kind of source."— Saturday Review.

Eadie. — LIFE OF JOHN EADIE, D.D., LL.D. By James
Brown, D.D., Author of "The Life of a Scottish Probationer."
With Portrait. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. ys. 6d.
"An ablyzvritten and characteristic biography." — Times.

8 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN

Elliott. — LIFE OF HENRY VENN ELLIOTT, of Brighton.
By JosiAH Bateman, M.A., Author of "Life of Daniel Wilson,
Bishop of Calcutta," &c. With Portrait, engraved by JEENS.
Extra fcap. 8vo. Third and Cheaper Edition, with Appendix. 6s.

Elze. — ESSAYS ON SHAKESPEARE. By Dr. Karl Elze.
Translated with the Author's sanction by L. DofiA ScHMiTZ.

8vO. I2.V.
" A more desirable contribtttion to ctiticism lias not recently been made."

— Athenaeum.

English Men of Letters. Edited by John Morley. a

Series of Short Books to tell people what is best worth knowing
as to the Life, Character, and Works of some of the great
English Writers. In crown 8vo. Price is. 6d. each.

I. DR. JOHNSON. By Leslie Stephen.

' ' TAe new series opetts well with Mr. Leslie Stephen's sketch of Dr.
Johnson. It could hardly have been done better ; and it will cortvey to
the readers far whom it is intended a juster estimate of Johnson than
either of the two essays of Lord Macatday" — Pall Mall Gazette.

II. SIR WALTER SCOIT". By R. H. Hutton.

" The tone of the volume is excellent throughout." — Athen^xjm.
" We could net wish for a more suggestive introduction to Scott and
his -poems and novels." — Examiner.

III. GIBBON. By J. C. MoRisoN.

"As a clear, thoughtful, and attractive record of tlu life and works of
the greatest among the world's historians, it deserves the higJust praise." —
Examiner.

SHELLEY. By J. A. Syjionds. [/« the press.

HUME. By Professor HuxleV. [/« the press.

GOLDSMITH. By William Black. [/« the press.

Others in pi-Lparation.

Eton College, History of. By H. C. Maxwell Lvte,

M.A. With numerous Illustrations by Professor Delamotte,
Coloured Plates, and a Steel Porti-ait of the Founder, engraved
by C. H. Jeens. New and cheaper Issue, with CoiTections.
Sledium Svo. Cloth elegant, ixs.
" Hitherto no account of the College, with all its associations, has

appeared which can compare either in completeness or in ifiterest with

this. . . . It is indeed a book worthy of the ancient reno'wn of King

Henry's College." — Daily News.

" We are at length presented with a work on England's greatest public

school, worthy of the subject of which it treats. . . . A really valuable and

authentic history of Eton College." — Guardian.

HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC, 9

European History, Narrated in a Series of Historical

Selections from the best Authorities. Edited and arranged by

E. M. Sewell and C. M. Yonge. First Series, crown 8vo. ts. \

Second Series, 1088-1228, crown 8vo. ds. Third Edition.

" We know of scarcely anything," says the Guardian, of this volume,

" which is so likely to raise to a higher .level the average standard of

English education."

Faraday.— MICHAEL FARADAY. By J. H. Gladstone,
Ph.D., F.R.S. Second Edition, with Portrait engraved by Jeens
from a photograph by J. Watkins. Crown 8vo. 4J. (>d.
PORTRAIT. Artist's Proof. 5 .

Contents : — /. The Story of his Life. LI. Study of his Character.
III. Fruits of his Experience. IV. His Method of Writing. V. The
-Value of his Discoveries. — Supplementary Portraits. Appendices :—List
of Honorary Fellowships, etc.

Forbes. — life and letters of JAMES DAVID
FORBES, F.R.S., late Principal of the United College in the
University of St. Andrews. By J. C. Shairp, LL.D., Principal
of the United College in the University of St. Andrews ; P. G.
Tait, M.A., Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University
of Edinburgh; and A. Adams-Reilly, F.R.G.S. 8vo. with
Portraits, Map, and Illustrations, 16^.
^' Not only a biography that all should read, hut a scientific treatise,
without which the shelves of no physicists library can be deemed com-
plete." — Standard.

Freeman. — Works by Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L.,LL.D, :—
HISTORICAL ESSAYS. Third Edition. 8vo. lOJ. dd.
Contents : — /. " The Mythical and Romantic Elements in Early
English History;" LL. "The Continuity of English History;" III.
"The Relations between the Crowns of 'England and Scotland ;" IV.
"St. Thomas of Canterbury and his Biograihers ;" V. " The Reign of
Edward the Third:" VI. "The Holy Roman Empire;" VII. "The
Franks and the Gauls;" VIIL "The Early Sieges of Paris;" IX.
" Frederick the Hrst, King of Italy ;" X. "The Emperor Frederick the
Second:" XL. "Charles the Bold ;" XLL. " Presidential Government."

A SECOND SERIES OF HISTORICAL ESSAYS. 8vo.

\os. 6d.
The principal Essays are: — "Ancient Greece and Mediceval Ltaly:"
" Mr. Gladstones Homer and the Homeric Ages : " " The Historians^
of Athens:" "The Athenian Democracy:" "Alexander the Great:"^
"Greece during the Macedonian Period:" "Mommsen's History of Rome :"
"Lucius Cornelius Sulla :" " The Flavian C(2sars."

COMPARATIVE POLITICS.— Lectures at the Royal Institution,
To which is added the "Unity of History," the Rede Lecture at
Cambridge, 1872. 8vo. 14^.

lo MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN

Freeman — continued.
THE HISTORY AND CONQUESTS OF THE SARACENS.
Six Lectures. Third Edition, with New Preface. Crown 8vo.
y. dd.
"Mr. Freeman opportunely reprints his erudite and valuable lee-
tures." — Daily Telegraph.

HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL SKETCHES :
chiefly Italian. With Illustrations by the Author. Crown 8vo.
IOJ-. f>d.
"Mr. Freeman may here be said to give us a series oj 'notes on the
spot ' in illustration of the intimate relations of History and Architecture,
and this is done in so masterly a manner — there is so much freshness, so
much knowledge so admi7-ably condensed, that we are almost tempted to
say that we prefer these sketches to his more elaborate studies." — NONCON-
FORMIST. - '

HISTORY OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, from the Foun-
dation of the Achaian League to the Disruption of the United
States. Vol. I. General Introduction. History of the Greek
Federations. 8vo. i,\s,

OLD ENGLISH HISTORY. With. Five Coloured Maps. Fourth
Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo., half-bound. 6s.

" The book indeed is full of instruction and interest to students of all
ages, and he must be a well-informed man indeed who will not rise
from its perusal with clearer and mo7-e accurate ideas of a too much
neglected portion of English history." — Spectator.

HISTORY OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF WELLS,

as illustrating the History of the Cathedral Churches of the Old

Foundation. Crown 8vo. 3^. dd.

" The history assumes in Mr. Freeman^ s hands a significance,' and, we

may add, a practical value as suggestive of what a cathedral ought to be,

which make it well worthy of mention." — Spectator.

THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES. Crown 8vo. t,s. Third
Edition, revised.

GENERAL SKETCH OF EUROPEAN HISTORY. Being

Vol. I. of a Historical Course for Schools edited by E. A.

Freeman. New Edition, enlarged with Maps, Chronological

Table, Index, &c. iSmo. 3^. dd.

"It supplies the greaf want of a good foundation for historical teach-

ing. The scheme is an excellent one, and this instalment has been

accepted in a way that promises much for the volumes that are yet

to appear." — Educational Times.

THE OTTOMAN POWER IN EUROPE : its Nature, its Growth,
and its Decline. With Three Coloured Maps. Crown 8vo.
^s. dd.

HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. n
Galileo. — the private life of Galileo. Compiled

principally from his Correspondence and that of his eldest
daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, Nun in the Franciscan Convent of
S. Matthew in Arcetri. With Portrait. Crown 8vo. Is. 6d.

Geddes. — the problem of the Homeric poems.

By W. D. Geddes, LL.D., Professor of Greek in the University
of Aberdeen. 8vo. 14^-.

Gladstone — Works by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone,
M.P. :—
JUVENTUS MUNDI. The Gods and Men of the Heroic Age.

Crown 8vo. cloth. With Map. los. 6d. Second Edition.
" Seldom," says the ATHENAEUM, ^' out of the great poems themselves,
have these Divinities looked so majestic and respectable. To read these
brilliant details is like standing on the Olympian threshold and gazitig at
the ineffable brightness within."

HOMERIC SYNCHRONISM. An inquiry into the Time and

Place of Homer. Crown Svo. bs.
" It is impossible not to admire the immense range of thought and
inquiry which the author has displayed." — British Quarterly
Review.

Goethe and Mendelssohn (1821— 1831). Translated from the
German of Dr. Karl Mendelssohn, Son of the Composer, by
M. E. Von Glehn. From the Private Diaries and Plome
' Letters of Mendelssohn, with Poems and Letters of Goethe never
before printed. Also with two New and Original Portraits, Fac-
similes, and Appendix of Twenty Letters hitherto unpublished.
Crown Svo. 5^. Second Edition, enlarged.
"... Every page is full of interest, not merely to the musi-
cian, but to the general reader. The book is a very charming one, on
a topic of deep and lasting interest." — Standard.

Goldsmid. — TELEGRAPH AND TRAVEL. A Narrative of
the Formation and Development of Telegraphic Communication
between England and India, under the orders of Her Majesty's
Government, with incidental Notices of the Countries traversed by
the Lines. By Colonel Sir Frederic Goldsmid, C.B., K.C.S.L,
late Director of the Government Indo-European Telegraph. With
numerous Illustrations and Maps. Svo. 2\s.
" The merit of the work is a total absence of exaggeration, which does
not however, preclude a vividness and vigour of style not always character-
istic of similar narratives."— Standard.

Gordon. — LAST LETTERS FROM EGYPT, to which are added
Letters from the Cape. By Lady Duff Gordon. With a
Memoir by her Daughter, Mrs. Ross, and Portrait engraved by
Jeens. Second Edition. Crown Svo. gs.

12 MACMTLLAlSrS CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN

' ' T/ie intendinff tourist who wishes to acquaint himself with the country
he is about to visit, stands embarrassed amidst the riches presented for his
choice, and in the end probably rests contented with the sober usefulness of
Murray. He will not, however, if he is well advised, grudge a place in
his portmanteau to this book." — Times.

Gray.— CHINA. A History of the Laws, Manners, and Customs
of the People. By the Venerable John Henry Gray. LL.D.,
Archdeacon of Hong Kong, formerly H.B.M. Consular Chaplain
at Canton. Edited by W. Gow Gregor. With 150 Full-page Illustra-
tions, being Facsimiles of Drawings by a Chinese Artist. 2 Vols.
Demy 8vo. 32^.
" Its pages contain the most truthful and vivid picture of Chinese life

which has ever been published." — Athen^um.

" The only elaborate and valuable book we have had for many years

treating generally of the people of the Celestial Empire." — Academy,

Green. — Works by John Richard Green: —

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. Vol, I.— Early
England — Foreign Kings — The Charter — The Parliament. With
8 Coloured Maps. 8vo. 16^. Vol. II. — The Monarchy,
1461 — 1540 ; the Restoration, 1540 — 1603. 8vo. ids.

\To be completed in S Vols.
' ' Mr. Green has done a work which probably no one but himself could
have done. He -has read and assimilated the, results of all the labours of
students during the last half century in the field of English history; and
has given them a fresh meaning by his own independent study. He has
fused together by the force of sympathetic imagination all that he has so
collected, and has ^iven us a vivid and forcible sketch of the march of
English histofy. His book, both in its aims and its accomplishments,
rises far beyond any of a similar kind, and it will give the colouring to the
popular view to English history for some time to come." — Examiner.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. With
Coloured Maps, Genealogical Tables, and Chronological Annals.
Crown Svo. %s. 6d. Fifty-fifth Thousand.
" To say that Mr. Greenes book is better than those which have pre-
ceded it, would be to convey a very inadequate impression of its merits. It
stands alone as the one general history of the country, for the sake of
which all others, if young and old are wise, will be speedily and surely set
aside."

STRAY STUDIES FROM ENGLAND AND ITALY. Crown
Svo. %s. 6d. Containing : Lambeth and the Archbishops — The
Florence of Dante — Venice and Rome — Early History of Oxford
— The District Visitor — Capri — Hotels in the Clouds— Sketches
in Sunshine, &c.

" One and all of the papers are eminently readable." — Athen^um.

nrSTORY, BIOGRAP HY, TRAVELS, ETC. 13
Hamerton.— Works by p. g. Hamerton -.—

THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE. With a Portrait of Leonardo da
Vinci, etched by Leopold Flameng. Second Edition. Crown
\os. td. 8vo.
" We have read the whole book with great pleasure, and we can re-
commend it strongly to all who can appreciate grave reflections on a very
important subject, excellently illustrated from the resources of a mind

stored with much reading and much keen observation of real life."

Saturday Review.

THOUGHTS ABOUT ART. New Edition, revised, with an
Introduction. Crown 8vo. %s. 6d.

"A manual of sound and thorough criticum on art." — Standard.
" The book is full of thought, and worthy of attentive consideration." —
Daily News.

Hill.— WHAT WE SAW IN AUSTRALIA. By Rosamond
and Florence Hill. Crown 8vo. \os. 6d.
"May be recommended as an interesting and truthfid picture cf the
condition of those lands which are so distant and yet so mitch like home."
— Saturday Review.

Hodgson.— MEMOIR OF REV. FRANCIS HODGSON,
B.D., Scholar, Poet, and Divine. By his Son, the Rev. James
T. Hodgson, M.A. With Portrait engraved byjEENS. Crown
Svo. [Immediately.

Hole. — A GENEALOGICAL STEMMA OF THE KINGS
OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. By the Rev. C. Hole,
M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge. On Sheet, is.

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. Compiled and
Arranged by the Rev. Charles Hole, M.A. Second Edition.
l8mo. 4J. 6d.

Hooker and Ball. — MAROCCO ; Jom-nal of a Tour in. By
Sir Joseph D. Hooker, K.C.S.L, C.B., P.R.S., &c., and John
BALL,'r.R.S. With Illustrations and Map. Svo. [Immediately.

Hozier (H. M.) — Works by Captain Henry M. Hozier,
late Assistant Military Secretaiy to Lord Napier of Magdala : —

THE SEVEN WEEKS' WAR ; Its Antecedents and Incidents.

New and Cheaper Edition. With New Preface, Maps, and Flans.

Crown 8vo. 6j.

"All that Mr. Hozier saw of the great events of the war — and he saw

a large share of them — he describes in clear and vivid language,'" —

Saturday Review.

14 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN

Kozier (H. IR.)— continued.

THE INVASIONS OF ENGLAND : a History of the Past, with
, Lessons for the Future. Two Vols. Svo. T&s.

The Pall Mall Gazette says : — '^ As to all invasions executed, or
deliberately projected but not carried out, from the landing of Julius
Casar to the raising of the Boulogne camp. Captain Hozier furnishes
copious and most interesting particulars. "

Hiibner. — a ramble round the world in 1871. By

M. Le Baron HtJBNER, formerly Ambassador and Minister.
Translated by Lady Herbert. New and Cheaper Edition.
With numerous Illustrations. Crown Svo. 6s.
" It is difficult to do ample justue to this pleasant narrative of travel
. ... it does not contain a single dull paragraph" — MORNING Post.

Hughes. — Works by Thomas Hughes, Q.C, Author of "Tom
Brown's School Days."
MEMOIR OF A BROTHER. With Portrait of George Hughes,
after Watts. Engraved by Jeens. Crown Svo. ^s. Sixth
Edition.
" The boy who can read this book without deriving from it some addi-
tional impulse towards honourable, manly, and independent conduct, has
no good stuff in him." — DAILY News.

ALFRED THE GREAT. New Edition. Crown Svo. (>s.

Hunt.— HISTORY OF ITALY. By the Rev. W. Hunt, M.A.

Being the Fourth Volume of the Historical Course for Schools.

Edited by Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L. iSmo. j^s.
" Mr. Hunt gives us a most compact but very readable little book, con-
taining in small compass a very complete outline of a complicated and
ferplexing suiject. It is a book which may be sdfely recommended to
others besides schoolboys" — ^John Bull.

Irving.— THE A.NNALS OF OUR TIME. A Diurnal of Events,
Social and Political, Home and Foreign, from the Accession of
Queen Victoria to the Peace of Versailles. By Joseph Irving.
Fourth Edition. Svo. half-bound, ids.

ANNALS OF QUR TIME. Supplement. From Feb. 28, 1871,
to March 19, 1874. Svo. 4J. dd.

" We have before us a trusty and ready guide to the events of the
past thirty years, available equally fir the statesman, the politician, the
public writer, and the general reader."- — ^Times.

James. — .Works by Henry James, Jun, FRENCH POETS AND
NOVELISTS. Crown Svo. Sj. dd

Contents : — Alfred de Musset ; Theophile Gautier ; Baudelaire ;
HonorS de Balzac ; George Sand ; The Two Amperh } Turgenieff, St'c.

THE EUROPEANS. A Novel. Two Vols. Crown Svo. 21s.

HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 15
Johnson's Lives of the Poets. — The Six Chief

Lives — Milton, Dryden, Swift, Addison, Pope, Gray. With
Macaulay's " Life of Johnson." Edited, witla Preface, by
Matthew Arnold. Crown 8vo. ds.

Killen.— ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF IRELAND, from
the Earliest Date to the Present Time. By W. D. Killen, D.D.,
President of Assembly's College, Belfast, and Professor of Eccle-
siastical History. Two Vols. 8vo. 25^.
" Those who have the leisure will do well to read these two volumes.

They are full of interest, and are the result of great research. , . . We

hav,e no hesitation in recommending the. ■work to all who wish to improve

their acquaintance with Irish history."- — Spectator.

Kingsley (Charles). — Works by the Rev. Charles Kingsley,
M.A., Rector of Eversley and Canon of Westminster. (For
other Works by the same Author, see THEOLOGICAL and Belles
Lettres Catalogues.)
ON THE ANCIEN REGIME as it existed on the Continent before
the French Revolution. Three Lectures delivered at the
Royal Institution. Crovm 8vo. ds.

AT LAST : A CHRISTMAS in the WEST INDIES. With nearly

Fifty Illustrations. Fifth Edition. Crovra 8vo. ds.

Mr. Kingsley' s dream of forty years was at last fulfilled, when he

started on a Christmas expedition to the West Indies, for the purpose oj

becoming personally acquainted with the scenes which he has so vividly

described in " Westward Ho I" These two volumes are the journal of his

voyage. Records of natural history, sketches of tropical landscape, chapters

on education, views of society, all find their place. " We can only say

that Mr. Kingsley s account of a ' Christmas in the West Indies ' is in

every way worthy to be classed among his happiest productions." —

Standard.

THE ROMAN AND THE TEUTON. A Series of Lectures

delivered before the University of Cambridge. New and Cheaper

Edition, with Preface by Professor Max Muller. Crown 8vo. ds.

PLAYS AND PURITANS, and other Historical Essays. With

Portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh. Second Edition. Crown 8vo.

S-f-
In addition to the Essay mentioned in the title, this volume contains
other two — one on "Sir Walter Raleigh and his Time," and one on
Froudis " History of England."

Kingsley (Henry). — TALES OF OLD TRAVEL. Re-
narrated by Henry Kingsley, F.R.G.S. With Eight Illm-
trations by HUARD. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. 5^.
" We know no better book for those who want knowledge or seek to
refresh it. As for the ' sensational,' most novels are tame compared with
these narratives."— Ain^liMva..

i6 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN

Lang. — CYPRUS : Its History, its Present Resources and Future
Prospects. By R. Hamilton Lang, late H.M, Consul for the
Island of- Cyprus. With Two Illustrations and Four Maps. 8vo. 14?.

LaOCOOn. — Translated from the Text of Lessing, with Preface and
Notes by the Right Hon. Sir Robert J. Phillimore, D.CL.
With Photographs. 8vo. I2J-.

Leonardo da Vinci and his Works. — Consisting of a

Life of Leonardo Da Vinci, by Mrs. Charles W. Heaton,

Author of " Albrecht Diirer of NUrnberg," &c., an Essay on his

Scientific and Literary Works by Charles Christopher

Black, M. A., and an account of his more important Paintings

and Drawings. Illustrated with Permanent Photographs. Royal

8vo. cloth, extra gilt. 3IJ. iid.

" A beautiful volume, both without and within. Messrs. Macmillan

are conspicuous among publishers for the choice binding and printing of

their books, and this is got up in their best style. . . . A'b English

publication that we know of has so thoroughly and attractively collected

together all that is known of Leonardo. " — Times.

Liechtenstein. — HOLLAND house. By Princess Marie
Liechtenstein. With Five Steel Engravings by C. H. Jeens,
after Paintings by Watts and other celebrated Artists, and
numerous Illustrations drawn by Professor P. H. Delamotte, and
engraved on Wood by J. D. Cooper, W. Palmer, andjEWiTT &
Co. Third and Cheaper Edition. Medium Svo. cloth elegant.
ids.
Also, an Edition containing, in addition to the above, about 40
Illustrations by the Woodbury-type process, and India Proofs of
the Steel Engi-avings. Two vols, medium 4to. half morocco
elegant. 4/. 4!-.
" When every strictly just exception shall have been taken, she may be
conscientiously congratulated by the most scrupulous critic on the produc-
tion of a useful, agreeable, beautifully -illustrated, and attractive book." —
Times. " // would take up more room than we can spare to enumerate
all the interesting suggestions and notes which are to be found in these
volumes. .... The woodcuts are admirable, and some of the autographs
are very interesting." — Pall Mall Gazette.

Lloyd.— THE AGE OF PERICLES. A History of the Arts and
Politics of Greece from the Persian to the PeJoponnesian War.
By W. Wat kiss Lloyd. Two Vols. Svo. 21s
" No such account of Greek art of tlie best period has yet been brought

together in an English work Mr. Lloyd has produced a book of

unusual excellence and interest." — Pall Mall Gazeite.

Macarthur.— HISTORY OF SCOTLAND, By Margaret
Macarthur. Being the Third Volume of the Plistorical Course
for Schools, Edited by EDWARD A. Freeman, D.CL. Second
Edition. iSrao. zs.

HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 17

'^ It is an excellent summary , unimpeachable as io facts, and putting
them in the clearest and most impartial light attainable." — GUARDIAN.
" No previous History oj Scotland of the same bulk is anything like so
trustworthy, or deserves to be so extensively used as a text-book." — GLOBE.

Macmillan (Rev. Hugh). — For other Works by same Author,
see Theological and Scientific Catalogues.

HOLIDAYS ON HIGH LANDS ; or, Rambles and Incidents in
search of Alpine Plants. Second Edition, revised and enlarged.
Globe 8vo. cloth. 6j-.
"Botanical knowledge is blended with a love of nature, a pious en-
thusiasm, and a rich felicity of diction not to be met with in any works
of kindred character, if we except those of Hugh Miller. " — Telegraph.
"Afr. Macmillan' s glowing pictures of Scandinavian scenery." —
Saturday Review.

Macready. — macready's reminiscences and se-
lections FROM his diaries AND LETTERS. Edited
by Sir F. Pollock, Bart., one ,of his Executors. With Four
Portraits engraved by Jeens. New and Cheaper Edition. Crown
8vo. "js. 6d.
" As a careful and for the most part just estimate of the stage during
a very brilliant period, the attraction of these volumes can scarcely be
surpassed. .... Readers who have no special interest in theatrical
matters, but enjoy miscellaneous gossip, will be allured f-om page to page,
attracted by familiar names and by observations upon popular actors and
authors." — Spectator.

Mahaffy. — Works by the Rev. J. P. Mahaffy, M. A., Fellow of
Trinity College, Dublin : —
SOCIAL LIFE IN GREECE FROM HOMER TO MENAN-
DER. Third Edition, revised and enlarged, with a new chapter
on Greek Art. Crown 8vo. gj.
' ' It should be in the hands of all who desire thoroughly to understand
and to enjoy Qreekliterature, and to get an intelligent idea of the old Greek
life, political, social, and religious." — Guardian.

RAMBLFS AND STUDIES IN GREECE. With Illustrations.
Crown Svo. lOJ. td. New and enlarged Edition, witli Map and
Illustrations
"A singularly instructive and agreeable volume." — AtheNjEUM.

" Maori."— SPORT AND WORK ON THE NEPAUL FRON-
TIER ; or. Twelve Years' Sporting Reminiscences of an Indigo
Planter. By "Maori." With Map and Illustrations. Svo.

\Immediately ,

Margary.— THE tourney of Augustus Raymond

MARGARY FROM SHANGHAE TO BHAMO AND BACK
TO MANWYNE. From his Journals and Letters, with a brief

1 8 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN

Biographical Preface, a concluding chapter by Sir Rutherford

Alcock, K.C.B., and a Steel Portrait engraved by JEENS, and

Map. 8vo. los. dd.

" There is a maiiliness, a cheerful spirit, an inherent vigour which

was ntver overcome by sickness or debility, a tact which conquered the

prejudices of a strange and suspicious population, a quiet self-reliance,

always combined with deep religious feeling, unalloyed by either p>riggish-

ness, cant, or superstition, that ought to commend this volume to readers

sitting quietly at home who feel any pride in the high estimation accorded

to men of their race at Yarkand or at Khiva, in the heart of Africa, or

on the shores of Lake Sei-i-kul." — Saturday Review.

Martin.— THE history of LLOYD'S, AND OF MARINE
INSURANCE IN GREAT BRITAIN. With an Appendix
containing Statistics relating to Marine Insurance. By Frederick
Martin, Author of "The Statesman's Year Book." 8vo. 14^.
" We have in the editor of the 'Statesman's Year Book' an in-
dustrious and conscientious guide, and we can certify that in his ' History
of Lloya's' he has produced a 'Loork of more than passing interest." —
Times.

Martineau. — biographical sketches, 1852—1875.

By Harriet Martineau. With Additional Sketches, and Auto-
biographical Sketch. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6j.
" Miss Martineau' s large literary powers and her fine intellectual
training make these little sketches more instructive, and constitute them
more genuinely works of art, than many more ambitious and diffiue
biographies."— Fortnightly Review.

Masson (David).— For other Works by same Author, see Philo-
sophical and Belles Lettres Catalogues.
CHATTERTON ; A Story of the Year 1770. By David Masson,
LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in the Uni-
versity of Edinburgh. Crown 8vo. $s.
" One of this popular writei-'s best essays on the English poets." —
Standard.

THE THREE DEVILS : Luther's, Goethe's, and Milton's ; and
other Essays. Crown 8vo. ^s.

WORDSWORTH, SHELLEY, AND KEATS; and other
Essays. Crown 8vo. $s.

Maurice.— THE FRIENDSHIP OF BOOKS ; AND OTHER
LECTURES. By the Rev. F. D. Maurice. Edited with Pre-
face, by Thomas Hughes, Q.C. Crown 8vo. 10s. 6d.
" The high, pure, sympathetic, and truly charitable nature of Mr.
Maurice is delightfully visible throughout these lectures, which are ex-
cellently adaptea to spread a love of literature amongst the people''

Daily News.

HISTOR V, BIOGRAPHY, TRA VELS, ETC. 19

Mayor (J. E. B.)— WORKS edited by John E. B. Mayor,
M.A., Kennedy Professor of Latin at Cambridge : —

CAMBRIDGE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. Part II.
Autobiography of Matthew Robinson. Fcap. 8vo. $s. dd.

LIFE OF BISHOP BEDELL. By his Son. Fcap. 8vo. is. 6d.

Melbourne. — MEMOIRS OF THE RT. HON WILLIAM,

SECOND VISCOUNT MELBOURNE. By W. M. Torrens,

M. P. With Portrait after Sir. T. Lawrence. Second Edition.

2 Vols. 8vo. 32J.

" As might be expected, he has produced a hook which will command

and reivard attention. It contains a great deal of valitable matter and

a great deal of animated, elegant loriting." — QUARTERLY REVIEW.

Mendelssohn. — LETTERS AND RECOLLECTIONS. By
Ferdinand Hiller. Translated by M. E. Von Glehn. With
Portrait fi'om a Drawing by Karl Muller, never before pub-
lished. Second Edition. Crown Svo. 7j. (>d.
*' This is a very interesting addition to our knowledge of the great
German composer. It reveals him to us under a new light, as the warm-
hearted comrade, the musician whose soul was in his work, and the home-
loving, domestic man." — Standard.

Merewether. — BY SEA AND BY land. Being a Trip
through Egypt, India, Ceylon, Australia, New Zealand, and
America — all Round the World. By Henry Alworth Mere-
wether, one of Her Majesty's Counsel. Crown Svo. 8.f. 6d.

Michael Angelo Buonarotti ; Sculptor, Painter, Architect.

The Story of his Life and Labours. By C. C. Black, M.A.

Illustrated by 20 Permanent Photographs. Royal 8vo. cloth

elegant, 31 J. 6a?.
" The story of Michael Angelo' s life remains interesting whatever be the
manner of telling it, and supported as it is by this beautiful series of photo-
graphs, the volume must take rank among the most splendid of Christmas
books, fitted to serve and to outlive the season" — Pall Mall Gazette.

Michelet— A SUMMARY OF MODERN HISTORY. Trans-
lated from the French of M. Michelet, and continued to the
present time by M. C. M. Simpson. Globe Svo. s,s. 6a.
" We are glad to see one of the ablest and most useful summaries .of
European history fttt into the hands of English readers. The transla-
tion is excellent." — Standard.

Milton. — LIFE OF JOHN MILTON. Narrated in connection
with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of his Time.
By David Masson, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric and
English Literature in the University of Edinburgh. With Portraits.
Vol. L iSj, Vol. IL, 1638—1643. Svo. i6j. Vol. IIL
1643 — 1649. Svo. i8.r. Vols. IV. and V. 1649—1660. 32^.

B 2

20 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN

This work is not only a Biography, but also a continuous Political, Eccle-
siastical, and Literary History of England through Milton's whole time.

Mitford (A. B.)— TALES OF OLD JAPAN. By A. B.

MiTFORD, Second Secretary to the British Legation in Japan.

With upwards of 30 Illustrations, drawn and cut on Wood by

Japanese Artists. New and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6^.

" These very original volumes will always be interesting as memorials

of a most exceptional society, zvhile regarded simply as tales, they are

sparkling, sensational, and dramatic, and the originality of their idea

and the quaintness of their language give them^ a most captivating

piquancy. The illustrations are extremely interesting, and for the

curious in such matters have a special and particular value." — PaLL

Mall Gazette.

Monteiro. — ANGOLA AND THE RIVER CONGO. By
Joachim Monteiro. With numerous Illustrations from Sketches
taken on the spot, and a Map. Two Vols, crown 8vo, 2ij-.
' ' Gives the first detailed account of a part of tropical Africa which is

little knownto Englishmen The remarks on the geography aud

loologv of the country and the manners and customs of the various races
inhabiting it, are extremely curious and interesting." — Saturday Re-
view. ' ' Full of valuable information and much picturesque description. "
Pall Mall Gazette.

Morison. — the life and times of saint Bernard,

Abbot of Clairvaux. By James ^Cotter Morison, M.A. New
Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
The Pall Mall Gazettte calls this " A delightful and instructive
volume, and one of the best products of the modern historic spirit."

Murray.— ROUND ABOUT FRANCE. By E. C. Grenville
Murray. Crown Svo. "js. 6d.
" These short essays are a perfect mine of information as to the present
condition and future prospects of political parties in France. . . . It is
at once extremely interesting atid exceptionally instructive on a subject on
which few English people are well informed." — Scotsman.

Napoleon.— THE HISTORY OF NAPOLEON L By P.

Lanfrey. A Translation ivith the sanction of the Author. Vols.

I. II. and III. Svo. price I2J. each.

The Pall Mall Gazette says it is " one of the most striking

pieces of historical composition of which France has to boast," and the

Saturday Review calls it "an excellent translation of a work on every

ground desei ving to be translated. It is unquestionably and immeasurably

the best that has been produced. It is in fact the only work to which we

can turn for an accurate and trustworthy narrative of that extraordinary

career. . . . The book is the best and indeed the only trustworthy history

of Napoleon which has been written."

HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 21

Nash.— OREGON ; There and Back in 1877. By Wallis Nash.
With Map and Illustrations. Crown 8vo. "Js. td.
" This unpretentious little volume is a bright and very clever record of
a journey which the author made to Oregon . . . which will tell any one
who reads it a very great deal worth knowing about Oregon .... Alto-
gether, he has written an interesting and amusing fo(7,J."— Spectator.

Nichol.— TABLES OF EUROPEAN LITERATURE AND
HISTORY, A.D. 200—1876. By J. Nichol, LL.D.,
Professor of English Language and Literature, Glasgow. 4to.
(>s. 6d.

TABLES OF ANCIENT LITERATURE AND HISTORY,
B.C. 1500— A. D. 200. By the same Author. 410. /^s. 6d.

Oliphant (Mrs.).— the makers of Florence : Dante

Giotto, Savonarola, and their City. By Mrs. Oliphant. With
numerous Illustrations from drawings by Professor Delamotte,
and portrait of Savonarola, engraved by Jeens. Second Edition.
Medium 8vo. Cloth extra. 2 is.
" Mrs. Oliphant has made a beautifid addition to the mass of literature

already pUed round the records of the Tuscan capital." — Times.

" We are grateful to Mrs. Oliphant for her eloquent and beautiful

sketches of Dante, Fra Angelico, and Savonarola. They are picturesque,

full of life, and rich in detail, and they are charmingly illustrated by the

art of the engraver." — Spectator.

Oliphant. — THE DUKE AND THE SCHOLAR; and othe
Essays. By T. L. Kington Oliphant. 8vo. ^s. 6d.
" This volume contains one of the most beautiful biographical essays we
have seen since Macaulay's days." — Standard. •

Otte. — SCANDINAVIAN HISTORY. By E. C. Otte. With
Maps. Extra fcap. 8vo. (>s.
" We have peculiar pleasure in recommending this intelligent risumi
of Northern history as a book essential to every Englishman who interests
himself in Scandinavia."— SiV%cta.t:o^.

Owens College Essays and Addresses. — By Pro-
fessors AND Lecturers of Owens College, Manchester.
Published in Commemoration of the Opening of the New College
Buildings, October 7th, 1873. 8vo. 14J.

Palgrave (R. F. D.)— the HOUSE OF COMMONS ;
Illustrations of its History and Practice. By Reginald F. D.
Palgrave, Clerk Assistant of the House of Commons. New
and Revised Edition. Crown Svo. 2s. (>d.

22 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS /.V

Palgrave (Sir F.) — HISTORY OF NORMANDY AND
OF ENGLAND. By Sir Francis Palgrave, Deputy Keeper
of Her Majesty's Public Records. Completing the History to the
Death of William Rufus. Vols. I. — IV. 21s. each.

Palgrave (W. G.) — a narrative of a year's

JOURNEY through CENTRAL AND EASTERN
ARABIA, 1862-3. By William Gifford Palgrave, late of
the Eighth Regiment Bombay N. I. Sixth Edition. With Maps,
Plans, and Portrait of Author, engraved on steel by Jeens. Crown
8vo. 6s.
" He has not only written one of the best books on the Arabs and one
of the best books on Arabia^ but he has done so in a manner that must
command the respect no less than the admiration of his fellow-country-
men." — Fortnightly Review.

ESSAYS ON EASTERN QUESTIONS. By W. Gifford
Palgrave. 8vo. los. 6d.

" These essays are full of anecdote and interest. The book is decidedly
a valuable addition to the stock of literature on which men viust
base their opinion of the difficult social and political problems sug-
gested by the designs of Russia, the capacity of Mahometans Jor
sovereignty, and the good government and retetition of India." —
Saturday Review.

DUTCH GUIANA. With Maps and Plans. 8vo. gj-.

' ' His pages are nearly exhaustive as far as facts and statistics go,
while they are lightened by graphic social sketches as well as sparkling
descriptions of scenery.'" — Saturday Review.

Patte son .—LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN COLERIDGE

PATTESON, D.D., Missionary Bishop of the Melaresian Islands.

By Charlotte M. Yonge, Author of " The Heir of Redclyffe,"

With Portraits after Richmond and from Photograph, engraved by

Jeens. With Map. Fifth Edition. Two Vols. Crown 8vo. \2s.

' ' Miss Yongis work is in one respect a model biography. It is made

up almost entirely of Patteson's own letters. Aware that he had left his

home once and for all, his correspondence took theforin of a diary, and

as we read on we come to know the man, and to love hiin almost as if we

had seen him." — Athen.«um. "Such a life, with its grand lessons op

unselfishness, is a blessing and an honour to the age in which it is lived ;

the biography cannot be studied without pleasure and profit, and indeed

we should think little of the man who did not rise from the study oj it

better and wiser. Neither the Church nor thi.- nation whith produces

such sons need ever despair oj its future." — Saturday Review.

Pauli. — PICTURES OF OLD ENGLAND. By Dr. Reinhold
Pauli. Translated, with the approval of the zVuthor, by E. C.
Otte. Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6f.

HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, E7^C. 23

Payne. — a history of European colonies. By

E. J. Payne, M.A. With Maps. i8mo. ^s. dd.

The Times says: — " We have seldom 7nel with a historian capable of
forming a more comprehensive, far-seeing, and unprejudiced estimate of
events and peoples, and 'we can cominend this little work as one certain to
prove of the highest interest to all thoughtful readers."

Persia. — eastern Persia. An Account of the Journeys of
the Persian Boundary Commission, 1870-1-2. — Vol. I. The Geo-
graphy, with Narratives by Majors St. John, Lovett, and Euan
Smith, and an Introduction by Major-General Sir Frederic
GOLDSMID, C.B., K.C.S.I., British Commissioner and Arbitrator.
With Maps and Illustrations. — Vol. II. The Zoology and Geology.
By W. T. Blantord, A.R.S.M., F.R.S. With Coloured Illus-
trations. Two Vols. 8vo. 42^.
*' The volumes largely increase our store of information about
countries with which Englishmen ou-ght to be familiar. ....
They throw into the shade all that hitherto has appeared in our tongue
respecting the local features of Persia, its scenery, its resources, even its
social condition. Thev contain also abundant evidence of English
endurance, daring, and spirit." — Times.

Prichard. — THE ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA. From
1859 to 1868. The First Ten Years of Administration under the
Crown. By I. T. Prichard, Barrister-at-Law. Two Vols.
Demy 8vo. With Map. 21^.

Raphael.— RAPHAEL OF URBINO AND HIS FATHER
'GIOVANNI SANTI. By J. D. Passavant, formerly Director
of the Museum at Frankfort. With Twenty Permanent Photo-
graphs. Royal 8vo. Handsomely bound. 31^.60^.
The Saturday Review says of them, ' ' We have seen not a few

elegant specimens of Mr. Woodbury's new process, but we have seen

none that equal these."

Reynolds.— SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS AS A PORTRAIT
PAINTER. AN ESSAY. By J. Churton Collins, B.A.
Balliol College, Oxford. Illustrated by a Series of Portraits of
distinguished Beauties of the Court Of George HI. ; re[)roduced
in Autotype from Proof Impressions of the celebrated Engravings,
by Valentine Greem, Thomas Watson, F. R. Smith, E.
Fisher, and others. FoHo half-morocco. ^5 5j.

Rogers (James E. Thorold).— HISTORICAL GLEAN.

INGS : A Series of Sketches. Montague, Walpole, Adam Smith,
Cohbett. By Prof. Rogers. Crown 8vo. 4J. td. Second Series.
Wiklif, Laud, Wilkes, and Home Tooke. Crown 8vo. 6j-.

24 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN
Routledge. — chapters in the history of popular

PROGRESS IN ENGLAND, chiefly in Relation to the Freedom
of the Press and Trial by Jury, 1660— 1820. With application to
later years. By J. Routledge. 8vo. i6j.
" The volume abounds itt facts and information, almost always useful
and often curious." — Times.

Rumford. — COUNT RUMFORD'S COMPLETE WORKS,
with Memoir, and Notices of his Daughter. By George Ellis.
Five Vols. 8vo. 4/. 14?. 6d.

Seeley (Professor). — LECTURES AND ESSAYS. By
J. R. Seeley, M.A. Professor of Modem History in the
University of Cambridge. 8vo. los. 6d.
Contents : — Roman Imperialism : I. The Great Roman Revolu-
tion; 2. The Proximate Cause of the Fall of the Roman Empire;
The Later Emtire. — Milton's Political Opinions — Milton's Poetry
— Elementary Principles in Art — Liberal Education in Universities
— English in Schools — The Church as a Teacher of Morality — The
Teaching of Politics : an Inaugural Lecture delivered at Cambridge.

Shelburne.— LIFE OF WILLIAM, EARL OF SHELBURNE,

AFTERWARDS FIRST MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE.

With Extracts from his Papers and Correspondence. By Lord

Edmond Fitzmaurice. In Three Vols. 8vo. Vol. I. 1737 —

1766, I2J. ; Vol. II. 1766— 1776, I2J-, ; Vol. III. 1776 — 1805.

\(>s.

"Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice has succeeded in placing before us a

wealth of new matter, which, while casting valuable and much-needed

light on several obscure passages in the political history of a hundred

years ago, has enabled us for the first time to form a char and consistent

idea of his ancestor." — Spectator.

Sime. — HISTORY OF GERMANY. By James Sime, M.A.

i8mo. 3^. Being Vol. V. of the Historical Course for Schools,

Edited by Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L.

" This is a remarkably clear and impressive History of Germany. Its

great events are wisely kept as central figures, and the smaller events are

carefully kept not only subordinate and subservient, but most skilfully

woven into the texture of the historical tapestry presented to the eye." —

Standard.

Squier. — PERU: incidents of travel and EX-
PLORATION IN THE LAND OF THE INCAS. By E. G.
Squier, M.A., F.S.A., late U.S. Commissioner to Peru. With
300 Illustrations. Second Edition. 8vo. 2ij-.
TXsTimes says: — "No more solid and trustworthy contribution had
been made to anaccurate knowledge of what are among the most wonderful
ruins in the world. .... The work is really what its title implies.

HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 25

While of the greatest importance as a contribution to Peruvian archaology,
it is also a thoroughly entertaining and instructive narrative of travel.
. . . . Not the least important feature must be considered the numerous
well executed illustrations"

Strangford. — EGYPTIAN SHRINES AND SYRIAN SEPUL-
CHRES, including a Visit to Palmyra. By Emily A. Beaufort
(Viscountess Strangford), Author of " The Eastern Shores of
the Adriatic." New Edition. Crown 8vo. Is. 6d.

Tait.— AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH HISTORY, based upon
Green's " Short History of the English People." By C. W. A.
Tait, M.A., Assistant Master, Clifton College. Crown] 8vo.
3J. 6d.

Thomas. — the LIFE OF JOHN THOMAS, Surgeon of the
' ' Earl of Oxford " East Indiaman, and First Baptist Missionary to
Bengal. By C. B. Lewis, Baptist Missionary. 8vo. ioj. 6d.

Thompson. — HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By Edith Thomp-
son. Being Vol. II. of the Historical Course for Schools, Edited
by Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L. New Edition, revised and
enlarged, with Maps. l8mo. 2s. dd.
" Preedom from prejudice, simplicity of style, and accuracy of state-
ment, are the characteristics of this volume. It is a trustworthy text-book,
and likely to be generally serviceable in schools." — Pall Mall Gazette.
" In its great accuracy and correctness of detail it stands far ahead of the
general run of school manuals. Its arrangement, too, is clear, and its
style simple and straightjorward." — Saturday Review.

Todhunter. — the conflict of studies ; AND
OTHER ESSAYS ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH
education. By Isaac Todhunter, M.A., F.R.S., late
Fellow and Principal Mathematical Lecturer of St. John's College,
Cambridge. 8vo. \os. 6d.
Contents : — /. The Conflict of Studies. II. Competitive Exa-
minations. III. Private Study of Mathematics. IV. Academical
Reform. V. Elementary Geometry. VI. The Mathematical Tripos.

Trench (Archbishop). — For other Works by the same Author,

see Theological and Belles Lettres Catalogues, and

page 30 of this Catalogue.
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN GERMANY, and other Lectures

on the Thirty Years' War. Second Edition, revised and enlarged.

Fcap. 8vo. 4?.
PLUTARCH, HIS LIFE, HIS LIVES, AND H:IS MORALS.

Five Lectures. Second Edition, enlarged. Fcap. 8vo. 3^. td.
LECTURES ON MEDIEVAL CHURCH HISTORY. Being

the substance of Lectures delivered in Queen's College, London.

8vo. \2S.

26 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF WORKS IN

Trench (Maria). — THE LIFE OF ST. TERESA. By Maria
Trench. With Portrait engraved by Jeens. Crown 8vo. cloth
extra. 8.f. dd.
"A hook of rare interest." — John Bull.

Trench (Mrs. R.) — remains of THE LATE MRS.
RICHARD TRENCH. Being Selections from her Journals,
Letters, and other Papers. Edited by Archbishop Trench.
New and Cheaper Issue, with Portrait. 8vo. (ss.

TroUope. — a HISTORY OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF
FLORENCE FROM THE EARLIEST INDEPENDENCE
OF THE COMMUNE TO THE FALL OF THE REPUBLIC
IN 183 1. By T. Adolphhs Trollope. 4 Vols. 8vo. Half
morocco, lis.

Uppingham by the Sea. — a narrative OF THE

YEARATBORTH. ByJ. H. S. Crown 8vo. },s. Gd.

Wallace.— THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO: the Land of the

Orang Utan and the Bird of Paradise. By Alfred Russel

Wallace. A Narrative of Travel with Studies of Man and

Nature. With Maps and numerous Illustrations. Fifth Edition.

Crown 8vo. "is. (>d.

" The result is a vivid picture of tropical life, which may be read with

unflagging interest, and a sufficient account of his scientific conclusions to

stimulate our appetite without wearying us by detail. In short, we may

safely say that we have never read a more agreeable book of its kind." —

Saturday Review.

Ward.— A HISTORY OF ENGLISH DRAMATIC LITERA-
TURE TO THE DEATH OF QUEEN ANNE. By A. W.
Ward, M.A., Professor of History and English Literature ii\
Owens College, Manchester. Two Vols. 8vo. 32^.
'^ As full of interest as of information. To students of araniatlc

literature invaluable, and may be equally recommended to readers for

mere pastime.'" — Pall Mall Gazette.

Ward (J.) — EXPERIENCES OF A DIPLOMATIST. Being
recollections of Germany founded on Diaries kept during the years
1840 — 1870. By John Ward, C.B., late H.M. Minister-
Resident to the Hanse Towns. 8vo. loj'. dd.

Wedgwood. — JOHN WESLEY AND THE EVANGELICAL
REACTION of the Eighteenth Century. By Julia Wedgwood.
Crown 8vo. %s. 6d.
" In style and intellectual power, in breadth of view and clearness oj

tnsiglit. Miss Wedgwood'' s book far surpasses all rivals."— Athenjevm.

HISTORY, SIOGRAPHY, TRAVELS, ETC. 27

Whewell.— WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D., late Master of
Trinity College, Cambridge. An Account of his Writings, witli
Selections from his Literary and Scientific Correspondence. By
I. ToDHUNTER, M.A., F.R.S. Two Vols. 8vo. 25J.

White.— THE NATURAL HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES
OF SELBORNE. By (}ilbert White. Edited, with Memoir
and Notes, by Frank Buckland, A Chapter on Antiquities by
Lord Selborne, Map, &c., and numerous Illustrations by
P. H. Delamotte. Royal 8vo. Cloth, extra gilt. Cheaper
Issue. 2 1 J.
Also a Large Paper Edition, containing, in addition to the above,
upwards of Thirty Woodburytype Illustrations from Drawings by
Prof. Delamotte. Two Vols. 4to. Half morocco, elegant. 4/. 4^.
"Mr. Delamotte s charming illustrations are a worthy decoration of so

aainty a book. They bring Selborne before us, and really help us to

understand why Whites love for his native place Ut-ver grew cold." —

Times.

Wilson. — A MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON, M. D.,
F.R.S.E., Regius Professor of Technology in the University of
Edinburgh. By his Sister. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 6j.
'M« exquisite and touching portrait of a rare and beautiful spirit. " —

Guardian.

Wilson (Daniel, LL.D.) — Works by Daniel Wilson,

LL.D., Professor of History and English Literature in University

College, Toronto : —
PREHISTORIC ANNALS OF SCOTLAND. New Edition,

with numerous Illustrations. Two Vols, demy Bvo. %(>s.
" One of the most interesting, learned, and elegant works we have
seen for a long ^w?;^."— Westminster Review.

PREHISTORIC MAN : Researches into the Origin of Civilization

in the Old and New World. New Edition, revised and enlarged

throughout, with numerous Illustrations and two Coloured Plates.

Two Vols. 8vo. ^bs.
"A valuable work pleasantly written and well worthy of attention
both by students and general readers." — Academy.

CHATTERTON : A Biographical Study. By Daniel Wilson,

LL.D., Professor of History and English Literature in University

College, Toronto. Crown 8vo. 6s. td.

Wyatt (Sir M. Digby).— FINE ART : a Sketch of its
History, Theory, Practice, and application to Industry. A Course
of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge. By
Sir M. DlGEY Wyatt, M.A. Slade Professor of Fine Art.
Cheaper Issue. 8vo. $s.

28 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF

"An excellent handbook for the student of art." — GRAPHIC. " The
book abounds in valuable matter, and will therefore be read with
pleasure and profit by lovers of art." — Daily News.

Yonge (Charlotte M.)— Works by Charlotte M. Yonge,
Author of "The Heir of Redclyffe," &c. &c. :—

A PARALLEL HISTORY OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND :
consisting of Outlines and Dates. Oblong 4to. y. 6d.

CAMEOS FROM ENGLISH HISTORY. From RoUo to Edward
II. Extra fcap. 8vo. Third Edition. $5.

A Second Series, THE WARS IN FRANCE. Extra fcap.
8vo. Third Edition. 5j.

A Third Series, THE WARS OF THE ROSES. Extra
fcap. 8vo. 5J-.

" Instead of dry details,'' says the Nonconformist, " we have living
pictures, faithful, vivid, and striking."

Young (Julian Charles, M.A.)— a MEMOIR OF

CHARLES MAYNE YOUNG, Tragedian, with Extracts

from his Son's Journal. By Julian Charles Young, M.A.

Rector of Ilraington. With Portraits and Sketches. New and

Cheaper Edition, Crown 8vo. Is. 6d.

"In this budget of anecdotes, fables, and gossip, old and new, relative to

Scott, Moore, Chalmers, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Croker, Mathews, the

third and fourth Georges, Bowles, Beckford, Lockhart, Wellington, Feel,

Louis Napoleon, D'Orsay, Dickens, Thackeray, Louis Blanc, Gibson,

Constable, and Stanfield, etc. etc., the reader must be hard indeed to please

who cannot find entertainment." — Pall Mall Gazette.

WORKS IN POLITICS, ETC,

POLITICS, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL
ECONOMY, LAW, AND KINDRED
SUBJECTS.

Anglo Saxon Law. — ESSAYS IN. Contents : Law Courts
— Land and Family Laws and Legal Procedure generally. With
Select cases. Medium 8vo. i&s.

Ball. — THE STUDENT'S GUIDE TO THE BAR. By
Walter W. Ball, M.A., of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-
Law. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.
" The student will here find a clear statement of the several steps by

•which the degree of barrister is obtained, and also useful advice about

the advantages of a prolonged course of ' reading in Chambers. ' " —

Academy.

Bernard. — FOUR LECTURES ON subjects connected

WITH DIPLOMACY. By Montague Bernard, M.A.,
Chichele Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, Oxford.
8vo. gs.
" Singularly interesting lectures, so able, clear, and attractive." — Spec-
tator.

Bright (John, M. P.)— SPEECHES ON QUESTIONS OF
PUBLIC POLICY. By the Right Hon. John Bright, M.P.
Edited by Professor Thorold Rogers. Author's Popular Edition.
Globe 8vo. y. dd.
"Mr. Brighfs speeches will always deserve to be studied, as an
apprenticeship to popular and parliamentary oratory ; they will form
materials for the history of our time, and many brilliant passages,
perhaps some entire speeches, will really become a part of the living litera-
ture of England." — Daily News.

LIBRARY EDITION. Two Vols. 8vo. With Portrait, z^s.

Bucknill.— HABITUAL DRUNKENNESS AND INSANE
DRUNKARDS. By J. C. Bucknill, M.D., F.R.S., late
Lord Chancellor's Visitor of Lunatics. Crown 8vo. is. 6d.

Cairnes. — Works by J. E. Cairnes, M.A., Emeritus Professor of
Political Economy in University College, London.
ESSAYS IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, THEORETICAL
and APPLIED. By J. E. Cairnes, M.A., Professor of Political
Economy in University College, London. 8vo. lox. 6d.
" The production of one of the ablest of living economists." — Athe-
naeum.

30 AIACMILLAlSrS CATALOGUE OF

Cairnes> — continued.

POLITICAL ESSAYS. Svo. los. dd.

Z/^* Saturday Review says:—" We recenily expressed our high
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SOME LEADING PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
NEWLY EXPOUNDED. Svo. 14^.

Contents : — Fart I. Value. Part II. Labcrur and Capital. Part
III. International Trade.

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THE CHARACTER AND LOGICAL METHOD OF POLL
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Clarke.— EARLY' ROMAN LAW. THE REGAL PERIOD.'
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bridge. Crown Svo. ^s.
' ' Mr. Clarke has brought together a great mass of valuable matter in

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Cobden (Richard).— speeches ON QUESTIONS OF
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Fa'WCett. — Works by Henry Fawcett, M.A., M.P., Fellow of
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THE ECONOMIC POSITION OF THE BRITISH

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5J. td.
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_ WORKS IN POLITICS, ETC. 31

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SPEECHES ON SOME CURRENT POLITICAL QUES-
TIONS. 8vo. lOJ. dd.

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ESSAYS ON POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SUBJECTS. By
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FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION ; an Inquiry into the
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Fawcett (Mrs.) — Works by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.

POLITICAL ECONOMY FOR BEGINNERS. WITH QUES-
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TALES IN POLITICAL ECONOMY. Crown 8vo. 3^.

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true doctrines of International Trade, Currency, and the ratio between
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manner" — Athen^um .

Freeman (E. A.), M.A., D.C.L.— comparative

POLITICS. Lectures at the Royal Institution, to which is

added " The Unity of History," being the Rede Lecture delivered

at Cambridge in 1872. 8vo. 14^-.

" We find in Mr. Freeman's new volume the same sound, careful,

comprehensive qualities which have long ago raised him to so high a place

amongst historical writers. For historical discipline, then, as well as

historical information, Mr. Fi'eeman's book is full of value." — Pall

Mall Gazette.

Goschen. — REPORTS AND SPEECHES ON LOCAL TAXA-
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32 MACMILLAlSrS CATALOGUE OF

Guide to the Unprotected, in Every Day Matters Re-
lating to Property and Income. By a Banker's Daughter.
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Hamilton. — MONEY AND VALUE: 'an Inquiry into the

Means and Ends of Economic Production, with an Appendix

on the Depreciation of Silver and Indian Currency. By Rowland

Hamilton. 8vo. 12s.

" The subject is here dealt with in a luminous style, and by presenting

it from a new point of view in connection with the nature and functions

of money, a genuine service has been rendered to commercial science." —

British Quarterly Review.

Harwood. — disestablishment : a Defence of the Principle
of a National Church. By George Harwood, M. A. 8vo. 12s.

Hill. — Works by OCTAVIA Hll-L : —
HOMES OF THE LONDON POOR. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3^. dd.
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OUR COMMON LAND ; and other Short Essays. Extra fcap.
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Contents : — Our Common Land. District Visiting. A More
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considerable Additions. 8vo. Is. ' 6d. Also, ADDITIONAL
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Holland.— THE treaty relations of RUSSIA AND
TURKEY FROM 1774 TO 1853. A Lecture delivered at Oxford,
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Hughes (Thos.)— the OLD CHURCH: WHAT SHALL
WE DO WITH IT? By Thomas Hughes, Q.C. Crown
8vo. 6s.

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Works by the same Author, see Educational and Philo-
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WORKS IN POLITICS, ETC. 33

}&WQns.— continued.

THE COAL QUESTION : An Inquiry Concerning the Progress
of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of our Coal Mines.
Second Edition, revised. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

THE THEORY OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 8vo. gs.

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PRIMER OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. i8mo. i^.

Laveleye. — primitive property. By emile de

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have been contributed to the historical department of the literature of

economic science." — AtheN/EUM.

Leading Cases done into English. By an Apprentice
OF Lincoln's Inn. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. zs. 6d.
" Here is a rare treat for the lovers of quaint conceits, who in reading
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Macdonell.— THE LAND question, with special

REFERENCE TO ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. By
John Macdonell, Barrister-at-Law. 8vo. loj. (id.

Martin the statesman's year-book : A statistical

and Historical Annual of the States of the Civilized World,
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kind has ever been able to furnish. "As indispensable as Bradshaw." —
Times.

34 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF

Monahan. — THE METHOD OF LAW: an Essay on the

Statement and Arrangement of the Legal Standard of Conduct.

By J. H. Monahan, Q.C. Crown 8vo. ds.

" Will be found valuable by careful law students who have felt the

importance of gaining clear ideas regarding the relations between the parts

of the complex organism they have to study." — British Quarterly

Review.

Paterson the LIBERTY OF the subject and THE

LAWS OF ENGLAND RELATING TO THE SECURITY
OF THE PERSON. Commentaries on. By James Paterson,
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Irish Fisheries, etc. Two Vols Crown 8vo. 21s.
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of a citizen of their country, in its principles, its fulness, and its modi-
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— Scotsman.

Phillimore. — private law among the ROMANS,
from the Pandects. By John George Phillimore, Q.C. 8vo.
\(ss.

Rogers. — COBDEN AND POLITICAL OPINION. By J. E.
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sort of handbook to Cobden's teaching." — Athen^um.

Stephen (C. E.)_the service of the poor;

Being an Inquiry into the Reasons for and against tlie Establish-
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A DIGEST OF THE CRIMINAL LAW. (Crimes and
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and intelligent insight into its snares and pitfalls, than an ordinary
practitioner can boast of after years of study of the ordinary text-
books and practical experience of the Courts unassisted by any competent
guide." — Saturday Review.

WORKS ON LANG UA GE. 3 5

Stubbs. — VILLAGE POLITICS. Addresses and Sermons oa
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ON LABOUR: Its Wrongful Claims and Rightful Dues; Its

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Political Economy and History, Yale College : —
THE WAGES QUESTION. A Treatise on Wages and the

Wages Class. 8vo. 14^.
MONEY. 8vo. i6j-.

^^ It is painstaking, laborious, and statss ths question, in a clear and
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Work about the Five Dials. with an Introductory
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"A bookxuhich abounds with wise and practical suggestions." — Pall
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WORKS CONNECTED WITH THE SCIENCE
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Abbott.— A SHAICESPERIAN GRAMMAR : An Attempt to
illustrate some of the Differences between Elizabethan and Modern
English. By the Rev. E. A. Abbott, D.D., Head Master of the
City of London School. New and Enlarged Edition. Extra
fcap. Svo. (>s.
"Valuable not only as an aid to the critical study of Shakespeare,

but as tending to familiarize the reader with Elizabethan English in

general. '' — Athen^um.

Besant.— STUDIES IN EARLY FRENCH POETRY. By
Walter Besant, M.A. Crown Svo. 8j. 6rf.

36 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF

Breymann. — a FRENCH GRAMMAR BASED ON PHILO-

LOGICAL PRINCIPLES. ■ By Hermann Breymann, Ph.D.,

Professor of Philology in the University of Munich late Lecturer

on French Language and Literature at Owens College, Man-

chaster. Extra fcap. Svo. 4?. 6d.

" We dismiss the work with every feeling of satisfaction. It cannot

fail to be taken into use by all schools which endeavour to make the study

of French a means towards the higher culture!' — EDUCATIONAL Times.

Ellis. — PRACTICAL HINTS ON THE QUANTITATIVE
PRONUNCIATION OF LATIN, FOR THE USE OF
CLASSICAL TEACHERS AND LINGUISTS. By A. J.
Elus, B.A., F.R.S., &c. Extra fcap. Svo. 4r. ()d.

Fleay. — a SHAKESPEARE MANUAL. By the Rev. F. G.
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Goodwin.— SYNTAX OF THE GREEK MOODS AND
TENSES. By W. W. Goodwin, Professor of Greek Literature
in Harvard University. New Edition. Crown Svo. 6j. 6d.

Hadley.— ESSAYS PHILOLOGICAL AND CRITICAL.
Selected from the Papers of James Hadley, LL.D., Professor of
Greek in Yale College, &c. Svo. 16^.

Hales.— LONGER ENGLISH POEMS. "With Notes, Philo-
logical and Explanatory, and an Introduction on the Teaching ol
English. Chiefly for use in Schools. Edited by J. W. Hales,
M.A., Professor of Enghsh Literature at King's College, London,
&c. &c. Fifth Edition. Extra fcap. Svo. 4?. dd.

Helfenstein (James).— A COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR
OF THE TEUTONIC LANGUAGES : Being at the same
time a Historical Grammar of the English Language, and com-
prising Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, Early English, Modem English,
Icelandic (Old Norse), Danish, Swedish, Old High German,
Middle High German, Modem German, Old Saxon, Old Frisian,
and Dutch. By James Helfenstein, Ph.D. Svo. iSj.

Masson (Gustave).— a compendious dictionary

OF the FRENCH LANGUAGE (French-English and English-
French). Followed by a List of the Principal Diverging Deriva-
tions, and preceded by Chronological and Historical Tables. By
Gustave Masson, Assistant-Master and Librarian, Harrow
School. Fourth Edition. Crown Svo. Half-bound. 6^.
"A book which any student, whatever may be the degree of his ad-
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hand while he is reading."— Saturday Review.

WORKS ON LANGUAGE. 37

Mayor. — a BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CLUE TO LATIN LITE-
RATURE. Edited after Dr. E. Hubner. With large Additions
by John E. B. Mayor, M.A., Professor of Latin iji the Univer-
sity of Cambridge. Crown 8vo. 6j. dd.

"An extremely useful volume that should be in the hands of all
scholars. — Athenaeum.

Morris. — Works by the Rev. Richard Morris, LL.D., Member
of the Council of the Philol. Soc, Lecturer on English Language
and Literature in King's College School, Editor of " Specimens
of Early English," etc., etc. : —

HISTORICAL OUTLINES OF ENGLISH ACCIDENCE,
comprising Chapters on the History and Development, of
the Language, and on Word-formation. Sixth Edition. Fcap.
8vo. 6j.

ELEMENTARY LESSONS IN HISTORICAL ENGLISH
GRAMMAR, containing Accidence and Word-formation. Third
Edition. i8mo. 2s. (>d.

Oliphant. — the old and middle English. By

T. L. Kington Oliphant, M.A., of Balliol College, Oxford.
A New Edition, revised and greatly enlarged, of " The Sources
of Standard English. Extra fcap. 8vo. gj.

"Mr. Oliphant' s took is, to our mptif, one of the ablest and most
scholarly contributions to our stanclard English we have seen for many
vears." — School Board Chronicle. "The book comes nearer to a
history of the English language than anything we ha^e seen since such a
history could be written, without ccnjusion and contradictions." —
Saturday Review.

Peile (John, M,A-)^AN INTRODUCTION TO GREEK
AND LATIN ETYMOLOGY. By John Peile, M.A.,
Fellow and Tutor of Christ's College, Cambridge. Third
and revised Edition. Crown Svo. los. 6d.

"The book may be accepted as a very valuable contribution to the
science of language." — Saturday Revievjt.

Philology. — THE JOURNAL OF SACRED AND CLAS-
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THE JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY. New Series. Edited by W.
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Wright, M.A. 4^. 6d. (Half-yearly.)

j8 MACMILLAN'S CATALOGUE OF

Roby (H. J.)— A GRAMMAR OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE^
FROM PLAUTUS TO SUETONIUS, By Henry John
Roby, M.A., late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge.
In Two Parts. Second Edition. Part I. containing : — Book I.
Sounds. Book II. Inflexions. Book III. Word Formation. Ap-
pendices. Crown 8vo. %s. dd. Part II. — Syntax, Prepositions,
&c. Crown 8vo. loj-. (>d.

"The book is marked by the dear and pra(tic<tl itidght of a master in

his art. It is a boqk Tvhich would do honour to any country." —

AtheNxBUM, "Bifings before the student in a methodical fonn the best

..results of modern philology bearing on the Latin language. " — Scotsman.

Taylor. — Works, by th^ Rev. Isaac Ta.ylor, M. A. :—
ETRUSCAN RESEARCHES. With Woodcuts. 8vo. i+r.

The Times says : — " The learning and industry displayed in this
volume deserve the most cordial recognition. The ultimate verdict of
science we shall not attempt to anticipate ; bitt we can safely say this, that
it is a learned book which the unlearned can enjoy ^ and.thaf in the de-.
scripiions of the tomb-builders, as well as in the marvellous cciincidences
and uneycpected ana,logies brought together by the author, readers of. every
grade may take delight ds well as philosophers and scholars."

WORDS AND PLACES ; or. Etymological Illustrations of
History, Ethnology, and Geograpliy. By the Rev. Isaac Taylor.
Third Edition, revised and coippressed. With Maps, Globe
8vo. fe ^

Trench. — Works by R. Chenevix Trench, D.D., Archbishop of
Dublin. (For other Works by the same Author, see Theological
i Catalogue.)

SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Eighth Edition^^
enlarged. 8vo. cloth. I2j, J^

^'He is," the Athen,i*um says, "a guide'in this department of
knowledge to whom his readers may entrUfSt themselves with confidence."

ON THE STUDY OF WORDS. Lectures Addressed (originally)
to the Pupils at the Diocesan Training Scnool, Winchester.
Seventeenth Edition, enlarged. Fcap. 8vo. 5j.

ENGLISH PAST AND PRESENT. Tenth Edition, revised
and improved. Fcap. 8vo. 5j.

A SELECT GLOSSARY OF ENGLISH WORDS USElK
FORMERLY IN SENSES DIFFERENT FROM THEIR^
PRESENT. Fourth Edition, enlarged. Fcaip. Svo. "4^.

WORKS -OH LANGUAGE. 39

Whitney — a cdMPENDiou^ German grammar. By

W. D. Whitney, Professor of Sanskrit and Instructor in Modern
Languages in Yale College. Crown 8vo. 6j.
" After careful examination we are inclined to pronounce it the best
grammar of modern language we have ever seen." — Scotsman.

Whitney and Edgren. — a compendious German

AND ENGLISH DICTIONARY, with Notation of Coi-respon-
dences and Brief Etymologies» By Professor W. D. Whitney,
assisted by A. H. Edgren. Crown 8vo. Is. 6d.

The GERMAN-ENGLISH Part may be had separately. Price 5^-.

Yonge — HISTORY or christian names. By Char-
lotte M. Yonge, Author of "The Heir of Redclyffe."
Cheaper Edition. Two Vols. Crown 8vo. 12s.