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 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER
 
 -TOTTENAL 
 
 £taff=©fficev in pavis ourino 
 tbe Events of 1870 anb 1871 
 
 BY 
 
 M. LE COMTE D'HERISSON 
 
 |C o tt b tt 
 
 REMINGTON & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 
 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 
 
 1885 
 All Riyhts Reserved
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 > 
 
 I. New York to Paris .... 1 
 II. The Camp at Chalons . . .16 
 
 III. Across Paris . . . . .29 
 
 IV. The Fourth of September . . .53 
 V. The Journey of the Empress . . 82 
 
 VI. In the Home of the Empress . . .95 
 
 VII. The Empress and the Governor . .123 
 
 VIII. Paris Blockaded .... 131 
 
 IX. An Amateur Diplomatist . . .143 
 
 X. From the Capitol to the Tarpeian Rock . 157 
 
 XI. Trochu at Home . . . .167 
 
 XII. The Thirty-First of October . . 181 
 
 XIII. Elections and Negotiations . . . 206 
 
 XIV. Paris 219 
 
 XV. Villiers Champion y .... 242 
 
 XVI. Buzenval . . . . .269 
 
 XVII. At Versailles . . . . .282
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TWO DOCUMENTS 
 
 Extract fromthe GouverneTnent de la Defense Rationale, 
 by Jules Favue. 
 
 ' At half -past four I was still without any reply. The 
 Jay had been foggy and cold ; night was falling. The 
 cannonade from the forts and ramparts resounded with 
 greater intensity than ever. Shells rained over the city ; 
 the works which covered Saint Denis, and even Saint Denis 
 itself, were wreathed in Haines. Innumerable anxieties 
 were torturing me. I was at a loss to account for this 
 inexplicable delay unless, indeed, the Chancellor refused 
 to treat with us at this decisive moment. At length, at 
 five o'clock, the door of my room opened, and my envoy 
 handed me a letter from M. de Bismarck to the effect that 
 he would see me on the morrow, or that very evening if I 
 so preferred.
 
 ii PREFACE 
 
 'The young officer who brought me this despatch, 
 Captain d'Herisson d'Irisson, was on the Head-quarters 
 ►Staff of General Trochu, and had brought himself into 
 prominent notice by his polished manner, his courage and 
 intelligence. Gifted with a special aptitude for languages, 
 he spoke English perfectly, and German with facility, not 
 to mention Chinese, which he had rapidly acquired while 
 serving with the brilliant expedition under General de 
 Montauban. When the war with Prussia broke out he 
 was in the heart of America ; he returned in hot haste 
 to place himself at the service of his country, and to shut 
 himself up in the town which he believed was in the 
 greatest danger. The Governor willingly confided the 
 most dangerous missions to him, and he acquitted himself 
 of these important duties with equal coolness and in- 
 trepidity. I had asked for him because I knew that I 
 should find in him the qualities of which I stood in 
 need. He was my staunch, discreet, and faithful com- 
 panion during these long and painful negotiations. I 
 am glad to have an opportunity here of recording my 
 appreciation of the affectionate zeal which he never ceased 
 to display in regard to me.' 
 
 II 
 
 Letter addressed to the Author by General Schmitz. 
 < ommanding A Corps d'Armee. 
 
 ' The undersigned Schmitz (Pierre-Isidore) General of 
 Division, Commander-in-Chief of the 12th Coips d'Armee, 
 Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, late Chief of the 
 Staff' of the Armies of the National Defence, hereby 
 certifies that M. (Maurice) d'Irisson d'Herisson was 
 attached, as Captain of the Garde Mobile, to the Staff' of the 
 Governor of Paris during the whole of the siege.
 
 PREFACE ii I 
 
 ' The Governor of Paris on many occasions expressed his 
 entire satisfaction with the services rendered by M. 
 d'Irisson, notably in the affairs of L'Hay, Chevilly, Villiers, 
 and Champigny ; this officer, indeed, did his duty with 
 admirable zeal and devotion, and when, at the end of the 
 siege, negotiations were going on between M. Jules Favre 
 and Count de Bismarck, he rendered eminent services ; he 
 obtained from the Germans the concession that the colours 
 should not be handed over to them, and several military 
 points were, at his instance, erased from the Convention. 
 
 ' Profoundly recognising the services rendered by M. 
 d'Irisson, the General, Chief of the Staff, would have been 
 happy to have conferred upon him the Cross of an Officer 
 of the Legion of Honour, but he was in too close contact 
 with the Governor to receive that reward. 
 
 ' We all of us considered that our services, under such 
 lamentable circumstances, ouo-ht to be g'ratuitous. 
 
 ' The only exception to this rule was in the case of 
 Captain Thory, upon whom the Minister of War caused 
 the Cross of an Officer to be conferred at Bourdeaux, after 
 the disbanding of the armies and the conclusion of peace. 
 ' Given at Head-Quarters, at Limoges, December 1st, 1870. 
 
 ( SCHMITZ, 
 
 ' General Commanding the 12th Corps d'Arm^e.'' 
 
 The officer who accompanied Jules Favre, and was his 
 discreet, faithful, and devoted companion, the officer to 
 whom General Schmitz did the honour of addressing the 
 foregoing testimonial, is about to recount to the public his 
 impressions of the period from July 1870, to February 1871. 
 
 This officer is not a historian ; he endeavours to be a 
 narrator. Moreover, history is, as it were, a case which is
 
 iv PREFACE 
 
 ever under hearing. The historian is a species of president 
 who sums up a discussion. The narrator is a witness who 
 recounts what he has seen. 
 
 From the historian, as from a president, are demanded, 
 above all, strict impartiality and a succinct classification of 
 facts. 
 
 From the narrator and the witness are demanded candid 
 evidence and genuine impressions. 
 
 I am a'oino- then, to describe, with frankness and 
 sincerity, not all that happened, but everything that I 
 saw during these terrible days, so full of catastrophes 
 from which France has not even now recovered. 
 
 D'HERISSON. 
 
 Paris, January, 1885.
 
 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 NEW YORK TO PARIS 
 
 Prevost-Paradol — His Despondency — His Suicide. — The Germans in America. — 
 Irish and English.— The Treaty of Tien-Tsin.— In France. — The Marseillaise. 
 — With the Minister of War. — En route for Chalons. 
 
 On the 10th of July, 1870, I was in Washington and 
 
 soliciting a short interview with Prevost-Paradol, who 
 
 had recently been appointed Minister Plenipotentiary of 
 
 France in the United States. As I was entrusted by the 
 
 Minister of Commerce with an official mission to North 
 
 America, I was really somewhat dependent upon the new 
 
 Ambassador, and he was good enough to give me an early 
 
 appointment. 
 
 Before I left France I had been presented to the 
 
 brilliant writer, won over from the old to the Imperial 
 
 regime, a trophy of Caesar converted into a Member of 
 
 Parliament. He lived in a modest suite of rooms in the 
 
 Rue Saint-Georges, and at the date of our first interview 
 
 A
 
 2 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 he had only just received his diplomatic appointment, 
 and was preserving an unflinching demeanour under the 
 angry sarcasms which were being hurled at him by his 
 old friends for what they called his apostacy. He then 
 appeared to me to be full of confidence in his own future 
 and in the star of the liberal empire. 
 
 In Washington he was no longer the same man. He 
 had fallen away, had aged even in so short a time, was 
 melancholy, undecided, and as if he were borne down by 
 the sense of having made an irreparable mistake — what 
 the boulevards in their highly imaginative language call 
 a bouhtte. Such was my impression of the trenchant 
 journalist, the witty talker, and the frank diplomatist, 
 happy in airing his newly won distinction and in hearing 
 himself styled Your Excellency, whom I had met only 
 a month previously. 
 
 'Ah, my friend,' he said, as he welcomed me, 'what a 
 misfortune, what an irreparable misfortune ! ' 
 
 ' What do you mean ? What misfortune ? ' I replied in 
 astonishment. 
 
 ' Well — but — I mean this war.' 
 
 ' What war ? ' 
 
 ' The war with Germany.' 
 
 ' Where do you get that idea from ? ' 
 
 I began to wonder within myself whether his brain was 
 affected, or if he had already fallen under the spell of the 
 ' evil eye ' of the White House. I must explain that at 
 Washington — a horribly wearisome place, seeing that it 
 only contains the Capitol, the residence of the President, 
 and the public offices, all of them institutions which act 
 directly on the spleen — there is a current belief that the 
 Wlii to House, the modest palace of the President, brings 
 misfortune to those who enter it for the first time.
 
 NEW YORK TO PARIS 3 
 
 He read my thoughts and sadly replied to them : 
 
 ' No, I am not mad. You evidently are in the dark as 
 to what is going on. Learn, then, that General Prim took 
 it into his head four days ago to offer the crown of Spain 
 to Prince Antoine of Hohenzollern, of the Royal Family of 
 Prussia; that France has protested in most energetic terms 
 against what she calls the resurrection of the empire of 
 Charles V ; that at this moment curt and angry notes are 
 being exchanged between Saint-Cloud and Ems, where the 
 King and M. de Bismarck now are, and that there can only 
 be one fatal result of all this — war, within a week, to- 
 morrow, possibly to-day.' 
 
 ' It will blow over, you will see, just as in the 
 Luxembourg affair.' 
 
 ' It will not blow over, for two reasons. The first is that 
 Prussia wants to go to war with us. Indirectly for the 
 last sixteen years, and directly for four, she has been 
 preparing for it. Her army needs fighting just as loco- 
 motives need to be used, lest it should become rusty. 
 That is the first reason, and it is a peremptory one. The 
 King and M. de Bismarck are wise enough to retreat even 
 now, perhaps, if they were not afraid that some general, 
 more sagacious than Niel, might arise in France to compel 
 the Chamber to vote a fundamental re-organisation of our 
 army on the model of their own. But the second reason, 
 alas, is more absolute. The Empire needs a war, it wishes 
 for one, and it will make one.' 
 
 And, lowering his voice, he added, in a tone of 
 despondency, 
 
 ' There were fifteen hundred thousand Non in the 
 'plebiscite! 
 
 ' Very well, then let us admit a war. And I thank you 
 for having given me timely warning. I shall pigeon-hole my
 
 4 JOURXAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 figures and reports. France has no more need of statis- 
 ticians ; she wants soldiers. I am a captain of Mobiles. 
 Is it time to pack up ? After all, I should not be sorry to 
 take a trip through Germany. I speak German as well as 
 old Arminius himself. I shall pay a visit of inspection to 
 the libraries of the conquered towns.' 
 
 The Minister interrupted me abruptly. 
 ' What a grand thing it is to be young and to believe/ 
 he said. ' But, unhappy youth, not only will you not go to 
 Germany, but you will be overwhelmed in France. Believe 
 me, I know the Prussians. We are deficient of everything 
 that we need in order to struggle against them — generals, 
 men, and supplies. We shall be ground to powder.' 
 
 And then, as if he were speaking to himself and had 
 forgotten that I was there, he added, 
 
 ' France will be in a state of revolution before six 
 months are over, and the Empire will be in the dust. Ah 1 
 
 I had good need ' 
 
 He did not complete the sentence, but I understood that 
 in the catastrophes which he foresaw, he was not entirely 
 forgetful of himself. 
 
 ' Are you pleased, at all events,' I asked, ' with your re- 
 ception here ? ' 
 
 ' Passably. These people do not love us,' he replied. 
 ' They have never forgiven our attempt upon Mexico. And 
 as far as I am personally concerned — why should I not 
 confess it privately ? — I have noticed a certain amount of 
 astonishment, almost amounting to disapprobation, in regard 
 to my changed attitude. America is German to the back- 
 bone, and how should it be otherwise? There are certainly 
 more Germans than English here, and not one of them, in 
 betaking himself to a new country, has forgotten his old- 
 one. I tell you that from the moment rumour hinted at
 
 NEW YORK TO PARIS 5 
 
 a rivalry between France and Germany, families who settled 
 in America three generations ago, began to look askance at 
 the French, and you may rest assured that many of them 
 would abandon their commerce, their manufactures, their 
 .situations, to take up arms against us, even though they 
 might stay here in peace. Their country, the Fatherland, as 
 they call it — with such a feeling as that they would go to 
 the end of the world. To speak frankly, I am discouraged, 
 extinct, annihilated. Most undoubtedly was I wrong to 
 leave Paris and lay aside my pen.' 
 
 He then apologised for not asking me to stay to dinner. 
 He was not settled, but was still like a bird on a twig. 
 Later on I left him in an agitated frame of mind, but I 
 nevertheless could not bring myself to share his delusions 
 and his fears. France defeated, the Empire done away 
 with — what nonsense, said I to myself. ' Dress up a clever 
 man in official costume and he will be frightened of his 
 shadow.' 
 
 I was coming down stairs from my room on the 
 following morning when I was accosted by a table d'hote 
 companion. 
 
 ' You are a Frenchman, sir.' 
 
 ' Yes. What of it ? ' 
 
 ' Have you not heard the news ? ' 
 
 ' No. Is war declared ? ' 
 
 ' Your Ambassador committed suicide during the night.' 
 
 I rushed off to Prevost-Paradol's house. I was denied 
 admittance. The eyes of the servant who refused me were 
 full of tears. I pushed him aside and went upstairs. On 
 his bed and fully dressed I saw the Minister, with a large 
 stain of blood on his shirt front, where the bullet had 
 entered his body. The police were engaged in drawing up 
 their report.
 
 6 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 During the night Prevost-Paradol had placed himself 
 before the glass, and feeling with his left hand for the 
 beating of his heart, he had placed a pistol with his right 
 hand to the spot, and shot himself. 
 
 His valet, who hastened to the room on hearing the 
 report, found him standing up, with his elbows on the 
 mantel-piece and his head between his hands. 
 
 ' Did you hear ? ' his master said to him. 
 
 ' Yes, sir. I thought you had fallen. If you are ill 
 you had better go to bed.' 
 
 And he fell dead almost in the arms of his servant. 
 
 I offered to take back the children of the unhappy man. 
 A friend of the family undertook their removal to France. 
 The fatality which dogged their steps is well-known. The 
 son followed in his father's steps. One daughter, I believe, 
 went mad, and the other went into a convent, where she 
 prays to that God who was so cruel to them all. 
 
 It was with the greatest difficulty that we succeeded in 
 obtaining the prayers of the Catholic Church for the 
 suicide. The priest of the Church of St Matthew only 
 opened the gates to the corpse on the express order of the 
 Grand-Vicar of Baltimore, who was acting for his Bishop, 
 absent at Borne for the Council. He pronounced a touching- 
 funeral oration over the coffin, from which the following 
 very remarkable passage has been often quoted : 
 
 ' However extraordinary, however unchristian, and even 
 anti -christian, may appear the manner in which an end was 
 put to this earthly existence, however diverse may be the 
 opinions of the world in regard to it, and particularly in 
 regard to the moral and religious sentiments of the deceased 
 at the terrible moment of his death, let us remember that 
 judgment does not belong to us.
 
 NEW YORK TO PARIS 7 
 
 ' No men, and no class of men, have any right to judge 
 their fellows after they have departed this life. 
 
 ' The Church herself, chosen by Christ to explain His 
 doctrines and precepts, and to watch over His sacred con- 
 stitution, does not take upon herself to condemn a soul that 
 lias taken its flight to the other world, because her minis- 
 terial authority does not extend beyond the tomb.' 
 
 On the day following the obsequies the newspapers 
 announced the declaration of war between France and 
 Germany. I had nothing more to do in America, and 
 I hastened to New York to secure a cabin on board the 
 first steamer — a Cunard boat — for England. 
 
 During the few hours preceding my departure I was 
 enabled to realize that Prevost-Paradol had not exaggerated 
 the anti-French sentiments of the American people. At the 
 drinking bars, in the streets, in the squares, in the places of 
 business, everywhere there were manifestations in favour 
 of Germany. It needed much self-restraint to avoid coming 
 to blows, and I well remember in what a state of furious 
 exasperation I spent in the solitude of my cabin the last 
 moments of my stay in the United States. Unhappily, I 
 found the same feelings rife on board the boat. Every 
 corner was full of Germans on their way to rejoin the army. 
 I longed to commence hostilities on my own account, and 
 the ten days of the voyage were one long spell of enervating 
 excitement. We had on board the American General, 
 Burnside, who was ooino- to attach himself, as a looker-on, 
 to the German Staff, in order to follow the military oper- 
 ations, to gain some instruction, and to see the great war. 
 He himself had a certain military reputation which he had 
 acquired during the war of the Secession. We had also 
 Major Kodolisch, an Austrian, who subsequently was
 
 8 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 destined to attract public attention in France as Military 
 Attache to the embassy of his country. 
 
 But when I reached Ireland the scene changed, and I 
 was delighted to find at last some people who loved France. 
 At Queenstown first, and afterwards at Cork, I was stopped 
 without ceremony in the streets, in the hotels, everywhere. 
 
 ' You are a Frenchman, sir ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, I am.' 
 
 ' Ah ! So much the better. Good luck and courage to 
 you ! ' and then followed a shake of the hand, a slap on the 
 back, and a cordial look of sympathy. 
 
 Some of these good fellows who imagined that as a 
 Frenchman I should be sure to be on intimate speaking- 
 terms with the Emperor, used to get me into a corner to 
 impart sotto voce confidences, something after this fashion : 
 
 ' Be sure you tell your Emperor that as soon as he has 
 gamed his first victories we shall rise here. And, above all, 
 don't let him forget us when he comes back from Berlin.' 
 
 In the principal towns of Ireland our early successes, 
 fleeting and insignificant as they were, were received as 
 national victories. Flags and illuminations were the 
 general rule. This enthusiasm had the effect of startling 
 the English government, and the uneasiness it caused in 
 official circles was not without its influence on the sur- 
 reptitiously hostile attitude which England held towards 
 France during the whole of the war. 
 
 At the end of the siege she sent us cheeses, there is no 
 doubt about that — the lesson was worth their cost. We 
 were no longer to be feared, and she could without danger 
 display her gastronomic commiseration towards a nation 
 which a little diplomatic commiseration might possibly 
 have saved. 
 
 I do not like the English, I confess. I fully recognise
 
 NEW YORK TO PARIS 9 
 
 their grand qualities as a nation, their tenacity, their spirit 
 of enterprise, and their magnificent solidarity. But all this 
 appears to me to be spoiled by their selfishness, which is 
 both monstrous and somewhat unscrupulous in regard to 
 ways and means. I admit that nations should be selfish ; 
 it is, we are told, their duty, and selfishness is, perhaps, 
 only a species of patriotism. But let them be honestly 
 selfish, for honesty spoils nothing, not even patriotism. 
 
 And on this point I will ask permission of my readers 
 to recount to them, by way of example, a personal remi- 
 niscence, an entirely unknown and unpublished anecdote, 
 the authenticity of which I guarantee. 
 
 The incident happened in China. Following on the 
 first operations conducted by General de Montauban, a 
 treaty was signed at Tien-Tsin, not on this occasion by the 
 captain of a man-of-war, but by Lord Elgin on behalf of 
 England, and by Baron Gros on that of France. 
 
 This treaty, duly signed and drawn up in duplicate — 
 one copy in English, the other in French — was entrusted 
 to the Mandarin who had discussed its provisions, and — 
 nothing; more was ever heard of it. 
 
 When it became apparent that China was not acting in 
 accordance with the treaty, an enquiry was set on foot 
 as to what had become of it, and I have still a vivid 
 recollection of the laughter of the Commander-in-Chief, 
 and the quips of his Staff, when he received the cool, calm 
 reply that the Mandarin with whom he had been negotiat- 
 ing had no powers whatever, nor had he been entrusted 
 with any mission ; that he was an amateur diplomatist, 
 merely a private individual who happened to be in our 
 neighbourhood, and had amused himself and filled up some 
 measure of his time by treating directly with us. 
 
 We advanced to Palikao, and then to the Summer
 
 io JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Palace, where we arrived quite by chance, without 
 knowing anything about it. In fact, we might just as 
 easily have found ourselves anywhere else, for the maps 
 in possession of our Staff were most imperfect, and on 
 none of them was there an indication of the locality of 
 the famous building — a fact which did not in any way 
 prevent the Paris gossips from saying that Montauban 
 was a rogue, and that he knew exactly where to put his 
 hand on the hoarded treasures of the Son of Heaven. 
 
 When we arrived at this sumptuous residence, a collec- 
 tion of magnificent palaces, we were received by half-a- 
 dozen rounds from as many guns defending the gateway, 
 and we found that the palace had already been half -sacked 
 by the populace of the surrounding district, who were 
 delighted at the opportunity of displaying their hostility 
 to the conquering race, the Mougol dynasty. 
 
 The soldiers dispersed in all directions, and a sergeant 
 of a line regiment soon brought General de Montauban 
 some papers which he had found in the Emperor's private 
 apartment. They were our celebrated treaty of Tien-Tsin. 
 The General sent for me, and out of curiosity, as well as in 
 accordance with his extremely methodical habits, he took 
 the French copy and gave the English one to me to 
 translate. We set to work to collate them, and I had 
 not gone very far with my reading before he interrupted 
 me. 
 
 ' D'Herisson, that is not there.' 
 
 ' Indeed it is, sir.' 
 
 ' You are quite sure ? ' 
 
 ' Certain.' 
 
 ' Strange ; but go on.' 
 
 In a word, the English treat}- was not word for word 
 with the French treaty. It was not a literal translation.
 
 FEW YORK TO PARIS u 
 
 The English had stipulated for all kinds of private 
 advantages for themselves alone, statin g that we were 
 mercenaries in their pay, and that they would settle with 
 us in due course. 
 
 These two curious papers ought to be found somewhere 
 or other in the archives, public or private. But however 
 that may be, I had them in my hands. I assert that as a 
 fact, and pass on without further comment. 
 
 The trip across the arm of the sea which separates 
 Ireland from England, St George's Channel, sufficed to 
 plunge me once more headlong into America. In England 
 no attempt was made to conceal the general longing for the 
 success of the German armies. 
 
 I hope, I may say I am convinced, that the day will 
 come when the English will regret having been passive 
 spectators of the overthrow of their rivals, so long resigned 
 to the thankless role of allies of Great Britain. But we 
 can hardly ask nations to display perspicacity, and in this 
 month of August, 1870 — it is a fact — the subjects of Queen 
 Victoria had but one fear, that of seeing us in Berlin. 
 Their anxiety was destined to be short-lived. 
 
 At last I reached France. I thought that when I set 
 foot in my native land I should find a nation in arms, 
 silent, calm, conscious of the serious nature of what is 
 called a Continental war, master of itself and prepared as 
 one man for a supreme effort. Alas ! I was speedily 
 disenchanted. 
 
 Scarcely had I commenced my journey by rail, at the 
 very first stations on the Northern line, when I found 
 myself surrounded by unhealthy excitement and inex- 
 pressible confusion. The soldiers who were rejoining their 
 regiments sang the Marseillaise. The crowds who escorted 
 them gave themselves up to childish manifestations. They
 
 12 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 shouted ' To Berlin ! ' They were drunk with words and 
 wine. I expected a very different sight. Beside me the 
 more serious and reflective part of the population looked 
 into each others' eyes, and in that mute language exchanged 
 the saddening reflections they dared not express. Not in 
 this fashion did the great armies of days gone by, who 
 crowned our glorious colours with so many victories, set 
 out for war. To use a barrack-room expression, ' It smelt 
 nasty.' I reasoned with myself, nevertheless ; I thought of 
 the nerves of the French nation, and I said to myself that 
 all this excessive excitement was perhaps a good thing, 
 that the high spirits would work wonders. And I breathed 
 a sigh of relief and confidence as I felt under my feet the 
 pavement of Paris, that pavement which seems to be alive 
 beneath the soles of your boots, and strikes you as at once 
 elastic and firm. 
 
 I am not a historian. That title suits neither my in- 
 clinations nor my powers. I have not undertaken to give 
 an account of the Franco-German war ; not even of the 
 siege of Paris. What I have promised my readers and 
 what I shall strive to give them are my own genuine 
 impressions. I have not a word to say as to why or 
 wherefore the insignificant success at Sarrebruch was 
 followed by the repulse at Wissembourg and the disaster 
 at Reichshoff'en ; how or why Bazaine, amid the applause 
 of the Left of the Chamber, was appointed Generalissimo ; 
 how or why the Left of the Chamber, from the moment of 
 our earliest defeats, commenced to wage a war against the 
 Imperial dynasty, which, thanks to the disaster of Sedan, 
 culminated in the revolution of September ; how or why 
 the Ollivier ministry succumbed under the weight of the 
 very first misfortunes brought about by the war; how 
 or why the Emperor, without command or prestige, driven
 
 NEW YORK TO I'M! IS 13 
 
 out of Paris by the Empress-Regent and repulsed from the 
 frontier hy Prussia, wandered a pale phantom of an already 
 half-dethroned Caesar, between his capital and the advance 
 guard of the enemy ; nor, last of all, how or why General 
 Palikao undertook the difficult and patriotic task of forming 
 a Cabinet, and enjoy e J a certain amount of popularity even 
 at the hands of the Left. 
 
 I saw nothing of all this, and I am only going to record 
 what I saw. 
 
 An hour after my arrival in Paris, on the 13th of 
 August, I called upon General the Comte de Palikao, 
 Minister of War and President of the Council. I had con- 
 scientiously employed the hour in getting myself a com- 
 plete uniform, equipping myself from head to foot, trans- 
 forming myself, in a word, into a presentable soldier. 
 
 To those who may be astonished at the idea of a simple 
 captain of Mobiles boldly knocking at the door of a 
 Minister's office, I must explain once more that during the 
 Chinese campaign relations had been established between 
 the General and myself, partaking of almost paternal kind- 
 ness on his side, and of absolutely filial devotion on mine. 
 I may also explain that the General had given me an even 
 greater mark of his favour after the war, by sending me 
 home to the Emperor as the bearer of his despatches and 
 reports, among which was a rather curious document. 
 
 The General had received an official intimation that the 
 Emperor was desirous of conferring upon him a title 
 commemorative of his victories, and a pecuniary grant as a 
 recompense for his services. The Chamber, it will be re- 
 membered, refused the grant, and the Emperor supplied the 
 omission by a private gift of 500,000 francs from his privy 
 purse. The General was worried by an idea on the subject 
 of a title. He was afraid that the Emperor would make
 
 i 4 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 him Due de Pekin. ' Due de Pekin,' he would say over 
 and over again, half jokingly and half in earnest, ' that 
 would not sound well for a soldier ' ; and he was created 
 simply Comte de Palikao. 
 
 After this explanation it will be understood that as I 
 was on the unemployed list, I was not doing anything very 
 extraordinary in asking my old chief, who had always 
 shown himself desirous of continuing to be my protector 
 and my friend, for a company. 
 
 In addition to this I promised to take up very little of 
 the time lie had to devote to his immense labour. 
 
 ' You are to wait for the General; he will take you with 
 him in his carriage to the Chamber,' was the intimation I 
 received after a short sojourn in the ante-room. And a few 
 moments later the Minister emerged in civilian attire, with 
 his portfolio under his arm, and pushing me into his car- 
 riage he sat down beside me. 
 
 ' Well, my dear boy,' said he at once, ' what are you 
 doing here ? ' 
 
 ' I am a captain of Mobiles on the unemployed list, sir ; 
 I should like a company.' 
 
 'Very well; go to Chalons. All the Mobiles are there.' 
 
 He scribbled a few words in pencil on a slip of paper 
 and added, 
 
 ' Give this to Berthaut, who is in command there, and if 
 he has not a company at his disposal he will form one 
 for you.' 
 
 Then, as we were whirled rapidly along, he plunged 
 forthwith into old reminiscences, and went on so say : 
 
 ' Ah, we had a good time in China ! But now, what can 
 I do ! I do my best, but it is very late in the day to do 
 anything as it should be done. We have been neither 
 lucky nor clever. I am like a cook who has to wait for
 
 NEW YORK TO PARIS .5 
 
 the company to sit down to table before he can make 
 his preparations and get the dinner ready. It is a terrible 
 task and one devoid of glory ; but I am doing what I can.' 
 
 And pointing to the Palais-Bourbon, which had the 
 appearance of springing out of the Pont de la Concorde, 
 which our carriage was crossing, he said : 
 
 ' They have been glad to get me after all, although in 
 days gone by they behaved so badly to me. Ah ! I assure 
 you I am not working for them, but for France first of all, 
 for she must be our chief care, and also for that poor 
 Empress, who is so energetic, and so touching withal.' 
 
 We arrived at our destination. 
 
 ' Will you be present at the sitting ? ' said the General 
 to me. ' You do not care about it ? You are quite right. 
 They pass their time, and make me lose mine, by con- 
 tinually cross-examining me, asking me preposterous and 
 useless questions, and gargling their throats with big- 
 words which mean nothing. Well ! Well ! ' 
 
 He disappeared, and I never saw him again during the 
 war. Furnished with my scrap of paper and its scrawl I 
 hastened to the station to find a train for Chalons. 
 
 Very late in the evening I managed to find a seat in 
 one of the compartments of an immense train, drawn by 
 two engines, crowded with troops of all arms, officers and 
 soldiers hurried off in small detachments, and dra^'inno- 
 behind it I don't know how many trucks laden with 
 munitions of war.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE CAMP AT CHALONS 
 
 A Thirty Hours' Journey. — A Military Train. — Yesterday and To-Day. — The I.solex 
 
 MacMahon. — My brother.— At the Theatre. — The Emperor and his Mobiles. 
 
 — A Despatch. — General Schmitz. — The Staff of the 12th corps. — The Emperor's 
 
 Chocolate. — Horses. — Faithful Joseph and English saddles. — General Trochu, 
 
 Governor of Paris. — An unfortunate Word. — Journey with the Mobiles. 
 
 We were thirty hours in accomplishing the distance be- 
 tween Paris and Chalons, a distance done by an express 
 train in three-hours-and-a-half. 
 
 I must confess that the behaviour of the troops conveyed 
 by the train was deplorable. It was impossible to induce 
 them to remain quietly in their seats. Overexcited by the 
 copious libations in which they had indulged before starting, 
 ami which were supplemented by the relays of drink they 
 had brought with them ; impatient too, as all travellers are 
 by reason of continual stoppages, uncomfortable carriages, 
 and a snail's rate of progressing, the}' rushed to and fro, 
 piled themselves up in the same compartment, made excur-
 
 TEE ( 'A MP A 7 CU. i LONS 1 7 
 
 sions on the baggage trucks, along the foot-boards, tore 
 their uniforms, and shouted out that strident Marseillaise 
 which hovered in 1870 over all our defeats and all our 
 shame, and which I can never hear without feeling sick. 
 
 The officers dared not say a word, or if they did open 
 their mouths, they gave the word of command with that 
 timidity which is so sure a sign of a defeated and demora- 
 lized army, and of leaders who are reduced to endeavour by 
 dint of platitudes to gain the forgiveness of their inferiors 
 for hardships borne in vain and battles unskilfully fought. 
 It was heart breaking. 
 
 And yet with what rejoicing were they received by the 
 inhabitants of the places through which we passed. At 
 each station, and indeed whenever the train pulled up, the 
 wives of the landed gentry followed by their servants in 
 livery, and of the middle-class accompanied by their bonnes, 
 with the women of the lower orders by themselves, rivalled 
 each other in fuss and generosity. There were baskets of 
 provisions, piles of fruit, litres, the never failing litres, of 
 liquor served out profusely, and better than all these 
 demoralizing provisions, there were the warm shakes of 
 the hand, the modest kisses of the women, and the frank 
 salute of the men. These effusive marks of sympathy 
 made my v eyes fill with tears, and I resolutely refused to 
 see, even in thought, beyond these good and lovable people, 
 the hordes of spiked helmets which were destined to 
 spread like a black torrent in their midst, and to exact 
 by intimidation what brotherly love was pouring forth, 
 willingly and in profusion, before me. 
 
 We reached Mourmelon on the morning of the 15th of 
 August. What a 15th of August ! Once upon a time, in 
 the midst of this smiling landscape, regiment upon regiment 
 dressed its ranks on parade, while the bayonets of its men
 
 iS JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 glistened in the sun in honour of their Sovereign's birthday, 
 and to and fro, among the white ami cheerful tents, soldiers 
 passed in full uniform, spick and span and well set up, 
 while joyous salvoes of artillery saluted Saint Napoleon, 
 and Generals with their Staff, gilded like the archangels on 
 the high altar, exchanged visits and congratulated each other 
 on the honours and rewards which had been gazetted the 
 same morning in the Moniteur. 
 
 Instead of this order, disorder reigned supreme in the 
 camp, which appeared as if it were given over to pillage. 
 All the little attempts at ornamentation, the small gardens, 
 bust, statues, fountains, shrubberies — everything which the 
 fancy of the soldiers had devised — were ruthlessly ravaged, 
 destroyed, or torn up by the roots. Instead of be-gilt 
 Generals there were commanders in dirty uniforms, who 
 seemed afraid of showing themselves to their men. 
 Instead of the fine regiments of other days, there was a 
 mass of beings without discipline, cohesion, or rank, the 
 swarm of dirty unarmed soldiers known as the isoles. 
 
 There, outside the tents and huts, there was no room 
 for them inside, squatting or lying round the bivouac fires, 
 without any regular telling oft' without arms, and with 
 their uniforms in shreds, were the isoles of Macmahon, the 
 fugitives from Reichshoffen, the remnants of regiments 
 overwhelmed and dispersed by defeat ; soldiers of the line 
 without rifles or ammunition pouches, Zouaves in drawers, 
 Turcos without turbans, dragoons without helmets, 
 cuirassiers without cuirasses, hussars without sabretaches. 
 It was an inert world, vegetating rather than living, 
 scarcely moving when kicked, and grumbling at being 
 disturbed in its sleep of the weary. The majority of these 
 isoles were Zouaves and Turcos, who had suffered more 
 severely than the other corps.
 
 77/ A' CAMP AT CHALONS 19 
 
 And, last of all, instead of the joyous salvoes of 
 artillery of former days, there was the hum of the 
 murmuring crowd. Indeed, if we had heard the sound of 
 artillery at that hour, it would have been the guns of 
 Gravelotte mowing down whole companies of the Garde 
 Impdriale. 
 
 In the interior of the camp there was the same dis- 
 order. The battalions of the Paris M<>l>U<'s were lodged as 
 they arrived, wherever there happened to be room at the 
 time, and if you asked a passing soldier where such and 
 such a company was quartered, he would pretend to know 
 nothing about it, and would give himself the pleasure of 
 telling you to go to 
 
 My first object at the Camp of Chalons was to see 
 General Berthaut, and next to find my brother, a Secre- 
 tary of the Embassy recalled in consequence of the war, 
 and now orderly officer to the General. With a tongue in 
 one's head and good boots on one's feet there is not much 
 difficulty in going anywhere, and so in the end I found the 
 General. I handed him the Minister's memorandum, and 
 he promised to attend to it. As for my brother, I ran him 
 to ground in a tent where he was sleeping the sleep of the 
 just, with a pair of pistols, loaded and cocked, at the head 
 of his bed. All the officers did the same. 
 
 I commenced operations by taking possession of his 
 pistols, and then I awoke him and gave him a lecture on 
 the utter futility of his military precaution, since all the 
 world mio-ht have done as I had — disarmed him while 
 he was asleep. 
 
 He laughed at my lecture, and we spent the day 
 together. In the evenino- we went to the theatre. It is 
 almost incredible, but is a fact that in the midst of the 
 unruly camp and men crushed by defeat, the old French
 
 20 JOURXAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 spirit of gaiety had still some flickerings of life. There was 
 a theatre in camp, devoted to tragedy and comic opera. 
 Among other actors there were Barreti, of the Opera 
 Comique, and a youth named Ange who had that very year 
 carried off a first prize at the Conservatoire. To say that 
 the performance was well managed would be a slight exag- 
 geration. The foot-lights were scaled and everybody sang 
 whatever he happened to know. Plays were invented, cues 
 improvised, and there was much reviling of the Prussians. 
 And every now and then the hateful Marsaillaise re- 
 sounded. Many a victory must needs be won to the strains 
 of that anthem before it can be pardoned for the defeats to 
 which it has served as prelude and accompaniment. 
 
 On the following day, Tuesday, August 16, towards 
 evening the Emperor arrived unheralded by drum or 
 trumpet, and installed himself in his quarters without any- 
 body except the Staff having been warned of his coming. 
 
 Only in the morning after his arrival was it known that 
 he was there by the increased animation in the neighbour- 
 hood of head-quarters, the sentries at their posts, and the 
 lacqueys in all their splendour of green and gold at the 
 entrance. 
 
 I never expected his presence to excite such enthusiasm 
 as his uncle inspired even in the days when he possessed no 
 more of France, so to speak, than his horse could stand on, 
 but neither did I expect to hear the insults that were 
 heaped upon him. 
 
 I witnessed exhibitions of feeling such as I never could 
 have believed if I had not seen and heard them. The 
 Mobiles were employed on fatigue duty in parties of 
 nearly a thousand men at one time. When one of these 
 parties approached the Imperial quarters this is what 
 happened :
 
 THE CAMP AT CU A LOSS 21 
 
 A wag would call out in his .shrillest tone, 'Vive 
 I 'Em i>< -mi /■,' and the whole party as one man would count, 
 one, two, three, and reply, 
 
 ' M ! ' Here insert the famous expression used by 
 
 Cambronne. And the officers dared not say a word. 
 
 This did not prevent the publication of the following- 
 despatch in Paris two days afterwards. 
 
 ' Camp of Chalons, August 20, 6 p.m. 
 
 ' The Emperor yesterday on horseback inspected 
 several Corps d' Amite. Everywhere the troops surrounded 
 him, imploring him to put himself at their head. 
 
 ' True copy. 
 ' The Minister of Interior. 
 
 'HENRI CHEVREAU.' 
 
 So much for despatches ! 
 
 On the morning of the Emperor's arrival I was walkino- 
 in a melancholy frame of mind in the neighbourhood of the 
 Imperial head-quarters. I was still out of temper by reason 
 of the stupid manifestations I had just witnessed, thinking 
 sadly that in all probability General Berthaut had foro-otten 
 all about the insignificant Mobile who had handed him the 
 minister's memorandum, having eaten nothing since my 
 very meagre dinner the previous evening, and quite ignorant 
 of where I should get breakfast, seeing that provisions 
 were running short and the canteens were completely sold 
 out, when I heard my name called out by a general officer. 
 
 ' What are you doing here, my poor d'Herisson ? ' 
 
 It was General Schmitz, who was destined during the 
 siege to put his name to so many documents, preceded 
 by the two letters. P.O., signifying pq/r ordre, but under-
 
 22 JOURXAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 stood by the Parisians as meaning that the names given 
 him in baptism were Paul and Oscar. General Schmitz 
 went to China as colonel and chief of the staff to General 
 Montauban. He was an old acquaintance of mine, and he 
 remains my best friend; if I may use the term to express 
 the cordial relations existing between a man of my age, a 
 mere private individual, and a General as distinguished 
 and eminent as he was. 
 
 'I am here, sir, in search of a company of Mobile*, and I 
 am experiencing some difficulty in finding one.' 
 
 ' So much the better, because I want you. I am Chief 
 of the Staff of the 12th Corps, commanded by General 
 Trochu. I am going to attach you to the Staff of the 
 General commanding. Besides, it is the destiny of both of 
 us to serve with Trochu, for you know that he was 
 originally named for the command of the Chinese Expedi- 
 tion. He declined, and the Emperor appointed Montauban. 
 Do you agree ? I will go and make out and sign your 
 appointment. Wait for me, I will be with you in three 
 minutes.' 
 
 And I resumed my walk, with my stomach still empty, 
 but with a far more cheerful mind. 
 
 Just at this moment I saw a magnificent green lacquey 
 emerge from the central headquarter tent ; he was 
 majestically carrying on a silver salver smoking hot 
 liquids, flanked by buttered toast. As he passed me on 
 the other side of the palissade I addressed these simple 
 words to him : 
 
 ' Twenty francs ? ' 
 
 ' It is the Emperor's chocolate,' he replied. ' His 
 Majesty does not want any breakfast. He is not hungry.' 
 
 I took a louis out of my pocket, and the faithful 
 servant immediately opened a small door, and telling me to
 
 THE CAMP AT CHALONS 23 
 
 go in, installed me in an office, where I drank I don't know- 
 how many cups of chocolate, supplemented by toast, 
 sandwiches, and cakes. I was making what might be 
 called an imperial breakfast, when General Schmitz, 
 
 amused by my adventures and by the sight of me at home 
 with the Emperor, came to crown the feast with my 
 appointment, signed ' Trochu.' I was attached to the 12th 
 Corps d'Armee as orderly officer to the general command- 
 ing. 1 had the right of adding gilt epaulets to my uniform. 
 
 ' That is not all,' said General Schmitz to me, ' There 
 will be no basking in Capuan luxury. Have you any 
 horses ? You will need a couple. Off with you to Paris 
 and buy them.' 
 
 ' I need not do that, sir. I will send my servant to buy 
 them.' 
 
 ' Oh, you have a servant, have you ? ' 
 
 Indeed I have a servant, and what is more, an English 
 .servant, who, however, will appear but seldom in these 
 reminiscences. I forgave his nationality on account of 
 his fidelity, and I never called him by any other title than 
 faithful Joseph. He was a sort of jockey, about fifty years 
 of age and looking fifteen. Small, thin, wiry, and fair- 
 coinplexioned, without a vestige of hair on his face, he was 
 as clever in the kitchen as in the stable ; he was a treasure. 
 
 ' Will you tell him also,' added General Schmitz, ' to 
 bring me two English saddles. I have not enough for 
 campaigning.' 
 
 Faithful Joseph was therefore promoted to the rank of 
 remount officer. I said good-bye to him at the railway 
 station, provided with all that he wanted for the purchase 
 of the horses and saddles, and I resumed my walk. 
 
 Two hours afterwards I saw at some distance from me a 
 knot of soldiers hustling what seemed to be a ragged urchin.
 
 24 JOVBXAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 I drew near, and to my astonishment I recognised in the 
 victim my faithful Joseph. 
 
 The wretched fellow, whilst waiting for the train, had 
 unfortunately got into conversation with the bystanders, 
 chattering about his mission, of which he was very proud, 
 and conscientiously murdering our language with his 
 horrible English accent. 
 
 That was quite sufficient ; he was taken for a Prussian 
 spy. To his entreaties and his explanations that he 
 belonged to a neutral nation, there was but one reply, ' Do 
 not play the rogue. If you speak English, you must be a 
 Prussian.' 
 
 And he was accordingly driven before them, jostled, 
 knocked about, maltreated generally; his feet bare, and 
 holding — I could never discover why — a boot in each hand. 
 I verily believe that his persecutors were going to shoot 
 him summarily in a corner, without council of war or 
 benefit of clergy. 
 
 As for reasoning with the excited soldiers or using my 
 authority as an officer to make them relinquish their prey, 
 both methods were out of the question. I tried a different 
 system. I began to swear like a templar, and to box like 
 a Londoner, and I let out right and left among the crowd. 
 The plan was efficacious. My Joseph was released. He 
 has never forgiven me for this accident. 
 
 I was attempting to console him when General Schmitz 
 appeared on the scene once more. 
 
 ' My dear fellow,' he shouted, as he came up, ' no more 
 horses, no more English saddles. Telegraph to your 
 servant not to buy anything. What does it all mean ? 
 We are going back to Paris. General Trochu is appointed 
 Governor, and takes me with him as chief of his staff. The 
 decree is signed.'
 
 77/ A' CAMP AT CHALONS 25 
 
 And he showed me a paper on which I read, 
 
 ' Napoleon, &c. 
 
 'Art. 1. General Trochu is appointed Governor of Paris 
 and Commander-in-Chief of all the forces entrusted 
 with the defence of the city. 
 ' Art. II. Our Minister of War is charged with the exe- 
 cution of this decree, 
 
 ' Done at Chalons, August 17, 1870, 
 
 'NAPOLEON. 
 ' By the Emperor, 
 
 ' The Minister of War, 
 
 ' COMTE DE PALIKAO.' 
 
 ' And what is to become of me ? ' 
 
 ' You are most probably coming with us. In the 
 meantime I have a mission for you. General Trochu is 
 sending the Mobiles back to Paris. Go to Reims, make 
 all arrangements with the railway authorities for the 
 organization of the necessary train service, and take the 
 command of the first train yourself. Come and see me in 
 Paris as soon as you have accomplished your task.' 
 
 The very first act of the new Governor, as a matter of 
 fact, was to recall the Mobiles to Paris. And in the pro- 
 clamation wherein he announced their return to these 
 young troops, there was one word which made some of us 
 prick up our ears. 'You have,' said the General, 'the 
 right to defend your homes.' In the midst of the disasters 
 which were beginning to overwhelm us, in the midst of the 
 serious troubles, moral and material, born of our catas- 
 trophes, there were not a few, and I was one of them, who 
 thought that the slightest blow struck at a discipline 
 already too severely shaken was neither more nor less than
 
 26 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 a veritable national misfortune. And to talk of their rights 
 to a turbulent mob, already too prone to forget their duty, 
 was a direct attack on discipline. A soldier has no more 
 right to be here than there. It is his duty to go where he 
 is sent. To admit that the Parisian Mobiles had a right to 
 be in Paris, was to admit that the Mobiles of Ardeche had a 
 right to be at Privas. Imagine what an army would be like 
 with such theories as these ! It is nevertheless but fair to 
 say, in justice to the Governor, whose words were fre- 
 quently not up to the level of his ideas, that the return of 
 the Mobiles and his wish to flatter them, formed part of a 
 plan concerted with the Emperor, a plan which explains 
 the conduct of the General up to the 4th of September 
 inclusive, and about which I will give a few details, 
 which are curious, and, as far as I know, have never been 
 published. 
 
 I started at once in a light cart for Reims, and on the 
 following morning a train, got together by the railway 
 company's people, was in readiness for the first detachment 
 of the Paris Mobiles, who marched from Chalons. The en- 
 trainment and departure were carried out without a hitch. 
 But the journey had no charm for me. The isolated bodies 
 of troops whose behaviour had scandalised me between 
 Paris and Chalons, were little saints compared with these 
 devils of Mobiles. The train was like a swarm of ants in 
 disorder. Running along the roofs of the carriages, at the 
 risk of being decapitated by a bridge ; passing to and fro 
 along the footboards, at the hazard of being crushed by a 
 way-post or a train coming the other way — all this was 
 mere child's play. They swarmed on the tender and even 
 on the engine. At the least stoppage — and we stopped 
 frequently — they scoured the fields, stole vegetables, pulled 
 down palings, smashed windows, and committed every im-
 
 THE CAMP AT C//ALOXS 27 
 
 aginable folly. As one result of my service in the regular 
 army I had acquired certain ideas as to strict discipline 
 which were in ill accord with disorderly soldiers and 
 passive officers, and at one moment, when I was exasperated 
 at my authority being slighted, I quietly drew my sword 
 with a settled determination to use it, even at the risk of 
 being cut to pieces. The demonstration, however, happily 
 sufficed, and comparative order reigned until we reached 
 Paris, where I gladly handed over to the proper officers, 
 who were in readiness at the station, the task of conveying 
 these lunatics to the camp of Saint-Maur. 
 
 It must not be assumed, in reading these opinions of 
 mine on the Paris Mobiles, that I despise the special 
 qualities of which these troops gave proof, or rather, the 
 qualities which existed in them in an embryo state and 
 might have been developed. There were in the Paris Mobiles 
 first-rate elements, orderly and devoted men, some charming 
 little soldiers, and even some modest heroes. But their 
 improvised battalions were neither properly formed, nor 
 welded together, nor in regular order. They had not even 
 an idea of military discipline, and had not had time to 
 contract those habits of patience, self-denial, and self-efface- 
 ment, without which an army cannot exist. Their leaders, 
 brave youths, but for the most part novices in service, were 
 afraid of them, and they dared neither repress the license of 
 their men, nor firmly insist on outward signs of respect 
 being paid to themselves. The ordeal of battle is not re- 
 quired as a means of discovering if troops are good ; the 
 experiment would be too costly. There are certain outward 
 signs, certain minor details which never deceive. If you 
 see soldiers who are careful of their appearance, their 
 uniform and their arms, and who salute their officers re- 
 spectfully, you may unhesitatingly put yourself at their
 
 28 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 head and lead them no matter where. They are good 
 soldiers. It may be said that cleanliness and respect are 
 infallible signs of military healthiness. But cleanliness, a 
 taste for trimness in appearance, and respectful salutes, are 
 not to be acquired in an hour, or even a week. They are 
 the fruit of education, and the Mobiles had not had time to 
 complete their education. Was it their fault ? Was it not 
 rather the fault of the Opposition, whose incessant nagging- 
 prevented any serious organization of these young troops, 
 and who, when they came into power, had nothing where- 
 with to oppose a seasoned and disciplined enemy but a lot 
 of soldiers whose temperaments they had, so to speak, 
 spoiled to begin with. I remember that the first speech 
 made by Gainbetta in the Chamber was in defence of two 
 soldiers of the line who had been punished for having taken 
 part in a public meeting where the assassination of the 
 Emperor was under discussion. I rather think that he 
 would have been glad to recall and destroy that speech, 
 when at Tours he approved of the just severity of 
 D'Aurelles, who had dozens of bad soldiers shot every 
 morning by way of example. 
 
 What lessons — the greater part of them, alas ! lost — did 
 that cursed war teach ! What instructive sights ! What 
 retorts uttered by the reality of events against human so- 
 phistry ! And was it not extraordinary to see those very 
 men who had protested against the general armament of 
 the nation, who had cried out that France was being turned 
 into a barrack, was it not extraordinary to see them com- 
 pelled to transform their country into a camp with their 
 own hands, and later on to vote compulsory military service ?
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 ACROSS PARIS 
 
 A.t the Louvre. — The Green Room. — General Schmitz's Office. — Inventors. — Paris in 
 a Fever. — The False Despatches. — At the Bourse. — Girardin'a Bet. — German 
 Spies. — An Old Woman who is a Man. — The Enrolment. — Patriotic Enthu- 
 siasm. — The Irregular Corps. — The Free Ambulances. — The Firemen. — M. 
 Thiers Agitates. — Negra and Metternich. — Review of the Mobiles. — The Frincs- 
 Ti rears. — The Depopulation of the Suburbs. — Trochu an Orator. — Moral Force. 
 — In the Chamber. — Paris Asleep. 
 
 I took good care not to forget the kind promises of 
 General Schmitz, and scarcely had the new Governor of 
 Paris arrived, preceding, as he said in his proclamation, the 
 Emperor — who, by the way, was destined never to see 
 Paris again — than I betook myself to the Louvre, where 
 he had taken up his quarters, with his Chief of the Staff. 
 I came out again armed with my appointment as Orderly 
 Officer attached to the Headquarter Staff of the Governor. 
 I took up my duties at once. 
 
 General Trochu had installed himself in the premises 
 now occupied in the Louvre by the Ministry of Finance. 
 Access to it is gained by the Rue de Rivoli. After having
 
 3 o JOURXAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 passed through the spacious inner courtyard, there is a 
 small flight of steps to be ascended, and then you find your- 
 self in the offices of the Headquarter Staff. There is no 
 exit by the Place du Carrousel. But as provision had to 
 be made for every eventuality, as a good general ought 
 always to have his line of retreat secure, as we were 
 favoured with all sorts of sinister predictions, and as we had 
 been informed that one fine day we should leave the place 
 not by the doors, the windows looking into the interior 
 of the Carrousel, and formerly condemned, were re-opened. 
 
 To reach the Governor's office, it was necessary to pass 
 first of all, through a spacious ante-room, and then through 
 the room allotted to the orderly officers, called the green 
 room, on account of the colour of its hangings and furni- 
 ture. The office occupied by General Schmitz opened out 
 of this green room. The Chief of the Staff passed his life 
 seated, almost night and day, behind a desk laden with 
 reports and despatches, issuing all sorts of orders in every 
 direction, providing against every eventuality, drawing up 
 his instructions with that just appreciation, clearness and 
 precision of expression, which never failed him for one 
 single day throughout the siege, which then called forth 
 the admiration of his subordinates, and which the officers 
 of his Corps d'Armee still appreciate. 
 
 Although there were very many of them, the duties of 
 the Orderly Officers of the Governor were most fatiguing. 
 Two were always on duty in the green room, whose special 
 mission it was to make a preliminary weeding-out from 
 amono 1 the innumerable people who requested speech of 
 General Trochu : who wanted to submit to him their 
 grievances, their observations, their criticisms, their plans, 
 and their inventions. The least serious of these were 
 shown the door, and the remainder shown in to the Chief
 
 ACROSS PARIS 31 
 
 of the Staff, who, in his turn, served as the last screen 
 between the public and the Governor. 
 
 I shall not surprise anybody when I say that the most 
 diverse, the most unexpected, and sometimes the most 
 ridiculous propositions were submitted to us day by day. I 
 myself received and listened to more than one hundred 
 and fifty inventions of systems, as infallible as they 
 were different, for steering balloons, of bombs, of ex- 
 plosives warranted to result in suffocation, or to induce 
 sneezing ; inventions of extraordinary cuirasses, fantastic 
 torpedoes, and Greek fire by the hundreds. I do not count 
 those devoted spirits who volunteered to kill the King of 
 Prussia or M. de Bismarck, or the real madmen, or the poor 
 mothers who came in search of news of their sons, or the 
 generous citizens who brought presents in their hands, or 
 the talkers, pure and simple, who came to us to while away 
 their own time and waste ours. All these colloquies were 
 interrupted by deputations to be received and answered, 
 and we thought ourselves fortunate if we had not to leave 
 everything else and rush to one of the windows looking on 
 the Carrousel, and harangue the crowd. We lived in this 
 Babel as in a dream for more than five months, and our 
 only moments of distraction and recreation when on duty 
 were when we rode behind the Governor. Subsequently, 
 when the investment was complete, I had to talk more fre- 
 quently and at closer quarters with the Prussians, in my 
 capacity as interpreter and envoy, than with my fellow- 
 citizens. 
 
 During the early days I took advantage of the few 
 leisure moments left me by my duty, to make some 
 excursions in Paris on my own account, strolling about, 
 noting, observing, reading the newspapers, and entering 
 into conversation with the passers-by.
 
 2,2 JOURXAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Paris had the appearance of preparing for a revolution 
 rather than a regular defence. It was a prey to the most 
 extraordinary and intense excitement, which manifested 
 itself in all sorts of different forms ; in the Chamber, by 
 perpetual questions addressed to Ministers, by incessant 
 demands for the armament of the Garde Nationale, and by 
 continual attacks on the unfortunate dynasty ; in the 
 centres, the squares, and on the Bourse by mobs who 
 collected without rhyme or reason, by pushings here and 
 there, by shouting and disputes. In the day-time the 
 Bourse was black with heads. The Rentes executed 
 fantastic leaps and bounds, the speculators cried out one 
 against the other, and the public cried out against the 
 speculators. In the evening, the boulevards glittered with 
 lights and the cafes were filled to overflowing. From time 
 to time somebody, nobody knew who, was cheered, or some 
 absolutely unknown person was hooted, much to his own 
 astonishment. The troops were cheered, and so were the 
 francs-tireurs and the ambulance corps. Marie Sass, who 
 was compelled to sing the Marseillaise, received an ovation, 
 together with Capoul, who had to appear with her. At the 
 opera the same kind of thing went on ; now it was Marie 
 Sass, as the Goddess of Liberty, and now Devoyod, as a 
 Zouave, who sang the patriotic song. 
 
 There was a general rush for the newspapers, which 
 published edition after edition, and whose correspondents, 
 spread abroad hap-hazard in the midst of the armies, 
 recounted their impressions and their adventures. 
 
 And in the midst of these excited crowds, came one 
 despatch after another, at first obscure and letting our 
 disasters leak out drop by drop ; and then suddenly much 
 clearer, mentioning some small success, enormous losses on 
 the part of the Germans, their cruelties and their exactions.
 
 ACROSS PA R IS 33 
 
 At one moment there would be universal rejoicing, and a 
 rush to the windows to hang out flags and light lamps. Half- 
 an-hour later another despatch would arrive. Away went 
 the Hags, and out went the lamps. In consequence of these 
 perpetual moral somersaults, there reigned in the midst of 
 the population, impressionable as a woman, a fever, a 
 nervous affection, a fearful intellectual disorder.— The 
 Prussians were not advancing. The people breathed again. 
 Nancy had been captured by four Uhlans. They recoiled 
 and were indignant — The White Cuirassiers had been exter- 
 minated at Borny, and not one of them survived. Alas ! 
 there were far too many left — thirty thousand Prussians 
 had been engulfed in the quarries of Jaumont, where they 
 had been driven by Canrobert — everybody's head was in the 
 air. Nobody had ever heard of these quarries. On investi- 
 gation it was ascertained that they did not exist. Prince 
 Albert of Prussia was killed, and his coffin covered with 
 black velvet with silver stripes was crossing the Prussian 
 lines — another fable. Finally, on the eve of the very day 
 when they had to publish the news of the catastrophe of 
 Sedan, the Paris papers complacently announced that the 
 King of Prussia had gone mad. How was it possible to 
 avoid becoming absolutely epileptic under such circum- 
 stances ? The wonder was that there were a few people who 
 retained their senses during those terrible days. 
 
 And not only among the lower orders was this unpleasant 
 effervescence manifest— the higher and educated classes 
 were not exempt from the nervous malady. One heard 
 serious, clear-headed, rich, intelligent men declaring that our 
 defeats on the Rhine were more or less providential, because 
 they had the effect of drawing on the Prussian armies, who 
 would find their sepulchre in France. And to the despatches 
 announcing eighty thousand Germans as being here, a
 
 34 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 hundred and fifty thousand there, and two hundred thousand 
 farther on, they would reply with imperturbable calmness, 
 ' So much the better, so much the better ! The more that 
 come in, the fewer will get out.' Girardin bet a Prussian 
 Colonel, Von Holstein, that the Prussians would not enter 
 Paris. And the colonel wrote him a letter which seemed to 
 sound the knell of the final defeat. 
 
 ' We shall conquer,' said the Prussian, ' 1st, because we 
 have the moral support of Europe ; 2nd, because of the 
 superiority of our artillery ; 3rd, because we desire the 
 union of Germany (the idea of annexation comes from your 
 Emperor, who has as imitators, MM. Cavour and Bismarck) ; 
 4th, because our soldiers are well commanded, and we have 
 among us no division of interest or of principle, and no 
 insubordination like that of your Mobiles, whom we fear 
 less than a band of students; each of our soldiers has as 
 much instruction as one of your officers; 5th, because we 
 are fighting for civilisation — that is to say, for the emanci- 
 pation of mankind by means of instruction.' 
 
 In common justice to the Germans, it must be admitted 
 tli at, from the very outset the}" both knew what they wanted 
 and where they were going. While Berlin, in strong con- 
 trast to Paris, wrapped itself up in austere calmness — in 
 the anxious sternness of a mother whose sons are risking 
 their lives on the field of battle — the press as well as 
 the officers not only declared aloud that Germany would 
 not lay down her arms until she had conquered Alsace and 
 Lorraine, but they also gave proof of a strange perspicacity 
 in regard to our situation, both moral and material, affirm- 
 ing that we were not ready ; that we were deficient of 
 everything; and that our political dissensions would be 
 almost as profitable to the German army as victories. 
 
 There was an instinctive feeling that, of the two sove-
 
 ACROSS I'M! IS 35 
 
 reigns who hurled battalion after battalion into the fray, 
 the one who knew France best was, perhaps, not the 
 Emperor of the French. We felt surrounded, watched 
 denounced, and in a word, spied. 
 
 A spirit of exasperation against German spies conse- 
 quent^ awoke in the minds of the Parisians with the 
 rapidity of a train of powder. Were there any German 
 spies ? Unquestionably. Prussia had in her pay in Paris 
 and throughout France people who were spies by profes- 
 sion, and it will not be news to anybody to recall the fact 
 that one of them, captured and convicted, met his death 
 firmly at the hands of a firing party, crying out with his 
 latest breath, ' For my country.' 
 
 In addition to this, the German army abounded in uncon- 
 scious spies, or rather, in officers and soldiers who knew our 
 country better than we ourselves did, who had lived in it 
 and studied it, and who, recalled to Germany by the exigencies 
 of their military service, naturally turned their acquired 
 knowledge to account. There are, perhaps, not three hun- 
 dred people in all France who could traverse Berlin without 
 losing their way. I assert 'as a fact that there were in 
 the German army two hundred thousand men, who, by 
 reason of their either having stayed or lived there, knew 
 Paris as well as we did. A Frenchman travels little, and 
 when he does travel he is so hampered by his ignorance of 
 foreign languages that his observation is of the most 
 limited extent. The German willingly changes his 
 residence, and when he does change it, he does so for 
 the purpose of gaining knowledge as much as for a liveli- 
 hood. In Germany everybody, starting from a certain 
 social level, looks upon intercourse with a Frenchman as a 
 piece of good fortune. They speak to, and question him, 
 never in German, but invariably in French. How do you
 
 36 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 say this ? He serves as an unconscious and gratuitous 
 private tutor. In France, to be obliged to talk to a German 
 who cannot speak our language properly is looked upon as 
 a bore. To sum the matter up, all the German Generals, 
 and all the Staff Officers, spoke French, while in our Head- 
 quarter staff there were not, perhaps, ten officers at the 
 outside who could make themselves intelligible to a German. 
 There is one excuse for this ignorance, I admit. The 
 French language being recognised as the language of 
 diplomacy, spoken by all those who aspire to govern their 
 country, and considered as the necessary complement of an 
 aristocratic education, Frenchmen had for a long time, 
 and up to a certain point, an excuse for neglecting the 
 acquirement of the language of the people who strained 
 every nerve to learn French. But the disappearance of 
 our military and even intellectual supremacy ought to have 
 compelled us to gain a knowledge of foreign languages. 
 We are only now beginning to understand that. In 1870 
 we still ignored it. 
 
 Every man who did not speak French with purity was, 
 therefore, suspected, the masses being, besides, incapable of 
 distinguishing between the various foreign languages 
 spoken in their midst. Englishmen, like my faithful 
 Joseph, Americans, Swedes, Spaniards, and Alsatians were 
 arrested alike. A similar fate befell all those people who, 
 either in their dress or their manner, betrayed anything 
 unusual. Stammerers were arrested because they wanted 
 to speak too quickly; dumb people because they did not 
 speak, and the deaf because they did not seem to under- 
 stand what was said to them. The sewer-men who emerged 
 from the sewers were arrested because they spoke 
 Piedmontese. 
 
 The German spies were likewise so numerous that, so to
 
 ACROSS PARIS 37 
 
 speak, in drawing a bow at a venture, the arrow occasionally 
 went straight to the proper mark. For instance, two spies 
 were captured disguised as Sisters of Charity ; another, dis- 
 guised as a beggar, was engaged in sketching the fortifica- 
 lions in his hat, but was careful to hold out his hand with a 
 piteous air when anybody passed by. Another, in the uni- 
 form of a naval lieutenant, and armed with a regular permit 
 from the Minister of War, made a very minute inspection 
 of Mont-Valerien. When the telegram ordering his arrest 
 came to hand, he had disappeared. But side by side with 
 these well-merited arrests, what deplorable mistakes were 
 made ! On one occasion an unfortunate priest had a narrow 
 escape of being cut to pieces because, after having been 
 appointed a military chaplain, he, accidentally and through 
 awkwardness, fired off his revolver in a, fiacre ; on another, 
 a seller of lemonade, whose name had a German ring about 
 it, very nearly had his shop sacked ; on a third, an in- 
 offensive passer-by was pointed out by a facetious raga- 
 muffin, and beaten unmercifully. 
 
 How many times at the Head- quarter staff did we have 
 presented to us for immediate execution poor devils who 
 had no idea why they were being maltreated, stray pro- 
 vincials, or strangers who had lost the way to their hotel ! 
 One curious and unexplained incident, the remembrance of 
 which haunted me like a riddle for a long time, happened 
 under our very eyes in the staff offices. 
 
 It took place at the end of August ; General Trochu had 
 just received a deputation of the Garde Nationale, who had 
 petitioned to be armed, and had been dismissed highly 
 pleased with their reception, when a hideous uproar was 
 heard beneath our windows. We opened them and saw a 
 furious crowd surrounding a poor old woman who was 
 carrying a basket and was already almost stunned. She
 
 3 8 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 was standing on the edge of the pavement, watching the 
 drill of a battalion of the Garde Nationale, when a man 
 cried out, ' Here is a Prussian spy ! ' In a moment the un- 
 fortunate creature was cuffed with all their might by the 
 surrounding crowd. She would have been knocked to 
 pieces had not one of us called out of the window, ' Bring 
 your spy here : we will question her.' A few seconds later 
 she was bundled like a parcel into our famous green room, 
 and began to cry and protest her innocence. Suddenly she 
 uttered a terrible shriek ; one of her persecutors had put 
 his hands under her petticoats, and called out triumphantly, 
 ' Did not I tell you it was a man V And it was a man in 
 very truth. We handed him over to the tender mercies of 
 M. Pollet, an intelligent assistant whom the Prefect of 
 Police had placed at our disposal, and who acted with us as 
 a sort of civil provost. The old creature gave his address, 
 and his neighbours were summoned ; all of them, who, by- 
 the-way, called him la mere line telle, declared that he was 
 a good old woman, well known for more than forty years 
 in their neighbourhood, where she passed as a person of 
 independent, though small means. The man in woman's 
 garb was released. Why this citizen had conceived and 
 persistently carried out the idea of living under a borrowed 
 sex nobody could induce him to say. I resolved to clear up 
 this mystery one day when I could find time ; but when I 
 asked M. Pollet for his address, he informed me that the 
 poor man only survived the scene I have just related two 
 days, and that he had died of the shock. I suspect the 
 buffeting he had received had no little to do with his sad 
 end. 
 
 There was one spectacle well calculated to console us for 
 all the wretchedness of which w r e were eye-witnesses, and 
 for all the scenes that passed before us, whether ridiculous
 
 ACROSS twins 39 
 
 like the one I have just described, or bloody, like the 
 criminal attack on the barracks of the firemen of La 
 Villette — I mean the sight presented by the enlistment 
 depdts. The mo.st inoffensive citizens enrolled themselves 
 with a single-mindedness and courage as extraordinary as 
 they were sincere. Good-will and a desire to sacrifice 
 themselves were evident in their bearing and conversation- 
 It was really touching. I remember the Marquis Lafond de 
 Candaval presenting himself and being refused ; he was 
 eighty-seven years of age and wanted to enlist as a private 
 soldier in the line so that he might join his son in the army 
 on the Rhine.* 
 
 The second half of August also witnessed the formation 
 and equipment of man}'' free corps. I have no hesitation in 
 .saying in all sincerity that I do not like these free corps,, and 
 I do not understand their rdle in time of war. As a rule- — 
 there were honourable exceptions and if I do not quote 
 them it is simply because I might omit mention of some and 
 consequently seem to include them in the category of the 
 condemned — as a rule, the individual who raises a free corps 
 is also an irregular in civil life, incapable of accommodating 
 himself to the stern exigencies of military discipline, an 
 ambitious fellow who wants to play the general, when he 
 does not happen to be a light-fingered gentleman desirous of 
 manipulating the contents of a well furnished chest. He 
 naturally surrounds himself with others as irregular as him- 
 self ; equips them, accoutres them more or less elegantly, 
 and sallies forth with them in search of adventure, delighted 
 to live a life as free as that of a New World trapper in the 
 midst of an old and downcast nation, requisitioning right 
 
 Captain Dancourt, Mayor of Montargis, aged seventy-eight, wasmore success- 
 ful ami actually joined the army. A man named Simeon Guillot, who was born 
 in 1798 and had the St Helena medal, enlisted in the twenty-ninth regiment of 
 the line.
 
 4 o JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFF ILL 11 
 
 and left, more exacting than the conquering foe, and more 
 dangerous to the army of his own country than to the 
 enemy. These terra firma corsairs fill me with unconquer- 
 able repugnance. When a man is really and seriously 
 desirous of being useful to his country, of serving it and 
 giving up his life to it, he does not'indulge in such vagaries. 
 He goes quietly to his district depot and enlists in the active 
 army, he becomes a soldier, a real soldier, and not a fancy 
 or an amateur one. Those people must have been absolutely 
 mad who dreamt that any damage would be inflicted on the 
 Prussian masses by the free corps, franc-tireurs, and scouts 
 of whom the enemy did not take the slightest notice, and 
 who were only harmful to the French peasantry. It is one 
 of two things — either the franc-tireurs are capable of be- 
 coming good soldiers, in which case they weaken the active 
 army by their absence, or they are incapable of becoming so, 
 in which case they would be doing far better by staying at 
 home instead of encumbering; the roads and exhausting the 
 precious resources of the country. At the risk of appearing 
 ferocious, brutal if you will, I declare — and all real soldiers 
 whom I have met a<n - ee with me — that if I had been a 
 general and had penetrated into Prussia, I would have done 
 precisely what the Prussians did and would have shot every 
 irregular who fell into my clutches. There is no other way 
 of making war properly, that is to say, humanely ; as 
 humanely, I mean, as the momentary excitement of war- 
 fare will admit, and in accordance with the rights of men, 
 the ordinary rules of humanity. 
 
 I might say almost as much in regard to voluntary 
 ambulances, though the inconvenience caused by them is 
 not nearly so considerable. But if you want to organise an 
 ambulance, contribute your intended expenditure to the 
 military chest, and enlist cither as an army doctor, or
 
 ACEOSS PARIS 41 
 
 hospital attendant, or in the administrative corps, as the 
 
 case may be. You will have done your duty simply and 
 strictly; it will then be the duty of the Government to 
 utilize your contribution and your goodwill practically and 
 methodically, as everything ought to be done in war. 
 Otherwise, the responsible authorities, driven to distraction 
 by all these military and benevolent experiments, lose their 
 heads and do not know on whom to rely, and thus it is that 
 disasters happen. If your Government is incapable and 
 your administration defective, so much the worse for you, 
 citizens, who placed the Government in power and made 
 the mal-administration possible. But from the moment 
 that the word ' war ' is pronounced, you have no right as 
 private individuals to substitute your individual action for 
 public action ; and if you persist in doing so, inevitable 
 catastrophes will punish you, however pure and straight- 
 forward your intentions may be. 
 
 In Germany, in time of peace, the Government knows, 
 catalogues, and arranges all the efforts and sacrifices which 
 private individuals are willing to make in time of war. 
 And in such towns as are capable of sustaining a siege 
 there is a conscription of beds, of doctors, of nurses male 
 and female, just as their is a conscription of horses which 
 must leave the coach or the plough to drag guns into action, 
 or must quit the broughams and victorias of the wealthy 
 to help to mount the cavalry. 
 
 The first condition of war is order, and whatever is not 
 foreseen is disorder. The day these unpalatable truths are 
 understood by every Frenchman, the country will be in a 
 position, whenever she pleases, to become once more the 
 military master of the world. While this book was being- 
 printed, I went more than once to the office to see to the 
 correction of my proofs, and seated myself by the side of the
 
 4 2 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 compositors who were setting up the type : I watched 
 their nimble fingers taking hold, almost as quickly as the 
 thought which influenced them, of the letters in the little 
 cases containing them, placing them one beside another in 
 the stick, and reproducing by these leaden signs the words 
 written in the copy by my pen. To render their work pos- 
 sible, every letter must be in its compartment, just where it 
 ought to be, and if their trays were upset and the letters be- 
 came mixed up, it would be impossible for them to compose- 
 ' What would you do,' I asked one of them one day, ' if 
 somebody were to jumble up your letters ? ' " When, sir," 
 he replied, " the letters are disarranged, or mixed, they are 
 said to have ' fallen into pie.' They are then sent to be melted 
 down again. It is useless to try to sort them, it would be 
 time and trouble thrown away." Well then, in the days 
 which I have just been describing, France, to borrow the 
 printer's peculiar and picturesque expression, had ' fallen 
 into pie.' All the letters, that is to say all the citizens, had 
 become mixed up. It was impossible to compose anything, 
 to do anything with them. The whole unfortunate nation 
 required melting down. Has it been recast ? Alas ! 
 
 Another idea, more ingenious than practical, and more 
 artistic than useful, was the summoning of all the firemen 
 to Paris. The author of this idea was the amiable gentle- 
 man called Janvier de la Motte, the most popular of all the 
 prefects of the Empire, the man who was jocularly 
 christened the ' father of the firemen,' and who died not 
 long ago, after a brilliant administrative one, followed by 
 an equally brilliant parliamentary one, mourned by all, 
 even b} r his political opponents. At his summons the firemen 
 came from all parts of France. Firemen from the towns, 
 neat and well set up, and firemen from the villages, dressed 
 like those we see at a masked ball, with wonderful
 
 ACROSS PARIS 43 
 
 helmets most probably borrowed from the models of 
 David, the painter of the Greek and Romans. Some of these 
 fine fellows, who had left home without knowing why, on 
 arriving in Paris asked, 'Where is the fire?' They were 
 quartered in the lyce'es. A certain amount of money was 
 spent in feeding and paying them, and then they dispersed, 
 and nobody ever heard any more of them. As I have men- 
 tioned money, I may as w^ell allude here, by way of paren- 
 thesis, to the success of the loan of 750 millions, and that of 
 the patriotic subscription of the French press, initiated by 
 the Gtitdo'ts, which in a few days reached a total of 
 1,500,000 francs. 
 
 Meanwhile, Paris was beginning to understand that it 
 would have to sustain a siege, the duration of which 
 nobody ventured even to guess. The most sanguine of the 
 optimists could not have imagined that the capital would 
 hold out as long as it did. The most despondent of the 
 pessimists could not have supposed that its long resistance 
 would have turned out so useless. In spite of the hope in 
 Bazaine, upon whom everybody at that moment, looked as a 
 hero and a great general, but of whom scarcely any mention 
 was made after Gravelotte, in spite of the confidence still 
 inspired by MacMahon even after Reichshoft'en, it was 
 necessary to victual the city in view of a possible invest- 
 ment, offers flowed in to the staff', and I had frequently to 
 conduct corn-merchants and cattle-dealers, who had ad- 
 dressed themselves to the Governor, into the presence of 
 Clement Duvernois, the Minister of Commerce, entrusted 
 with the provision of supplies. The genius displayed by 
 Clement Duvernois in carrying out this vast and coin- 
 plicated enterprise is now a matter of history. By a very 
 strange coincidence, on each of the three occasions when I 
 went to see him I met M. Thiers there. M. Thiers had not
 
 44 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 then acquired the popularity bestowed upon him by our 
 defeats, foreseen by him ; by his diplomatic tour across 
 Europe ; and above all, by the fact that among all the 
 members of the Government of the National Defence, he 
 seemed, with his past Cabinet experience, the sole surviving 
 waif of the regular regimes. He was as restless as a 
 squirrel in a cage. Silent in the chamber, he made up for it 
 by his constant attendance in the offices of ministers, where 
 he lavished his counsel and advice, frequenting the Embassies 
 into which he had the entree, or where he was listened to, 
 questioning diplomatists, sounding the intentions of other 
 Governments, active and full of business. He was ubiquitous, 
 and one seemed to see nothing but him. Two other person- 
 ages, foreigners both of them, also passed their existence in 
 running to and fro. I mean MM. de Metternich and 
 Nigra, the representatives respectively of Austria and Italy 
 in Paris. I shall have something to say about the part they 
 played when I come to the subject of what I saw of the 4th 
 of September. How r ever, all these diplomatic comings and 
 goings produced but little result. It was already known 
 that the Queen of England had written to the Empress to 
 say that she could not interfere in the Franco-Prussian 
 conflict. No reliance could be placed upon Austria. As for 
 Italy, there was a report one day that a hundred thousand 
 of her troops would cross the Alps and come to our 
 assistance. We believed it for the moment. But Italy gave 
 no thought to those who had made her. She was arming 
 for the conquest of Rome. 
 
 We were left to our own resources, and by degrees the 
 soldiers of the regular army, still quartered in Paris, were 
 despatched to the North. The authorities dared not 
 entrust these duties to the Mobjles, who were still encamped 
 at St Maur. On the 25th of August, the General reviewed
 
 ACROSS PARIS 4 r 
 
 these young troops amid the greatest enthusiasm. For two 
 hours battalion after battalion marched past him to the cry 
 of ' Vive Trochul' He returned their salute with a smile. 
 It seemed to me, nevertheless, that his amiability was 
 forced, and that he would have preferred a silent march 
 past. The shouting- savoured of riot. 
 
 As we came back we met, almost at the o-ate of the 
 Louvre, a stretcher on which an old general was being 
 carried, as pale as death. 
 
 ' Go,' said the Governor to me, ' and ascertain his name 
 and where he was wounded.' 
 
 I put spurs to my horse, reached the litter, put my hand 
 to my kepi, and made the desired inquiry. The poor 
 General confessed in faltering tones, and with much em- 
 barrassment, that he had fallen from his horse. Trochu 
 shrugged his shoulders and passed on. 
 
 The possibility of a siege, and the preparations for 
 provisioning the city had brought about an extraordinary 
 amount of animation. A double current ran through Paris, 
 one going out, and the other coming in. The Governor had 
 signed an order for the expulsion of all people who were 
 without means of subsistence or were dangerous to public 
 security ; it was a dead letter. A certain number of able- 
 bodied people, perfectly capable of manning the ramparts 
 and even of taking part in future sorties, took their de- 
 parture whithersoever they pleased, to Italy, Spain, Belgium, 
 or England, but the mass of what might be called useless 
 mouths, old men, women, and children, having neither re- 
 sources nor homes in the country, were perforce obliged to 
 remain in Paris. A decisive step should have been taken at 
 this particular juncture, and the whole of this descrip- 
 tion of inhabitants should have been transported to the 
 South. As it was, nobody even thought of such a step.
 
 4 6 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 As for the vagabonds and dangerous classes, the 31st of 
 October proved that they had preferred to remain in Paris, 
 where they found an admirable hiding-place amid the general 
 disorder. By way of compensation, the environs were com- 
 pletely depopulated. Crops were hastily gathered in and 
 loaded on waggons, and through every gate thronged inter- 
 minable strings of vehicles laden with provisions, while 
 barges on the Seine, and trains on the various railways 
 brought coal, wine, grain, and cattle. The peasants and their 
 families came with their crops. It is impossible to do justice 
 in words to the spectacle afforded by the thousands of 
 vehicles conveying goods and chattels, women and children, 
 mixed up with cooking utensils, sacks of corn or potatoes, 
 and with a cow and calf in tow. There were cupboards full 
 of rabbits, and beds converted into hen coops. The motley 
 procession marched to the accompaniment of oxen lowing, 
 goats and lambs bleating, ducks quacking, cocks crowing, 
 hens clucking, children crying, and men swearing. The 
 small tradesmen who had built little boxes, which they 
 called villas, by the thousand in the environs of Paris, were 
 equally anxious to find safe house-room for their stocks of 
 provisions and their summer furniture. But transport was 
 lacking. A furniture van drawn by two horses cost 500 
 francs a day. I saw some instances of people who had been 
 clever enough to get hold, how I know not, of mourning 
 coaches and were cheerfully seated in hearses surrounded 
 by their household gods. 
 
 It is extraordinary, but it is a fact, that at this very 
 time, even before Sedan, the Germans reckoned upon the 
 investment of Paris, and I recollect being told that M. 
 Eugene Clicquot had received a letter requesting him to 
 have his castle at Courcelles ready for the reception of the 
 Prince Royal of Saxony. The mere name of Clicquot was
 
 ACROSS I'M; is 47 
 
 enough to recall joyous memories in Prussia. In 1815 the 
 
 allies who had taken up their quarters in the house of the 
 great manufacturer of champagne emptied a vast number 
 of bottles, for which they entirely forgot to pa}-. But when 
 they reached home again they had a kindly recollection of 
 the French nectar, and sent large orders to the firm of 
 Clicquot. Orders poured in from every quarter where the 
 invading regiments were stationed, that is to say, from 
 every corner of Europe, and the story goes that this was the 
 foundation of the large fortune made by the famous widow. 
 
 As Paris was not precisely adapted for the accommoda- 
 tion of much cattle, the beasts were herded in the Bois 
 de Boulogne, the Bois de Vincennes, and the public squares, 
 and the grass in the latter did not last very long. As the 
 beasts came in the Governor ordered the expulsion of all 
 foreigners — mouths evidently useless. This step, on the 
 eve of a possible siege, was both legitimate and prudent. 
 It was approved and carried out. 
 
 I find that up to this point I have scarcely mentioned 
 the Chamber of Deputies, whose sittings nevertheless were 
 continual and stormy, nor have I said a word about the 
 Empress. I confess that as my duties did not lead me in 
 the direction of the Chamber, neither did my tastes incline 
 me that way during my rare hours of idleness. I have 
 never been able to comprehend the use of a Chamber under 
 such circumstances, and it seems to me that when the 
 cannon speaks, members of parliament would do well to be 
 silent. In addition to this, the obligation laid upon 
 ministers to spend hour after hour under the tire of attacks 
 from the Opposition benches, wearied them, made them 
 lose their self-possession, and hindered them from working. 
 As for the Empress Regent, I will in due course explain 
 how she bore herself towards the Governor imposed on the
 
 4 S JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Emperor by the will of the people, and appointed by him 
 with the secret and somewhat intelligible idea of profiting 
 by his momentary popularity. It will be readily under- 
 stood that between the Louvre, where General Trochu had 
 taken up his quarters, and the Tuileries, there was a gulf 
 seldom crossed by the General ; and when he did cross it, it 
 was much against the grain — from a sense of duty alone, 
 and without the slightest inclination on his part. 
 
 In Paris the role of idol is subject to many vicissitudes, 
 and already, towards the end of August, some timid carp- 
 ings intervened amid the general chorus of eulogy and 
 adulation which had greeted the Governor. Devoted to 
 my chief, and proud of being attached to him, of being in 
 attendance on him, and of riding behind him, I was 
 indignant enough, and I fear all the more indignant 
 because I could have wished that the malcontents had been 
 less in the right. They reproached him with talking and 
 writing too much. They began to call him ' Monsieur 
 Trochu,' and even ' Monsieur Trop lu.' 
 
 It is quite certain that in this world of ours no man 
 is perfect, and that the material of great qualities is 
 composed of a mass of small defects, which holds the same 
 position in regard to those qualities that the wrong side of 
 the material does to the right. The General was a studious 
 man. He wrote well, and was fond of writing. He spoke 
 well, although, in my humble opinion, his sentences were 
 always too long, and he was fond of speaking. Like all 
 scholars, he had a weakness for explanation, and he thought 
 proper, through the medium of a letter to a newspaper, to 
 explain his proclamation to the Parisians. It was a mis- 
 take, and all the more stupid because the explanation was 
 not expected. In it the Governor declared himself a warm 
 partisan of moral force. He wished to govern by moral
 
 ACROSS PARIS 49 
 
 force. It is quite true that power derived from brute force, 
 and sustained solely by it, is destined to rapid decay and 
 inevitable defeat. Tt is quite true that the greatest of all 
 forces is moral force. But, not only in France, but every- 
 where else, one is accustomed to seek for these beautiful 
 ideas in the works of a philosopher — not in the proclamation 
 of a General. And although we may not feel leniently 
 disposed towards a wearer of the sword who proclaims 
 himself an apostle of the sword, we cannot help being 
 considerably astonished when we hear him sing the praises 
 of persuasion and moral force. It seems to me that the 
 gap between the trooper and the preacher is quite wide 
 enough for a man of mind and talent — such as General 
 Trochu was — to rind ample room to move about as he pleases. 
 Why did he always betray a tendency towards his office in 
 preference to the saddle ? It surprised some and rendered 
 others uneasy. Both the astonished and the uneasy, how- 
 ever, only formed an almost imperceptible minority, and if 
 they were received with favour at the Tuileries, they had, 
 on the other hand, to endure many a rebuff at the hands of 
 the Comte de Palikao. This Minister supported the 
 Governor most loyally, and to the early grumblers he 
 replied curtly — 
 
 ' He talks, it is true, but he acts.' 
 
 Towards the end of August, a month so full of events 
 and feverish excitement, on the 29th, the first Council of War 
 sat in judgment on the two principal authors of the abom- 
 inable attack made, on the f 5th, against the barracks of the 
 Firemen of La Villette. A band of maniacs, whom public 
 opinion persisted in calling accomplices, conscious or not, of 
 Prussia, attacked the guard-room of the Firemen, demand- 
 ing the surrender of all the rifles in the barracks, in order 
 to march to the Corps Lfyislatif, and proclaim the Republic. 
 
 D
 
 5 o JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 The Firemen resisted. The rioters opened fire with their 
 revolvers. A Fireman was killed. A civilian was 
 wounded and then kicked to death. A little girl was 
 killed by a random shot. Elides and Brideau, the leaders of 
 the prepossessing band, were condemned to death. They 
 were to have been executed on the morning of the 5th of 
 September. The Be volution of the 4th of September saved 
 their lives. 
 
 This attempt, however, did not prevent MM. Ferry and 
 Favre from urging the Chamber to agree to a general arm- 
 ing of the citizens, with an amount of persistence and 
 obstinacy which, with them, was destined to survive the 
 siege, and which gave us the Commune. 
 
 And now I have reached the fatal date — the 4th of 
 September. 
 
 All through Saturday, and since the previous evening, 
 reports had been flying about that MacMahon had 
 suffered a fresh defeat. Messages had been received from 
 Belgium to the effect that the battle had been furious, since 
 from all the frontier towns telegrams came to hand announc- 
 ing a terrific cannonade; and for forty-eight hours the 
 destinies of France had been submitted to the wager of battle. 
 At half-past tine*' on Sunday morning, Gener.nl Palikao 
 ascended the tribune in his Chamber, and, without olivine 
 any precise details, announced that a great battle had been 
 fought between Sedan and Mezieres, and that fortune had 
 varied ; that Bazaine, who had sallied out from Metz to 
 effect a junction with MacMahon, had been compelled to 
 retire after eight hours' fighting; that the movement 
 had failed, and that the situation was grave. 
 
 Jules Favre at once ascended the tribune, and in am- 
 biguous terms proposed that a sort of military dictatorship 
 should be conferred upon General Trochu. General de
 
 ACROSS PAR IS 51 
 
 Palikao replied that lie had too much confidence in the 
 Governor to believe that he would, in violation of his oath, 
 accept any such position. 
 
 The deputies remained in their committee rooms. The 
 grille was closed. In the evening Gambetta harangued the 
 crowds collected on the quays, implored the citizens to 
 wait, and announced that there would be an evening sitting. 
 Afterwards the Serf/mis de Ville and the Gardes de Paris' 
 cleared the immediate neighbourhood of the Palais-Bourbon. 
 
 At five o'clock the Empress received the succinct tele- 
 graphic account of the catastrophe of Sedan. She retired 
 to her room alone to weep. 
 
 At 1.20 a.m. General de Palikao reascended the tribune. 
 He announced that the semi-official news had become 
 official, and, in a few curt words, which fell like so many 
 blows from a sledge-hammer on the heads of the motionless 
 and solemnly silent deputies, he recounted the disaster — 
 MacMahon wounded, the capitulation, the Emperor a 
 prisoner. 
 
 Then he asked the Chamber, under the exceptional 
 circumstances, to adjourn the sitting until the following- 
 day, Sunday, at noon. 
 
 Jules Favre then rose, and laid on the table the motion 
 for the deposition of the Imperial dynasty, and, accepting 
 the adjournment proposed by the Minister, undertook to 
 explain on the morrow his reasons for his motion. 
 
 This sitting, at which I was present, lasted ten minutes. 
 
 At the end of the Pont de la Concorde, in the Square, 
 as I was going into the Louvre to report what I had 
 seen to the Governor, I saw the white head of M. Thiers at 
 the window of his carriage, which was surrounded by the 
 crowd. He was telling them of Sedan, and they cheered 
 him.
 
 52 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 That night Paris slept under a lovely sky, and beyond 
 her, in the background, behind the towers of Notre-Dame, 
 behind the spire of Sainte-Chapelle, behind the turrets of 
 the Palais de Justice, in the star-lit azure the moon glided 
 calmly, and her shapeless mask seemed to me to be looking 
 down, at one and the same time, on the capital, slumbering 
 in ignorance of the blow with which it had been struck, 
 and beyond, in the North, on our poor soldiers, bivouacked, 
 without food, shoes, or arms, between the lances of the 
 Uhlans. 
 
 As I crossed the Carrousel I glanced at the Tuileries. 
 Above the illuminated vestibule, above the guard whose 
 bayonets glittered in the light, a ray shining from a 
 window marked the spot where were the private apart- 
 ments of the Empress. And, sad at heart, I thought of 
 that poor woman who, far from her captive husband, far 
 from her isolated son, was weeping and keeping watch 
 during her last night of royalty. 
 
 To-morrow, almost immediately, I said to myself, who 
 knows! that woman, that Empress, will too be abandoned. 
 perhaps, as she has been surrounded by courtiers, will be 
 as wretched as she has been happy, as forgotten as she has 
 been fawned upon. She may, perhaps, be reduced to such 
 an excess of solitude and abandonment that she will have to 
 seek the support of the arm of some brave man, the first at 
 hand, some poor insignificant moblot like myself. 
 
 And I am not quite sure that I did not dream that 
 night that I was saving the Empress. 
 
 We shall see by-and-by that the part I played in regard 
 to her was far less imposing and less romantic.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER 
 
 Paris awakes. — The Chamber Invaded. — The Deposition. — A Walk on the Quays. 
 — Jules Favre and the Crowd. — Apotheosis. — Universal Delirium. — And the 
 Empress? — Marie-Antoinette and Marie-Theresa. — Ni«ra and Metternich 
 again. — At the Tuileries. — The Empress flown. — At the Louvre. — At the 
 Hotel de Ville. — The First Speech. — General and Lawyers. — Rochefort and 
 Trochu.— M. Thiers. 
 
 I was for duty on Sunday, the 4th of September. That 
 is to say, I was detailed on the previous evening to accom- 
 pany the General on horseback in case he should have to go 
 out. Consequently, when I returned from the Chamber at 
 night and learnt that the General was in bed, instead of 
 going to my quarters, I lay down to sleep on a couch in the 
 green room. 
 
 At dawn the newspaper boys in the Rue de Rivoli 
 began to rouse the still slumbering city with the alarming 
 words, ' Napoleon III a prisoner ! ' The morning papers 
 explained and commented on the overnight sitting in the 
 Chamber, and gave tolerably accurate accounts, based on 
 those in the Belgian prints, of the catastrophe of Sedan,
 
 54 
 
 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 already three days old. At eight o'clock the immense 
 human hive was in an uproar. From all sides a tide began 
 to run towards the centre of Paris, bearing onwards with it 
 the inhabitants of the outlying districts. 
 
 Under our windows the Rue de Rivoli and the Place du 
 ('.iii-oiisel were black with people. It was a lovely day, 
 and everybody knows that all Paris is out of doors on 
 Sunday. Some strolled quietly under the arcades, or along 
 the footpaths; others hurried feverishly towards the 
 Palais-Bourbon, where they foresaw that there would be 
 work for them, and others again, massed in the squares or 
 at the corners of the pavement, waited and watched as they 
 drank in the balmy air of a real summer's day. 
 
 I had told the General, who, however, had been able to 
 read for himself the account of the night sitting in the 
 Journal Official, 
 
 ' They meet at noon to discuss the motion for the 
 deposition.' 
 
 The steps to be taken for the safety of the Corps 
 Legislatif were no business of ours, the necessary orders 
 having been given directly by the Minister of "War. 
 Nevertheless, it was but natural that the Governor of 
 Paris should pay attention to what was going on in his 
 command, and from half-past eleven the detachment on 
 escort duty was drawn up in the court-yard behind our 
 horses, which were saddled and bridled. From time to 
 time General Trochu opened the door of his room and went 
 to that occupied by his Chief of the Staff, General Schmitz, 
 who was immersed in drawing up his orders, writing his 
 despatches, and annotating his reports, and as he crossed 
 the green room, where we were waiting, he would say to us 
 
 ' Anything new ? ' 
 
 ' Nothing, sir,' was our invariable reply. Though within
 
 THE FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER 
 
 55 
 
 shot of the Palais-Bourbon, we were utterly ignorant of 
 what was going on. Everybody was going that way. 
 Nobody came back ; and none of us had orders to make 
 enquiries. 
 
 Towards one o'clock the sitting announced for noon was 
 opened. ( renera] de Palikao had laid on the table a motion 
 for the appointment of a Committee of Defence, consisting 
 of nine members, and entrusting to the Minister himself the 
 post of Lieutenant-General of the Committee. M. Thiers 
 and several of his colleagues had drawn up another almost 
 similar, but announcing the convocation of a Constituent 
 Assembly as soon as circumstances should permit. These, 
 with the motion for the deposition laid on the table on 
 the previous night by Jules Favre, made a total of three 
 perfectly unconstitutional and revolutionary motions, for 
 not one of the three made mention of the still existing 
 Government of the Empress-Regent. Urgency was voted 
 for all three motions, and the deputies retired to their 
 committee rooms to discuss them, according to the usual 
 custom. 
 
 Nevertheless, by degrees the Garde Rationale relieved 
 the Line Regiments on all the posts round the Palais- 
 Bourbon. Regular battalions marched away, and citizen 
 battalions took their place. At the same time, the cordon 
 formed by the Sergents de Villi' gave way, the points 
 hitherto guarded were abandoned, and, last of all, mixed 
 up, all of a heap with the Garde Rationale, came the 
 crowd, who, with shouts of ' La Dechdance' and ' Vive In 
 Republique,' made their way, first of all to the seats, and 
 then to the semi-circle of the Chamber. Gambetta and 
 Jules Favre began to speak. General de Palikao endea- 
 voured to make himself heard. He was driven back, and 
 disappeared in the hubbub. Without any division having
 
 5 6 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 been taken on it, the deposition was an accomplished fact. 
 
 At three o'clock President Schneider, recognising the im- 
 possibility of orderly discussion, declared the sitting at 
 an end. 
 
 At this very moment General Trochu, impatient, and 
 roused to a pitch of feverish excitement by long hours of 
 waiting, mounted his horse, saying to us, ' Let us go and 
 see what is going on over there.' I was, consequently, riding 
 behind the Governor, when, emerging from the gate of 
 the Louvre, he began to cross the Place du Carrousel. 
 What struck me most forcibly was the circumstance that, 
 in the midst of the crowds who turned round and gathered 
 near us to cheer the General, I saw either hanging from, 
 or clinging to the railings of the Tuileries, a considerable 
 number of those ragged, sinister-looking individuals who 
 emerge, whence no one knows, in times of disturbance, but 
 seem to have vanished when times are quiet, and the 
 national life is regular. They were silently gazing on the 
 Imperial residence, and, looked upon as a whole, this 
 portion of the populace resembled a species of gigantic 
 wild beast crouching in readiness for a spring, and fasci- 
 nating its prey before taking the fatal leap. 
 
 When we reached the quay, after having passed under 
 the arch upon which the bas-relief of Napoleon III as a 
 Roman emperor seemed, too, to be gazing on the Corps 
 Le<j'isl(iF]f, we turned to the right along the terrace by the 
 side of the water. 
 
 Issuing from the Pont de la Concorde, a noisy crowd 
 was surging along in front of us, howling and unruly, 
 following, or rather pushing onwards a tall man who, with 
 bare head and long, bushy, and dishevelled grey hair, 
 appeared to be struggling in front of them. It was 
 Jules Favre.
 
 THE FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER 57 
 
 As soon as he caught sio-ht of the Governor lie came to 
 him, and, the General having pulled up, they in very loud 
 tones, so as to make themselves heard above the din around 
 them, exchanged a few words which reached us very 
 distinctly. 
 
 ' Where are you going, General ? ' 
 
 ' To the Chamber.' 
 
 ' It is useless. The Chamber of Deputies no longer 
 exists. It has been invaded by the people. The deposi- 
 tion has been proclaimed, and if you are anxious to 
 preserve order, your place is at the Louvre, at your 
 Head-quarters, whither the deputies for Paris, con- 
 stituted into a Government of National Defence, are going 
 to seek you.' 
 
 ' Ah ! ' said the General, and without another remark he 
 turned his horse's head and retraced his steps through the 
 midst of a crowd which increased every moment. As he 
 turned to the left to get into the Carrousel, Jules Favre had 
 resumed his walk, still surrounded by the unruly mob, 
 who, as they made their way along the quays, appeared to 
 wish to escort him to the Hotel de Ville, whither MM. 
 Gambetta, Cremieux, and de Keratry had already driven, 
 and were haranguing the people who thronged upon them 
 through the public and private rooms. 
 
 The Carrousel was crammed with people, and as he rode 
 up the shouts of ' Vive la Republique/' 'A has U Empire /' 
 mingled with those of ' Vive Trocku!' broke out afresh 
 with extraordinary force. 
 
 For nearly twenty years Napoleon III had inspired in 
 the French in general, and the Parisians in particular, a 
 feeling of confidence in his energy. He had lived on the 
 reminiscence of his coup oVet<it. And the people in- 
 stinctively said of him, ' He is no poltroon to escape in a
 
 5 8 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 cult like Papa Philippe. He would blow himself up rather 
 than give in.' Consequently, even after the weak errors of 
 the last few years, even after Baudin had been endured, the 
 funeral obsequies of Victor Noir accepted, the press un- 
 muzzled and Rochefort tolerated, he was still feared. In 
 his absence he still had a weighty influence over the sayings 
 and doings of Paris. The first manifestations of insurrec- 
 tion were timid, and it was easy to see, from the somewhat 
 undecided manner of those who risked the .», that they 
 were almost terrified and embarrassed by their own 
 audacity. 
 
 But now, when for three days it had been a fact beyond 
 dispute that the Emperor with the huge moustache was a 
 prisoner of war, and that he would never return to instil 
 courage into his shattered soldiers and vigour into his dis- 
 heartened Sergents de Ville, the populace of Paris were as full 
 of joyful enthusiasm as a band of schoolboys whose usher 
 has disappeared. Joyful enthusiasm ! Yes, these words 
 are not one whit too strong, although they may seem 
 almost blasphemous. Joyous ! And the Prussian, with all 
 obstacles swept from his path, had already resumed his 
 on wan! march ! Joyous ! With one of our two armies cap- 
 tured ! Joyous ! In spite of the fact that never for cen- 
 turies had we suffered such a military catastrophe. 
 
 Some there were who honestly thought that, with 
 Napoleon out of the "way, peace would be concluded at 
 once. Others, who knew what they were about, did not 
 think that a shred of their country was too dear a price to 
 pay for the fall of a regime which they detested. At this 
 moment, at the time I am writing these words, there is a 
 man, a lawyer, high up in the public service and held 
 in much honour, who said in my hearing on the steps of the 
 Palais de Justice, ' The disappearance of the Empire is well
 
 THE FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER 50 
 
 bought with Alsace and Lorraine.' Ami indeed why 
 should not this individual have said it, when one of his 
 masters not only said it with cynical calmness, but pub- 
 lished it to boot ? 
 
 How many were there of us that day, who, without 
 wishing to grant an amnesty to the Empire, and even 
 being disposed to make an effort to punish it for its 
 faults when once peace should be made — how many of us 
 were of opinion that it would have been wise and patriotic 
 to permit it to continue the war or to make peace, and to 
 leave ourselves free to settle our accounts between ourselves, 
 after the stranger had departed from among us '. We were 
 not many, certainly, and we were carried away by the 
 stream of universal delirium. 
 
 It was extraordinary. People belonging to the most 
 diverse classes, those whose manners, occupations, and 
 interests would have betokened an absence of familiarity 
 with politics, became fanatics. The women, as usual, 
 made themselves remarkable by their enthusiastic, violent 
 and hysterical demonstrations. They kissed our horses. 
 They kissed our boots. We might have just performed the 
 most glorious deed of arms, we might have been the saviours 
 of the country, whereas we had only been for a short ride 
 and had exchanged three sentences with an old lawyer. 
 
 As I went in I glanced towards the Tuileries. A band 
 of about fifty men in blouses had succeeded, how I know 
 not, in effecting an entrance into the court-yard of the 
 Palace. Others were on their way to join them, some 
 getting over the railings, and others, at a run, breaking 
 throuerh the line of sentries, who dared not use their rifles. 
 
 Those who, like myself, witnessed the Revolution of 
 1848, and the days of riot which succeeded it, could easily 
 foresee that when this, as yet, harmless and simply
 
 60 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 inquisitive band should be increased by a few thousand 
 men and a few hundred furies, there would be an end of 
 the Tuileries. A regular, or, rather, an irregular, pillage 
 would commence, and the throne of Napoleon III would, as 
 happened to that of Louis Philippe, hasten to its destruc- 
 tion, and by the same road — the window. 
 
 What would become of the Empress amid all this 
 confusion ? Would she be able to fly ? Would she be 
 respected ? 
 
 At last we got back to Head-quarters, and I betook 
 myself at once to the Chief of the Staff to report the 
 state of affairs. Absorbed in his work, still seated before 
 his desk, sealing and sending off his despatches, General 
 Schmitz had absolutely no idea of what had taken place. 
 I told him all in a few words — the Chamber invaded, the 
 deposition accomplished, General Trochu's ride of no avail, 
 a Government in course of formation at the Hotel de Yille, 
 and the probable pillage of the Tuileries in the evening, it' 
 not at once ; I added that I thought it most important that 
 very energetic measures should be taken to prevent the 
 populace from disgracing and dishonouring the new Govern- 
 ment which would succeed the Empire by making it re- 
 sponsible for pillage and robbery, and possibly consequent 
 danger to personal safety. 
 
 The General heard all I had to say, nodding his head hy 
 way of approval, but with the hesitating manner of one 
 who docs not know where to put his hand on the man lie 
 wants. I then said that my uniform as a Mobile was 
 popular among the crowd, who looked upon the Mobiles 
 as the first insulters and the first declared enemies of the 
 Emperor; that my uniform would probably enable me 
 even to protect the Tuileries and the person of the Empress,
 
 77/ A' FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER 61 
 
 provisionally at all events, and until regular steps could be 
 taken for the safety of the unfortunate Sovereign. 
 
 I further added a rumour was current among the people 
 in the streets that she Mas either going, or had gone, and 
 that, should she wish to leave the palace openly and in the 
 daytime, I would offer her my services to escort her and 
 protect her carriage. 
 
 I imagined, I confess, that the Empress, who, by the way, 
 Mas not disliked, and whose misfortunes were already 
 enlisting the sympathies of the people, even in the intoxi- 
 cation of their easy victory, would be desirous of leaving in 
 state. And this idea of mine after all was not so romantic 
 or far-fetched, because by her aide there was a Princess, 
 her cousin, the daughter of a royal house, the Princess 
 Clothilde, who refused to lower herself by leaving the 
 capital of France in any manner less fitting than that in 
 which she had entered it. She took her departure in an 
 open landau and in state. When the people saw her 
 driving off in the midst of a revolution, as calm and im- 
 passive as if she were on her way to the Bois de Boulogne, 
 they said in their free and easy way, ' She is a good sort, 
 all the same ! ' And everybody saluted her; some, indeed, 
 laughed, but there was no rudeness in the laugh, which 
 sounded as if it were intended as a mark of familiar and 
 good-natured approval. 
 
 It was not to her birth, but to chance and the power of 
 her charms, that Eugenie de Montijo owed her position as 
 Sovereign of France. A marriage without alliances, the war 
 in Italy, the Mexican campaign, and the minister Ollivier, 
 were, before the war of 1870, the four great mistakes 
 of the reign of Napoleon III; and it must be confessed 
 that in these great mistakes the Empress played an almost 
 essential, an almost preponderating part. She benefitted by
 
 62 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 the first, and advised the other three. All the world knows 
 by this time that she assisted, at all events equally with 
 Marshal Lebceuf, to drag the fatal declaration of war in 
 LS70 from the hesitating Emperor — from the Emperor who 
 had no confidence, from the Emperor who knew better than 
 anybody else what a formidable enemy he had to meet, and 
 how many men and guns he could put in the field to oppose 
 the Prussian army. 
 
 If her influence had ceased at the threshold of the 
 Council Chamber, if she had been contented to be the 
 Empress of charity as she was the Empress of beauty, we 
 should, in all probability, still possess Alsace and Lorraine, 
 and there would be a dozen thousands of millions of francs 
 more in the French exchequer. In all probability, too, the 
 Prince Imperial would now be sitting on the throne, with a 
 daughter of the Queen of England by his side. 
 
 Without any prejudice, and without wishing to plunge 
 into polities, one may be allowed to maintain that, whether 
 from the point of view of wealth at home or alliances abroad, 
 that arrangement would have been worth more to our 
 country than the reign of Monsieur and Madame Grevy. 
 
 Apart from this, and as before all things one ought to be 
 just, I am convinced that during the lamentable days I am 
 describing, the Empress w r ould have known how to comport 
 herself as befitted her position. True to the example of 
 Marie Antoinette, whom during the last year of her reign she 
 chose as her model and her favourite heroine, she would 
 have remained bravely in the Tuileries, and in case of need 
 would have, I am sure, resolutely faced the rising. And 
 perhaps, pushing imitation to the level of heroism, after 
 having copied Marie Antoinette in her pleasures, she 
 would have imitated her in her courage, her pride, her
 
 THE FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER 63 
 
 disdain of suffering and death, and her sublime contempt 
 for her insulters. 
 
 Who knows, after all, but that this .Marie Antoinette, 
 face to face with the impressionable and changeable populace 
 of Paris, would have become a Marie Therese, for whom 
 men died enthusiastically? Well, they died bravely for 
 M. Cremieux, and he was infinitely less .seductive. 
 
 Providence did not reserve these sublime and difficult 
 parts for the Empress, but chose as the instrument of her 
 will two diplomatists, the Prince de Metternich and 
 Chevalier Nigra. M. Jules Favre, in the work he devoted 
 to the history of the Government of the National Defence, 
 states that when he took possession of the portfolio 
 of Foreign Affairs after the 4th of September, he 
 found no written trace of any alliances that France 
 might have made, and which might have been brought 
 to light and utilised at an opportune moment. M. 
 Jules Favre has no doubt told the truth. But I would 
 remark that, especially among monarchical governments, 
 there are negotiations of exceptional gravity, and bound, if 
 the)- are to be successful, to remain absolutely secret, which 
 never furnish materials for protocols, and are not deposited 
 in pigeon-holes or exposed to the indiscretion of anybody. 
 If the office of the high chancellor of the German Empire, 
 or even the Palace of Berlin itself, were invaded to-morrow 
 by successful rioters, it is very probable that they would 
 not find a trace of the words spoken or heard between the 
 three Emperors during their interview of a year ago. 
 And yet it would be childish to suppose that these 
 monarchs met for the sole purpose of shooting deer or 
 pheasants, or of reciprocating a change of costume. 
 
 I happen to have had opportunities of conversing with 
 people infinitely more initiated than I am with what may
 
 64 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 be called the inner life of contemporary politics ; with 
 people who can go behind the scenes of the great European 
 theatre of comedy and the drama, and be on easy terms with 
 the actors. None of them has as yet seriously contested the 
 point that Austria and Italy had entered into some en- 
 gagements, contingent perhaps, with the Emperor Napoleon 
 III. Many of them have stated that such was the case. 
 It is exceedingly probable, though not absolutely proved, 
 that Napoleon III had come to an understanding with 
 these two Powers. It was the vital interest of one to profit 
 by the Franco-German war in order to repossess herself of 
 the position, the German supremacy, of which her rival 
 had robbed her four years previously. The other was 
 bound by the memory of benefits conferred and sub- 
 sequently forgotten, but whose price she could not without 
 embarrassment have refused to pay to her creditor. 
 
 A victory on the Rhine, that is to say, a substantial 
 victory followed by the invasion of Germany, and not an 
 insignificant parade like Sarrebruck, would have perhaps 
 detached from Prussia the hesitating allies she dragged 
 behind her, whom her success attached firmly to her 
 standard and subsequently enslaved. Most assuredly 
 would such a victory have made the Austrian and Italian 
 trumpets sound the assembly. This possibility is perhaps 
 the only excuse for the declaration of war, the only possible 
 explanation of what now appears to us to have been an act 
 of purposeless mildness. Whatever ma}' have been the 
 mistakes made by Napoleon III, it is impossible to describe 
 him as an utter idiot ; that would, indeed, be hard upon the 
 Fiance lie governed for twenty years and which believed in 
 him all that time ; and hard, too, upon the Europe which 
 was influenced by him for fifteen years, and all that time
 
 THE FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER 65 
 
 acknowledged his supremacy. To describe liim so would 
 be unjust. 
 
 This consideration, even more than certain indiscretions 
 and statements in connection with the subject, permits the 
 belief that Austria and Italy were, at a given time, to 
 intervene in useful fashion, and that the given time was 
 the occasion of our first success. 
 
 Instead of success we had catastrophes, and such catas- 
 trophes that after Reichshoffen in some minds, after Sedan) 
 in the minds of every competent person, the game was in- 
 evitably lost. 
 
 Thenceforward the play of the two Powers I have 
 mentioned was very simple and clearly defined. Con- 
 fronted by victorious Prussia, marching onwards and 
 strengthened by her early victories, it was absolutely 
 prudent, if not absolutely honest, to leave France to her 
 unhappy fate. And as the words or letters had been 
 exchanged with the Emperor alone, the most fortunate 
 thing that could happen to these allies of an hour was the 
 disappearance of the Emperor and the fall of the Imperial 
 Government. The Emperor and his Government once got 
 rid of, nobody was in a position to insist upon the fulfil- 
 ment of promises the divulging of which — to say nothing of 
 the proof of them — would have placed the Governments of 
 Francis Joseph and Victor Emmanuel face to face with 
 Prussia in the position, if not of avowed enemies, at all 
 events of undignified rivals and disloyal adversaries. 
 
 With the Emperor a prisoner at Sedan, with the 
 Emperor refusing to treat with William as sovereign with 
 sovereign, and confining himself to the rdle of a defeated 
 and downcast soldier, it was only necessary, in order to 
 accompany the disappearance of the Imperial Government
 
 66 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 with that of the irksomeness of engagements lio-htlv under- 
 taken, to advise the Empress to fly. 
 
 That was the mission voluntarily undertaken by the 
 Ambassadors of Austria and Italy, and in their successful 
 accomplishment of it, it may be safely stated that they 
 rendered a signal service to their respective Governments. 
 
 During the halcyon days of the empire these diploma- 
 tists had played the lucrative and pleasant part of am- 
 bassadors, ever willing and respectfully ecstatic slaves of 
 the woman even more than of the sovereign. From the 
 very beginning of our misfortunes they never left the 
 Tuileries, where they hid their national anxieties under the 
 guise of an apparent anxiety about the fate of their idol. 
 The last act of this diplomatic comedy was not difficult of 
 performance. They persuaded the Empress that the mob 
 were about to invade the Tuileries, and that she would be 
 massacred. They made her afraid. They did not even 
 give her time, as we shall see, to provide herself with the 
 things necessary for a journey. They pushed her in a state 
 of terror along the suites of rooms in the Tuileries, and 
 along the galleries of the Louvre, below which rolled on- 
 ward the popular wave which bore Jules Favre on its crest 
 to the Hotel de Ville. They made her emerge by the 
 colonnade fronting Saint-German-l'Auxerrois, found &Jiacre 
 for her, and confided her to the tender mercies of a lar^e 
 city in insurrection. 
 
 I can quite imagine how they must have rubbed their 
 hands after it was all over. Napoleon a captive, Eugenie 
 a fugitive ; no longer any regular government, and conse- 
 quently no longer any obligations in regard to it. No 
 longer a creditor, and consequently no longer any debts. 
 It was an admirable manoeuvre admirably executed. 
 
 I have wandered far from the desk of General Schmitz,
 
 77/ A' FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER 67 
 
 on which I was Leaning, while he. sitting back in his arm- 
 chair, and playing with a pencil, listened to my little speech, 
 my projects and my requests. I begged of him to give me 
 a letter to the Empress, to whom I had never had the 
 honour of being presented, and to write to her to let her know 
 that she could dispose absolutely of me, and of my life, 
 should that be necessary in order to save hers ; and to tell 
 her that, at all hazards, our country must be saved the 
 shame and disorace of one of those great crimes which, 
 unhappily, the history of France has so often had to record. 
 
 The General took up a pen, wrote the letter, and gave it 
 to me with an injunction to watch the turn of events, and 
 to issue immediate and stringent orders for the repression 
 of any attempt at pillage. 
 
 This is the letter which, at a future period, during the 
 proceedings at Versailles, was mentioned by M. Rouher, 
 when General Trochu was accused, as if of a crime, of having 
 taken no other measures for the safety of the Empress than 
 the despatch of an insignificant Captain of Mobiles. Poor 
 Genera] Trochu ! From this book only can he know that 
 one of his Orderly Officers solicited and obtained the honour 
 of such a mission. No further attention was paid to the 
 insignificant captain of Mobiles, and the famous letter of 
 General Schmitz became a weapon in the hands of those 
 who wished to strike General Trochu. 
 
 Later on I shall prove, by means of irrefutable evidence, 
 what the responsibilities of General Trochu in regard to 
 the Empress actually were, and shall give an account of his 
 discharge of them, which was afterwards made the subject 
 of so much misrepresentation. I will content myself now 
 with saying, in passing — 1st, That the expressions of 
 General de Palikao at the sitting of the Chamber on the 
 4th of September, the day in question, prove that the
 
 68 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Minister himself was making the necessary military dis- 
 positions for the protection of the Government and the 
 Chamber; 2nd, That the Governor had on that day no 
 business to call him into the presence of the Empress, who 
 disliked him and did not conceal her dislike, and that he 
 was ignorant of her departure until the newspaper boys 
 shouted it out, together with the news of the deposition, in 
 the streets. 
 
 Ten minutes after I left General Schmitz, I was at 
 the Tuileries armed with my letter. I went in by tl it- 
 gate in the Rue de Rivoli without any attempt being made 
 to stop me, and without challenge of any kind either from 
 the bewildered sentries or the piteous-looking and discon- 
 certed gatekeepers. 
 
 In the court-yard I found the same citizens whom I 
 had noticed when I rode behind the General across the 
 Carrousel, still preserving their attitude of timid curiosity, 
 and still at some distance from the building itself. I took 
 no heed of them, but pushed on to the main entrance, the 
 Pavilion de l'Horloge. There, too, I noticed the same 
 carelessness and discouragement on the part of the door- 
 keepers and other attendants. Only on the first floor, 
 almost at the door of the private apartments of the 
 Empress, an usher, clad in black, with knee-breeches, a 
 sword at his side, and a silver chain round his neck, asked 
 me what I wanted. 
 
 I replied that I had a letter to deliver to Her Majesty, 
 and that it was imperative that it should be delivered at 
 once. 
 
 ' Her Majesty has gone away,' said the usher. 
 
 ' Gone away ! Where ? ' 
 
 He did not know. Some maid-servants, whose faces 
 were bathed in tears, came down the great staircase, on
 
 THE FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER 69 
 
 the landings of which people were hurrying to and fro, 
 some going up and some coming down. The terrified 
 household were hastening along the corridors, looking for 
 the keys to lock up the wardrobes. Doors were banged 
 violently. Complete disorder and universal panic reigned 
 throughout. 
 
 I spoke to one or two persons, who, however, did not 
 condescend to pay the slightest attention to me, but went 
 on their respective ways without replying to me. At 
 length I met a maid-servant who was good enough to 
 listen to me, just as I was beginning to be seriously 
 annoyed, and consented to take my letter to Madame 
 Aguado. She sent me word at once that the Empress 
 had gone away, that nobody knew where .she had gone, 
 but that she hoped, nevertheless, to contrive that in one 
 way or another my letter should be delivered that same 
 day, and that, should there be any answer, it should be 
 sent to me to the Head-quarters of the Governor. 
 
 I confess that I did not believe in her departure, but 
 imagined that m} r letter, if it had not already reached its 
 destination, was not far from it. I was wrong. The 
 Empress had really left. We know now that the unhappy 
 sovereign, laying aside all her pride, did Mr Evans, her 
 dentist, the honour of asking his assistance and protection. 
 In his carriage she managed to leave Paris and reach 
 Deauville, whence she crossed to England. 
 
 To pursue the matter further would have been both 
 out of place and useless. I went downstairs again and at 
 the bottom of the staircase came upon a group of two 
 men and three women, who were in a state of the greatest 
 distress. The women wept like so many Magdalenes, for, 
 to say nothing of their genuine sorrow on account of the 
 departure of their mistress, the uncertainty of their future
 
 7 o JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 and the inevitable 'What will become of us ?' sufficed to 
 set all the fountains of their grief in motion. 
 
 ' Then it is quite true ? ' I said to one of them. ' The 
 Empress has gone away ? ' 
 
 ' Alas ! yes, sir. Scarcely a quarter-of-an-hour ago, and 
 without even so much as a pocket handkerchief with her.' 
 
 And their sobs redoubled. It is a remarkable thing 
 that very frequently, in the midst of the most important 
 events, some trivial incident or other strikes you and 
 becomes, as it were, impressed so indelibly on your brain 
 that it never leaves you. Thus I recollect that at this 
 moment the doors opening on to the Carrousel, and those 
 leading to the private garden, were open, and there was a 
 tremendous draught in the hall. To get out of it, I stepped 
 into the private gardens, on the historical ground where 
 the unfortunate son of Marie Antoinette played at garden- 
 ing, where the son of the Duchesse de Berry played at 
 soldiers with his little companions, and where the little 
 Prince Imperial rode his velocipede. 
 
 Below me, at the entrance to the garden, the mob, which 
 had effected an entrance into the Great Park, after having 
 pulled down the four eagles surmounting the railing, was 
 massed. Mounted on a chair, General Mellinet, oovernor of 
 the palace, was haranguing them, and gesticulating vehe- 
 mently. M. de Lesseps by his side was parleying with 
 them. At the head of the invaders, who were orderly 
 enough, I noticed the well-known face of Sardou, who was 
 struggling like a demon. His strongly marked features, 
 like those of an emaciated Caesar, reminded me of Bono- 
 parte when he entered the Tuileries for the first time, and 
 said to Bourrienne, who was by his side, ' Now we are in 
 here we must take care that we never go out again.' The 
 Bourrienne of Sardou was a fine young fellow, pale and
 
 THE FOURTH OF SETT KM HER 71 
 
 with long black hair, who, as I afterwards discovered, was 
 M. Annan d Gouzien. 
 
 The mass, which undulated behind them as if on the 
 top of a wave, suddenly shouted ' Ah ! ' and this was fol- 
 lowed by ' Vive la RepubUque,' as every arm was out- 
 stretched as if to point to something in the air behind me. 
 I turned round. The tricolor standard, which floated above 
 the Pavilion de l'Horloge when the sovereign was in resi- 
 dence in the Palace of the Tuileries, was being hauled down. 
 
 ' Gone away without even a pocket handkerchief,' so 
 the weeping chamber-maid had said. That remark inspired 
 me with the idea of making the necessary arrangements to 
 send the Empress a supply of clothes and linen, the want 
 of which is positive suffering to a woman when travelling, 
 especially in the case of a woman who, like the Empress, 
 was not precisely accustomed to material worries. 
 
 I pictured her to myself as travelling like a pauper, 
 and though I quite recognised that the Head-quarter Staff" 
 of the Governor was not chosen expressly to pack up 
 petticoats, I made up my mind, if I could get the necessary 
 permission, to devote all my leisure moments to this salvage 
 operation. 
 
 A few soldiers, summoned from the guard-room, sufficed 
 to clear the court-yard, and as I was going away I gave 
 strict orders that nobody except those belonging to the 
 household of the Palace should be admitted into the court- 
 yard or buildings under any pretext whatsoever. 
 
 This not excessively energetic act was probably the last 
 carried out by the soldiers of the Garde Tmpe'riale, for 
 very shortly afterwards they were relieved by the Garde 
 Nat'tonale, who furnished the Tuileries guards throughout 
 the siege. 
 
 On my return to the Louvre, I had literally to elbow my
 
 72 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 way to the orderly officer's room. Without and within. 
 in every conceivable position, there was a dense, surging 
 and excited crowd, flowing in a compact stream back from 
 the Hotel de Ville, where M. Gambetta had just proclaimed 
 the Government of the National Defence, composed of MM. 
 E. Arego, Cremieux, Jules Favre, Ferry, Gambetta, Garnier- 
 Pages, Glais-Bizoin, Pelletan, Picard, Rochefort and Jules 
 Simon. These appointments had not been made in private. 
 The work was publicly done by the entire crowd, and each 
 one, in accordance with revolutionary tradition, shouted out 
 the names of his candidates. Great partiality was shown 
 for the deputies for Paris, and the Rochefort question came at 
 once to the front. Rochefort was a deputy, but Rochefort 
 was in Saint-Pelagie, and Rochefort was a somewhat fan- 
 tastic personage in the eyes of the lawyers. There was, 
 however, no way of getting out of his popularity, and 
 the general opinion, I fancy, was interpreted by M. Picard 
 when he said : ' We had better have him inside than out.' 
 So they took him inside. A mob released him from prison 
 and brought him forth in triumph. 
 
 There had never been any objection to General Trochu, 
 and, by common consent, he was appointed President of the 
 Government. It was this fresh state of affairs that caused 
 the general reflux to the Louvre. As always happens with 
 young Governments, the new power, and especially the man 
 who seemed to be the dominating influence in it and to per- 
 sonify it, immediately had plenty of courtiers and flatterers. 
 They crowded round him, were very energetic, and lost no 
 opportunity of being seen. I really believe that, like 
 Leporello, I might even have offered my protection, for 
 <werybody and everything that had access to the Governor 
 had the appearance of partaking of his newly-acquired 
 power.
 
 THE FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER 73 
 
 By the time we got back to the Louvre, and as I went, 
 as 1 have already said, to report myself to General Schmitz, 
 it was a quarter to four. General Trochu, who had only 
 just dismounted, had retired to his room, had taken off his 
 uniform and resumed civilian attire. Then I learnt for the 
 first time from a comrade the name of a person with long- 
 whiskers, whom I had noticed on the quay at the right 
 hand of Jules Favre, and, like him, appearing to be leading 
 the people to the Hotel de Ville. His name was Jules 
 Ferry. He seemed to be in a state of great excitement, 
 conversed most familiarly with all around him, and con- 
 tinued to do so while his colleagues were conferrino- with 
 the Governor. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, during my excursion to the Tuileries, 
 General Trochu left for the Hotel de Ville. The deputies 
 assembled there had requested his presence in their midst. 
 
 At the Hotel de Ville, he had scarcely set foot in the 
 office of the Prefect of the Seine, where the Members of the 
 Government were in conclave, before he was questioned by 
 the deputies of the Seine. The Emperor was a prisoner, 
 the Empress had fled ; could they count upon him to form 
 the Government which was so urgently needed '. 
 
 Trochu was not in the least a man after the fashion of 
 Tacitus. He could not be brief, and in these tragic circum- 
 stances he must needs make a speech on the spot. 
 
 'It is not,' he said, 'at a time when the country is in 
 danger, and when every conceivable misfortune seems to 
 be weighing upon France, that I can think of quitting my 
 post, and fly from danger, or shirk responsibility. The more 
 serious that responsibility is, the more earnestly do I believe 
 that it is my duty to accept it; but going hand in hand 
 with you, gentlemen, is quite another thing, and before 
 answering you I beg your permission to ask you one
 
 74 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 question. Do you intend to respect the three principles — 
 God, Family, and Property ? Do you undertake to do 
 nothing against them ? You agree to that ? Good. In 
 that case I am with you. 
 
 ' We ought only to have one idea — to repulse the 
 Prussians and maintain order at home. I must add, as 
 the sine qua non of my acceptance, that I must be the 
 President of the Government you are about to form.' 
 
 He continued speaking ; and Jules Favre, in his book, 
 has recorded his somewhat lengthy speech. 
 
 ' It is indispensable that I should accept this post. As 
 Minister of War or Governor of Paris, I should not be able 
 to bring the army with me ; and if we want to defend 
 Paris we must have the army within our grasp. I am no 
 politician — I am a soldier. I know the feeling of my 
 comrades. If they do not see me at your head, they will 
 hold aloof, and your task will be impossible. In this 
 resolve I am not actuated by ambition, but by the con- 
 viction that without it nothing can be even attempted. If 
 we have any chance of success it lies in the concentration 
 of power in our hand. As commander-in-chief of the army 
 my authority must be unlimited. I will in no way hamper 
 you in the exercise of civil power, but its action must be 
 co-ordinate with that of defence, which is our supreme 
 duty. No part of this double movement must be withheld 
 from me ; it is a question of responsibility and safety.' 
 
 1 am not inquisitive, but I would give much to have 
 seen the faces of these good apostles when the General 
 asked them whether, above all things, they would respect 
 God, Family, and Property. He must have appeared to 
 them wonderfully behind the age. Of course they promised 
 to respect them, they would have respected anything that 
 General Trochu wished — Trochu the soldier, the man of
 
 77/ A' FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER 75 
 
 order, duty and honour, who consented to enfold them, 
 so to speak, in his own respectability. 
 
 He might have made them recognise the Syllabus, the 
 
 Infallibility of the Pope, and the Immaculate Conception, 
 had he so chosen. They accepted everything, and .said 
 Amen to everything. 
 
 He was elected President with acclamation and without 
 the least reservation. 
 
 I should have liked, too, to have seen the astonishment 
 of these lawyers, when they found themselves face to face 
 with a General who could speak at as great length and 
 quite as well, if not better than themselves, who rounded 
 his periods as if he had been doing nothing else all his 
 life, and who could have pleaded before any bench, or 
 perorated from a tribune, in a manner considerably superior 
 to their own. 
 
 It must have been wonderfully amusing. 
 
 Moreover, this oratorical display was only the prelude 
 to an infinite number of similar sittings. 
 
 More than once it happened to one or other of us to have 
 to accompany the General to the door of the room where 
 the Government were deliberating, or to wait for him there. 
 Each time the door opened to let a member in or out, we 
 heard the voice of the Governor. The General spoke in- 
 cessantly and well. The others only listened. 
 
 They were motionless and apparently under the influence 
 of magnetism. He lulled them to sleep with their eyes 
 wide open. I cannot describe them better than by com- 
 paring them to those birds which, when they are made to 
 touch a chalk line with their beaks, remain in that position, 
 motionless and in ecstasy. 
 
 The Governor had good reason to say that without him 
 the task of the new Government was an impossibility.
 
 76 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 He it was who shut the provincial and, to a certain 
 extent, the foreign eye to the inherently illegal and revolu- 
 tionary character of the new power. 
 
 There can be no question but that the Imperial 
 Government had made mistakes, many mistakes, enormous 
 mistakes, unpardonable mistakes, if you will. It is no less 
 true that to leave the Chamber on the appearance of the 
 populace there, to put yourself at the head of the so-called 
 sovereign people, and then go and manufacture for yourself 
 a Government at the Hotel de Yille, is to do a factious 
 work. 
 
 And yet, face to face with the country suffering from 
 invasion, as he said, in presence of the frightful excesses 
 which might break out in Paris — the Commune is a proof 
 that one had a right to foresee them — the General thought 
 it his duty to associate himself with the Government 
 which had promised him to respect God, Famil}', and 
 Property. 
 
 Some have said that ambition led him to act as he did. 
 If he had been ambitious he would have remained at 
 Chalons, and with his popularity and power of oratory, the 
 force of events would have made him the first President of 
 the Republic. Who knows even if, more fortunate than 
 MacMahon, who was going neither to give way nor resign 
 but who did give way and did resign, he might have 
 succeeded in avoiding both at once ? I do not make a point 
 of this, because I am afraid of having the celebrated phrase 
 cast in my teeth, ' The Governor of Paris will not capitulate,' 
 and I should be defending a bad cause if I were to maintain 
 that handing the pen to somebody else, when the moment 
 for capitulation arrived, is one way of not capitulating. 
 
 It is, by the way, a great pity that our language lends itself 
 so thoroughly to theatrical phrases. It tempts us to say
 
 THE FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER 77 
 
 them, and they nearly always miscarry, to wit the mem- 
 orable, 'I will only return dead or victorious,' which was 
 sublime before the battle, and for which Ducrot might have 
 been pardoned, had not death and victory shown themselves 
 
 equally rebellious against his heroic efforts. 
 
 We have still one more saying, dating from the same 
 day, and also destined to be handed down to posterity. In 
 order to show that the new Government was not proceeding 
 by way of disturbances, but by the deliberations of the 
 representatives of the country freely consulted, the 
 placard posted up in Paris began with these words, 
 ' Frenchmen, the people have anticipated the Chamber.' Is 
 not that idea of anticipation, which in reality consisted of 
 pillage and dispersion, quite delicious ? 
 
 The people anticipated the Chamber, meaning (and I 
 hope I may be pardoned for the triviality of the expression) 
 that they sat on the Chamber, a somewhat familiar way of 
 anticipating people. 
 
 N.B. The representatives of the people, who had anti- 
 cipated the Chamber, adjudged to themselves, at the first 
 sitting, an indemnity calculated on the basis of 50,000 francs 
 per annum. Not exorbitant, but comfortable enough in 
 these early days for people to whom virtue was supposed to 
 be its own reward. The only one who thought proper to 
 decline this little civil list was Henri Rochefort. His 
 colleagues never succeeded in persuading him to recede from 
 his disinterested position, in itself a tacit reproach to them. 
 
 As I have already said, the members of the Government 
 only accepted him in self-defence, solely to support their 
 popularity by his before the crowd, who, to everything 
 they said, replied, ' And Rochefort?' A grotesque post as 
 grand master of barricades, or something of that sort, was 
 invented for him, and the people were content to know
 
 7S JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 that their idol would, when the proper moment should 
 arrive, have something to do with the barricades. How- 
 ever, Rochefort was not likely to trouble his colleagues 
 veiy long. 
 
 The most marvellous thino- was that Trochu and he 
 were on the best possible terms. The Vaudevilliste, accus- 
 tomed to parody everything, listened without a quiver to 
 the celebrated adjuration in the name of the three great 
 principles — God, Family, Property ; and, whatever became 
 of the Government, he invariably supported the Governor. 
 The law of contrast, the meeting of extremes ! 
 
 The only difficulty which arose on this first day of 
 peaceful installation was in connection with the Ministry 
 of Interior. Gambetta wanted it ; so did Picard. It was 
 put to the vote, and Gambetta carried it off by a majority 
 of two over Picard. 
 
 The first result of this appointment was the preponder- 
 ance of Gambetta, who set the whole country aflame with 
 the proclamations his duties allowed him to draw up, and 
 the next was his departure for Tours and Bordeaux. It is 
 possible, and I have frequently heard it contended, that if 
 Gambetta had had the portfolio of Finance or any other 
 portfolio than that of the Interior, he would have remained 
 in Paris, and it is just possible that Trochu would have been 
 sent to arouse the provinces. 
 
 And although it is an admitted fact that events make 
 men to a greater extent than men make events, we may 
 fairly ask what would have happened if Gambetta had 
 remained in Paris, and if Trochu had been sent in his stead 
 to the Departments ? What would not Gambetta have 
 done with that enthusiastic and feverishly heroic populace 
 whom his ardour and talent could sway at will ? On the 
 other hand, what would Trochu not have done if he had
 
 THE FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER 70 
 
 been at Tours? An indefatigable worker, passing the 
 night in his office without thereby affecting the work of 
 the morrow; a methodical organiser, acquainted with the 
 organisation of the French army as no one else was — 
 what an amount of intelligent effort could he not have 
 carried into effect ! 
 
 Gambetta believed beforehand in the success of what- 
 ever he undertook ; Trochu, and herein lay his great 
 weakness, did not believe in the possibility of the defence. 
 He thought that all was over after Chalons. He was 
 too clear-headed to have any doubt on that head. He had 
 no foregone belief in success, but he was sure of what would 
 happen. Gambetta ought to have been in Paris, and Trochu 
 in the provinces. In the one place the faith which works 
 miracles, in the other the wisdom to turn every effort to 
 good account. With Gambetta the diluvial sortie would 
 undoubtedly have been attempted. Trochu would never 
 have opposed the Prussians with any but armed, equipped, 
 disciplined, and tolerably trained troops. For my part, I 
 believe that Trochu was actuated by a sincere sense of duty. 
 and I decline to look upon him as under the influence of 
 ambition. The man who, elected by several departments 
 at the end of the siege, voluntarily left the Chamber after 
 having held it breathless and spell-bound under the power 
 of his oratory, by a veritable parliamentary feat of strength 
 during two consecutive sittings, that man was not ambitious. 
 
 When urgently solicited to take part in the labours 
 of the National Assembly, he simply replied, 
 
 ' If you have had hold of the handle of the frying-pan 
 and have it in your hand, you need look no further to 
 make an omelette.' 
 
 After having, fifteen years ago, retired to Belle Isle 
 first of all, and subsequently to Tours, he now lives a life
 
 8o JOUUXAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 apart, seeking to be forgotten by all. Although by no 
 means a rich man, he has adopted several orphan relations 
 and is educating them. To be a Cincinnatus he lacks, alas ! 
 but one thing — that he should have saved his country. 
 
 To sum up and have done with the political incidents of 
 this day, which a traveller arriving from the other hemis- 
 phere without having read the newspapers might have taken 
 for a fete day — a fete under a cloudless sky and a brilliant 
 sun, a fete with smiles and gaiety written on every coun- 
 tenance — it was the work of the entire Left of the Chamber, 
 with the exception of two personages whose standing did not 
 allow of their accepting inferior posts, and who, not being 
 deputies of Paris, were not compromised in this fool-hardy 
 Government, MM. Grevy and Thiers. 
 
 The former kept quiet, and in the back-ground ; the 
 latter kept himself neither the one nor in the other. Even 
 before night-fall he had seen General Trochu, he had seen 
 Jules Favre, he had seen all the world. Delighted, hi petto, 
 that his friends should have plunged him up to his neck in 
 an undertaking which, as he knew as well as the Governor, 
 could only have an inevitably fatal result, he had by the 
 evening of the 4th of September elaborated a plan, placing 
 him on the outskirts of the Government, in a position to 
 benefit by all their successes, to wash his hands of all their 
 reverses, and to profit alike by their ill and good fortune, by 
 their labours as well as by their mistakes. He proposed his 
 great tour across Europe, and successive visits to Sovereigns 
 and ministers. He wanted to set out, to save his country 
 if he could, but also to secure recognition in advance for 
 his future Government, and then to return speedily into 
 the midst of a young and enthusiastic Republic, with all the 
 prestige of a man who has spoken to kings, has dined at 
 their tables, and has treated with them.
 
 THE FOURTH OF SEPTEMBER 81 
 
 If the General represented in the Government the 
 respectability it lacked, M. Thiers represented in connec- 
 tion with the same Government those diplomatic and 
 ministerial traditions which it lacked even more than it 
 did respectability.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE JOURNEY OF THE EMPRESS 
 
 The Farewells. — In a Fiacre. — At the house of Dr Evans. — The perplexities of 
 an American. — In a Landau. — Through the Troops. — Washing. — At Deauville. 
 — Sir John Burgoyne and the 'Gazelle.' — At Sea. — The Storm. — On Terra 
 Firma. — The Empress at Hastings. 
 
 I must here insert a parenthesis in the midst of my 
 personal reminiscences — in a word, I am going to sing 
 the odyssey of the fugitive sovereign, and it will be based 
 on the evidence of the least known but most authentic 
 witnesses. 
 
 On the 4th September there were on duty at the 
 Tuileries, General de Montebello, Admiral Jurien de la 
 Graviere, the Marquis de la Grange, Mesdames de Renneval 
 and de Saulcy, the Comtesse Aguado, the Marechale Can- 
 robert, and Mesdames de la Poeze and de la Bedolliere. 
 
 Shortly before her departure, or about two o'clock, for 
 the exact hour of her departure was half-past two, the 
 Empress, leaving MM. Nigra and de Metternich in her
 
 THE JOURNEY OF THE EMPRESS 83 
 
 private room, wont into her ante-room, where were 
 assembled the persons I have just enumerated. She wore 
 a brown dress, with a pelerine by Worth, of black cloth 
 lined with violet silk and trimmed with tine <K>ld lace- 
 She had nothing on her head, and still held in her hand the 
 cambric handkerchief with which she had dried her eyes, 
 red with weeping, and had somewhat effaced, or smeared on 
 her cheeks, the little touches of black crayon with which 
 she was wont to line her eyes by way of making them 
 appear larger — Spanish fashion. 
 
 The ladies in waiting, visibly affected, were standing 
 up, and approached one after another to kiss the hand of 
 their sovereign, who said to them, ' In France one has no 
 right to be unhappy.' 
 
 After this kissing of hands and leave-taking, the Em- 
 press went back into her room, where she was anxiously 
 awaited by the two Ambassadors, who were in a state of 
 perpetual anxiety lest she should change her mind and 
 refuse to depart, as they had advised her to do. 
 
 The last fortnight spent by the poor woman in the 
 Tuileries had been neither more nor less than one long 
 torture, veritable moral agony. 
 
 There had not been a single hour of those terrible days 
 that had not brought a telegram announcing, or one con- 
 firming the news of a misfortune or disaster. Both mind 
 and body had been on the rack during all these days 
 devoted to tears, despair, and work, and followed by sleep- 
 less, restless nights. 
 
 She was only kept up by the aid of very strong coffee, 
 and all her sleep was obtained by the use of chloral. She 
 had, indeed, taken such a quantity of the drug that she 
 suffered from fits of drowsiness, during which, with her 
 large eyes wide open and fixed, she seemed to be oblivious
 
 84 JOURNAL OF J STAFF OFFICER 
 
 of all that was going on around her, and to be incapable of 
 understanding what was said to her. 
 
 The two Ambassadors, with their advice, their feigned 
 alarm, and their exaggerated pictures of the pretended ills 
 that threatened her, were not calculated to neutralize the 
 effect which coffee and chloral had produced on her over- 
 strained nerves. 
 
 They told her that the hour of flight and retreat had 
 arrived. The too conspicuous pelerine by Worth was ex- 
 changed for a more sombre cloak, and the Empress hastily 
 imprisoned her magnificent hair beneath a little black 
 capote belonging to Madame Virot, the strings of which 
 she feverishly tied under her chin. She took in her hand 
 one of those little bags in which ladies carry their purses, 
 handkerchiefs, and tablets, and taking the arm of Prince de 
 Metternich, she followed M. Nigra, who had given his arm 
 to Madame Lebreton, across the Louvre, this latter lady, 
 reader to the Empress, having refused to leave her Imperial 
 mistress. Madame Lebreton is, as may be remembered a 
 sister of that gallant and often victorious soldier, Bourbaki. 
 
 In this order they reached the colonnade of Louis XIV., 
 opposite the Church of Saint-Germain-1'Auxcrrois, and at 
 that spot, in front of the gilded gateway, the Empress and 
 Madame Lebreton got into & fiacre, M. de Metternich giving 
 the driver the laconic direction, ' Boulevard Haussmann.' 
 
 An urchin of fifteen, in blouse and cap, who was passing 
 at the time, called out: 'Isn't she pretty! — It is the 
 Empress ! ' 
 
 Happily for the fugitives, the exclamation was drowned 
 in the noise made by the wheels of the fiacre, which had 
 already started in the direction of the Rue de Rivoli. 
 
 Towards the middle of the Boulevard Haussmann, the 
 two ladies stopped the vehicle ; and while Madame Lebreton
 
 THE JOURNEY OF THE EMPRESS 85 
 
 was paying the driver, the Empress took refuge under a 
 carriage entrance. Another passing vehicle was hailed, and 
 the new driver was told to go to the house of Dr Evans, 
 Avenue Mai ak off. 
 
 This practitioner resided in a splendid and comfortable 
 mansion. Dr Evans was not merely a specialist who had 
 made an enormous fortune and a European reputation ; he 
 was also a good man. Later on, when the sufferings and 
 privations of the siege began, he instituted and maintained 
 at his own expense the American Ambulance. And his 
 fellow-countrymen, who had danced so indefatigably at the 
 court balls and in the Paris drawing-rooms, who had eaten 
 so much foie gras and imbibed so much champagne at our 
 festivities, and who had handed over to us so many ' misses ' 
 more or less rich — generally less — did not subscribe among 
 them a total of 500 francs for the support of this ambu- 
 lance, which was called American all the same. 
 
 Dr Evans bore the whole expense himself; and as he 
 had not only the wounded to look after, but very frequently 
 able-bodied men to support — his own minister, Mr Wash- 
 burne, to wit — when accounts were made up it was dis- 
 covered that, including his subscriptions in aid of the 
 prisoners of war in Germany, this generous American citi- 
 zen had made the French country a present of 1,200,000 
 francs. That, it must be confessed, was paying right royally 
 for the reception accorded him by Paris ; and he by him- 
 self atoned for all the meanness of his fellow-countrymen, 
 their demonstrations against us, and the real harm they did 
 us. 
 
 When she reached the doctor's house, and had been 
 shown into his drawing-room, the Empress said to him, in a 
 voice broken with sobs — 
 
 ' My dear Dr Evans, you alone can save me. Everybody
 
 86 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 lias abandoned me. I can no longer rely upon anybody. I 
 want to escape, to leave this ungrateful city, and I have 
 come to beg you to furnish me with the means to cross to 
 England.' 
 
 Dr Evans knew the Empress when she was only Mdlle. 
 de Montijo, and had rendered her several small services 
 before she reached her lofty position. He was con- 
 sequently allowed to go in and out of the Tuileries, and to 
 visit his Imperial patient, pretty much as he pleased ; and 
 in their intercourse there was not only confidence, but also 
 cordiality. He was quite as much agitated as his visitor ; 
 and he was completely overcome by the unexpected spectacle 
 of so much human grandeur thus laid low, and of a 
 sovereign betaking herself to him for aid and protection. 
 
 He, nevertheless, was fully alive to the responsibility he 
 was asked to assume. As a foreigner and merely a guest of 
 France, he recoiled from playing a political rdle for which 
 he might be called sharply to account, and there was no 
 disguising the fact that to facilitate the flight of an 
 Empress-Regent was decidedly a political act. But anxiety 
 in regard to his own personal interests simply crossed his 
 mind and did not remain there a moment. We are all 
 made alike. Placed opposite an unexpected danger, we all 
 of us, first of all, become unconsciously on the alert in 
 regard to our personal safety. We all have that feeling. 
 Ordinary men obey it ; strong men conquer it, and so did 
 Dr Evans, who speedily became possessed of one idea alone 
 —to devote himself to the Empress, and all the more 
 strenuously on account of the risks he might have to run. 
 
 Every impulse of a really chivalrous nature was 
 excited to a degree, when he recollected that he had not 
 only an old friend to protect, but a sovereign to defend ; a 
 woman crushed beneath the weight of misfortunes to
 
 THE JOURNEY OF THE EMPRESS 87 
 
 uphold, and a wife separated from her husband, as well as a 
 mother isolated from her son, to console and re-unite to 
 those belonging to her. 
 
 The Empress had remained standing as she addressed 
 her request to the doctor. 
 
 ' I beg your Majesty to be seated and to allow me a few 
 moments for reflection,' he said. ' The responsibility that 
 I am taking upon myself is considerable, and I want to 
 nerve myself to justify the confidence which your Majesty 
 has deigned to repose in me.' 
 
 He left the room, closing the door behind him. lest some 
 inquisitive and indiscreet being might intrude upon and 
 surprise the two fugitives. 
 
 ' Here am I,' said the doctor to himself, ' associated in 
 spite of myself with those by whom history is made. This 
 unhappy woman, thrown aside by everybody, resigned to 
 that wholesale desertion, being in consequence neither able 
 nor willing to appeal to those who only yesterday called 
 themselves her subjects, and having recourse to an American 
 citizen in order to escape from France, places me in a 
 singularly delicate situation. It is absolutely necessary 
 that everything I do should be done before witnesses, who 
 may in the future, should the necessity arise, bear witness 
 to my loyalty and good faith.' 
 
 He then sent for his countryman and intimate friend, 
 Dr Crane, told him what had happened, and begged him to 
 be in readiness to start with him on the following- morning. 
 
 The goal of the Empress' journey was England, and as 
 she absolutely refused to go by train for fear of being 
 recognised, and possibly insulted, it was too late to make 
 the necessary arrangements for leaving that day. 
 
 The doctor, therefore, mentally arranged his plan of 
 action, and returned to the Empress to inform her that she
 
 88 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 would have to remain under his roof for one night. The 
 poor woman, physically worn out and morally over-excited, 
 passed the night of the 4th of September in the bedroom of 
 Mrs Evans, who was then staying at Deauville. A bed was 
 improvised for Madame Lebreton at the foot of that of the 
 Empress. 
 
 On the morning of the 5th of September, the Empress, 
 who had slept and was consequently more herself, dressed 
 herself as on the previous evening, except that as the little 
 capote left her face quite exposed, she took a round hat 
 belonging to Mrs Evans, and tied round it a thick veil, 
 which rendered her recognition impossible. 
 
 The whole party took their places in the doctor's landau, 
 a comfortable carriage painted brown. On the box were 
 the coachman and the footman, in grey livery with black 
 collar, in utter ignorance as to who were with their master. 
 
 The Empress sat with her face to the horses, on the 
 right, with Madame Lebreton by her side, and the two 
 American doctors occupied the opposite seat. 
 
 Passing through one of the gates opening on to the 
 Avenue Malakoff, which was opened by the gardener, they 
 set of at full speed for Deauville. 
 
 The great difficulty was getting out of Paris. The 
 Maillot gate was obstructed by a barricade guarded by a 
 detachment of the Garde Rationale, and that obstacle w r ould 
 have to be passed without the Empress being recognised. 
 
 As I had to do four months afterwards when I took 
 Jules Favre to Versailles, Dr Evans leaned half way out of 
 the right hand window to ask the sentry the way, and 
 so the carriage passed the barriers slowly and without 
 molestation. 
 
 They were safe. 
 
 The Empress behaved as any other woman in her place
 
 THE JOURNEY OF THE EMPRESS 8q 
 
 would have behaved; instead of rejoicing .she began to 
 cry. 
 
 Saint Germain was reached. Then there was a halt for 
 a few moments on the high road, and on they went again 
 in spite of the Doctor's horses being thoroughly tired. 
 When they arrived at Mantes they could go no further, 
 and Dr Evans got out of the landau, leaving his travelling 
 companions in charge of his colleague, and succeeded in 
 procuring a berlin and two rather sorry horses. The 
 landau was left behind and the journey resumed. 
 
 The difficulty in procuring relays was, in fact, the only 
 serious risk encountered on the journey. 
 
 At a little village called La Commanderie, the village 
 steeds had had enough of it and came to a dead stop, 
 refusing to budge an inch even in answer to the whip. 
 Dr Evans went on another voyage of discovery, and found 
 under a shed a barouche which must have seen the Allies. 
 A peasant offered to go into the fields in search of horses, 
 and his offer having been accepted, two old screws were 
 eventually harnessed to the antique carriage. The owner 
 thought this equipage so exceedingly elegant that she 
 said to the doctor, 
 
 ' Such a handsome carriage as that is fit for a queen.' 
 
 The Empress shuddered and thought she was recognised, 
 but there was nothing to fear. Chanee alone had put this 
 passing event, as the saying goes, into the mouth of the 
 good old woman. 
 
 At Evreux the road lay right through the middle of 
 the garrison, who were drawn up in the principal square, 
 and surrounded by the entire population. The new 
 Prefect, just arrived from Paris, and surrounded by the 
 authorities and the Municipal Council, was in the act of 
 proclaiming the Republic and making a speech. Dr Evans
 
 go JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 put a bold face on the matter, went up to him, and requested 
 permission to pass on without waiting for the conclusion of 
 this patriotic ceremony. Permission was granted, and 
 thousands of eyes watched the progress of the old carriage, 
 wherein was concealed the wife of Caesar. 
 
 They left Paris at 5 a.m., and reached Deauville at 4 p.m. 
 During the journey the Empress remained sad, dejected, 
 and downcast. Every now and then, however, she became 
 drowsy and seemed to be asleep, but suddenly she would 
 start up as if some ridiculous idea had crossed her mind, 
 and would be lively and gay, talking much and laughing 
 more. But the access of gaiety invariably ended in a flood 
 of tears. 
 
 The poor woman had wept to such an extent that both 
 her small handkerchiefs, like the one she left on the table 
 at the Tuileries, were saturated with tears. She had also 
 been suffering from a cold in her head since the 15th of 
 August, so that the fine cambric was in a state more easily 
 imagined than described. The doctor offered to wash and 
 dry the handkerchiefs. The Empress refused at first, 
 but at length consented, and the doctor set to work 
 accordingly in a little ditch at the side of the road, hanging 
 the handkerchiefs out of the window afterwards in order to 
 dry them in the wind. 
 
 Throughout these two days the Empress had eaten 
 nothing. She had merely nibbled a biscuit and swallowed 
 a mouthful or two of coffee and of water. But her travelling 
 companions were hungry, and she reproached them several 
 times with spending their lives in eating. Deauville was 
 reached at four o'clock in the afternoon, and the party 
 alighted at the Hotel du Casino, where Mrs Evans was 
 staying, and that lady at once assisted her husband to
 
 77/ A' JOURNEY OF THE EMPRESS 91 
 
 hide the Empress from all eyes until a vessel could be 
 procured to convey her to the English coast. 
 
 While the doctor betook himself to the. harbour, Mrs 
 Evans was unremitting in her attentions to the Empress, 
 whom she resembled in a striking degree. They might 
 have been taken for twin sisters, our of whom, worn out 
 by grief and fatigue, was being tenderly ministered to by 
 the other. Mrs Evans packed up in a, small bag such 
 linen as the Empress might require, the latter repeating 
 over and over again as she dried her eyes. 
 
 'Pocket handkerchiefs before anything else." 
 
 The doctor found two yachts at anchor in the harbour, 
 one the ' Gazelle,' belonging to Sir John Burgoyne, and the 
 other, the larger of the two, to an American gentleman, 
 Doctor Evans paid a visit to the latter first. The vessel did 
 not seem to him particularly seaworthy, and before 
 comino- to terms with her owner, he went to Sir John 
 Burgoyne and asked him if he would put to sen that night. 
 He received a flat refusal from the noble Englishman, in 
 whose honour the doctor thought he might confide. The 
 safety of the Empress was at stake; the Empress, who 
 knew this gentleman, a personal friend of the Emperor. 
 
 Sir John Burgoyne persisted in his refusal. He was a 
 foreigner, and did not wish to be mixed up in political 
 questions. Besides, a storm was raging outside, the sea 
 was rough, and the wind getting up ; he would not consent 
 to so imprudent an undertaking. 
 
 'Then I must have recourse to the American yacht,' 
 said the doctor. 
 
 ' I would not advise y<>u to do so,' replied the English- 
 man, ' unless you are bent on going to the bottom. She is 
 not a vessel, she is a tub, and would not stand the sea.' 
 
 Dr Evans made a last effort, and at length, towards
 
 92 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 eleven o'clock at night, Sir John Burgoyne accepted the 
 perilous but glorious mission of conducting the Empress to 
 England. They were to put to sea on the Wednesday 
 morning, the 7th of September, at six o'clock, but in order 
 to avoid arousing suspicion, the passengers were to go on 
 1 >oard the same evening between twelve and half-past. 
 
 This programme was carried out. 
 
 The ' Gazelle ' was a sailing yacht, 45 feet long. The 
 sides of her solitary cabin, where were installed the 
 Empress, Madame Lebreton, the Doctor, and Sir John, 
 measured only two yards and a half. In this hole three 
 and twenty hours had to be spent in the midst of a regular 
 hurricane, for the wind had not gone down. She was 
 head to wind, that is to say standing out to sea, and could 
 only make headway by tacking, the huge waves meanwhile 
 rushing along her cockle-shell deck. 
 
 In the night the storm raged horribly, and Sir John 
 Burgoyne, in a terrified state of mind, suddenly left the 
 deck, and with haggard eyes full of tears went down into 
 the cabin. 
 
 ' We are lost,' he said. 
 
 And throwing the blame on the doctor, he added, 
 
 ' It is all } r our fault.' 
 
 And then he disappeared, going up on deck as quickly 
 as he had come down. 
 
 The passengers, astonished at this strange, unexpected, 
 and hurried departure, looked at each other. The Empress 
 could not help bursting out into a hearty laugh, so comical 
 had been the appearance of this dismayed gentleman. 
 What a strange nature is that of women! They tremble 
 before an imaginary danger, they face a real one with a 
 laugh. The Empress had nothing to fear in France, and 
 .she ran away. She was within an ace of shipwreck, and
 
 THE JOURNEY OF THE EMPRESS 93 
 
 she laughed. A soldier of the Garde Nationale aroused 
 her terror, the ocean in its wrath provoked her mirth. 
 
 At daybreak the wind and the sea fell, and the yacht 
 made the harbour of Ryde. The party landed at once, and 
 went to the Pier Hotel, the proprietor of which, at the 
 sight of two drenched, shabby-looking, dishevelled women, 
 accompanied by a man even more thoroughly drenched 
 than they were, shut his door. They took refuge in the 
 York Hotel, where they were received without any display 
 of eagerness. 
 
 After having rested awhile the Empress proceeded to 
 Hastings, and arrived in the afternoon at the Marine Hotel, 
 where she remained about a fortnight. The first two 
 persons from France to join her at this hotel were Miss 
 Shaw, the Prince Imperial's English nurse, and my faithful 
 Joseph, in charge of my first convoy of boxes. 
 
 There the Prince Imperial joined his mother. He threw 
 himself into her arms, sobbing bitterly, and after the first 
 embraces were over, the Empress, pointing out Dr Evans 
 to the Prince, said to him, 
 
 ' Embrace him, for he has saved me.' 
 
 Mrs Evans was also there with her husband, and gave 
 the exile continued proofs of the most thorough and most 
 disinterested devotion. 
 
 The doctor was also entrusted with the task of finding 
 a suitable residence for the Imperial family. He decided 
 upon Chislehurst, and hired Camden Place, which was 
 rented in his name during the first three years of their 
 tenancy. 
 
 The Empress did not take the trouble to thank Sir 
 John Burgoyne, and Lady Burgoyne had a year afterwards 
 to give personal expression to her astonishment at the 
 omission before it was rectified.
 
 94 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 As for Dr Evans, he had nothing to expect from the 
 Empress beyond a little frankness, and public testimony 
 when an attempt was made to travesty the facts I have 
 just narrated, and to represent him as having played a 
 ridiculous part. 
 
 The Empress did not appreciate the fact that she 
 lowered herself in appearing to regret and forget the 
 strange e i re u instances of her flight from Paris, and the 
 doctor has a right to be numbered among those people who, 
 without any feeling of astonishment, experience the tradi- 
 tional ingratitude of all who have sat upon a throne, even 
 though it may have been but for a moment.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 IN THE HOME OF THE EMPRESS 
 
 At the Prefecture of Police. — Secret Service Money. — The Chambermaid. — The 
 Louvre invaded by the Mobile*. — Rochefort Preserves Order. — Return to the 
 Camp of Saint-Maur. — In the Imperial Apartments. — The Toilettes of the 
 Empress. — The Travelling Bag. — The Poxes. — Two Telegraphic Despatches. - 
 The Faithful Joseph. — With Picard. — Good Advice. — Prince and Usher. - 
 Epilogue of the Salvage. 
 
 On the morning of the 4th of September, a commissionaire 
 brought me the following letter, 
 
 'Sir, 
 
 ' I do not know if this letter will ever reach 
 you. I have entrusted it to a person who, I hope, will 
 contrive that it shall do so. If there had been a reply it 
 would have been addressed to you to my care. Thank 
 God there are still some men of spirit, and you are one 
 of them. 
 
 ' VICOMTESSE AGUADO.'
 
 q6 journal of a staff officer 
 
 I asked good-natured M. Pollet, the Commissary of 
 Police attached to the residence of the Governor, to procure 
 for me the addresses of one or two of the chambermaids of 
 the Empress, and I postponed until the following day the 
 task of furnishing myself with the necessary permits to 
 carry out my projected despatch of effects. It would have 
 been useless, and perhaps imprudent, to have mixed the 
 Governor up in the matter, and I preferred betaking 
 myself to the Civil Power, that is to saj^, the Prefecture of 
 Police, a convenient spot whither, in Paris, you go when 
 you do not quite know where you ought to go, and where 
 as a rule you find precisely what you want. 
 
 On the 5th of September, my turn of duty in attendance 
 on the Governor was over at 6 a.m., and I proceeded at 
 once to the Prefecture. There I found everybody in a 
 state of bewilderment. The Sergents de Ville were evidently 
 ill at ease. These admirable soldiers, recruited with so 
 much care under the Empire from among the non-com- 
 missioned officers, a thoroughly devoted and faithful body 
 of men, had come to the conclusion among themselves that 
 the revolutionists were in power. And it appeared very 
 strange to them to have to serve those people who, on the 
 previous evening, had been looked upon as the enemies of 
 the Empire, the Government, society, and order. 
 
 Insulted and abused by the mob, always stupid and 
 sometimes criminal, who in times of revolution lay violent 
 hands on public monuments and the representatives of 
 order, these poor devils literally did not know which way 
 to turn. On the previous evening, either in the Place de la 
 Concorde, or in the neighbourhood of the Palais-Bourbon, 
 or around the Hotel de Ville, a goodly number of them had 
 had a narrow escape of being thrown into the Seine. They 
 had been insulted, struck, and their hats and swords had
 
 IN THE HOME OF THE EMPRESS qj 
 
 been taken from them. Their clothes had been paraded 
 as glorious trophies, and many of them, half-dead, their 
 1'ncrs streaming with blood, and their uniforms in shreds, 
 had only with great difficulty reached the Prefecture of 
 Police. It is so pleasant and so easy to satisfy a petty 
 personal spite, to avenge a writ or an arrest, while 
 appearing to take part in a patriotic demonstration ! 
 
 As happened on the previous evening at the Tuileries, 
 I reached the office of the Prefect without anybody 
 thinking of stopping me. 
 
 The Comte de Ke'ratry had just taken possession of the 
 Prefectoral Office. Standing behind a laro-e Louis XV 
 table, furnished with many drawers and littered with 
 papers, he was looking over what his predecessor had left. 
 
 All the officers of the force, and the superior class of 
 subordinates in black coats and white cravats, were drawn 
 up in a respectful and solemn semi-circle opposite to the 
 Prefect. An usher opened one drawer after another for 
 him so that he might analyse their contents. 
 
 ' What is this ? ' said M. de Ke'ratry. 
 
 ' The secret papers relating to the rioters of la ViUette.' 
 
 * And this ? ' 
 
 ' The belt belonging to your predecessor, sir.' 
 
 1 Very well. Put it on one side with eveiything be- 
 longing to him, and see that they are carefully returned to 
 him.' 
 
 One drawer resisted all the efforts of the usher, who 
 tugged at it with all his might. It gave way suddenly and 
 exposed to view piles of gold and silver. 
 
 ' And what is all this ? ' exclaimed M. de Ke'ratry. 
 
 One of the functionaries replied, with a low bow, 
 
 ' That is the secret service money.'
 
 9 8 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 ' Secret service money ! Take it away and count it. 
 There will be nothing secret under my administration.' 
 
 And the whole body, absolutely dazed, stared at the 
 Prefect in alarm. 
 
 The Comte de Keratry, to whose courtesy, tact, and 
 impartiality I can pay no homage too great, for I was in a 
 position to appreciate them during his very short sojourn 
 at the Prefecture of Police, learnt very quickly that if 
 bad faith is the soul of politics, money is the soul of the 
 police. 
 
 I fancy the money then taken away was speedily 
 restored to the secret service drawer, and that its total was 
 replenished more than once during the siege. 
 
 The inspection over, and everybody having left the room, 
 the Prefect made me sit down in the arm chair, while I 
 unfolded my request. 
 
 ' You are right/ said he, ' it would be disgraceful if the 
 woman who has been the worshipped Sovereign of France 
 for eighteen years, were to be obliged to buy a chemise that 
 she might change her linen. See Picard as to the expense. 
 You have my approval.' 
 
 Justified by this authority, purely moral by the way, I 
 went in search of M. Ernest Picard, who gave a most 
 cordial reception to the Orderly Officer of the Governor. 
 
 Short, stout, and with a good-tempered face, he seemed 
 neither embarrassed nor surprised by the extraordinary 
 chain of events which had just made a Finance Minister 
 of him. 
 
 Our interview was conducted in a jocular strain. 
 Amusing, but by no means trivial, he called me his dear 
 friend at the end of ten minutes. 
 
 ' Look here, my dear friend,' he said to me, ' in moments 
 like these everybody has to do what he thinks he ought to
 
 AV THE HOME OF THE EMPRESS 99 
 
 do. Our consciences have to judge us. Go. Act for 
 the best. We will put everything in due form later 
 on.' 
 
 Before breakfast M. Pollet sent me the address of one 
 of the chamber-maids of the Empress. I have forgotten 
 her name, and only remember that she lived in the Rue 
 des Bons-Enfants. I went to the house and found the 
 whole family in tears. It was a simple household of the 
 lower middle-class; but the chamber-maid had an elegance 
 of air and manner which contrasted strongly with her 
 surroundings. Women are gifted with the singular faculty 
 of raising themselves easily, and almost without any 
 appearance of transition, above the social condition in 
 which they were born, from the moment that they come 
 in contact with a superior class of society. And this young 
 woman, who possibly had on her back an Imperial dress, 
 resembled, in the midst of her family, a peacock strutting 
 about in the centre of a fowl yard. The place was Bona- 
 partist to the last degree, that was easily seen. The 
 mantelpiece was crowded with portraits of the Emperor, 
 the Empress, and the Prince Imperial at all ages and in 
 every costume. 
 
 I appointed to meet the young woman in the evening, 
 and I explained to her what I wanted to do. 
 
 A most extraordinary spectacle awaited me at the 
 Louvre. The Garde Mobile, encamped at Saint-Maur 
 under the command of General Berthaut, having become 
 acquainted on the evening of the 4th of September with 
 the fall of the Empire and the proclamation of the 
 Republic, evinced a disposition to leave their camp, their 
 huts, and their General en masse. 
 
 Once grant concessions to fellows of this sort, and 
 there is no stopping ; you must come to terms with them.
 
 ioo JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 If a show of sternness had been made at Chalons, if a score 
 of these brawlers and their ringleaders had been tried by 
 court-martial and, if necessary, shot, the Garde Mobile 
 would have been a far different corps. Intelligent and 
 easily led, it would have rendered invaluable services. 
 
 But how could anybody expect energy and vigour from 
 a Government which was falling to pieces, a Sovereign 
 who no longer believed in his star, Generals not only 
 defeated but ashamed of their defeats, and a world of 
 flatterers and easy-going people, who had surrounded the 
 Emperor for ever so long and were perpetually persuading 
 him that everything was for the best under the best of 
 Napoleons ! Besides, all of them felt they were weak and 
 had a presentiment of the fall that was inevitable. 
 
 The only concession which General Berthaut could 
 obtain was that the Garde Mobile should content itself 
 with electing delegates, who should go to Paris and find 
 out if the Republic had actually been proclaimed and what 
 was the complexion of the Government, and should then 
 return and give an account of their very unmilitary pro- 
 ceedings to their comrades. 
 
 The individuals thus entrusted with an irregular 
 mission were, however, joined by other Mobile* who 
 looked upon their own free will as superior to any orders. 
 The entire band in military uniform, increased by a large 
 number of citizens picked up at the barriers and in the 
 Faubourg Saint-Antoine, was several thousands strong by 
 the time it reached the Head-quarters of General Trochu. 
 The Rue de Rivoli was obstructed, the courtyard invaded, 
 and the flower borders trampled under foot. The General, 
 for whom there were vehement shouts, emerged from his 
 office just as he was, bareheaded and in a jacket. 
 
 From the top of a flight of steps, which divided the
 
 IN THE HOME OF THE EMPRESS 101 
 
 entrance to his apartments from the courtyard, he 
 harangued the crowd. 
 
 Without the slightest respect either for his person or 
 his office, the demonstrationists pushed and shoved each 
 other until both the outer and inner staircases were in- 
 vaded. And so compact was the crowd that the Governor 
 had only to make a gesture to touch the nearest of his 
 auditors. 
 
 On his right, three or four steps lower down, M. Garnier- 
 Pages, also bareheaded, with his long white hair parted in 
 the middle and falling over his shoulders like an angel's, 
 and his face enveloped, so to speak, in his gigantic and 
 historical collar, like a bouquet in a sheet of paper, had 
 come to the conclusion that, in virtue of his position as a 
 member of the Government, he too ought to make a speech. 
 Lastly, in the middle of the courtyard, Rochefort, with his 
 severe head so full of character, Rochefort, whose features 
 seemed to be carved out of wood, was surrounded, feted 
 and thronged upon after a fashion calculated to take away 
 his breath. 
 
 As a matter of fact nobody listened to the speakers, 
 and everybody was talking at the same time. There was 
 no reason why the scene of disorder should ever come to 
 an end. 
 
 As I was passing under the archway, my arm was 
 seized by M. Pollet, our Commissary of Police, who 
 said to me, 
 
 ' How are we going to get rid of these people ? ' 
 
 Being myself under the impression that the removal of 
 this enthusiastic, revolutionary, and utterly useless demon- 
 stration to some other place would be rendering a real 
 service to the Governor,' I was endeavouring to make my 
 way to him.
 
 102 JOURXAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Carried rather than pushed along, I reached M. Garnier- 
 Pages. He was talking about 1848, Louis Philippe and 
 Lamartine. A little more elbowing brought me at length 
 to General Trochu, who was still speaking. In order not 
 to put him out, I placed myself behind him, and interrupt- 
 ing him very unceremoniously, said to him in a low tone, 
 
 ' I am one of your Orderly Officers, sir. Do you wish 
 me to get this crowd away ? ' 
 
 He stopped short, thinking probably that what I was 
 saying was worth more than what he had to say. 
 
 ' Certainly,' he replied. ' But how ? ' 
 
 ' You will see, sir.' 
 
 And I plunged once more into the midst of the crowd 
 working my way towards the centre, where I succeeded in 
 reaching Henri Rochefort. 
 
 ' This demonstration/ I said to him, ' is absolutely 
 purposeless. It is even injurious from a moral point of 
 view, as for the most part it is composed of soldiers 
 belonging to every branch of the service. Will you help 
 me to disperse it and make the soldiers return to their 
 duty ? ' 
 
 ' I should like nothing better,' he replied. 
 
 On this, as on every other occasion when I was brought 
 in contact with him, I can say nothing too strong in 
 praise of the kindness, generosity of spirit, and disinterested- 
 ness of the famous pamphleteer. 
 
 Rochefort took my arm, I summoned four drummers 
 with their instruments, who formed part of the group 
 round him, and ordered them to beat a inarch. And 
 placing at our head a shabby tricolor, which Mas about to 
 be prostituted by a band of vicious-looking blackguards, 
 we inarched towards the gate. Two persons followed us, 
 then four, then ten, and then the whole crowd went away
 
 /.V THE HOME OF THE EMPRESS 103 
 
 as they had come, without knowing why. O sheep of 
 Panurge ! 
 
 ' Where are we going?' asked Roehefort. 
 
 'I am going to escort you to the Hotel de Ville, and 
 after having asked you to do me one service I wish you to 
 do me another. It will consist of saying a few words to 
 the crowd in order to induce them to follow me. By this 
 means I hope to get all the Mobiles back to the camp at 
 Saint-Maur, for their presence in Paris, over-excited as 
 they are, might bring about serious disturbances.' 
 
 This programme was carried out to the letter, and after 
 a few words spoken by him amid a silence which astonished 
 me, and which his prestige alone, immense at that time, 
 could produce, Roehefort disappeared into the Hotel de 
 Ville, leaving me with the Mobiles. 
 
 A lieutenant, M. d'Orgeval, to whom was given the 
 command of the delegates from the camp at Saint-Maur, 
 rendered me a real service. One man cannot do much, but 
 two, when united, multiply their material and moral force 
 four-fold. 
 
 We organised our troop in military fashion ; the sight- 
 seers deserted us ; the standard-bearer and the dozen men 
 with him disappeared into a wine shop, and we were very 
 soon left with a few hundred resigned and respectful Mobiles. 
 They followed us without an unpleasant word to the camp 
 at Saint-Maur, a tolerably long march, by the way. 
 
 At the Barriere du Trone, as every good action deserves 
 its reward, I thought I would give them a proof of my 
 satisfaction at seeing them so obedient and soldier-like. I 
 gave the word of command, Halt! opposite a caf4. Two 
 casks of wine were rolled out and broached without delay. 
 Our men, in two files, went one after the other and buried 
 their noses in the ruddy French liquid. They were pleased
 
 io 4 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 both with their refreshment and themselves, and the wine 
 could do no harm. It was cold, and they had walked, 
 talked and sung admirably. 
 
 An hour later, at the camp of Saint-Maur, I had the 
 honour to report to General Berthaut the nature of the 
 duty I had taken upon myself, and to restore to his 
 command my little troop, who were drawn up in battle 
 array close by, under the command of M. d'Orgeval. 
 
 I returned to Paris by rail and found the Governor 
 awaiting me. He had given orders that he was to be 
 informed of my return and that I was to be shown in to 
 him at once. He laughed when he saw me, and thanked 
 me for the promptitude with which I had rid him of the 
 brawlers. For the first time off duty he spoke to me as man 
 to man, and not as a- General to his Orderly Officer. He was 
 good enough to question me as to my past life and my 
 family, and begged me to take the rest which he thought I 
 needed. The ice was broken between us, and from that 
 day the General showed me both confidence and kindness, 
 which I always strove to deserve. 
 
 I wanted rest, truly. And the Empress' petticoats ! I 
 avow and confess — and all the Messieurs Prudhomme may 
 preach morality to me if they will — it seemed to me that 
 after having been with that dishevelled and brawling crowd, 
 it would be pleasant to penetrate into a woman's dressing 
 room, still impregnated and imbued with the presence of a 
 pretty Empress. The smell of perspiration and wine made 
 me long for the soft and delicate emanations of the iris. 
 One cannot always be five-and-twenty ! 
 
 True to her appointment, and with all the air of a 
 well-to-do little bourgeoise, I found the Empress' chamber- 
 maid in the Rue de Rivoli. I was accompanied by 
 faithful Joseph, who was completely transformed and
 
 IN THE HOME OF THE EMPRESS 105 
 
 from the son of Albion that h« i really was, had become 
 the orderly of a French officer, but still smarting from 
 his misadventure in the camp at Chalons. I was furnished 
 with a special passport and provided with every imaginable 
 signature. I had, therefore, in order to gain admission into 
 the private apartments, merely to follow the chamber-maid. 
 
 I should be exaggerating were I to say that disorder 
 was at its height in the room. On all sides there were 
 evidences of incomplete preparations for a hurried depar- 
 ture. Everything was in the state in which the Empress 
 had left it at the moment of her flight, and it was difficult 
 at the outset to throw off the depression one feels at the 
 sight of a spot which has so recently been so full of life, 
 and where that life has been abruptly broken off by an 
 overwhelming disaster. 
 
 The large room used as a drawing-room and office by 
 the Regent, her boudoir and her oratory, her bedroom and 
 her dressing-room, formed a series of rooms overlooking 
 and opening on to the gardens of the Tuileries. 
 
 The entire suite was furnished with all the refinement 
 of modern luxury, and the luxury seemed out of place. It 
 appeared to be quite out of harmony with the somewhat 
 severe grandeur of the architecture. It was the drawing- 
 room of Madame de Metternich transported to the Tuileries, 
 but I am nevertheless quite certain that if the Ambassadress 
 had inhabited the palace, her drawing-room would have 
 been furnished in an entirely different style from the one 
 before me. 
 
 We were still far removed from the moral and material 
 sufferings brought upon us by the siege which was then 
 about to commence, and which had for one of its results the 
 imparting of a certain temporary tinge of austerity to the 
 light, variable, and impassionable Parisian mind. But this
 
 io6 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 luxury without style or character, this majestic mass of 
 ornament, did not accord with the respect one ought to 
 have, or with the ideas one naturally does have of royal 
 grandeur. In a word, there was too much of the boudoir 
 and too little of the palace. 
 
 I have never seen the private apartments of the Queen 
 of England, or those of the Empress of Russia, but I would 
 bet that they differ in a marked degree from those arranged 
 by the Empress Eugenie at the Tuileries. 
 
 In the great drawing-room where the Regent worked 
 and held receptions, there stood on the left a large Louis 
 XV writing table, the bronzes of which had never been 
 chased by Gouthiere. On the right were large glass cases 
 containing various objects and family relics, quite a royal 
 museum on a small scale. 
 
 I noticed, but I did not linger over it, the hat pierced 
 by three bullets which the Emperor wore on the day of the 
 Orsini attempt, a hat with a broader brim than is worn 
 now-a-days, and looking quite out of date. By its side 
 were two Orsini bombs, a species of small shell, fourteen 
 centimetres long, ornamented in every sense of the word 
 with gun-nipples ready capped, and not unlike little hedge- 
 hogs. When they arc thrown, no matter on which side 
 they fall, five or six percussion caps must be struck. One 
 of them was intact. The other, burst into irregular pieces, 
 was intended to have effected its murderous purpose. 
 
 There were also rich and curious snuff boxes ; a very 
 rare daguerrotype of the Empress as a young girl: a charm- 
 ing miniature of Queen Hortense, &c, &c. 
 
 On easels in the drawing-room were the portraits of the 
 Emperor by Flandrin, and of the Princess Christine 
 Bonaparte, n4e the Princess Ruspoli, an adorably beautiful 
 woman. Besides these, there were bronzes, clocks, candel-
 
 IN THE HOME OE THE EMPRESS 107 
 
 abra, rich curtains, puffs, cushions, low chairs, more puffs, 
 jardinieres filled with green plants, a profusion of em- 
 broidery, hanging ornaments, in short, the smart and 
 over-elaborate luxury of the nineteenth century. 
 
 On the Empress-Regent's table was a large, open 
 black morocco travelling bag which the unfortunate woman 
 had not had time to take with her, and a small pocket 
 handkerchief trimmed with lace, crumpled and still moist 
 with tears. It was marked with an E surmounted by the 
 imperial crown. In the bag were two linen chemises very 
 simply made and without any embroidery. The only thing 
 which distinguished them from those of any ordinary 
 female, was the circumstance of their being marked in the 
 middle of the breast with an E surmounted, as usual, by 
 the imperial crown ; two pairs of Scotch thread stockings, 
 four handkerchiefs, a pair of shoes, two collars and two 
 paiis of cuffs. One of the collars, turned down, had in it a 
 horse-shoe in burnished silver, to be used as a brooch. 
 Lastly, a very small Scotch plaid, one of those tartan 
 shawls which are to be seen in any shop devoted to English 
 goods. 
 
 All these things must have been hastily put together 
 when flight was decided upon. In all probability the idea 
 that a travelling bag might arouse the attention of passers- 
 by, caused her to leave it behind at the last moment. 
 
 By the side of the bag was a bundle of telegrams. I 
 was inquisitive enough to glance over them, and my 
 attention was attracted by two of the number. The first, 
 signed by Marshal Lebceuf, was addressed to the Regent 
 and ran as follows : — 
 
 ' The Intendance Department is doing very badly. The 
 men are without shoes. Lebceuf.'
 
 io8 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 The second, important in a very different way, was a 
 copy of a telegram sent to the Emperor, a copy destined to 
 be transcribed into a large register lying open on the left 
 hand side of the table, where were entered all telegrams 
 received and despatched. It will serve to explain the 
 conduct of the Emperor, of the Empress, and also of 
 General Trochu during the last days of the Empire. Here 
 it is: 
 
 ' To the Emperor, 
 
 ' Do not think of returning here 
 unless you wish to induce a fearful revolution. This is the 
 advice of Rouher and Chevreau, whom I have seen this 
 morning. People here would say that you were fleeing 
 from danger. 
 
 ' Do not forget that the departure of Prince Napoleon 
 from the army in the Crimea has affected his whole life. 
 
 ' Eugenie.' 
 
 I shall soon have occasion to revert to this telegram, 
 and to comment on it, but I wish first of all to finish my 
 work in the apartments of the Empress, even though, in 
 doing so, I shall have to anticipate the course of events by 
 a few days. 
 
 In the bedroom was a large modern bed, its head to the 
 wall and its foot in the direction of the garden. On the 
 rig! it of the bed was a chest of drawers of exquisite shape 
 and finish, the top drawer, which was open, being filled 
 witli about fifty sunshades of every shape and colour, some 
 rich and some simple, one piled on the top of the other. 
 The first to attract attention was of mauve silk, covered 
 with black lace, and with a tortoiseshell handle in the 
 shape of a hind's foot shod in gold. Another was of white
 
 LY THE HOME OE THE EMPRESS 109 
 
 silk trimmed with beautiful Valenciennes. On the ivory 
 handle were minute bees, and it was in the shape of 
 an Imperial crown, carved in openwork. A third was 
 made of white lace with a solid gold handle, ornamented 
 with turquoises. Lastlj*, there were a number of chefs 
 d'ceuvre, signed Gravel, Verdier, &c. 
 
 All the furniture in the room was covered with beauti- 
 ful fabrics. 
 
 To the left of the door leading to the Emperor's rooms 
 were three looking-glasses, such as one sees at a fashionable 
 tailor's, framed in copper, and so placed as to allow of even- 
 part and position of the figure being seen. 
 
 At the side of the looking-glasses was a lift. 
 I had an expert guide to help me in my inspection, and 
 I drew her out. Her explanation of the use of the lift was 
 as follows. 
 
 Above the rooms of the Empress, and consequently on 
 the second floor, was another corresponding suite. These, 
 occupied by the waiting women, were furnished from top 
 to bottom with laro-e black oak wardrobes standing against 
 the walls. In these wardrobes were put away all sorts of 
 dresses, mantles, petticoats, supplies of linen, lace, materials 
 in pieces, and a considerable stock of Chinese silks. There 
 was a hat room, a boot room, and a fur room — in short, the 
 well-stocked arsenal of a pretty woman and a Sovereign, 
 who knew that beauty is a force to be reckoned upon, and 
 that, as our forefathers sang, ' art embellishes beauty.' 
 
 In the room on the second floor communicating with the 
 lift, that is to say, above the bedroom, were four upright 
 lay figures of the exact height and size of her Majesty. 
 
 When the lady of the bedchamber had, through a 
 speaking tube, transmitted the necessary orders for the 
 Empress' toilette, the maids took the toilette in question
 
 no JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 out of the wardrobes, dressed one of the lay figures in it, 
 and sent it down to the room below, where the Empress 
 could inspect it and say, * This is how I shall be dressed by 
 and by.' And the lay figure returned to the second floor in 
 its original nakedness. 
 
 I had to begin on the second floor, as I wanted boxes, 
 and, besides, the furniture could wait. They were in the 
 attics, so my companion told me. Joseph and I accordingly 
 went on a tour of inspection aloft, and brought back fifteen 
 largo boxes. 
 
 We then, both of us, set to work on the most fantastic 
 packing that can well be imagined. The chamber-maid 
 emptied the wardrobes, and we bundled into the boxes, just 
 as they were, the whole of the feminine belongings, which 
 certainly had never previously been treated so un- 
 ceremoniously and so rudely. Our fifteen boxes were 
 crammed, and yet the wardrobes seemed as full as ever. 
 We had another hunt in the attics, but in vain. I shall 
 never forget that excursion under the roof of that immense 
 palace. We did not know our way about in the least, and 
 yet we were lords of all we surveyed, as by the flickering- 
 light of our candles we peered into what appeared to us to 
 be unlimited and immeasurable space ; catching a glimpse 
 every now and then of a bit of star-lit sky or a ray of 
 moonlight as we passed a window ; speaking in whispers in 
 spite of ourselves, and hearing amid the surrounding 
 silence the sustained murmur of the populace without, a 
 mighty buzzing, accentuated from time to time by the 
 shouts of ' Vive la RepubUque ' shrieked by the street boys, 
 or snatches of the M 'a wi liaise wafted by the wind from 
 the squares and quays. 
 
 We left the conclusion of our first batch until the 
 following day, and went in search of rest, assuredly well
 
 IN THE HOME OF THE EMPRESS m 
 
 deserved. When I say we went, I am doing Joseph an 
 injustice, for he had to run about all night in search of a 
 furniture van, which he would have to drive himself, and 
 of other boxes, if any were to be had. He succeeded. A 
 rumour was current that the Empress was in England. As 
 a matter of fact she had made up her mind to go there, and 
 had spoken about it to several of her friends, who had 
 naturally repeated it everywhere. My orderly therefore 
 took his departure for England, with orders to deliver his 
 packages to the Empress direct. 
 
 Like every other railway station in Paris, that of the 
 Nord at this time presented an extraordinary appearance. 
 The fall of the Empire, the Revolution, peaceable as it had 
 been, the departure of the Empress, the dread of the suffer- 
 ings of the siege then on the eve of beginning, a dread, in 
 fact, of the unknown, inspired so many people with the idea 
 of running away with all they held precious, that every 
 railway station was blocked to an extent beyond the 
 power of any imagination to conceive. Trunks, bags, 
 portmanteaus, boxes, were heaped up from one end of the 
 station to the other in a mass at least two stories high. 
 People who did not want to lose sight of their luggage were 
 coming and going, protesting, imploring, weeping, or 
 despairing. Others, happily careless, went their way, 
 leaving to their servants the task of registering their 
 luggage ; they themselves quite comfortable, while their 
 servants, by dint of fighting, disputing, and a hand to hand 
 set-to with the luggage porters, managed to send everything 
 safely away af ter a campaign and bivouack of four or five 
 days' duration. As for those who went away and left the 
 railway authorities to look after their effects, they received 
 them two or three months after the end of the siege. 
 
 In such circumstances an official position is something
 
 ii2 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 to boast of. The officer of the Governor had merely to 
 show himself at the station, and his furniture van was 
 taken direct to the platform, wheeled alongside a truck and 
 unloaded in a few moments, without anybody suspecting 
 whence came its contents or whither they were going. 
 
 I had given Joseph, the commander of the convoy, a few 
 lines for the Empress, expressive of my desire to be of use 
 to her, begging her to dispose of me, and to accept the 
 homage of a Frenchman, to whom she was not only a 
 Sovereign, but a woman in distress. 
 
 On the following day, man, luggage and letter all 
 reached their destination, and on the day after that, I in 
 my turn received the following note which Joseph had 
 been careful enough to sew inside the lining of his British 
 coat. Through an excess of precaution the letter was not 
 signed, but it was in the 1 handwriting of the Empress. 
 
 'Marine Hotel, Hastings. 
 ' I thank you for the letter I have just received. It 
 touches me profoundly. 1 am compelled to be brief here, 
 but my heart does not feel the less. Believe, sir, that I 
 shall be glad one day to tell you so myself.' 
 
 In order not to prolong this account of my proceedings 
 in connection with the personal effects of the Imperial 
 family, and in order also not to have to return to the 
 subject, I must say that as my duty in attendance on the 
 Government rendered my presence, by night as well as by 
 day, more and more necessary at the Louvre, I had received 
 an order to take up my quarters in the Palace itself. For 
 some time I occupied the suite of the Duchess Stephanie 
 Tascher de la Pagerie, grand mistress of the Palace, in the 
 first block of buildings on the right as you enter from the
 
 IN THE HOME OF THE EMPRESS 113 
 
 Rue do Rivoli. When that suite and the rooms surround- 
 ing it were converted into an ambulance depdt, I took 
 refuge opposite at the Grand Almonry in the Rue de Rivoli. 
 
 My presence at the Palace enabled me to accede to the 
 requests of the servants of the Imperial family who came, 
 one after the other, in search of their personal property. 
 Although I was not formally appointed to watch over the 
 material interests of the Imperial family at the Tuileries, 
 nothing left the palace without my order. 
 
 On the 13th of September I received the following 
 letter : 
 
 ' Sir, 
 
 ' I beg you to endeavour without delay to find in the 
 room of the Comtesse de Pierrefonds, a little frame con- 
 taining a Virgin and an Infant Jesus. They are on a piece 
 of furniture near the bed. There is also an old ivory- 
 coloured sunshade, with the letters E. G. on the handle. 
 Also a prayer-book with an elastic band round it. These 
 are souvenirs highly prized by the Comtesse de Pierrefonds. 
 I think the sunshade will be found in a corner of the room 
 on a small piece of furniture. 
 
 ' Allow me to thank you, sir, with all my heart. 
 
 ' A. Lebreton. 
 
 ' Will you kindly send the things to the Prince de 
 Metternich.' 
 
 At the same time I received a letter emanating from 
 the Prefecture of Police, together with the official authority 
 of the Minister of Finances, ordering me to take possession 
 of all the Imperial furs, which were in the hands of Valen- 
 ciennes, furrier to the Crown, No. 21 Rue Vivienne. 
 
 H
 
 ii 4 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 This is the letter. 
 
 ' Office of the Prefect of Police. 
 ' Sib, 
 
 ' I have the honour to inform you that you are 
 authorised to forward the furs belonging to the Empress 
 according to the enclosed list, and to provide for their 
 being safely delivered. 
 
 ' I am, Sir, &c, &c. 
 
 ' The Prefect of Police, 
 
 ' COMTE DE K£RATRY. 
 
 ' To M. d'Herisson, 
 
 ' c/o General Trochu, Governor of Paris.' 
 
 I think that a literal transcript of the list in question 
 may be interesting ; my feminine readers, if I have any, will 
 be able to see what furs they require to be well dressed. 
 
 'Sir, 
 
 The furs belonging to the Empress were handed to 
 me on the 22nd of April, 1870, as detailed herewith : 
 
 One Swansdown cloak, lined with Silver Fox. 
 
 One black velvet mantle, trimmed with Marten Sable. 
 
 One black velvet circular cloak, lined and trimmed 
 
 with Chinchilla. 
 One velvet pelise, lined with Weasel, with Sable collar. 
 One Otter skin cloak. 
 
 One blue Cashmere opera cloak, lined with Swansdown. 
 One black Cashmere opera cloak, lined with Swansdown. 
 One hunting waistcoat, lined with Chinchilla. 
 One black silk boddice, lined with Chinchilla. 
 One grey silk boddice, lined with Chinchilla. 
 One Marabout muff.
 
 IN THE HOME OE THE EMPRESS ri5 
 
 One Sable muff. 
 
 One Silver Fox muff. 
 
 One Ermine muff. 
 
 One Chinchilla muff. 
 
 One Otter muff. 
 
 One Otter's head muff. 
 
 One Marten Sable boa. 
 
 One collar of Sable tails. 
 
 One collar of Marten Sable heads. 
 
 One pair of Chinchilla cuffs. 
 
 One pair of Silver Fox cuffs. 
 
 One green velvet wrap, lined with Canadian fur. 
 
 One carpet of Thibet Goat skin. 
 
 One white Sheepskin carpet. 
 
 One set of Otter trimming. 
 
 Two caracos of Spanish Lamb skin. 
 
 8J yards of Chinchilla trimming. 
 
 27 yards of Sable tail trimming. 
 
 One front and a piece of Black Fox. 
 
 Four strips, a wrist band, two pockets, two sleeve* 
 
 and one trimming of Black Fox. 
 Two Swansdown skins, in pieces. 
 Fourteen Silver Fox skins. 
 Six half skins of Silver Fox. 
 Twenty Silver Fox tails. 
 One Otter collar. 
 Three tails of Canadian fur. 
 Two Marabout collars. 
 Some odd pieces of Chinchilla. 
 Four large carpets of black Bear skin. 
 Two small carpets of black Bear skin. 
 One brown Bear, with head. 
 One stuffed Bear.
 
 u6 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 One white Fox rug. 
 
 One caraco, one petticoat, and one waistcoat of chestnut 
 
 coloured plush, trimmed with Otter. 
 19f yards of Otter trimming. 
 Two Pheasants' skins 
 Three white Sheepskin stools. 
 One Sable dress trimming. 
 Three Sable skins. 
 Two squares of Chinchilla. 
 One Weasel tippet and two cutis to match. 
 Two pieces Swansdown. 
 Two Pheasants' wings. 
 One stuffed Fox. 
 One pair of Otter gloves. 
 3| yards of Skunk trimming. 
 Two court mantles bordered with Ermine. 
 
 Paris, September 13, 1870. 
 
 ' Valenciennes.' 
 
 Authorised by the Minister of Finances. 
 
 E UN EST PlCARD. 
 
 Authorised by the Prefect of Police. 
 
 Keratry. 
 
 There were furs to the value of 000,000 francs ! 
 
 I also received a little note with the crest of a swan 
 with outstretched wings and a prince's crown. It ran as 
 follows : 
 
 ' Dear Friend, 
 
 ' The Empress would like to have the 
 portrait of the Emperor, by Flandrin, which is at the 
 Tuileries, and a glove box which will he found in a 
 wardrobe in the room of Madame Pollet, her treasurer, at
 
 IN THE HOME OF THE EM El! ESS i 1 7 
 
 Saint-Cloud. This box has on it the Empress' monogram. 
 
 If you could send these things it would be very kind of 
 you. It is doubtful whether a train will leave to-morrow, 
 but if possible will you send your faithful servant to- 
 morrow morning to see the man who will start from here. 
 
 ' Yours sincerely, 
 
 ' Metternich.' 
 
 I could not comply with the Prince's request in regard 
 to the box. It contained some private papers belonging to 
 the Empress, which were considered of sufficient interest, 
 by those who found them, to be sent direct to the Prefect 
 of Police. 
 
 I saw them in his office a few days after the investment. 
 
 Under any circumstances my intervention would have 
 been of no avail. M. de Keratry thought himself bound in 
 honour to have this box and its contents given into the 
 hands of the Empress herself. He did this after the con- 
 clusion of the siege. 
 
 I am not at all ashamed to confess that I took great 
 interest in my new profession of furniture remover, and 
 that the role of packer by conviction, was not in the least 
 displeasing to me. I was under the impression that I had 
 entirely cleared out the second floor, when I found myself 
 confronted by a closed door, which I caused to be opened. 
 Before me was the furniture of the room in which the 
 Duchess of Alba died. As the Empress regarded every 
 single thing as a holy relic of her sister, I enlarged my 
 industry, if I may so express myself, in enlarging the 
 extent of my convoys. 
 
 The successive convoys continued thus up to the 
 investment. From the day when we were blockaded, 
 there would have been no reason to be in a hurry if
 
 i .8 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 the efforts of the police had not warned us of a rising, 
 and of the pillage by armed bands with which the Com- 
 mune favoured us later on. As a matter of fact I redoubled 
 my activity in order to finish my work and put all the 
 valuables in a place of safety. 
 
 A number of people had visited the Imperial apartments 
 since the 4th of September, and the Commission for the 
 examination of papers had made a strict search which 
 lasted several days. It was well known that the room 
 contained important valuables — not merely in an artistic, 
 but a material sense — and I was not at all easy in my 
 mind. 
 
 I applied more and more frequently to the Minister of 
 Finance, the gay and witty Picard, whose good spirits were 
 not in the least affected by the serious events taking place 
 around him, and who kept me waiting for the necessary 
 permits. 
 
 Each time my duty took me to him, I went into his 
 office and was invariably received with a broad grin. 
 
 'Very well, very well. The Tuileries again, I suppose?' 
 
 One day when he had made me laugh inordinately, he 
 said, 
 
 ' Why the deuce do you take all this trouble ? Do you 
 think they will ever return ? We have to get rid of two 
 fenerations of Republicans at least before that. And again, 
 if they did return, my friend, you must be very ignorant of 
 the world if you imagine that they will bear you any good 
 will for having helped them to move out of the Tuileries. 
 Think for a moment; you are sending them their belongings, 
 and your doing so is a proof that in your opinion they will 
 not come back again directly, and that they will be away 
 for a considerable time. Such a supposition is disrespectful 
 and they will not forgive you for having entertained it.
 
 IN THE HOME OF THE EM I'll ESS 119 
 
 If they do not come back, well — their gratitude will be 
 precisely the same.' 
 
 In vain I posed as a courtly knight, as a philanthropist, 
 in vain I told him how I thought it only just to look after 
 the interests of a prisoner and a fugitive — the good-tempered 
 sceptic merely shrugged his shoulders in a friendly sort of 
 way and said nothing. 
 
 One day, however, when I went to the Ministry of 
 Finance with special passports which the Governor had 
 handed to me for distribution, I said laughingly to M. 
 Picard, 
 
 ' I shall only give you these in exchange for the permits 
 for which I am being kept waiting.' 
 
 ' Very good ; give me mine and I will speak to the 
 Prefect of Police this evening.' 
 
 The promise was kept, and at length I obtained the 
 following papers : 
 
 ' Office of the Prefect of Police. 
 
 ' I have the honour to forward you the enclosed 
 letter. I am glad to be of further assistance to you, and I 
 beg you to accept my very kind regards. 
 
 ' Jay. 
 
 ' M. d'Herisson, Aide-de-Camp to General Trochu.' 
 
 ' Paris, October 1st, 1870. 
 ' To ML Vavin, Liquidator of the Civil List. 
 •Sir, 
 
 ' I have the honour to request you to be good 
 enough to cause all effects of the Imperial family which 
 may still remain in the Tuileries to be packed up under 
 your superintendence, and at the expense of whom they
 
 i20 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICE 11 
 
 concern, and to deliver them to M. d'Herisson, who is 
 authorised to receive them. 
 
 ' I have the honour, etc., etc., 
 
 ' The Prefect of Police, 
 
 ' COMTE DE KERATRY.' 
 
 It is characteristic of human nature — and, as Beau- 
 marchais says, one must make haste to laugh if one does 
 not want to cry over it — that the Imperial family, 
 who had spent millions around them, before whom all 
 France had just been bowing the knee, and who had 
 been cheered to the echo in the form of a 'plebiscite 
 scarcely five months old, did not find a single person to 
 advance the expenses of packing and transport. The 
 modest purse of an insignificant captain had to provide for 
 them. 
 
 When everything was ready I made an urgent appeal 
 to the Liquidator of the Civil List, M. Vavin, that some 
 steps should be taken to secure the preservation of the 
 precious things still in the Tuileries. I most assuredly 
 never imagined that the day would come when the only 
 remains of this superb palace would be charred and burnt 
 stones, and yet I was not without misgivings. Can any 
 one tell what may happen ? I said to myself. It was, 
 consequently, a great relief to my mind to receive the 
 following letter from a Captain of the Staff of the Garde 
 Rationale, second in command in the Palace. 
 
 ' Palace of the Tuileries, November 12, 1870. 
 'My dear Comrade, 
 
 ' I have received an order from M. Vavin to 
 allow the removal of the boxes in question. Will you, 
 therefore, take them away at any time convenient to
 
 IN THE HOME OF THE EMPRESS 121 
 
 yourself, but kindly give me a little notice, so that 1 may 
 be present. 
 
 ' Yours, etc., 
 
 1 Persin.' 
 
 I wrote at once to the Comte d'Uxkul, in temporary 
 charge of the Austrian Embassy, to ask him to find room 
 for the first boxes, and I received the following immediate 
 reply. 
 
 ' November 15th, 1870. 
 'Sir, 
 
 ' You expressed a desire to deposit at this Embassy, 
 twenty-three boxes containing the personal effects of Her 
 Majesty the Empress. I have the honour to acknowledge 
 the receipt of these boxes, which will remain closed and in 
 security until you are pleased to remove them for the 
 purpose of their being forwarded to their proper destination. 
 
 ' I have the honour, &c, &c, 
 ' Comte Alfred d'Uxkul.' 
 
 And now I have reached the epilogue of the salvage of 
 three or four millions of valuables, and must recount the 
 utter confusion of the insignificant Captain and the crush- 
 ing revenge of the gay Picard. 
 
 After the war was over, I still remembered my boxes, 
 and I sent Joseph to the Austrian Embassy to find them 
 and convey them to the Empress. 
 
 The dear Prince de Metternich, who had addressed me 
 in September as his dear friend, as large as life, took the 
 trouble to have the following epistle sent to rne.
 
 122 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 ' June 20th, 1871. 
 'Sir, 
 
 ' His Highness the Prince de Metternich, after having 
 perused the order given by you to your valet for the boxes 
 deposited at the Austrian Embassy, directs me to say that, 
 having received fresh instructions enjoining him to keep 
 the said boxes until further orders, his Highness is not in a 
 position to give them up. 
 
 ' I have the honour, &c, &c, 
 ' Ledru, Huissier.' 
 
 This salutary notice sent by the usher of the Austrian 
 Embassy spared Joseph another voyage, and me further 
 anxieties. 
 
 But that is not all. 
 
 I expected, not a reimbursement of the expenses ad- 
 vanced out of my modest pay, but an acknowledgment, 
 some souvenir of the Emperor or Empress. I waited ten 
 years for this acknowledgment or souvenir. Then, after 
 having expressed my astonishment, I sent in a memo- 
 randum of my disbursements. They were repaid. We 
 are quits. 
 
 Moral — Do not grow sentimental over a half -packed 
 travelling-bag, and always listen to the good advice of a 
 Minister of Finance.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE EMPRESS AND THE GOVERNOR 
 
 A Despatch. — Trochu in Command — His Popularity. — Royal Ingratitude. — The 
 Emperor's Promises. — Trochu in Paris. — Hostility of the Empress. — Breton, 
 Catholic and Soldier. — M. Rouher. — The Emperor Removed from Paris. 
 
 The despatch sent from Paris by the Empress to the 
 Emperor, which, in my opinion, explains the respective 
 conduct of the two sovereigns on the one hand, and of 
 General Trochu on the other, has already appeared in these 
 pages ; but before commenting on it, I will ask permission 
 to copy it a second time. 
 
 ' To the Emperor. 
 
 ' Do not think of returning here unless you wish to 
 induce a fearful revolution. This is the advice of Rouher 
 and Chevreau, whom I have seen this morning. People 
 here would say that you were running away from danger.
 
 124 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Do not forget that the departure of Prince Napoleon 
 from the army in the Crimea has affected his whole life. 
 
 ' Eugenie.' 
 
 When the Emperor — a phantom of a sovereign tossed 
 about between his armies, a fatalist who no longer believed 
 in his star, not daring to assume the command, roughly 
 used by Bazaine, ill, and carrying in his bladder a calculus 
 as big as a pigeon's egg, with the result that riding was 
 fearful torture — when the Emperor arrived at the camp at 
 Chalons on the evening of the 16th of August, General 
 Trochu, as Commander-in-Chief of the 12th Corps, be- 
 longed to the Army of the Rhine. His independence, his 
 consciousness of his own worth, his brilliant roll of service, 
 the almost prophetic foresight which had influenced him to 
 write a recent book on the army — a book full of truths and 
 opinions confirmed by events as they succeeded each other — 
 and his rather austere manner — that of a hard worker — so 
 little in accord with the habits of the Court Generals, had 
 roused jealousy, rivalry, and enmit}^ among the sycophants 
 and courtiers who surrounded the Emperor. 
 
 The effect of this state of things was, on the one hand, 
 to keep the General away from the Tuileries ; and on the 
 other, to gain for him the respect and esteem of all im- 
 partial men. In addition to this, the Opposition of all 
 shades took pleasure in achieving popularity for a General 
 so out of favour. And this popularity increased rapidly at 
 the very time when the Empire was disappearing under 
 the burden of its mistakes. Patriots relied on him as on 
 a great general. The enemies of the Empire relied on him 
 as one relies on the adversaries of those whom one detests. 
 
 The Emperor Napoleon III might have been a very 
 brave man, the best man perhaps in his Empire, a most
 
 77/ A' EMPRESS AND THE GOVERNOR 125 
 
 steadfast and faithful friend; but he was none the less a 
 sovereign, and as such he was compelled by his very posi- 
 tion to bring forward those about him. The idea of turning 
 the popularity of the General to his own personal profit, and 
 of conquering this adversary, came quite naturally to him. 
 Things always do happen sp. Louis XII said that it would 
 be unworthy a King of France to remember the insults 
 of the Due d'Orleans. An admirable sentiment! a royal 
 sentiment ! but a sentiment which, like all other things 
 here below, has its reverse side; and the reverse of forget- 
 fulness of insult is forgetfulness of services rendered. 
 Louis XII should have added, ' It is impossible for the 
 King of France to remember services rendered to the Due 
 d'Orleans.' A pretender asks for devotion — a king forgets 
 it. It is the human order, or, rather, disorder of things. 
 A statesman who had been in the service of the Empire 
 said to me naively one day, ' Always be in opposition. 
 The more you are feared the more desirous will they be of 
 buying you, and in spite of yourself, and against your will, 
 you will be laden with honours and dignities.' 
 
 Cassar, who was not quite a fool, was made Emperor 
 by his creditors. Did he pay them ? That is another 
 matter. 
 
 Well, Napoleon III was worth more than the average 
 of monarchs. He was borne aloft to power by a few 
 friends, and he had the rare merit of not foro-ettincf them. 
 The highest praise that can be bestowed on a prince is to 
 say that he was not ungrateful. That was no reason, more- 
 over, why he should not have sought for support among 
 the Opposition; why he should neglect the popularity of 
 General Trochu, bound up with the Opposition as he was ; 
 or why he should not have dreamt of returning to his good 
 city of Paris on the General's shoulders.
 
 i26 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 ' Go, my clear General,' he said to him ; ' you alone can 
 contrive my return, and your popularity is the key by 
 which the door of the Tuileries will be opened for me. 
 Speak to the Empress. Concert with her. I have the 
 greatest confidence in you.' 
 
 Kept at a distance from the Court during its splendour, 
 the General had a right to refuse to be seduced by this 
 romantic mission, or to be flattered at seeing himself sum- 
 moned and caressed only when it was a question of up- 
 holding the monument which was crumbling to pieces on 
 all sides. Moreover, he had only to look round him to find 
 a striking example of national ingratitude. He had only 
 to let his eyes rest on General de Palikao. 
 
 General de Palikao, after having conducted the most 
 fantastic military adventure of modern times in a most 
 wonderful manner, after an unexpected success, the im- 
 portance and the difficulty of which can now be estimated 
 by the light of events which are passing to-day in those 
 fabulous countries, after having added a glorious page to 
 our military annals, saw himself on his return, insulted, 
 overwhelmed with jealousy, vilified, and basely calumniated 
 by the impotents of the Tuileries. The Chamber, the 
 servile servant of him who ruled it, refused the grant 
 half-heartedly asked for by the Minister; and the Emperor, 
 the accomplice, for the first time perhaps, of the universal 
 cowardice, dared not give a baton to his victorious General. 
 It was not until the cowardice to which he yielded had 
 opened the way to the fall of the Empire that anybody 
 thought of General de Montauban, of inflicting on him the 
 portfolio of Minister of War, and of repairing the wrongs 
 they had done him. The reparation was tardy and the 
 devotion of no avail. 
 
 General Trochu, therefore, knew what he had to expect,
 
 THE EMPRESS AND THE GOVERNOR 127 
 
 and could estimate in advance the amount of gratitude his 
 services were worth to him ; for a real sacrifice was asked 
 of him. 
 
 To give up his command, his fine little army, to go and 
 shut himself up in Paris with the Emperor, the Mobile*, 
 and the Garde Nationale, was a military operation which 
 had no temptation for him. The appeal was made not 
 only to his feelings as a soldier and a patriot, but also as a 
 Christian. He was told he had a dynasty to watch over, 
 a woman and a child to protect. 
 
 After much hesitation — and any man, were he a hero or 
 a martyr, would have hesitated in his place — the General 
 consented. 
 
 ' Sire,' he said simply, ' I have your promise. It is 
 agreed that I go to prepare the way for your return, and 
 that I should not leave the army for any less important 
 motive.' 
 
 ' Yes,' replied the Emperor, ' you have my promise. In 
 a little while I shall rejoin you. I only impose this sacri- 
 fice on you because it seems to me absolutely necessary.' 
 
 During this interview the Mobile* were defiling before 
 the Imperial Head-quarters, giving utterance to the filthy 
 insults I have already recorded. 
 
 As he left the Emperor, the General conceived the idea 
 of taking the Garde Mobile back to Paris. It was the first 
 act of his new part, It was the beginning of the execution 
 of the plan agreed upon which was to lead to the return of 
 Napoleon III to the Tuileries. It was a question of gaining 
 for the Emperor the gratitude of thousands of families 
 whose children would be restored to them. 
 
 What has not been said about the conduct of General 
 Trochu, and the secret reasons which induced him to bring 
 all these Parisians back to their homes ! All that was
 
 128 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 said was just as fair and just as loyal as was the conduct of 
 the country towards the glorious soldier of Taku, Chang- 
 Kia-Wang, and Palikao. 
 
 Such was the conduct of General Trochu at Chalons : 
 let us see what he did in Paris. 
 
 He found the Empress hostile rather than distrustful. 
 She affected before him a freedom of mind and a security 
 which were very far from her heart. A Governor of Paris, 
 paving the way for the return of the Emperor, a return 
 which she neither approved nor desired, and General Trochu 
 that Governor ! 
 
 I will not insinuate for a moment that the Empress had 
 thought of playing Jeanne d'Arc and of saving France 
 herself, though perhaps it would have been pleasant to 
 have restored a crown to him who had given her one. 
 
 And Trochu appeared on the scene to dispel this generous 
 dream ! 
 
 In vain did he protest his fidelity and devotion — it was 
 made evident to him that not a word was believed. 
 
 'I am a Breton, a catholic, and a soldier!' — and they 
 laughed. 
 
 Ah ! bitter indeed must have been the cup which was 
 held to his lips in that last fortnight of August, and at the 
 bottom of it he found only disappointment, regret, and 
 disgust. 
 
 When the Emperor received the famous telegram almost 
 ordering him not to return, he must have been surprised, 
 if indeed anything could then have surprised that great 
 sceptic. But he resolved to pay no attention to it. He 
 had promised General Trochu. He wanted to return all 
 the same. And possibly the idea of a campaign with 
 General Trochu was not altogether displeasing ; for the 
 Emperor, though subject to the influence of an entourage
 
 THE EMPRESS A. YD THE COVERNOR 129 
 
 who execrated the General, both liked and appreciated the 
 Commander of the 12th Corps. One day, speaking of him 
 to some friends at the Tuileries, he said Laughingly, 
 
 ' However that may be, Trochu is still the strongest of 
 you all.' 
 
 Then it was that a man of immense talent, of a no less 
 sense of honour, whose life was a model of that disin- 
 terestedness immortalised by antiquity, w T as sent to the 
 Emperor to beg him not to return to Paris. I mean 
 M. Rouher. 
 
 He had for the Emperor the same warm, personal, 
 familiar affection, that General Fleury had, and he loved 
 his country well enough to give his life for her, a life 
 discounted in advance and worn out by the late hours, 
 the struggles and labours of Parliament. 
 
 The selection of M. Rouher was all the more happy because 
 he never would have taken such a step in connection with the 
 Emperor if he had not personally been convinced, outside 
 all the influences and the ambition of the Empress-Regent, 
 that the presence of Napoleon III in Paris might bring 
 about a catastrophe. It was not by chance that the 
 Empress confided so delicate a mission to him. There is 
 no advocate so good as he who is convinced of the ex- 
 cellence of his case. 
 
 The Emperor, shaken possibly to a certain extent by 
 the telegram from the Empress, thought himself bound to 
 yield to the persistence of his faithful servant. And thus 
 was the promise given to General Trochu kept. 
 
 It is right, however, to say that at the last moment a 
 despatch from Bazaine, summoning MacMahon to his aid, 
 did away with all hesitation. 
 
 The Empress was informed at once that the Emperor 
 had given way to reasons of State, and to her wishes ex-
 
 i 3 o JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 pressed so categorically — I would say brutally if I were 
 not speaking of a woman. Her attitude towards General 
 Troehu immediately became more definite. From having 
 been hostile she became offensive. Previously, she had shown 
 no confidence in him ; now, every kind of refinement was 
 called into play to give him evidence of an insulting 
 distrust. So far was this carried that when he presented 
 himself at the Tuileries, in the salon of the Empress, all 
 conversation came- to a dead stop as if by order. He might 
 have been a spy breaking in upon a secret meeting of con- 
 spirators. All the faithful looked at each other in profound 
 silence, and the unfortunate man, completely out of coun- 
 tenance, lost no time in beating a retreat, that is to say, 
 retiring in good order, as he so often had to say when 
 speaking of his troops during the siege. More than once, in 
 fact, the Empress gave him to understand in so many words 
 that his presence was tolerated because there was no help 
 for it, but that it was in no way agreeable. 
 
 It would therefore be unjust to stigmatise as a crime 
 the fact that General Troehu was chary of visiting the 
 Tuileries, and that he left to the Minister of War the office, 
 which the latter afterwards acknowledged, of providing for 
 the safety of the Regent. If the Empress had been on 
 terms with the General other than those she had established 
 of her own free will, would not her first impulse have been 
 to call him to her side and place herself under his pro- 
 tection? And God alone knows what would have happened 
 if she had had the courage to take the step which she either 
 dared not or would not take.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PARIS BLOCKADED 
 
 Return of Vinoy. — The Demonstrations. — Between Orderly Officers. — Merchants 
 and Artists. — The Volunteers of '02. — A Review. — An Old Soldier and a 
 Young Horse. — A Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour. — The Capitol and 
 the Tarpeian Rock. — The Investment of Chatillon. — Ferrieres. — Villejuif and 
 l'Hay. — The Thrushes and the Little Foot Soldier. — Military Honour. 
 
 I have already said more than once, and I repeat it, that 
 I have no pretention to write the history of the siege of 
 Paris, but that I limit myself to the narration of my own 
 reminiscences. 
 
 I therefore pass over in silence the return of General 
 Vinoy at the head of the little army he so successfully 
 saved out of the clutches of the Prussians. The Corps 
 d'Armde, commanded by Vinoy, was on the point of joining 
 MacMahon at the very moment when the Prussians 
 completed the manceuvre which resulted in the unfortunate 
 Marshal being surrounded and enclosed in a circle of steel 
 and fire. Vinoy arrived at the very instant when, from the 
 Mezieres side, the German regiments closed together like
 
 1 32 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 the formidable teeth of some monstrous animal. He had 
 sent out a regiment of Hussars in advance along his extreme 
 front, and the enemy took an officer and a few men, called 
 the point of the vanguard, prisoners. The rest of the 
 regiment fell back on the main body, and the Goi^ps 
 (I'Armee returned to Paris. It was at that time the only 
 regularly organised military force. 
 
 Neither will I allude to the fiery proclamations of M. 
 Gambetta, nor the delirious demonstrations in the streets, 
 nor the thunders of the newspapers. Everybody spoke in 
 epic poetry, and they vied with one another in lyrical 
 language. Unhappily, big words glibly took the place of 
 lofty sentiments, and an inflated style stood substitute for 
 energetic thought. In those feverish days we thought 
 everything good, and we got drunk on phrases. Our brain 
 was like the palace of certain drunkards, through which 
 pure alcohol runs with no other effect than to produce a 
 genial warmth. How, in the midst of a crowd vibrating 
 like a torpedo, w T as it possible to avoid an electric shock in 
 head or heart ? 
 
 It often happened, nevertheless, that when we staff 
 officers were by ourselves, and narrated all that we had 
 seen on our daily rounds, we felt our enthusiasm depart, 
 and despair succeed. 
 
 We did not mince matters in the green room, w T e passed 
 judgment on men and things with king-like independence, 
 and if the telephone had been invented, the Government by 
 listening to our discussions would have been able to have 
 availed itself of more lengthy information than was con- 
 tained in the official reports. 
 
 One evening one of us was reading the circular issued 
 by Jules Favre to our diplomatic representatives. When 
 he reached the words, ' Not an inch of our territory, not a
 
 PARIS II LOCK AD ED 133 
 
 stone of our fortresses, 1 he stopped. A positive thrill ran 
 through us. 
 
 ' 1 suppose you call that beautiful,' said he to us. 'It is 
 beautiful, perhaps, hut its beauty is transitory, for if we 
 
 give up, not an inch hut whole leagues of territory, not 
 mere stones hut entire fortresses, there will be no beauty in 
 it. And all of you who now look upon Jules Favre as a 
 great man, because he has indited this sonorous line, will be 
 ready to think him a fool.' 
 
 ' And honour ? ' protested somebody. ' Does not that 
 take precedence of material interests ? ' 
 
 'I should be delighted,' replied the sceptic, 'to have it 
 proved to me that, when you are wounded in a duel, 
 honour obliges 3*011 to continue fighting at the risk of 
 being killed. I should be delighted to have it proved to 
 me that all the sovereigns and all the nations who have 
 made peace after disasters far less considerable than those 
 which have befallen us, were cowards and lubbers. If this 
 he so, I should like to know where I am to find any brave 
 people in Europe. Every nation has in turn been beaten 
 by us, and they one and all made peace when they found 
 themselves no longer able to fio-ht on even terms. Was 
 Francis Joseph a coward to make peace after Solferino, or 
 Alexander II after the fall of Sebastopol, to say nothing of 
 many others both in recent and distant days ? There is no 
 disgrace in being defeated, provided you have done your 
 duty, and the army which has defeated you has deserved 
 the victory by good righting too. In regard to material 
 interests, my opinion is diametrically opposed to yours, my 
 dear opponent. Nations have governments in order that 
 their material interests may be looked after, and for a very 
 long time past, up to the present day, these governments 
 have executed their tasks here below, after a very miserable
 
 134 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 fashion. What good did the Crimea bring us ? None 
 Mexico ? None. China ? None. All the wars of Napo- 
 leon ? None. So true is this that the English say of us, ' The 
 French light for the pleasure of conquering.' And they are 
 right. When we are beaten, our territories and our millions 
 pay the expenses. When we beat others, we let somebody 
 else take the price of our blood. Look at England, and 
 model yourselves after her, not altogether, but to a certain 
 extent.' 
 
 ' Then,' asked one of us, ' what ought we to have done 
 according to you ? ' 
 
 ' A very simple thing. We ought to have accepted the 
 proposition of Palikao, an unconstitutional proposition 
 which would have replaced the Imperial Government by 
 a committee, and to have authorized this committee to say 
 to the King of Prussia, " You have declared that you were 
 making war, not against France, but against the Emperor. 
 Very well. The Emperor is conquered and a prisoner, 
 treat with him, arrange the matter between yourselves ; 
 it does not concern us." Napoleon and William would 
 have worked out their little combinations. W T e should 
 perhaps have lost something, but assuredly not all that we 
 shall lose if we do not come victorious out of this impossible 
 enterprise. There you have my opinion.' 
 
 ' That would have been an invitation to proclaim the 
 Republic' 
 ' Well ? ' 
 
 'Remember 1792!' 
 
 ' Alas ! We lack the non-commissioned officers of Louis 
 XVI. The famous volunteers, whose existence has not 
 otherwise been proved to me, would have done nothing if 
 they had not been commanded by the old non-commissioned 
 officers of the Monarchy. Sergeants were made generals,
 
 PARIS BLOCKADED 135 
 
 possibly, but at all events, that proves that there were 
 sergeants in those days. Can you find any now ? They 
 are all in Prussia or with Bazaine, that is to say, they 
 arc in all probability besieged in Metz as we are going to 
 hi' in Paris.' 
 
 The speaker was one of the General's favourites, and 1 
 shuddered as I instinctively recognised the chief's thoughts 
 in the officer's words, and understood that we were already 
 confronted by that terrible antagonism — the complete 
 history of the siege — between those who believed in 
 victory, and those whose knowledge of warfare compelled 
 them even now to foresee defeat. 
 
 There are times, nevertheless, when illusion is per- 
 missible — these are times when one need be of iron not to 
 feel a thrill of hope. One of 'these was the 13th of 
 September, when I was present at the finest review I have 
 ever seen in my life. 
 
 The whole army, the Garde M<jbile, the Garde Rationale, 
 the Volunteers, the Free Corps, the Marines, the Artillery, 
 and what little remained of the Cavalry, were drawn up 
 several files deep in two immense lines, commencing at the 
 Bastille, following the Boulevards, the Hue Royale, the 
 Place de la Concorde, and the Champ-Elysees, and extend- 
 ing beyond the Barriere de l'Etoile. 
 
 The fully armed and equipped soldiers formed the front 
 ranks. Behind them were those whose uniforms and arms 
 were still incomplete. 
 
 Never was a more numerous and enthusiastic army 
 drawn up before a more popular or more heartily cheered 
 leader, or surrounded by a more thoroughly roused and 
 demonstrative population. 
 
 The troops filled the whole of the road-way. The foot- 
 paths seemed paved with human heads, others being ranged
 
 136 JOURXAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 in rows, one above the other, in the windows, and over- 
 flowing on to the roofs. It was a curious sight. 
 
 Mounted on a magnificent charger, the Governor rode 
 in front of an imposing group of General Officers, followed 
 by a squadron of aides-de-camp and officers of all arms, 
 whose horses had not yet undergone any of the privations 
 thej r shared with their riders during the siege. 
 
 Trumpets sounded, drums beat, and the soldiers presented 
 arms, with shouts of ' Vive Trochu! ' or ' Vive la Re'publique! ' 
 and the populace, waving their hats, caps, handkerchiefs, 
 and sunshades, vied with the army in cheering vociferously. 
 
 I confess that when I looked at all the faces radiant with 
 enthusiasm, and the glistening eyes, and when I heard the 
 roar from every stalwart breast, I fully imagined that 
 nothing could resist that feverish multitude. Trochu, I 
 knew, believed in the defence that day. I do not know how 
 long his conviction lasted. 
 
 At the top of the Faubourg Poissonniere the Review 
 was enlivened by an incident both comic and touching. 
 
 An old Admiral, with long whiskers and long white 
 hair, was in command of the troops drawn up at that 
 particular spot. He was mounted on a young and restive 
 horse, which appeared to be causing him some anxiety 
 by reason of the temper and impatience it exhibited at each 
 blast of the trumpet, or roll of the drum. 
 
 He advanced to meet the Governor, who halted his 
 escort in order to pay especial respect tu one of the com- 
 manders of our best troops — the Marines. 
 
 When he was ten paces distant from the Governor, the 
 Admiral reined up his kicking horse, and saluted with his 
 sword. The animal, seeing the blade flash past his right 
 eye, stood up on its hind legs, and went off at a gallop. 
 
 The Admiral, unwilling to compromise his reputation as
 
 PAR is BLOCKADED 
 
 51 
 
 an intrepid horseman, a reputation coveted, from love of 
 contrast, by all naval officers, mastered his steed, and 
 brought him Lack after some forty plunges. 
 
 And he began to repeat his salute to the Governor, who, 
 by this time, had advanced several yards at a walk. 
 
 At this moment the bugles of the battalion drawn up on 
 the right of General Trochu sounded the general salute, and 
 quick as lightning, and this time in real earnest, the 
 Admiral's horse went off at full speed. The old soldier had 
 lost his cap, and his trousers had run up to his calves ; 
 embarrassed by his naked sword and his reins, he was 
 hanging on by the mane. We saw him disappear in the 
 distance of the deserted road, pursued by a large dog which 
 had got through the line of troops and was barking with 
 all its might behind him. 
 
 Trochu, turning towards his suite, said, quietly and 
 seriously : 
 
 ' His doing that is very dangerous.' 
 
 A little further on we saw him stop and salute, with 
 great respect, a simple Garde National, on whose breast 
 glittered the star of a Grand Officer of the Lesion of 
 Honour. It was the Minister Duruy. 
 
 When we got back to the Louvre after this interminable 
 review, Trochu, whom we were congratulating, replied, 
 
 ' Yes, it has been very fine. But you cannot imagine 
 how inconsistent these popular masses are. We have 
 reached the Capitol — beware of the Tarpeian rock.' 
 
 Nevertheless, I knew that he was profoundly impressed, 
 and that if he was not quite overcome, he had several 
 hours, perhaps days, of confidence and hope. 
 
 However, the investment began. Some of us, making 
 use of our permits, which opened gates shut to the rest of 
 the world, used to stroll along the roads to the south of
 
 [38 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Paris, and were thus enabled to catch sight of the Uhlan 
 patrols. One of the party got within reach of the infantry 
 by dint of advancing under cover, and was honoured with 
 a harmless volley. It was evident that the Prussians were 
 beginning their envelopment of Paris from the south, and 
 were marching on Versailles by way of Choisy-le-Roi. 
 Their first plan was to interpose themselves between Paris 
 and the still intact south of France. Maneuvering and 
 fighting took place on the 17th, 18th, and 19th of 
 September. The last of these days was the Chaxillon 
 affair. The Governor was not present at the engagement, 
 which was by no means brilliant. The Mobile* and the 
 Line killed each other by firing on each other in the con- 
 fusion very natural to young troops, and, wonderful to 
 relate, the Zouaves gave the signal for the panic. When 
 the red breeches were seen to recoil and take to flight, the 
 helter-skelter became general. Half Paris, the left bank of 
 the river, was thronged with soldiers, who had discarded 
 both rifles and ammunition in order to run away the faster. 
 and who already began to utter that sinister and cowardly 
 pi 1 rase which was heard so often afterwards, 'We are 
 betrayed ! ' 
 
 While these first engagements were going on, Jules 
 Favre went to Ferrieres. The honourable deputies who then 
 cjoverned France had such a confused notion of the tradi- 
 tions of government that the Minister took this step unknown 
 to his colleagues. There is 110 need for me to record it, for 
 all the world knows it. I recollect, however, the singular 
 impression made upon us by reading the account of their 
 interview, and of the diplomatic conversation between Jules 
 Favre and Bismarck. The contrast between the two men 
 was startling. Bismarck hammered out his sentences, relied 
 absolutely on military necessities and the interest of the
 
 PARIS BLOCKADED iyj 
 
 belligerent force, never put himself forward, and kept on 
 saying, < We — we want this — we must demand that.' 
 Jules Favre spoke of his heart, his anguish, his emotions, his 
 tears — his too famous tears. The report produced some such 
 sensation as one would experience on seeing a poor old goat 
 trembling between a lion's paws. 
 
 Our comrade, the sceptic, reassured his staff commentary 
 by saying, 
 
 ' If the old women meddle in our affairs, the thing will 
 be complete.' 
 
 On the 23rd of September General de Maud'huy fought 
 the battle of Villejuif, which gave us the Hautes-Bruyeres 
 redoubt, which we had to hold, and to a certain extent 
 raised the tone of the army, completely discouraged by the 
 Chatillon affair. Skirmishing went on up till the 30th. 
 On that date the battle of Chevillv was fought. It was 
 glorious, but useless. It gave us nothing, and cost us some 
 brave lives, among them General Guilhem, who was killed 
 when marching bravely at the head of his brigade. 
 
 On the next day but one after the Chevilly affair, 
 General Schmitz went in person to the field of battle and 
 then to the advanced posts of the Prussians, in order to 
 demand the body of General Guilhem. I had the honour 
 of accompanying the Chief of the Staff', and we were 
 followed by a convoy of ambulance waggons with doctors 
 and litter-bearers, so that we might rescue and bring back 
 all the wounded we could find between the two armies. 
 
 The Prussian sentries mounted guard in pairs, each man 
 being posted only a few paces from the next. While one of 
 tin ni went in search of the officer appointed to confer with 
 us, I got off my horse and instituted a search in the neigh- 
 bouring fields. 
 
 We were to the right of where the hottest part of the
 
 i 4 o JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 battle had been fought. There was not a tree that had not 
 been hit. The French mitrailleuse had mowed long lanes 
 in the vines, cutting down plant and pole alike. Nothing 
 had been changed : nothing had yet been touched on the 
 battle-field; and in certain places a sickening moisture 
 marked the pools of blood with which the ground was 
 reeking. Here were helmets, there guns, and further on 
 pouches, kepis, sword-bayonets, belts, account-books, all 
 sorts of soldiers' effects, and above all, a large number of 
 cartridge-boxes. 
 
 I had an idea of bringing away a rifle, but a huge fair 
 devil of a Prussian sentry, trying his best to make his 
 porcelain blue eyes look ferocious, shouted out in German, 
 ' Let go that rifle !' I looked at him and he repeated, 'Let 
 go that rifle ! ' 1 pretended not to understand him, and 
 continued my walk, rifle in hand. But as, when he called 
 out for the third time, 'Let go that rifle,' I saw he was in a 
 rage and was taking aim at me, I thought I had better 
 not give him a chance, and I put down the rifle. It was a 
 chassepot and only remarkable because a Prussian bullet 
 was imbedded in the butt. 
 
 I made a most minute examination of this corner be- 
 cause I wanted to note the effects of the terrific fire and 
 the storm of shells I had heard and seen there during the 
 battle, and I then regained the ambulance waggons. As I 
 passed through the vines I startled two thrushes which 
 w.re quietly picking the forgotten grapes. I experienced 
 singular pleasure, as well as emotion, on hearing the cries 
 of these two poor birds, for they must either have been on 
 the spot during the bloody engagement, or must have 
 courageously returned after the battle. Close to the place 
 where the two thrushes had got up I discovered a poor little 
 infantry soldier, barely twenty-two, who had had both legs
 
 PARIS BLOCKADED 14. 
 
 smashed at the ankle joint by the bursting of a shell. One 
 of his feet was absolutely torn away — the other, the bones 
 of which were completely crushed, was still hanging by the 
 
 sinews and a strip of flesh. The poor little fellow had 
 dragged himself to where his foot was, about three paces 
 from where lie himself fell, had seized hold of it in the 
 pool of clotted blood, and was pressing' it close to him. 
 There he was, still alive after having been lying- in the 
 vineyard for forty-eight hours — two days and two nights. 
 There was still a gleam of intelligence in his dull and glassy 
 eyes, and when he recognised my French uniform, he 
 mustered up strength enough to say in a low tone, 
 like a sick child, ! Something to drink.' 
 
 I leaned over him, took hold of both his arms, passed 
 them round my neck, and turning sharply, so as to put him 
 on my back, I carried him towards our waggons, without any 
 remonstrance this time from the German sentry. He 
 moaned slightly, and behind me I felt his remaining foot 
 swinging to and fro, knocking against my legs. I laid him 
 down on a litter and gave him a large glass of water, with 
 some rum in it. He drank and died. 
 
 During the first portion of the engagement our wounded 
 were, as a rule, hit on the legs, from the feet to the knees. 
 As the day wore on the enemy mended his aim. In the 
 evening all the wounds were either in the head or full in 
 the breast. 
 
 The body of General Guilhem, pierced by ten bullets, 
 was handed over to us. The Prussians gave it up with all 
 the solemnity possible under the circumstances. Eight 
 soldiers carried the bier, covered with flowers and foliage, 
 on Uhlan lances ; and, as thej^ passed onwards, the various 
 guards and isolated sentries presented arms, the officers 
 saluting with their swords. It was a more striking sight,
 
 I \- 
 
 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 in the midst of the ravaged and desolated country, than 
 the most gorgeous funeral procession that ever approached 
 the gate of the Invalides. 
 
 On the 7th of October, that is to say, on the eve of the 
 day when I was destined to spend such an unpleasant 
 quarter-of-an-hour in the square in front of the Hotel de 
 Ville, I went to Creteil in order to conduct outside our lines 
 Prince Wittgenstein, Military Attache to the Russian 
 Embassy, who was leaving Paris, furnished with all the 
 necessary passports.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 AN AMATEUR DIPLOMATIST 
 
 In the Governor's Office. — An Unexpected Meeting. — General Burnside. — Armis- 
 tice and Revictualling. — Governor and Interpreter. — Jules Favre. — Mr 
 Washburne. — At the Advanced Posts. — How Parleying is carried on. — The 
 Bridge of Sevres. — The Facetious Adjutant. — Flags of Truce Attacked. — 
 Volleys. 
 
 The 2nd of October fell on a Sunday. Towards 1.30 
 A.M. I was sleeping soundly, when a loud knocking at ray 
 door roused me with a start. 
 
 ' Who is there ? ' 
 
 ' I, Lunel.' 
 
 Commandant Lunel, who served through the Italian 
 war, and was attached to the Head-quarters Staff of the 
 General Commanding in Chief, was entrusted with the in- 
 ternal administration of Head -quarters. It was no sinecure. 
 Ever ready to do anybody a service, full of amiability and 
 always obliging, he was our providence, and we owe him 
 innumerable horse steaks, with which he contrived to supply 
 us constantl} r during the siege. He is now Military Com- 
 mandant of the Palais de Justice.
 
 i 4 4 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 ' Got up. The Governor is asking for you.' 
 T hastily put on the uniform J Lad just taken off, and 
 went at once to General Trochu. 
 
 He was alone, seated in front of his desk, and dressed 
 in the semi-civil, semi-military attire to which he was 
 addicted — a lounging jacket and red trousers. He wore a 
 Greek cap, necessary by reason of his total baldness, which 
 he never left off. In his hand he held his large meerschaum 
 pipe, which, as smokers say, was lovingly coloured. 
 
 ' I am sorry, my dear fellow,' he said to me, ' to disturl 
 you, but the arrival of an American General, who does not 
 speak French, is announced at the advanced posts. As I do 
 not speak English, I wish you to act as interpreter. Sit down,' 
 he added, as he pointed with his finger to one of those settees 
 which are often found in high windows, ' sleep if you like. 
 I will awake you when I want you. I have work to do.' 
 
 I dared not lie down on the settee in the Governor's 
 presence, and I slept as best I could in a posture as respect- 
 ful as was possible. Towards five o'clock the General roused 
 me. 
 
 ' You can go to bed again,' he said. ' The General will 
 not come till later on. Come back at eight.' 
 
 At nine o'clock the American General, preceded by a 
 courier, entered the office of the Governor, who received him 
 standing, in fine form, and surrounded by all his staff. 
 
 General Trochu bade me welcome the visitor, and was 
 not a little astonished when he saw him suddenly come to 
 me with both arms outstretched, and kiss me on both cheeks. 
 I explained that six weeks previously I had made the 
 acquaintance of the General on board the steamer which 
 brought me from America, and had rapidly formed an 
 intimacy with him during those eleven days of enforced 
 confinement.
 
 AN AMATEUR DIPLOMATIST 145 
 
 General Burnside was accompanied by the American 
 Colonel Forbes. He informed the Governor, through my 
 intermediation, that he had come to Europe, attracted by 
 the grandeur of the military events which were taking 
 place in France. He asked permission to visit Paris, as he 
 had visited the Prussian army. He wished, after having 
 studied the mechanism of the most colossal investment ever 
 undertaken, to make himself equally well acquainted with 
 the means of defence, and to contemplate the spectacle, so 
 consoling to humanity, of a patriotism capable of giving 
 birth to such mighty efforts. 
 
 General Burnside was no ordinary General. He is very 
 popular in the United States, and played a considerable 
 part during the war of the Secession. 
 
 Without being fully convinced that the General was 
 attracted only by a feeling of military curiosity, the 
 Governor hastened to say that he would do all in his 
 power to make the investigations of his colleague easy 
 and complete. The interview was a very cordial one. 
 The American complimented the Frenchman on the martial 
 and proud attitude of the city of Paris. General Trochu 
 thanked him and replied that the population of Paris 
 were undoubtedly resolved to hold out to their last mouth- 
 ful of bread. 
 
 ' I imagine,' he said, ' that the pleasantest thing I can do 
 is to place your friend, M. d'Herisson, at your disposal. He 
 will take you everywhere and show you everything.' 
 
 They shook hands cordially, and I took the American 
 General as far as the Rue de Rivoli, appointing to meet him 
 at one o'clock the same day. 
 
 The Governor had intimated that he wished to speak to 
 me, and when I returned to his office, he honoured me
 
 146 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 with almost complete confidence in regard to the political 
 situation then existing. 
 
 ' It is necessary,' he said to me, ' that your relations with 
 General Burnside should be profitable to the cause of our 
 country. If he asks you, take him over the whole of the 
 enceinte except the forts. Avoid taking him to those 
 sections of the ramparts where the preparations for defence 
 are not very brilliant. Without appearing to do so, take him 
 to the most strongly fortified spots. He says he is not an 
 emissary of M. de Bismarck, but treat him, all the same, as 
 if the Chancellor had sent him. At this particular juncture, 
 if we could obtain an armistice, a suspension of hostilities, 
 in order to convoke an Assembly, on condition, of course, 
 that we are permitted to revictual ourselves for the whole 
 period of the armistice, it would be superb. M. de Bismarck 
 may be willing, for we do not know what Bazaine is doing. 
 But to obtain it we must seem as if we did not want it- 
 Put on an air, therefore, of the greatest confidence, perfect 
 security, and absolute tranquillity. Do not exaggerate. 
 Be merely natural. Go.' 
 
 General Burnside, as a matter of fact, made a very 
 superficial examination of our means of defence ; but I took 
 him to Jules Favre, for whom M. de Bismarck had given 
 him letters, among them a diplomatic communication 
 in which he persisted in his resolve to forward only un- 
 sealed letters to foreign ministers resident in Paris, and as 
 ;i matter of course to open any letters they might send to 
 their Governments. 
 
 In Jules Favre's presence General Burnside protested 
 that he was not sent by M. de Bismarck, and that he had 
 not received any mission at the hands of the Chancellor 
 But he nevertheless thought, he said, that he might say that 
 the idea of an armistice would not be repelled at Versailles.
 
 A N A MA TEUR I) IPLO MA TIS T y 4 7 
 
 Jules Favre replied that from the moment the Chancellor 
 admitted the possibility of an armistice he was at a loss to 
 understand why he should have refused it when he, Jules 
 Favre, went to Ferrieres in person to ask for one, not to 
 give the defence time to consolidate itself, as M. de Bismarck 
 had alleged, but to consult the country on the possibility of 
 coming to terms with Germany — a step of which the 
 Government of the National Defence did not think they 
 ought to assume the responsibility. 
 
 He added that the defence had been established subse- 
 quently to his visit to Ferrieres — thanks to the efforts of the 
 population of Paris. He further said that public opinion, 
 having made up its mind that Paris was impregnable, and 
 would succumb only to famine, called for the union of all 
 energies to attack and fight the invaders of French territory 
 to the bitter end. The city was well provisioned. If a 
 capitulation was to be the end of the siege, it was far 
 distant, and before it came to pass many things might 
 happen. 
 
 If M. de Bismarck would consent to an armistice free 
 from the impossible conditions suggested at Ferrieres, and 
 especially the military conditions which would place Paris 
 under the Prussian guns, he was quite ready to sign it. 
 The end he had in view, then as before, was to consult the 
 nation, and if unofficial intermediaries chose to engage in 
 the effort to bring the idea to a successful issue, he begged 
 them in advance to receive the grateful thanks of the 
 Government, and of France. 
 
 The American General and Colonel took their leave of 
 the Minister, and returned to Versailles, after having 
 requested permission, which was granted to them, to repeat 
 the terms of the interview to the Chancellor. They only 
 remained one day in Paris.
 
 i 4 S JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 They returned on the 6th of October. They had seen 
 M. de Bismarck, and came back bearing the following 
 proposals. An armistice of forty-eight hours. The Prussian 
 Head-quarters to grant all passports necessary to facilitate 
 the departure of all citizens wishing to proceed to the 
 departments to canvass the electors. Exception to be made 
 in the case of Alsace and Lorraine, where no elections would 
 take place. The elections over, and they would not affect, 
 in any way, the military operations against Paris, a town 
 in France to be named for the meeting of the assembly, which 
 would have to pronounce in favour of peace or war. 
 
 The conference took place in a room adjoining the 
 Minister's office in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There 
 were present General Burnside, Colonel Forbes, Colonel 
 Hoffmann, Mr Washburne, Minister of the United States, 
 Jules Favre, General Trochu, and myself. 
 
 I acted as interpreter, and though Mr Washburne and 
 Colonel Forbes understood and spoke French very well, 
 I was none the less obliged to translate the conversation 
 word for word. When I had translated an important 
 sentence, which necessitated an effort both of memory and 
 accuracy, Mr Washburne nodded his head in witness to the 
 accuracy of the translation. 
 
 On this occasion, which might well be called solemn, I 
 saw, not for the first time, what slaves we are to our 
 peculiarities. When General Trochu had to give his 
 opinion, he made a speech. He went on and on, without 
 troubling himself to ascertain if I was following him : I 
 listened at first with the most profound attention, but at 
 length the moment arrived when I felt that if he went on 
 much longer, I should lose the beginning. I used then to 
 interrupt him in order to translate all I could remember. 
 It is very easy to understand that an interpreter cannot
 
 AN AMATEUR DIPLOMATIST 149 
 
 store up in his memory a speech extending over twenty 
 minutes. The General never took that into consideration, 
 and with him the same thing happened over and over again. 
 
 When the conference was over, Jules Favre and General 
 Trochu requested permission to refer the matter to their 
 colleagues, and I had time to turn the instructions of the 
 Governor to account by showing my friend Burnside about. 
 I played the part of guide in such a way as to give him the 
 highest possible idea of our means of defence. 
 
 These interminable interviews were destined to be result- 
 less. After having consulted his colleagues, Jules Favre in 
 a last interview showed that the inconsistent and vague 
 propositions of which General Burnside was the bearer, 
 could not be accepted, that they would place the elec- 
 tions at the mercy of the enemy, and would not give the 
 electors any means of expressing their real wishes. But, on 
 the other hand, if the Chancellor would agree to an armistice 
 of a fortnight, with proportionate revictualling, the French 
 Government would gladly accept it. 
 
 The minister handed General Burnside a letter couched 
 in these terms for M. de Bismarck, and after a desultory 
 conversation on the events of the day, outside the scope of 
 the political questions which had been under discussion, the 
 conference broke up. 
 
 This visit of General Burnside brought me for the first 
 time in contact with Jules Favre. On the conclusion of the 
 interview, when he was obliged to go to Versailles to sue for 
 peace, he asked General Trochu to let him have me as secre- 
 tary. He knew that I had been educated in a German 
 university, and thought that my knowledge of German 
 might be of use to him in those sad negotiations. 
 
 In the course, also, of these interviews I discovered how 
 hostile the Minister of the United States, Mr Washburne, was
 
 150 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 to us, and what harm he did us. The more General Burnside 
 showed his sympathy with us, the more did the diplomatist 
 appear to sympathise with our victorious enemies. Here 
 we have another living instance of the truth that the 
 Creator predestined the Frenchman to be a dupe. If it had 
 not been for us, America would perhaps still belong to 
 England. If it had not been for the ingenuous French 
 nobility, the English would probably have got the upper 
 hand of their subjects who revolted by reason of the tea 
 and paper duties. We may say that we almost made 
 America. At the time I am describing she remembered 
 that fact only to applaud Prussia. Italy, that daughter to 
 whom our blood gave life, furnished a still more repugnant 
 example of ingratitude, seeing that the benefits conferred 
 on her were more recent. 
 
 Mr Washburne discovered a thousand ways in which 
 to show us his antipathy , one struck me particularly, as it 
 was ingenious and almost Italian. He used to receive the 
 American papers, and when he sent us any he took great 
 pains to put an ink mark against what might interest us 
 especially. After the war the Emperor William loaded 
 him with favours and sent him his full length portrait. 
 
 He had not stolen either the favour or the portrait. 
 
 While I was re-conducting General Burnside to the 
 advanced posts, he told me that he himself had taken the 
 initiative in these negotiations and had made an urgent 
 representation to M. de Bismarck in our favour, but that 
 the Chancellor was in no way anxious that the interview 
 should succeed, that it^was a matter of absolute indifference 
 to him, and that, moreover, whenever we might be obliged 
 to treat, he whom the Germans call the ' Iron Chancellor ' 
 would cut out of the French cake the portion conquered by 
 the Prussian victories. Hu told me, also, that on several
 
 AN AMATEUR DIPLOMA TIST 151 
 
 occasions M. de Bismarck had expressed his absolute cer- 
 tainty that our internal divisions would complete the work 
 of his master's armies. 
 
 At the advanced posts a rather curious incident hap- 
 pened, which was not important in itself, but as it gave rise 
 to an interchange of notes between Paris and Versailles I 
 will record it in detail. 
 
 When two armies come into collision, if there is a battle, 
 and it follows its course until one of the two is beaten, 
 retreats, or takes to flight, there is nothing more to be said. 
 The victors bury their own dead and those of the conquered, 
 who reform as best they can in some other position. But if 
 after the battle, both remain face to face on the ground, if 
 one of them, shut up in a fortress, is besieged by the other, 
 if they still remain in contact, then whether they like it or 
 not, their close proximity is bound to engender relations of 
 some kind. Flags of truce come into operation in a multi- 
 tude of cases ; to make proposals ; to impart news which 
 one of the two thinks, from his point of view, would be 
 useful for the other to know ; sometimes for an exchange 
 of prisoners, sometimes for the safe passage of neutrals, like 
 General Burnside, or personages charged with diplomatic 
 missions, like M. Thiers, from one camp to the other. Or 
 there is a parley to obtain a suspension of hostilities for the 
 purpose of burying the dead. In fact, there is an almost 
 daily parley in the ordinary course of a siege. 
 
 Although nearly all the German officers spoke French 
 it was natural enough that a French officer who spoke 
 German should be chosen to communicate with them ; and 
 as that was my case, I was selected by the Governor as the 
 habitual bearer of his flas: of truce. 
 
 I, therefore, was regularly sent to parley with the 
 enemy, and this was the course of proceedings. I went on
 
 152 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 horseback, furnished with either written or verbal instruc- 
 tions, according to circumstances, as far as the bridge of 
 Sevres, followed by a cavalry trumpeter who carried in his 
 hand a flag of truce, a simple white napkin fixed on to 
 the end of a stick. 
 
 At the end of the bridge of Sevres which belonged to 
 us, there was a little house half knocked to pieces by shells 
 and riddled with bullets, which was called ' The House of 
 the Flag of Truce.' 
 
 Up to this house everything went on smoothly, and the 
 ride was not dangerous. We rode one behind the other on 
 the lower side of the route, tolerably sheltered from the 
 bullets by the trees planted along the road, as by a rampart. 
 We had nothing to fear from the shells exchanged between 
 the defence and the Prussian batteries. Their trajectory 
 was so high that they passed well over our heads. It 
 would have argued very bad luck, and great and very rare 
 clumsiness on the part of the batteries in position, if a shell 
 had fallen near either of us. It only happened once, when 
 I happened to be in a coupe which formerly belonged to 
 the Emperor. Shortly before I reached the Sevres bridge 
 a stray shell burst close to the carriage, and a fragment 
 struck the body. 
 
 At our end of the bridge there was a barricade composed 
 of all kinds of things. Before getting over it, we put our 
 horses under cover and the trumpet sounded the 'cease 
 firing.' 
 
 As soon as the trumpeter of the post on the other bank 
 had sounded the German call corresponding to ours, we 
 escaladed the barricade and waved our white Hag. 
 
 The two calls could be heard a very long waj r oil', 
 for in those regions there reigned in the intervals of firing an 
 extraordinary, solemn, mournful, and almost supernatural
 
 AN AM A TEUR DIPLOMA T1ST 1 53 
 
 silence — the silence of death, that which on earth preceded 
 the appearance of living beings. You might have heard a 
 gnat tiy between the advanced sentries posted on both banks, 
 and you might have said that even the Seine, gliding slowly 
 along the desolate landscape, had stilled the murmuring of 
 its waters. 
 
 The Prussian officer bearing the flag of truce then 
 advanced along the bridge from his side, as I did at the same 
 time from mine. The middle arch of the bridge no longer 
 existed, it had been blown up by dynamite. We halted on 
 our respective sides of the yawning gulf and entered into con- 
 versation. I am bound to confess that my interlocutors were 
 almost always young officers of distinguished bearing, of 
 whom there are so many in the German Army. There are 
 many drawing-rooms where conversation is carried on with 
 less gracefulness than we displayed. We put on new gloves 
 figuratively and in reality to converse. 
 
 When everything went on thus it was perfect, and I bore 
 with a good grace the genial badinage to which I was 
 treated by a sort of adjutant who commanded the advanced 
 post of Sevres, and who, as soon as he saw me, sent a 
 mounted orderly to apprise the Prussian officer told off for 
 the duty of parleying, whose quarters were away from the 
 banks of the river. 
 
 These jokes lacked variety, and in the end they were re- 
 duced to one, always the same. 
 
 The animal took a few paces along the bridge and called 
 out in German, 
 
 ' Good morning, captain. You are thinner than you were 
 when I saw you last.' 
 
 As I did not see any use in altering my formula so long 
 as he did not change his, I invariably replied, 
 
 ' I am in training and on strict diet.'
 
 i 5 4 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 The fair idiot would reply, 
 
 ' You have nothing to eat when you are hungry.' 
 
 To which I always answered, 
 
 ' If you want anything do not distress yourself about it. 
 You know the proverb — " Where there is enough for — " ' 
 
 Frequently, however, once out of three times on an 
 average, when we had mounted the barricade, we were saluted 
 with a shot or two, and the bullets as they struck the 
 ground at our feet, or lodged in the empty barrels which 
 formed part of the barricade, made a strange noise. By 
 degrees this mode of receiving us became too frequent to 
 be borne ; a complaint was necessary. One day, after the 
 'cease firing' had been sounded on my side and I had heard 
 the corresponding call from the other bank, I advanced to 
 the opening of the bridge without any officer coming to 
 meet me, and the sentries aimed and fired at my trumpeter 
 and myself. I saw them quietly adjusting their sights, for 
 their aim had at first been hasty and ill directed, and if I 
 had remained there I should certainly have been hit. I 
 was obliged to retire and report the circumstances to the 
 Chief of the Head-quarters Staff. A regular correspondence 
 took place on the subject between Versailles and Paris, and 
 there was very speedily a goodly pile of it on General 
 Schmitz's table. The Germans asserted that they had 
 never fired on a French flag of truce, but that on the other 
 hand the French always fired on theirs. They may have 
 been right except in the use of the word always; it is 
 possible that some young and inexperienced soldier, some 
 franc-tirewr, may have fired on a Prussian flag of truce 
 without hitting anybody. In any case the military notes 
 which were interchanged were devoid of any sort of 
 authority, and their despatch might have gone on for ever. 
 
 Things were in this state when I had to reconduct
 
 AF AMATEUR DIPLOMATIST 155 
 
 General Burnside as far as the Sevres bridge, to the little 
 boat, moored on the French side, which was to transport 
 him to the other side. 
 
 After the usual call had been answered by the enemy I 
 gave my hand to the General to help him to mount the 
 barricade. He had scarcely shown himself before four 
 shots were heard, and the bullets, whistling about our ears, 
 lodged with a startling noise in the staves of the casks. 
 
 I looked at Burnside, who did not stir. He was at a loss 
 to understand it, and asked me what was the matter. 
 
 ' They are firing on us,' I replied, with a laugh, ' and it is 
 lucky that we escaped the clumsy fellows ; and now, at all 
 events, you who know all about this flag of truce affair 
 have a proof that if the French have fired by mistake on a 
 Prussian flag, the Germans fire with precision and conscien- 
 tiously on ours, even after having answered our call.' 
 
 I had not finished speaking when two fresh bullets, 
 whistling past the General's head, lodged, at about the 
 height of a man, in the rough coating of a small wall 
 adjoining the barricade. 
 
 The General, who had his doubts up to then, was con- 
 vinced. I went to the wall, and, with the point of my 
 knife, I extracted one of the two bullets, which was still 
 warm. 
 
 ' There,' I said as I handed it to him, ' if you want to cut 
 short a matter of controversy in a peremptory manner, be 
 good enough to give this projectile to M. de Bismarck. In 
 your hands it will be an excellent argument to demonstrate 
 the dangers which French, and even American flags of truce 
 have to contend against.' 
 
 We embraced cordially. I took leave of him, and he 
 was conducted by two mobile* to what was then called the 
 Prussian bank.
 
 156 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 A few moments afterwards he disappeared round a 
 corner of one of the streets of Sevres. His two Tnobiles 
 returned, and silence reigned on the river, broken only by 
 the distant roar of the cannon. 
 
 Do not imagine that the Germans were convinced, even 
 after the evidence of a witness so important, so impartial, 
 and so disinterested as General Burnside. Convinced, no 
 doubt, that whoever has the last word is right, they re- 
 verted of their own accord to the incident. I do not think 
 it would serve any useful purpose to copy here the corre- 
 spondence which took place, and which Jules Favre has 
 inserted in his book. Each remained convinced of the 
 truth of his own story. So it always happens, even in war.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 FROM THE CAPITOL TO THE TARPEIAN ROCK 
 
 The Major of the Rampart. — Flourens and Trochu. — A Demonstration on the 
 Square of the H6tel-de-Ville. — The Captain's Punishment. — Departure of 
 MM. Ranc and de Keratry. — Bagneux. — An Audacious Spy. — Foreign Con- 
 voys. — La Jonchere. — Everyone in His Turn. — The Black Bird. 
 
 On the 5th of October there was a demonstration outside 
 and inside the Hotel de Ville, under the leadership of a 
 hot-headed fellow who played the inferior parts in the 
 drama of the siege of Paris. His name was Flourens. 
 Having been elected to the command of five battalions of 
 Belleville, he refused to select any one of them, and asserted 
 his right to command all. He had been appointed Major 
 of the Rampart, but I have never discovered what that 
 rank meant. He had roused the Belleville battalion to a 
 pitch of fanaticism, and had persuaded them to demand 
 municipal elections and the constitution of the Commune 
 of Paris. 
 
 The Garde Nationale arrived under arms. General
 
 158 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Trochu betook himself to the Hotel cle Ville, and was hissed 
 and hooted. That was the beginning. General Tamisier, 
 who commanded the Garde Nationale, was likewise hissed 
 and hooted by these perfect soldiers. Flourens went into 
 the Hotel de Ville. and entered into negotiations with 
 the Government, while the bands in the square played 
 the Marseillaise. I was simple enough to believe that 
 violent hands would be laid upon the Major of the Rampart, 
 and that he would be cast into the deepest of dungeons until 
 the end of the siege. The General preferred treating him 
 in a parental sort of way, called him by his title of Monsieur 
 le Major at full length, and asked him why he had deserted 
 his post on the rampart. Under any other circumstances 
 his irony would have been charming. Flourens did not un- 
 derstand it. ' I demand 10,000 chassepots and a sortie,' and 
 he finally flung his resignation in the face of the Govern- 
 ment. The most extraordinary part of the business was 
 that the Government appeared to be alarmed by it, and 
 General Trochu replied, ' Then I will resign too.' Flourens 
 took his departure, and when he appeared again before his 
 men their cheers made the windows shake. Then it rained, 
 I think, and everybody went to dine. 
 
 A few days afterwards, on the 8th, a similar ceremony 
 took place. Flourens was not in it. We received intelli- 
 gence at the Louvre that the square of the Hotel de Ville 
 was black with people, that there was a great deal of noise 
 and shouting, and much calling for Trochu. 
 
 The Governor simply shrugged his shoulders and said, 
 
 'These buffoons are determined to give me no peace.' 
 1 !c then called for his horse and rode off. 
 
 Commandant Bibesco and I were on duty behind him. 
 He had no escort. We entered the square of the Hotel de 
 Ville from the Rue de Rivoli. Heads, nothing but heads.
 
 FROM THE CAPITOL TO THE TARPEIAN ROCK 159 
 
 It was like a huge tub covered witli corks floating on the 
 disturbed water. The compact mass, ;i very ill-disposed 
 one, began to hoot us vigorously. We made our way into 
 it. In a few minutes Bibesco and I were separated from 
 the Governor, and I was very soon separated from Bibesco. 
 I saw him ten paces from me ; some men had rushed to his 
 horse's head and had seized the animal by the bridle, 
 heaping insults and abuse on him at the same time. Some 
 others honoured me with similar attentions, and I then 
 heard cries of ' A has les capitulards ! A has les traUres ! ' 
 I should have preferred being anywhere else. Afar off, 
 above the crowd, I perceived the shining cranium of the 
 Governor, who was saluting right and left, and, at a stand- 
 still like ourselves, was towering over the swarm of human 
 ants from the top of his horse. 
 
 We were three lost men in the midst of that crowd of 
 ten thousand. An impatient gesture, a movement of our 
 horses, an imprudent word, or a momentary forgetfulness 
 of the discipline which imposed silence on us, might have 
 destroyed us, or caused us to be cut down, massacred, and 
 reduced to fragments. We had to be careful, too, not to 
 fall, for once on the ground there would have been an end 
 of us. The crowd was like a mass of wild beasts, and 
 keeping upright was our only safety. 
 
 It was, indeed, difficult to fall, for we were engulfed in 
 human flesh. I felt my horse tremble under me, the poor 
 beast could not move. I had not room to stretch my legs, 
 and so as not to run my spurs into him I had to turn my toes 
 inwards. Hands were on my holsters, on the cantle of my 
 saddle, on my saddle-cloth, on my thighs ; if I had had to 
 draw my sword there was not room enough for my left hand 
 to get at the hilt and carry it across to my right. There was
 
 160 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 nothing for it but to wait, to remain motionless, and to look 
 attentively at my horse's ears. 
 
 At last a man made his way through the crowd towards 
 Bibesco ; I thought he was going to strike him. At this 
 moment my attention was drawn away from him by another 
 fanatic laying hold of me. He was tolerably well dressed 
 and wore a long black overcoat reaching to his calves ; he 
 asked me to cry out, Vive la Commune ! I looked at him as 
 if I did not understand him, and naturally I did not open 
 m\' mouth. My calmness completely exasperated him, he 
 seized me by my epaulets, drew me violently to him, and 
 spat in my face. Then he fell back. 
 
 For half-a-second I saw blood and it seemed to me as if 
 the Hotel de Ville was falling on my head. If I had been 
 alone, if I could have set spurs to my horse and galloped on 
 the heads of the crowd, I think I should have got my man. 
 But the General was there. The glitter of a sword or a 
 shout of anger might have caused him to be torn in pieces. 
 I wiped my face. I felt I was damp, but not insulted. 
 
 At the same moment a small opening in the crowd 
 enabled us three to get together again in front of the 
 Hotel de Ville. A battalion of the Garde Rationale was 
 there. Jules Favre made a short speech, and spoke of the 
 cannon which could be heard and should teach union. 
 
 And as I got off my horse, settled my uniform, and 
 exchanged impressions in silence with Bibesco, I indulged 
 in this reflection, 
 
 ' Perhaps, my dear Captain, in a month's time they will 
 be embracing your boots in the Place du Carrousel, two 
 yards from here.' 
 
 Could the Prefect of Police, M. Keratry, have prevented 
 these demonstrations ? I do not think so, for we, with all 
 the forces of the Capital at our disposal, were unable to
 
 FROM THE CAPITOL TO THE TAUPE I AN ROCK 161 
 
 repress them. His powerlessness gave him the idea of 
 resigning, and even of proposing to the Government the 
 suppression of the Prefecture of Police. It might certainly 
 have been dispensed with, because, at all events for the 
 time being, it was absolutely useless. M. de Ke'ratry, as 
 well as M. Ranc, left Paris in a balloon to join Gambetta in 
 the provinces. M. de Keratry was succeeded in the Prefec- 
 ture by M. Edmond Adam, and M. Ranc at the Town Hall 
 in the Rue Drouot, by Gustave Chaudey. 
 
 A few days afterwards there was another engagement. 
 Chevilly had cost us Guilhem, Bagneux cost us De 
 Dampierre, who fell nobly at the head of the Mobiles of 
 Aube at the entrance to the village. Thirty-three years of 
 age, a glorious ancestry behind him, and a happy life 
 before him ! 
 
 All these engagements were barren of results. They 
 were bound to be so. Fighting went on for four or five 
 hours. Time was given to the Prussians to bring up fresh 
 troops, and then we fell back ; and take note that if the 
 blockade had unfortunately been forced, the victorious 
 troops, without provisions, without convoys or ammunition, 
 would have fallen to the last man in the fatal grasp of the 
 Germans, who would have fallen back and surrounded 
 them in the impassable and devastated zone they occupied 
 round Paris. 
 
 On the eve of the battle of Bagneux we were informed 
 that an officer of the line, who had come direct from the 
 advanced posts, wished to speak to the Governor, to whom 
 he brought a letter under cover of the utmost importance. 
 He was a sub-lieutenant. We received him, and his letter 
 was taken to the General. A few moments later an aide- 
 de-camp of the Governor came to the messenger and asked
 
 162 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 him under what circumstances the despatch had been 
 1 landed to him. 
 
 The sub-lieutenant stated that while on the main cmard 
 on the Chatillon side, quite close to the Prussians and con- 
 cealed in a hut, he had seen an officer of the French Head- 
 quarters staff, who, with his back turned to Paris, appeared 
 to be going to the enemy's camp. 
 
 Under the impression that the officer was making a 
 fatal mistake, he sallied out from his hut, followed by 
 several men, and attempted to induce the officer to change 
 his course. The latter appeared somewhat surprised at 
 being confronted by a guard, and, promptly taking out of 
 his pocket a large envelope addressed to General Trochu, 
 he said, 
 
 ' I was looking for you. Take this despatch yourself to 
 the Governor. It is important and urgent.' 
 
 And the sub-lieutenant, to his astonishment, saw him, 
 after making a slight detour, continue on his way towards 
 the Prussians. 
 
 When General Trochu opened the despatch, there was 
 nothing in the envelope but a blank sheet of paper, folded 
 in four. 
 
 A strict enquiry was instituted into the affair. The 
 sub-lieutenant was punished for having left his post, and 
 for having failed to recognise under the uniform of a 
 French Staff Officer, a Prussian spy who had just paid a 
 quiet visit to our lines. 
 
 A few days later, the exodus of the foreigners who did 
 not wish to remain in Paris took place under the protection 
 of the American Minister, Mr Washburne. There were 
 several convoys. Eight or ten carriages, drawn by splendid 
 horses, pairs worth 10,000 francs, which their owners 
 naturally enough wished to save from the shambles, met at
 
 FROM THE CAPITOL TO THE TARPEIAN ROCK 163 
 
 a gate settled beforehand ; and I was entrusted with the 
 duty of taking them as far as the Prussian lines. The 
 passengers were huddled together inside and on the seats 
 of these carriages, coupes, landaus, and victorias. More than 
 once I noticed that the coachmen in livery appeared to be 
 novices at their work, and I recognised under the cockaded 
 hats of these charioteers faces I had often seen on the 
 Boulevards. 
 
 I was all the more polite, I confess, towards the 
 Americans, by reason of my distrust of the English, and my 
 bearing resulted in my being continually asked for, by Mr 
 Washburne, to conduct these little expeditions, as appears 
 from the following letter — 
 
 'Paris, October 23, 1870. 
 
 ' Monsieur le Ministre, 
 
 ' I have the honour to inform you that the letter 
 in which you requested me to provide for the departure of 
 your countrymen at noon to-morrow reached me so late 
 that it was impossible for me to give the needful orders. 
 
 ' I will take the necessary steps to-morrow to secure 
 their departure on Tuesday, the 25th inst., at the same 
 hour, and I will place at your disposal my orderly officer, 
 M. d'Herisson, in accordance with your expressed desire. 
 
 ' I have the honour, &c, &c, 
 
 'General Trochu.' 
 
 I recollect that, one day when I was returning from one 
 of these convoy expeditions, the first French sentinel whom 
 I passed as I left the Prussians was a man of a certain age, 
 with a soldier-like and energetic face, who wore on his long 
 coat the cross of an officer of the Legion of Honour. I 
 asked the officer in command of the main-£ruard who the
 
 1 64 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 individual was whose appearance had so struck me. He 
 replied, 
 
 ' It is Meissonier, the painter.' 
 
 He fought between his pictures. 
 
 On the day of the Bagneux engagement the shells from 
 Mont-Valerien set fire to the Park of Saint Cloud, where 
 one could see the perpetual movement of German officers ; 
 and from the bridge of Sevres I saw all night long stand- 
 ing out in bold relief on the horizon, like a gigantic scenic 
 effect, the black outline of the Imperial Castle, whence 
 Napoleon III set out for the war, conspicuous amid an 
 immense bouquet of flame which lighted up from below 
 the clouds of smoke overhanging the auto-da-fe. 
 
 On the 21st was fought the battle of La Jonchere, one 
 of the most bloody of all the siege, where Ducrot, who 
 commanded, bore himself so valiantly as to win the en- 
 thusiasm of the Parisians, and at the same time to cause 
 the Germans a few moments of fear in regard to the 
 security of their Head-quarters at Versailles. There was 
 it appears, a regular alarm at Versailles that day. M. de 
 Moltke and the King of Prussia were present on the heights 
 of Marly in order to encourage the fresh troops who denied 
 unceasingly before them down the hill towards La Jonchere 
 and La Malmaison ; these continued reinforcements ended 
 by getting the better of our men, too few and too deficient 
 of adequate reserves. 
 
 I do not know any pleasure from a military point of view 
 more intoxicating than that of galloping over a field of battle 
 where the troops are behaving well, to deliver an order or 
 gain information. To the excitement of the moment is 
 added the pleasure of seeing everything, instead of shiver- 
 ing behind a wall or at the bottom of a ditch, and receiving 
 invisible bullets without moving an inch. You enjoy the
 
 FROM THE ( 'A PI TOL TO THE T'A RJ'EIA X HOCK 1 65 
 
 feeling of responsibility without being borne down by the 
 necessity of continually answering for men on whom you 
 cannot always rely. 
 
 You see the machinery at work, and in a way affect the 
 victory. Between the position of a staff-officer and an 
 ordinary officer there is a difference to a certain extent 
 analogous to that between a sailor, standing on the bridge 
 and feeling the ship moving under his feet, and an engineer 
 who is in the engine room, seeing nothing, not knowing if 
 the enemy is being boarded or run down, or if the latter 
 fate is happening to his own ship. 
 
 I galloped about during the whole of the day of the 
 battle of La Jonchere, carrying orders, among the once 
 jo} r ous spots where I found, amid the noise and smoke of 
 powder, fragments of my young days almost every where 
 and the reminiscences of the last year's gaiety. 
 
 On such days the Generals were like shepherds, the men 
 like sheep, and the Staff-Officers like dogs running on the 
 tianks of the flock to turn them this or that way, and 
 even in front to turn them back. Nothing can be more 
 interesting. 
 
 Three or four times I came across my brother, who was 
 Orderly Officer to General Berthaut; he, too, had plenty 
 to do, and had a somewhat singular adventure. 
 
 At the turn of a road he fell into the middle of half a 
 score of Prussians, who seized his bridle, made him dismount, 
 took him prisoner and led him away. A few paces farther 
 on, the squad in the middle of which he was marching, came 
 round the corner of a wall upon the Zouaves commanded by 
 Jacquot. 
 
 My brother, who was educated in Germany and spoke 
 German as well as French, turned round and said coolly to 
 his conductors.
 
 166 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 'Will you be good enough to give me back my horse, 
 and since you made me prisoner allow me in my turn to 
 make }*ou the same.' 
 
 When night fell the retreat was sounded as usual, and 
 in this retreat we lost ten guns, which did not prevent 
 Paris — such was its desire to conquer — from looking upon 
 this day as a victory. 
 
 Near La Jonchere I witnessed a curious episode. 
 
 Some soldiers who were rushing to the front called out 
 as they passed me, 
 
 ' The sergeant has killed the black bird. It was high 
 time.' 
 
 A few paces further on I saw, writhing in agony, and for 
 all the world like a circus clown walking on his hips, an 
 individual, very carefully dressed in black velvet coat and 
 knickerbockers, who had been hit full in the breast by a 
 bullet tired, according to the soldiers, by their sergeant. 
 One of them told me that for several clays they had noticed 
 this individual constantly on the watch for our sentries, 
 and that he never lost an opportunity of giving them a 
 bullet from his Snider carbine. He fired with extraordinary 
 precision and rarely failed to hit his mark. They had nick- 
 named him the black bird. He was an Englishman ; an 
 eccentric fanatic who made war on his own account as an 
 amateur and an ally of the Prussians. He was despatched 
 by a bayonet, and I am pretty sure that neither his watch 
 nor his purse found their way to the English Embassy. 
 At all events I had not time to find out, having business 
 elsewhere.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 TROCHU AT HOME 
 
 The French and the Theatre. — The Staff of the Governor. — Madame Trochu. — The 
 Governor at Table. — The Chief of the Head-quarters Staff. — Rehabilitation 
 of Horse-flesh. — A Tale of Cheeses. — The Legion of Honour and the Military 
 Medal. — The General's Pipes. — Father Olivaint. — Sainte Genevieve, Patron 
 Saint of Paris. 
 
 French readers love to see great men, or well-known men, 
 in their dressing-gowns — lovers of the stage, they not only 
 have a taste for performances, but also the epicurism of the 
 coulisses. The nearer the seats are to the curtain the 
 more they pay for them. The regular subscriber to the 
 opera prefers the corner where the drums deafen him, 
 the double-basses groan in his ears, or the trombone 
 cracks his tympanum, to the last row of the stalls, 
 whence he can take in the whole scene with his eyes and 
 the orchestra with his ears. In France only is the box of 
 the Chief of the State placed close to the stage. Every- 
 where else it is in front — in the centre.
 
 1 68 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 I am borrowing from the theatre, you see, a preamble 
 for my description of poor General Trochu at home, though 
 he certainly is not a theatre goer, and in all probability has 
 never been behind the scenes. I am wrong, and I venture 
 to say that though for all of us it is the height of enjoy- 
 ment to see the artists in their box, my readers would not 
 thank me to take them into the Trochu box, albeit a 
 handsome one — in short, the Louvre. 
 
 The General appeared in his office regularly at half-past 
 eight. He rose more than an hour earlier. He worked 
 without cessation until the breakfast hour — eleven o'clock. 
 At this meal, presided over by Madame Trochu, all the 
 officers of the General's personal staff were present, except 
 Commandant Prince Bibesco, who lived with his family in 
 the Louvre above the Governor's suite of apartments. The 
 Princess during the siege presented him with a little girl, 
 who, like the grandson of Louis Philippe, received the name 
 of Paris. I should have preferred Lutece — much more 
 poetical for a woman. 
 
 Here I think I ought to record the names of the officers 
 who gravitated round this star of the first magnitude, 
 whether as attached to the Personal Staff or the General 
 Staff of the Government. They were Generals Schmitz and 
 Foy, Colonel Usquin, Lieutenant-Colonel de Lemud ; Com- 
 mandants Prince Bibesco, de Brou, Faivre, Vigneral, 
 Lestrohan, Madelor, and Bidot; Squadron Leaders Bourcart 
 and Lunel ; Captains Brunet, Barrois, Thory, de Monte- 
 bello, de Beam, de Montesquioux, d'Herisson, de Beaumont, 
 Barthelemy, Delatre, Brunet-Richard, and Lair ; and 
 Lieutenants de Langle, d'Hendecourt, and Choppin 
 d'Arnouville. M. Pollet, one of the most intelligent assis- 
 tants in the Prefecture of Police, acted, as I have already
 
 TR0C1IU AT HOME 169 
 
 said, as Special Commissary of Police, a civil Provost- 
 Marshal. 
 
 Madame Trochu was a woman of very great merit, who 
 commanded both respect and sympathy. Her countenance, 
 calm, majestic, and sweet, was at this time framed in 
 beautiful white hair, which made her look older than her 
 husband. She divided her time between her household 
 duties, to which she attended very closely, and frequent 
 visits to the ambulances. 
 
 I remember her one day telling us at breakfast that 
 she had been to pay a visit to the ambulance established in 
 the Theatre-Francais, and that she had been struck by the 
 simplicity, devotion, and quiet and composed bearing of 
 the ladies of the house of Moliere. She repeated what 
 Mdlle. Favart, who was presented to her, had said. 
 
 ' What, madame ! ' said the actress with a queenly 
 gesture, ' you are the wife of our hero ! ' 
 
 And Trochu, modestly and slily, replied, 
 
 ' The theatre never entirely loses its privileges ! ' 
 
 Besides his personal staff, the General entertained a few 
 General Officers or distinguished personages every day. 
 One day it would be Ducrot, an old comrade in arms, who 
 chatted familiarly with him ; another time it would be 
 Krantz, also a friend and a schoolfellow as well, who after- 
 wards organised the Exhibition of 1878. 
 
 General Schmitz occasionally came up to breakfast or 
 dine with the Governor, but his appearances were few and 
 far between. As a rule he took his meals on his desk by 
 the side of his inkstand. 
 
 Never were human faculties, mental or physical, sub- 
 jected to such a severe strain as that endured by General 
 Schmitz. 
 
 The post of Chief of the Staff of a regularly organised
 
 170 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 army is one which frightens many Generals, and which 
 very few can fill efficiently ; but to be Chief of the Staff" of 
 an army which does not exist, but has to be collected and 
 organised under fire, and which comprises and unites a 
 turbulent and excited population ; to add to these duties 
 the functions of commissary-general and town-major, to see 
 after arms and provisions, to confront the enemy without 
 and within, to attend to Prussians and rioters — all this 
 constitutes a very hell in which any other nature than that 
 of General Schmitz would have become enervated. 
 
 Everything was done in a few days, and if the French 
 did not then feel for the General all the admiration he 
 deserved, the whole of military Europe did him justice by 
 its astonishment. 
 
 Moreover, General Schmitz was no novice, and those 
 who had seen him at work knew his capacity, not only as 
 an organiser but as a soldier, a soldier in every acceptation 
 of the word, a soldier attending to his colours alone, a 
 .soldier disdainful of politics, and willingly holding aloof 
 from every party. In China we had seen him, under the 
 command of Montauban, assure the success of an extra- 
 ordinary and marvellous campaign, trace the plan of attack 
 against a fort, bombard it, enter it through a breach, and 
 plant the French Hag with his own hands on the ruins, in 
 sight of the wonder-struck English army. 
 
 The Germans, who know what Generals are, have in a 
 classification of our commanders in order of merit, drawn 
 up for their own edification, assigned him the second rank. 
 
 Together with the ordinary guests, the two officers in 
 personal attendance on General Trochu were always at table. 
 He had a horror of privileges, and with good cause, for he 
 had suffered from them. He was the first to submit to being 
 put on an allowance in regard to rations, and voluntarily
 
 TROCIIU AT HOME 1 7 1 
 
 placed himself on the same footing in regard to provisions, 
 as other divisional commanders, instead of taking the higher 
 scale to which he was entitled as Governor and supreme 
 chief. The menus were, therefore, modest, and horse flesh 
 was frequently the basis of our nourishment. And as a 
 matter of fact it was not bad. Provided the beast is young 
 and has not done too much work ; provided that the guest 
 is like the beast, young, and especially if he, unlike it, has 
 suffered a little, the two agree perfectly. 
 
 Towards the end of the siege, when the question of 
 eatables became a capital and vital one, Trochu multiplied 
 his invitations among the Officers of the Head-quarters Staff. 
 In those hard times an egg cost three francs, and I fancy 
 that the pay of the Governor at that particular time passed 
 directly from the hands of the Paymaster-in-Chief of the 
 army into those of the Head-quarters cook. 
 
 On one occasion a piece of good luck from an culinary 
 point of view befell me, which brought me almost as much 
 honour as a well conducted reconnaissance in front of an 
 enemy would have done ; I was fortunate enough to supply 
 the Head-quarters table. I was riding along past the central 
 markets when my nostrils were pleasantly tickled by a 
 strong odour of cheese. Naturally, my first thought was to 
 find out the domicile of the maggots which revealed 
 themselves so indiscreetly. I marked the odorous spot 
 and made enquiries among the people of the neigh- 
 bourhood. After much research I ended by discovering 
 that not only were these blessed cheeses not for sale, but 
 that, having been deposited in their present locality by 
 some administration or other, they were probably forgotten, 
 and were protesting in their way against the irksomeness 
 of captivity. I went and made a circumstantial and 
 detailed report to the Minister of Commerce and Agricul-
 
 i 7 2 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 ture, ay ho knew nothing of the depot in question. As 
 every labourer is worthy of his hire, and the Agricultural 
 Order of Merit had not then been invented, I claimed as 
 the price of my discovery and exertions, a recompense in 
 kind. On the following day I received the following 
 document : 
 
 'Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. 
 'Monsieur le Capitaine, 
 
 ' I have the honour to forward herewith, by order of 
 the Minister, a gratuity of 10 kilogrammes of Dutch cheese. 
 I regret that I was not in the office when you called. I 
 would have handed you the gratuity on the spot. 
 
 ' For the Minister of Commerce. 
 ' By Order, 
 
 ' Carmes.' 
 
 One day when we were at table, the General was 
 informed that a functionary of the Legion of Honour 
 wished to see him. He brought with him several water- 
 colour drawings, showing the various changes which the 
 Go\ T ernment proposed making in the insignia of the Legion 
 of Honour and in the military medal. 
 
 ' Here,' said the Governor to me, as he handed over the 
 papers, 'you are the only wearer of this military medal. 
 Choose the model which pleases you most.' 
 
 The designers had not brought much imagination to 
 bear on their work. All the suggestions were horrible 
 alike. I chose the model which appeared to me to be the 
 least ugly, the ungraceful trophy which now surmounts the 
 military medal. 
 
 ' Why change ? ' said I timidly to the Governor. 
 
 ' How do I know ? ' he replied. ' These gentlemen assert 
 that it is necessary. As for me, I think nothing can pos-
 
 TR0C1IU AT HOME 173 
 
 sil>ly be iii worse taste than these mutilations inflicted on 
 an Order created by a sovereign.' 
 
 I dared not say how thoroughly I agreed with him. 
 A nation, according to a saying as just as it is celebrated — 
 and the conjunction of these two epithets is extraordinary 
 in itself — having invariably the government it deserves, 
 dishonours itself in seeking to dishonour those who have 
 governed it. 
 
 One of two things — either the medal was a good institu- 
 tion, or it was a bad one. In the latter case it should have 
 been suppressed. In the former, it should have been pre- 
 served as it was without being caricatured. With such 
 narrow views as we unfortunately have ever with us, the 
 head of Henri IV on the Legion of Honour created by 
 Napoleon I would not excite any astonishment. 
 
 I myself have no words too strong wherein to protest 
 against the stupid feeling which prompts the French nation, 
 w r henever there is a change of government, to attack the 
 statues of fallen chiefs of the State or the emblems of 
 departed regimes, even though these statues and emblems 
 are works of art, and though the genius which fashioned 
 them should render them sacred to all. As if a nation does 
 not honour itself by having ever before its eyes material 
 evidences of its past greatness or misfortunes ! As if every- 
 thing in the history of our ancestors does not form part of 
 the national heritage, the common patrimony ! 
 
 But I have gone a long way from Trochu. I will return 
 to him. 
 
 The General was a smoker. The love he bore his pipe 
 made him hurry his dessert, and he went down as soon as 
 possible to his office where, enveloped in the clouds of his 
 calumet, he set to work, interrupting himself only to receive 
 such visitors as proved too strong to be kept in check by the
 
 i74 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 • 
 orderly officer in the first instance, and by General Schmitz 
 
 afterwards. Regularly towards two o'clock he mounted his 
 horse, visited the forts, the ramparts, the various sections of 
 the fortifications, the arsenals and workshops, held 
 reviews and, in a word, did everything attaching to his 
 office and contributing to the defence of Paris. 
 
 On his return, between four and five o'clock, he worked 
 again until dinner. After that with his pipe between his 
 teeth, he slept by the fireside until nine o'clock, that is 
 to say, until the time came for him to betake himself to the 
 Hotel de Ville, where the members of the National Defence 
 met every night to consult under his presidency. 
 
 The room in which they met was on the first floor. The 
 sittings were prolonged, three o'clock often striking before 
 they separated. 
 
 When he got back to the Louvre the Governor 
 returned once more to his office to work and smoke one or 
 two pipes, after which he went to bed, only to get up again 
 very soon and begin his daily round with a regularity 
 which was astonishing amid all the extraordinary and 
 irregular events that were passing around him. 
 
 The main features of General Trochu's character were 
 complete evenness of temper, imperturbable coolness, and 
 extreme kindness. He was consequently a very agreeable 
 chief to serve under, and all the more so because his kind- 
 ness was not carried to a ridiculous extent, and because he 
 estimated and looked after his officers solely in accordance 
 with their merit, their devotion, and the services they 
 rendered him. 
 
 From out the habitue* of the Louvre and the familiar 
 friends of the General, one face, interesting and impos- 
 ing alike, stood conspicuous. It was that of Father 
 Olivaint, the Superior of the Jesuits of the Rue dc Sevres
 
 TROCIIU AT HOME 
 
 175 
 
 who paid regular visits to the Governor. An old pupil 
 of the Normal School, and a remarkable man in every 
 way, this priest, who was destined very soon to merit a 
 martyr's crown, had a sincere and frank affection for the 
 General. There existed between them a sort of confra- 
 ternity and devotion, and the priest, the man of religious 
 duty, encouraged the soldier, the man of military duty. 
 Their conversations were frequent, lengthy, and of the 
 utmost cordiality. 
 
 By contact with this enthusiastic soul, the mystic soul 
 of Trochu was aroused, his military doubts subsided, and 
 he arrived at a belief in the possibility of a direct, 
 miraculous, divine intervention to save France from the 
 horror of invasion, and to drive back the hordes of the 
 modern Atilla ! 
 
 Attila ! When these two men pronounced that name and 
 called forth that reminiscence, there passed between them, 
 poetical and sweet, the vision of the virgin of Nanterre, 
 Genevieve, the young girl whose native village slept below, 
 under the muzzles of the guns of Mont ValeYien, and who, 
 so runs the legend, with her distaff drove off the savage 
 bands sent forth by Germany, the shaggy warriors whose 
 descendants were once more encamped round Paris. 
 
 From their conversations, most probably, General Trochu 
 conceived the idea of placing the city of Paris, afresh and 
 with all due solemnity, under the direct protection of St 
 Genevieve by an act of the Government, and of recurring 
 to the ancient patronage of the heroine of the Gauls. 
 
 It was in the last days of the siege. The bombardment 
 had just begun. He drew up a proclamation in this sense, 
 and sent the manuscript to the Government Printing Office. 
 It was set up as a placard to be posted all over Paris. 
 
 As usual, two proofs were sent to the Governor, to be by
 
 176 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 him submitted for the approval of the members of the 
 Government. When he had finished reading, a profound, 
 icy silence prevailed round the council table. Everybody 
 looked at everybody else. Not one of the astounded 
 lawyers could believe his ears. Jules Favre sprang 
 from his chair as if a shell had burst underneath him, and 
 stood up, expressing his surprise and disapprobation with 
 an amount of vivacity beyond the bonds of propriety. 
 
 He did not wish, he said with much gesticulation, to 
 cover himself with ridicule in the eyes of his constituents. 
 He would not join those who thought fit to call for the in- 
 tervention of God and the saints in our affairs. It was 
 against common sense. There was no need of God to thrash 
 the Prussians. And then, in a vein of sarcasm, he added 
 that the Prussians also believed in God and invoked his aid, 
 and that it was not respectful to place that venerable 
 personage in the sad predicament of having to despise 
 Prussian adoration in favour of French genuflexion, or 
 vice versa. 
 
 .' Once more General Trochu, defeated all along the line, 
 retreated in good order. The proclamation was not posted 
 up. I have kept a copy of this curious document, and here 
 it is. 
 
 'PROCLAMATION. 
 
 'French Republic. 
 
 ' The Governor of Paris. 
 
 ' To the Defenders of Paris. 
 
 ' To the Families of Paris. 
 
 ' We have arrived at the fourth month of the siege, and 
 this great effort has moved the country profoundly. It
 
 TROCIIU AT HOME 177 
 
 is in arms, and is everywhere valiantly contesting the 
 territory against the enemy. 
 
 ' I am a believer, and I have asked St Genevieve, the 
 liberator of Paris in the days of the barbarians, to shield 
 Paris once more with her protection. She has willed it so 
 that at this very hour the prayer has been heard. She has 
 providentially inspired in the enemy the thought of the 
 bombardment which is dishonouring the German armSj 
 which dishonours civilisation, and which brings out, in so 
 brilliant and touching a manner, the firmness of the people 
 of Paris. 
 
 ' Women, children, sick and wounded, are perishing ; 
 but public opinion, which governs the world, is now and 
 will remain wholly with us. 
 
 ' When the enemy thinks that we are crushed by the 
 bombardment, he will redouble his efforts. I am sure of 
 repulsing him. Your hour will come. 
 
 ' Prepare yourselves for desperate struggles. Be vigi- 
 lant. Economise your resources. Place yourselves on regular 
 rations. Let all those who have stocks of grain or flour 
 hand them over to the Government of the Defence for the 
 common need. Prolong the duration of the siege by every 
 means that patriotism can inspire. In a word, continue 
 the series of fruitful sacrifices of which you have given for 
 so many days so noble an example. And, above all things, 
 preserve to the latest hour your faith, which some seek to 
 destroy, in the deliverance of your country. 
 
 ' General Trochu. 
 ' Paris, January 14, 1871.' 
 
 I trust I may be pardoned if I refrain from discussing 
 
 the question whether Paris, when placed under the pro- 
 
 M
 
 1 78 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 tection of St Genevieve, would have been saved, and if I do 
 not dwell upon the somewhat ingenuous idea that God 
 permitted the bombardment in order to make the justice of 
 our cause clear, and to confound Prussia. It belongs to the 
 category of unfortunate though necessary phrases which 
 should only be re-read after victory. 
 
 But I have a right to think and say that when, in 
 governing a great nation, one project is that of taking away 
 from it all religious faith, and when, in order to realise 
 that, the education of children is ordered to be carried on 
 without respect for, or fear of, a Creator, it is necessary that 
 something should be found to replace the faith which has 
 given birth to so many miracles, so much devotion, and so 
 much regeneration. Let us suppress God, if you will, but 
 let us put something in His place. And supposing it to 
 be impossible to discover a moral mechanism destined to 
 replace the great mainspring which has ceased to please, 
 it would be well to allow it to go on working, unless, 
 indeed, it is considered preferable to stop the watch 
 altogether. 
 
 And I am of opinion that a besieged Government which 
 capitulates as ours did, after having disdained this moral 
 weapon, is as culpable in the eyes of history, if not before 
 a council of war, as the commandant of a fortress who 
 surrenders it to the enemy without having once removed 
 the leathern cover which protects the breech of his largest 
 guns. 
 
 I will also willingly confess, however unimportant my 
 confession may be, that it would be difficult to be more ill- 
 advised than the author of this proclamation, entirely due to 
 the pen of General Trochu. I will admit that this mode of 
 representing the bombardment of Paris as an acquiescence 
 of the holy patrons of the city in the prayers of the chief
 
 TROCIIU AT HOME 179 
 
 of its defenders, was a singular figure of rhetoric. I will 
 allow that there existed six-and-thirty modes of qualifying 
 the shells which destroyed several roofs on the left bank 
 of the Seine before having done them the honour to give 
 them notice — the results of a providential inspiration. 
 
 I will only ask if there were not at that moment in 
 Paris men who, if they had possessed a pen and controlled 
 a printing-office, would not have indited phrases even more 
 ill-advised and ridiculous, and have been pardoned for 
 them. 
 
 Let him among us who did not, either in public or in 
 private, write nonsense during the siege, cast the first 
 stone at the Governor of Paris.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE THIRTY-FIRST OF OCTOBER 
 
 Rise and Fall of an Idol. — The Three Strata of Paris. — Rochefort and Dorian. — 
 The New Popular Leaders. — The Capitulation of Metz. — "With the Advanced 
 Posts. — Hypotheses. — Bourget. — Paris Waxes Wroth. — ' Vive la Commune.' 
 ' A bas Trochu.' — ' Pas d' Armistice.' — Flourens. — On the Square of the Hotel 
 de Ville. — Invasion. — At the Council Board of the Government. —A Night of 
 Anguish. — Picard, Adam, Ferry. — A Compact. — Deliverance. — The Engage- 
 ments of M. Ferry. 
 
 When General Trochu arrived in Paris towards the middle 
 of August, invested with the title and functions of Gover- 
 nor, there were not ten people who would have refused to 
 acknowledge him as the first soldier of France, the saviour 
 of the country. 
 
 A month later a few men might he heard, timidly at 
 first, as if ashamed of their temerity, contesting his right to 
 be considered a practical General, if not his value as a 
 theorist, and mildly insinuating that the saviour would 
 possibly save nothing. These men belonged to the upper 
 and intelligent classes.
 
 THE THIRTY-FIRST OF OCTOBER 181 
 
 A fortnight later the faubourgs furnished a contingent 
 some thousands strong to hiss and hoot him on the square 
 of the Hotel de Ville. 
 
 At the end of October he had against him the aristocratic 
 quarter, the faubourgs, and the lower orders. 
 
 Paris contains two million inhabitants, but of this total 
 there are, at the very most, only a few thousands who are 
 capable of forming independent opinions — they are the 
 upper crust. Instead of the word croilte I might have used 
 g nt tin if it had not been monopolised by a few ridiculous 
 fops and giddy women. 
 
 Below this is the main body, a thick stratum of people 
 who live, eat, drink, sleep, and assimilate to themselves the 
 ideas of other people — a stratum without any originality 
 of its own, but not devoid of virtues. 
 
 Lower still, quite at the bottom, is one-tenth of the 
 population, 200,000 individuals, devoid alike of originality 
 and virtues, incapable of thinking, but quick to seize upon 
 any idea, provided it is violent and subversive of order. 
 Cowardly and ferocious alike, they are armed and ready 
 to follow either rascals unconscious of their rascality, or 
 deliberate villains clever enough to lead them. These are 
 the dregs of Paris. 
 
 In quiet times the intermediate mass willingly submits 
 to the influence and action of the intelligent, educated, and 
 refined upper crust. In revolutionary times the dregs boil 
 over as if under the action of an internal fire, invade the 
 intermediate mass, penetrate it, drag it onwards, sulty it, 
 and upset it. 
 
 Trochu, then, at the end of October had lost the upper 
 crust and the dregs of the Parisian population. But the 
 upper crust did not say anything, and the dregs had not 
 yet made any serious movement.
 
 182 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 They were on the point of doing so. 
 
 The personages who surrounded Trochu were not 
 calculated to excite enthusiasm or rouse applause. Nobody 
 was tempted to worship them — they were merely accepted. 
 
 I make an exception in favour of two men, one in the 
 Government, the other in the Ministry — Rochefort and 
 Dorian. Rochefort from the commencement of the war 
 had been, with Trochu, the most popular man. There 
 was, however, a shadow of a difference ; Trochu had all 
 three strata with him, while Rochefort had but two ; the 
 upper crust held aloof from him. He was clever enough to 
 leave the Government in time to preserve his popular favour 
 intact. His resignation is dated the 29th of October. 
 
 As for Dorian, he, although a republican, rightly took 
 up a non-political position, and, shut up inside the Ministry 
 of public works, confined his thoughts and his action to 
 the national defence, in which he was a marvellous worker, 
 casting guns, manufacturing carriages, and producing 
 ammunition. The masses, even the most stupid and violent 
 among them, had preserved by some miraculous means, I 
 know not what, sufficient good sense to appreciate this inde- 
 fatigable worker, and to assign him in their devotion a place 
 alongside their worst fanatics, with whom, by the way, his 
 character was absolutely at variance. 
 
 The remainder had no prestige whatever, lawyers, 
 philosophers, or old fashioned veterans. 
 
 Under the Empire they had personified the Opposition ; 
 on the 4th of September they seized upon the Government. 
 The people looked upon the whole thing as natural and 
 logical. They had never asked to be consulted, and the 
 others accepted the silence of the populace as hearty con- 
 sent, and indulgent public opinion as enthusiastic adhesion. 
 
 But they did not stand alone as guiding the adverse people
 
 THE THIRTY FIRST OF OCTOBER 183 
 
 of Paris. Not unaided had they obtained the celebrated 
 1,400,000 Xon of the plebiscite. They had instruments, 
 men, under their orders. Like old and prudent generals, 
 they had sent forth against the Imperial foe, young, impul- 
 sive, and impassioned colonels, and had promised them a 
 share in the rich plunder. The enemy had succumbed, 
 thanks to the rather powerful diversion effected by 800,000 
 Prussians. The rich plunder, considerably reduced, it must 
 be confessed, by the invasion, had fallen into their power, 
 and their auxiliaries in the rash struggle were ever at hand 
 awaiting the division of the spoil, present at the cutting up 
 of the quarry, but taking no part in it. 
 
 At the head of their faithful cohorts these young and 
 impetuous colonels, such as Flourens, Milliere, Grousset 
 Rigaut, and so many others, waited idle and impatient. In 
 order not to leave any stone unturned they had secured a 
 few old idols, whom death had neglected, Blanqui, Felix 
 Pyat, Ledru-Rollin, the shade of Barbes, quite an arsenal of 
 ancestors, to bring into use. They were ready. 
 
 They asked, with inexorable, if not patriotic logic, why 
 and by virtue of what rule, supreme power had devolved on 
 the deputies for Paris, and not on themselves, the recog- 
 nised chiefs of the popular troops ; they considered it 
 extraordinary that they should have been summoned at one 
 and the same time to overthrow one master in order to put 
 twelve others in his place ; they compared their mandate 
 with that of the Government, and saw no difference between 
 them ; they made capital out of the revolutionary appetites 
 of certain battalions, and also utilised the irritation of 
 some otheis who were vexed and humiliated by having 
 shouted a Berlin so often, whereas, after all, they were 
 caught in Paris as in a mouse-trap.
 
 184 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 They were ready to act. Opportunity and the word of 
 command were alone lacking. 
 
 They found the word of command first. Events and 
 the clumsiness of the Government were preparing an 
 opportunity. 
 
 On the 27th of October, the newspaper, La Combat, a 
 blood-red organ, announced in precise terms that Marshal 
 Baziane had sent an officer to treat with Prince Frederick 
 Charles for the capitulation of Metz. 
 
 It was true, for the capitulation of Metz was signed that 
 very day. But nobody knew anything about it ; nobody 
 expected it, and the news fell like a bombshell in the 
 middle of besieged Paris. 
 
 The Government were the first to be taken by surprise, 
 and they denied it in a clumsy way, leaving themselves no 
 opening for retreat in case the news should be confirmed, 
 calling the Marshal, who had actually surrendered his 
 army, the glorious Bazaine, and stigmatising the Combat 
 as a Prussian organ. 
 
 How could this newspaper have been so well informed ? 
 Was it a mere chance assertion, or had hatred bestowed 
 double sight upon its editors ? I do not think so, and I 
 have a very simple explanation of the speedy propagation 
 of the very serious news. 
 
 It was perfectly well known in the Prussian camp 
 before Metz on the evening of the 24th, or, at all events 
 on the morning of the 25th, that Bazaine was surrendering. 
 On the same day detachments of troops left the Prussian 
 camp by forced marches, on the urgent demand of the 
 Versailles Staff, in order to reinforce the investing cordon 
 round Paris, which was too weak in many places. 
 
 For we must not forget that, although, from a military 
 point of view, it was impossible for troops sallying out of
 
 THE THIRTY-FIRST OF OCTOBER 185 
 
 Paris to break the line of Prussian battalions drawn up 
 against them, we could on the next day, or the one 
 following, have advanced at any spot against the enemy 
 with forces numerically superior to theirs. 
 
 I am convinced that if, instead of General Trochu, Paris 
 had been governed by a Pelissier, 200,000 of the Garde 
 Nationale would have been killed before Paris. In all 
 probability he would have had to surrender with the 
 remainder, and he would have been accounted a butcher. 
 
 Consequently, on the 26th, there might have been out- 
 side Paris, especially at Saint-Denis, German soldiers from 
 Metz, who knew that Bazaine was g-oin^ to treat. 
 
 Now we have to take another circumstance into con- 
 sideration. The French and German advanced posts did 
 not spend all their time in killing each other. They 
 nearly always kept well out of range. And frequently, 
 when there was no fear of being caught by their officers, 
 they approached each other, not exactly to fraternise, but 
 to do each other some little service, or make some small 
 exchange. 
 
 Not only did the Prussian sentries nearly always refrain 
 from firing on the French marauders who sallied out to dig 
 up the potatoes or onions forgotten in the devastated fields, 
 but they occasionally compelled them to give up, or even to 
 sell the produce of their perilous labour. 
 
 The advanced sentries came together sometimes to buy 
 a pipe of tobacco. This may appear improbable, but it is, 
 nevertheless, a fact. Or the German sentry, who is fond of 
 bacon and had none, bartered his fresh meat for a bit of 
 salt pork. 
 
 In a word I repeat, and I know what I am saying, that 
 though individual intercourse was strictly and naturally
 
 1 86 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 forbidden, it was much commoner than might have been 
 supposed. 
 
 Taking all this into consideration, it may very easily 
 have happened that a German soldier, conversing with a 
 French one, said to him, 
 
 ' You know that some of our comrades have come from 
 Metz. Bazaine is going to capitulate.' 
 
 The difference of language is no reason for rejecting this 
 explanation, for there were thousands of men in the 
 Lcmchvehr who spoke French, who came from France, and 
 even from Paris, to return thither via Mayence, Frankfort, 
 or Berlin. 
 
 It is also said that a non-commissioned officer who was 
 made prisoner at Saint-Denis announced the capitulation, 
 and that he was never heard of again. 
 
 Again, it is stated that Prussia had in Paris, especially 
 among the revolutionary press, spies who were never 
 discovered, but who were in communication with Ver- 
 sailles, and that one of them brought, by order, the news 
 to the Combat, which accepted it without any knowledge 
 or suspicion of the connections of its reporter. 
 
 Finally, it was maintained that the revolutionary 
 cohesion of the members of that school which recognises no 
 frontiers, had silenced the hatred between the two nations, 
 and that the Parisian socialists never ceased to correspond 
 fraternally and secretly with the German socialists. 
 
 Of these four hypotheses mine is the best. I have cogent 
 reasons for saying so, and if I keep them to myself, it is 
 simply because the ascertained names of the bearers of the 
 sinister news would not convey any information to any- 
 body. 
 
 However this may be, the rumour that Bazaine was 
 capitulating, or had capitulated, vibrated like the beating of
 
 THE THIRTY-FIRST OF OCTOBER 187 
 
 the tocsin on the suddenly acute ears of Paris, and the 
 counter statement of the Government relative to the 
 ' glorious ' Marshal did not in any way dissipate the anxieties 
 or dispel the black clouds which overhung the minds of all. 
 
 On the following day, the 28th, at 3 A.M. General de 
 Bellemare ordered a company of 300 franc-tireurs to take 
 possession of Bourget. The order was executed, and the 
 Prussian detachment occupying the village, which consisted 
 of a double row of houses, one on either side of the main 
 road, was surprised and driven out. 
 
 On the morning of the 29th the news of the capture of 
 Bourget reached us at Head-quarters. General de Bellemare 
 had acted without orders. The Governor and his Chief of 
 the Staff considered the affair useless and irregular. 
 
 ' This is increasing the death roll for nothing at all.' 
 Such was the first reflection which greeted the despatch of 
 General de Bellemare. 
 
 Situated on the north-east of Paris, rather more than 
 three kilometres to the east of St Denis, Bourget, as 
 General Trochu said formed no part of the general plan of 
 defence. 
 
 The Prussians had been permitted to take up a position 
 there from the 20th of September, and nobody had even 
 thought of a sortie on that side. 
 
 Its capture could not compromise the situation of the 
 investing army. It, however, compelled the Prussians to 
 widen their circle and make a detour. It did not hurt 
 them, but it inconvenienced them to a certain extent. 
 
 It is very certain that if the same action had been 
 taken all round Paris, the German cordon, by reason of 
 being extended, would in the end have been broken. But, 
 as an isolated case, the attack and success were not of
 
 1 88 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 much account, and were not really worth the blood shed 
 upon them. 
 
 Such was not the opinion of Paris. The papers and 
 their readers looked upon the capture of Bourget as a 
 veritable victory. 
 
 It would have been well if this view had penetrated 
 into high places, however unreasonable and unmilitary it 
 may have 1 >een. 
 
 General Trochu had repeated over and over again that 
 his government was dependent on public opinion. He 
 would, perhaps, have acted wisely, or at all events cleverly, 
 if he had followed public opinion even in its folly, for, after 
 all, it was not dangerous, and to fight for fighting's sake, if 
 I may use the expression, is worth just as much in one 
 place as another. 
 
 What ought to have been done then was to send bat- 
 talion after battalion, battery after battery, to Bourget. 
 
 That is precisely what the Prussians did. 
 
 They probably attached no more importance to Bourget 
 than we ourselves did. They had no more need of it than 
 we had. But it did not suit them to lose any conquered 
 ground whatever. Above all, it did not suit them to see 
 any revival of spirit among the inhabitants of Paris; even 
 though it was due to a success more apparent than real. 
 
 And so with admirable tenacity they did everything 
 necessary to recover possession of Bourget. I believe that, 
 if we had followed their example, the two armies would 
 have spent their last man on this paltry position. 
 
 We did not imitate them. 
 
 As a matter of fact, General de Bellemare reinforced the 
 handful of men who had got into Bourget. He brought up 
 the numbers there to 3000, and asked for reinforcements 
 and ammunition waggons.
 
 THE THIRTY-FIRST OF OCTOBER 189 
 
 The attack on Bourget took place l>y night. In the 
 morning the Prussians returned the attack, and were re- 
 pulsed. On the following day, the 29th, they bombarded 
 the village from a distance. On the 30th they recom- 
 menced their artillery lire, and developed a movement to 
 surround it. Half the defenders of Bourget, worn out by 
 the preceding engagements, and demoralised by a night 
 passed in the rain, took to flight. There remained in the 
 village less than 1500 men, under the command of Baroche 
 and Brasseur. They made a splendid defence. Baroche 
 shot himself, and those who survived, about a thousand, 
 were made prisoners. 
 
 Not until then was there any serious movement of 
 reinforcements in Paris. Batteries marched alon^ the Rue 
 de la Fayette. It was too late. Everybody was in full 
 retreat. 
 
 In order thoroughly to understand the disastrous effect 
 produced upon public opinion by the loss of a position 
 moral rather than strategic, it must be remembered that 
 the very day we lost Bourget, the Prussians read in the 
 Ojjliciel, 1st, the announcement of the capitulation of 
 Bazaine; 2nd, the news of the return of M. Thiers from 
 his jJbrney through Europe, and of his being the bearer of 
 proposals for an armistice from the neutral powers. 
 
 The most expert of stage managers could not have more 
 cleverly combined these three exciting incidents in an 
 identical part of a drama— a defeat before Paris, the 
 annihilation of our last and finest regular army, and the 
 admission that our provincial forces had done nothing of 
 any value, seeing that, at Paris as well as at Tours, there 
 was an inclination to lay down arms. 
 
 The public spirit caught fire like a powder-train. The 
 opportunity was a good one for the rioters.
 
 iqo JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER , 
 
 As for the word of command, I have already said that it 
 was ready to hand. It was, Commune. 
 
 The Parisian revolutionists demanded the election of 
 municipal magistrates, and were bent on their being 
 entrusted with the most ample powers, not only for the 
 government of the city, but also for its defence. ' Paris is a 
 town on the same footing as the rest,' they said. ' The 
 members of the Government have proclaimed that a hundred 
 times. The municipality of Paris ought to have the same 
 prerogatives as the other municipalities.' They called that 
 the Commune. The leaders were to have been elected as 
 municipal magistrates, and to have thus formed a Govern- 
 ment which was to put that of the National Defence in its 
 pocket, to decree the sortie en masse, the diluvial sortie, to 
 deliver France, and to hand over to her what Paris had 
 conquered — communal autonomy. France thenceforward 
 would no more be a republic than a monarchy. She would 
 be a federation of 36,000 free and independent communes. 
 
 The idea was not so stupid as might have been supposed, 
 seeing that it nearly succeeded. It was simply rather un- 
 ripe. It needed ripening, and it was going to ripen. 
 
 To the accompaniment of cries of ' Vive la Commune' 
 'A 6as Trochu' and 'Pas a" Armistice,' the proceedings of 
 the 31st October took place, and the insurrection was 
 initiated which was destined to miscarry miserably, as 
 everything miscarried at that cursed period — everything, 
 even the revolution. 
 
 Some time before the end of October, we saw one even- 
 ino- from the Louvre a redness in the sky which covered 
 half the horizon of Paris, and could proceed from nothing 
 but a tire in the east. 
 
 ' Go and see what it is,' said the Governor to me. 
 
 I got on my horse and rode along the Boulevards and the
 
 THE THIRTY-FIRST OF OCTOBER 191 
 
 Rue de la Fayette. The fire was at Buttes-Chamnont. 
 AVI 10 n I arrived there I beheld a singular and magnificent 
 spectacle. The lake in the park was on fire. It had been 
 emptied and transformed into a warehouse for petroleum. 
 One of the barrels had caught fire, the remainder burst, and 
 when I arrived, the centre island seemed to be floating in a 
 sea of fire. 
 
 From the top of a clump on some rising ground, a tall, 
 handsome youth was giving hurried orders. His cuffs were 
 covered with stripes, the number of which, as I afterwards 
 learnt, were decided by his own sweet will. I went up to 
 him to tell him that the Governor wished to know the 
 cause of the disaster. 
 
 ' It is nothing,' he said. ' Only a few barrels of petro- 
 leum which have caught fire. Tell M. Trochu that he need 
 not be uneasy, that Flourens is here.' 
 
 In the gigantic aureole of a conflagration lighted by 
 petroleum, in his own frame. I saw for the first time the 
 Major of the E,ampart, the man who was to play the 
 principal part in the affair of the 31st of October. 
 
 The day was cold and gloomy ; a cold, fine rain was 
 falling, damping both clothes and dispositions. It was a 
 great blessing for the Government of the National Defence 
 that the insurgents had to suffer from stiffened fingers, 
 muffled throats, and wet feet. If the weather had been fine 
 and dry, the Government might very probably have been 
 massacred amid the tumultuous, confused, and grotesque 
 scenes that befell them during that day and a part of the 
 following night. 
 
 From seven o'clock in the morning, men belon^inc to 
 the Garde Rationale began to put in an appearance on the 
 square of the Hotel de Yille. Groups collected, and there 
 were cries of ' Vive la Commune !' and ' Pus <l 'Armistice I '
 
 1 92 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 The crowd increased, and at nine o'clock a column of a 
 thousand men issued from the Avenue Victoria escorting a 
 nag, on which were written these words, ' Levee en masse 
 pas d 'armistice.' The Mobiles of Berry had reached the 
 Hotel de Ville to relieve the 115th battalion, and had been 
 cheered. 
 
 Colonel Chevriot, who was in command of the Hotel de 
 Ville, had shut the door. Behind the gratings Arago, 
 Mayor of Paris, in a voice like that of an angry bull, 
 entreated the people to be calm. He then went upstairs to 
 confer with the other Mayors of Paris, who had been 
 summoned by him, and were deliberating about the 
 opportuneness of proceeding at once to the municipal 
 elections. 
 
 Meanwhile the Governor had received an intimation 
 that things were going wrong. He resumed his uniform, 
 took his sword, put on his epaulets, fastened on his breast 
 the Cross of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, and, 
 hoping to influence the people by the display of these 
 brilliant emblems of his authority and his rank, he set out, 
 followed by two Orderly Officers, one of them being Com- 
 mandant Bibesco, to whom this cursed plan had already 
 very nearly proved fatal. 
 
 He was greeted with shouts of 'A has Trochu!' 'Pas 
 <r<i fiuistice !' ' Vive la CommvMe ! " but he made his way 
 without difficulty into the municipal palace. 
 
 Before leaving the Louvre he gave the Chief of the Staff 
 a formal order not to move. 
 
 ' It is of the utmost importance for us not to make a 
 wrong move,' he said. ' Consequently, whether I come back 
 or not, whether I be free or kept a prisoner, it is agreed 
 that you do not move either a man or a gun without my 
 personal order in writing brought by one of my officers. I
 
 THE THIRTY- FIRST OF OCTOBER 193 
 
 rely on you to see that this order is strictly attended 
 to.' 
 
 He went away and left us all deposited in the Louvre. 
 The members of the Government, who were summoned by 
 the telegraph which unites the Hotel de Ville with the 
 various Government offices and with the Prefecture of 
 Police, arrived, one by one, and deliberated in the room set 
 apart for their sittings, that is to say, the yellow room. 
 The Prefect of Police, M. Edmond Adam, rejoined them, 
 leaving his Prefecture protected by the Garde Nationale. 
 
 By degrees the numbers of the men of the Garde 
 Rationale in the square increased and they became more 
 menacing. The shouts of ' Vive la Covimune ! ' redoubled. 
 The most excited were already massed at the gates, and 
 having, according to the usual sequence of events, chosen 
 themselves as representatives of the rest, they demanded a 
 hearing for a deputation of the People, who wished to 
 speak to the Government. 
 
 It was one o'clock, one of the doors was half-opened, no- 
 body knew by whom, a determined rush set it wide open 
 and gave ingress to the so-called deputation accompanied by 
 the first detachment of the populace. The door was, 
 however, closed again. 
 
 The shouting crowd who invaded the large room 
 numbered about a thousand. 
 
 The Government was not complete, the absentees being 
 Jules Favre, of whom Ferry had gone in search to the 
 Foreign Office, and Picard. 
 
 In the interval of waiting for these three personages, and 
 in order to keep the people quiet, Arago left his mayors and 
 entered the large room, followed by his assistants. L Floquet, 
 Brisson, Herisson, Chaudey, and Tirard joined them. 
 
 Arago, mounted on a footstool, thundered away. He de- 
 
 N
 
 194 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 manded patience, and asked for confidence, union and order 
 in a voice which would have drowned the roar of a battery. 
 The only answer he received was the shout, ' La Commune ! ' 
 La Cmn m itne ." 
 
 ' Very well,' he said, ' I will convey your wishes to the 
 Government.' 
 
 He went away. The persons with him took his place on 
 the oratorical footstool, especially Brisson and Floquet. 
 
 ' We too,' said they, ' want municipal elections, we too 
 reject the armistice.' 
 
 They restored neither silence nor order. ' We want the 
 Commune,' was the only reply. Once more they said, ' We 
 want municipal elections.' And all of them persisted in 
 their mulish obstinacy without there being a single man 
 among them with sufficient sense to say, 'But, citizens, they 
 are one and the same thing.' 
 
 The sensible man was, however, at hand. 
 
 The members of the Government begged Rochefort, the 
 popular Rochefort, Rochefort their old colleague, who had 
 come to them when he heard what was going on, to go and 
 speak to the people, He went away for a moment, returned 
 accompanied by Schoelcher, and said to his colleagues — 
 
 ' They want municipal elections. Have you made up 
 your minds to agree to them ? That is the knot you have 
 to untie' 
 
 ' Yes,' was the reply from round the council board. 
 
 Rochefort returned to the large room, got up on a table, 
 ami declared, in the name of the Government, that the 
 municipal elections would take place at once. 
 
 'No, no,' shouted these brutes, completely confused; 'we 
 want the Commune.' 
 
 ' But, citizens,' said Rochefort, shrugging his shoulders, 
 ' it is the same thing,'
 
 THE THIRTY-FIRST OF OCTOBER 195 
 
 They did not understand. They called on him to get 
 down. They took hold of his legs to pull him down. They 
 shouted,'.! bos Eochefort.' 
 
 In the meanwhile Jules Favre, Jules Ferry, and Picard 
 had arrived. Jules Favre, on his way to breakfast with 
 M. Thiers, who had crossed the Prussian lines on the pre- 
 vious evening, and to give him instructions and power to 
 treat with Prussia for an armistice, was informed by Ferry 
 of what was going on. He placed M. Thiers in a carriage 
 escorted by cavalry, and tried to reassure him in regard to 
 the rising. 
 
 ' We have often seen similar ones,' he said. 
 
 He then picked up Picard, who had come to the Foreign 
 Office to say good-bye to M. Thiers, got into a carriage with 
 him, found the quays blocked by the mob, turned off to the 
 Prefecture of Police in search of information, learnt there 
 that Adam was at the Hotel de Ville, and contrived in the 
 end to gain admittance through the private entrance, in 
 spite of the entreaties of Picard, who wanted above all 
 things to avoid putting his head in the lion's mouth. 
 
 By the time they arrived, General Trochu had made up 
 his mind to put in an appearance in person. He went down 
 to the large room, followed by Simon and de Pelletan. 
 Ten minutes elapsed before he could obtain silence. At 
 length the orator of the band, Joly by name, contrived to 
 get a few words in and commence a speech. 
 
 He told the General, who listened to him with folded 
 arms, that the loss of Bourget was an act of treason, that 
 the armistice was treason, that the people of Paris wished 
 to have done with this everlasting temporising, and that 
 they wanted to appoint a municipal council to protect 
 themselves, and so relieve the Government of half the 
 burden which was too heavy for its shoulders.
 
 jq6 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Trochu replied, and as was his wont, without taking 
 the slightest heed of ejaculations or interruptions, he began 
 a speech as long as it was interesting. 
 
 It was not a question of capitulation, but of negotiation, 
 and negotiation while Paris was being re victualled. Help 
 had to be obtained from the departments, and the best way 
 of obtaining this help was the appointment of an Assembly. 
 He had made Paris impregnable. He answered for that. 
 As for Bourget, its loss was of no importance, because it 
 was not included in the general plan of the defence, and 
 because it would have had to have been abandoned all the 
 same. However, the Government was going to consider 
 the news which had been submitted to them, and would 
 take care to reconcile the wishes of the population with its 
 own sacred and paramount duty, the defence of the Capital. 
 
 The General was noisily interrupted and even hissed at 
 the conclusion of his speech. He lost his temper and 
 hustled everybody on his way back, but the prestige of his 
 uniform prevented the ferocious idiots from laying hands 
 on him, and so he made his way into the Council room 
 again, followed by his two officers, who placed themselves 
 behind his chair. 
 
 The entire Government set to work to consider the 
 question of the elections. On the same floor the Mayors 
 were deliberating under the presidency of Arago, and 
 underneath was the first batch of the invaders, still separated 
 from the crowd which continued to vociferate and make a 
 horrid din in the square of the Hotel de Ville. 
 
 The Government forgot that some of its members had 
 pledged themselves, in Rochefort's newspaper, to the elections, 
 and the majority opposed them, maintaining, reasonably 
 enough, that they meant anarchy, and that if the Commune 
 was established, the Government of the National Defence
 
 77/ A' THIRTY-FIRST OF OCTOBER 197 
 
 would have nothing to do but make itself scarce. Arago 
 presented himself once more to beg that the wishes of the 
 Mayors should- be acceded to, and that the elections should 
 be granted. 
 
 They replied that they were going to accede and put an 
 end to everything in accordance with the wishes of the 
 populace. The elections were agreed upon. Arago went 
 to announce this good news to the Mayors. 
 
 It was half-past three, and Flourens had not yet 
 appeared. 
 
 At this moment he arrived in the square at the head of 
 his battalions, with their arms butt end uppermost, and 
 made for the closed doors of the Hotel de Ville. 
 
 Commandant Dauvergne evinced a disposition to resist 
 this onslaught, and received a blow from a fist on his eye. 
 He drew his sword and it was snatched from his grasp. 
 
 Some shots were fired at the lock of the principal door 
 of the Hotel de Ville, and it was battered with the butt 
 ends of the rifles. In the end it gave way, and Flourens 
 entered at the head of his men. 
 
 This time the invasion was wholesale. The immense 
 square might be said to have emptied itself into the huge 
 building. 
 
 The crowd invaded the great staircase, the offices, and 
 the rooms, driving out before it the still deliberating 
 Mayors, and finally, like a torrent, rushed into the room 
 where the Government were seated round a table, and 
 whither it was preceded by Arago, who continued his 
 thunder, but had completely broken down, had laid aside 
 his badge of office, and was altogether demoralised. 
 
 At this precise moment, like an eel that has come across 
 a broken mesh in a net, Picard, ever cunning, the gay 
 Picard disappeared through a little door in a passage, and
 
 198 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 left his colleagues still seated, to imitate at their ease the 
 celebrated scene of the Roman Senate invaded by the Gauls. 
 This practical and shrewd man had gone to fetch the guard. 
 
 To picture the Hotel de Ville at this moment, from the 
 ground floor to the roof, offices, passages, rooms, private 
 apartments and all, no comparison is more apt than a 
 basket full of frogs. From the bottom of the staircase to- 
 the most hidden recesses there were nothing but men of the 
 Garde Nationale, armed and unarmed, citizens of all ages 
 and conditions, volunteers of every nationality. The mob 
 brought with it its particular odour. The smell of its pipes 
 and cigars alone contended with a stink as of wet doo-s, and 
 that reeking odour of oil on rifles and boots, and of dried 
 sweat which exhales from a mass of troops, especially when 
 those troops are dirty and have only been partially washed 
 by the rain. 
 
 A damp atmosphere rose above the crowded and per- 
 spiring heads, caught you in the throat, and condensed 
 itself on the window panes, looking glasses, and pictures. 
 
 Darkness came on gradually, lending a fantastic air to 
 the scene, and making the actors look like ghosts. 
 
 Round the council table, behind the seated members of 
 the Government, calm and silent, the men of the Garde 
 Nationale were packed close one against the other, and 
 were incessantly being jammed closer together by the 
 arrival of fresh reinforcements. 
 
 Their leaders arrived, forced their way through the 
 crowd, and as none of them were tall enough to tower 
 above it, they scaled the council table. Flourens, Milliere, 
 Delescluze, Blanqui, Pyat, Mottu, &c, transformed the 
 board of green cloth into a circus ring, and strode along the 
 table, treading on the paper and blotting books, upsetting 
 the inkstands and sand boxes, and crushing pens and
 
 THE THIRTY FIRST OF OCTOBER 199 
 
 pencils beneath their feet. They all shouted alike, and as 
 their audience also shouted, nobody heard them. 
 
 Trochu, with his two officers still behind his chair, 
 smoked his cigar, and watched the coming and going of 
 these spurred or slip-shod heels on a level with his chest. 
 
 In the lamp-room the attendants in the Prefecture had, 
 however, got ready the lamps, filled them with oil, trimmed 
 the wicks, and cleaned the glasses. The administra- 
 tion, the immortal administration, found its last refuge 
 there. 
 
 They brought the lamps and placed them on the in- 
 vaded table, whence some of the leaders had jumped down 
 for fear of being burnt from below by the lights of the 
 Government. 
 
 The sudden light made the gilt epaulettes of Trochu 
 and his silver star glitter into prominence. Instinctively 
 he felt that he was too brilliant, too conspicuous in the 
 midst of all these brute beasts, so he quietly took off his 
 epaulettes and passed them to Bibesco, slowly divested 
 himself of his star, and put it in the pocket of his tunic. 
 Except for his kepi, he might have passed for a private in 
 the Garde Rationale. 
 
 The arrival of the lamps brought about some slight 
 show of order, and Flourens succeeded in making himself 
 heard. He proposed to proclaim a government at whose 
 head he modestly placed himself. Some laughed, some 
 protested, and others ignored his propositions. Half-a- 
 dozen rascals, delegated by themselves, went to deliberate 
 in an adjoining room, and began to squabble at will. 
 
 Meanwhile Flourens went down to the square, mounted 
 his horse, and passed through the midst of the battalions 
 which were arriving and taking up their positions, with 
 their rifles butt-ends uppermost, neither knowing exactly
 
 200 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 what they wanted nor what was going on. They cheered 
 him with the utmost confidence. 
 
 Side by side with the new government a committee was 
 nominated to preside over the elections. Flourens was 
 chosen president of this committee by acclamation, and 
 with him were associated Victor Hugo, Felix Pyat, Deles- 
 cluze, Ledru-Rollin, Schoelcher, Louis Blanc, Blanqui, and 
 Milliere. The formation of this committee, and the imme- 
 diate elections for the Commune, were announced by means 
 of bulletins thrown from the windows into the square. 
 The bulletins were cheered. These people were possessed 
 by a mania to cheer without cessation anybody or anything. 
 
 The unfortunate Dorian was painful to look at. Placed 
 between his popularity and his duty, he wanted to retain 
 the first and do the second. He went to the insurgents, 
 who shouted, ' Vive Dorian ! ' and to the Government, who 
 said nothing, trying to temporize, to avoid compromising 
 himself, and to conciliate. 
 
 Towards six o'clock Edmond Adam succeeded in escap- 
 ing. He pretended to be ill, struggled, contrived to be 
 hustled by policemen in disguise — for there were some even 
 of them present — and disappeared to rejoin Picard. 
 
 At eight o'clock the tide set in strongly. The Garde 
 Nationale in the yellow room were driven away by a stream 
 of resolute men. The 106th battalion, commanded by 
 M. Ibos, had appeared on the scene. They entered the 
 room, surrounded Trochu, seized him, and carried him off. 
 Behind him, in his wake, Ferry, Pelletan, and Arago suc- 
 ceeded in getting away. 
 
 The insurgent Gardes reformed in front of the other 
 members of the Government, and drove them back into the 
 room.
 
 77/ A' THIRTY-FIRST OF OCTOBER 201 
 
 Favre, Simon, Gamier-Pages, Lefld, and Tamisier, alone 
 remained, and returned to their scats at the table. 
 
 While Dorian was hurrying to and fro, and making his 
 futile efforts, the members of the Government protested. 
 They requested to be made prisoners or to be set at liberty. 
 Their resignations were demanded. They refused on the 
 ground that they were not free agents. Finally they were 
 made prisoners and consigned to the embrasure of a window. 
 Some bread and horse-flesh afforded them refreshment, and 
 they slept on chairs behind some of Flourens' volunteers 
 who, half-drunk and more than half-asleep, were posted three 
 deep to watch over them. 
 
 The confusion continued. By this time there were two 
 or three governments, and five or six committees. Blanqui 
 did not want Flourens. Delescluze did not want Pyat. A 
 portion of the Garde Nationale, who had not derived 
 sufficient nourishment from their own cheering, marched off 
 to get something to eat. 
 
 The Hotel de Ville stood out, black and damp in the 
 darkness of the night, in front of the swarming square, and 
 with its rows of illuminated windows behind which passed 
 and repassed the outlines of the Garde Nationale. 
 
 Dorian was still parleying. He was joined by Delescluze 
 who was put in the shade by the popularity of Flourens, 
 Millie.re who found his colleague Flourens embarrassing;, and 
 Blanqui who began to be afraid. 
 
 Meanwhile, Picard, as soon as he was fairly out of the 
 Hotel de Ville, betook himself to the Louvre, where he 
 found General Schmitz bent on carrying out the orders of 
 the Governor, and resolved not to stir. 
 
 He next proceeded to his own office and took upon him- 
 self to order the assembly to be sounded for the concentration 
 of the Garde Nationale on the boulevards. When Trochu
 
 202 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 arrived with the other members of the Government who 
 had subsequently been set at liberty, they found the 
 battalions which had stood firm falling in, and their officers 
 talking to each other on the Bourse. Adam had joined his 
 exertions to those of Picard. Trochu gave the necessary 
 orders, and at five minutes before midnight the columns 
 of the faithful Garde Rationale debouched on to the 
 square of the Hotel de Ville and by degrees surrounded 
 the building. 
 
 At this moment there was an alarm. 
 
 As Jules Favre opened one of the windows of the yellow 
 room to get some fresh air, a few shots were fired in the 
 square, and were replied to by the defenders of the Hotel 
 de Ville. Fortunately the firing stopped there. The win- 
 dow was closed and Jules Favre resumed his seat. 
 
 Nevertheless, a feeling of uneasiness began to prevail 
 within concerning what was going on without. The leaders 
 said, ' We are surrounded,' and they became more supple 
 and amenable to the exhortations of Dorian. Flourens 
 mounted the table once more ; he advised an agreement 
 and departure. 
 
 Delescluze and Dorian agreed that the events of the day 
 should be wiped out, and that the Hotel de Ville should be 
 evacuated on condition that no proceedings should be taken 
 against anybody. Then came mutual salutes, and every- 
 body went home saying, 
 
 'A simple misunderstanding. Good-morning.' 
 
 The insurgents accepted the situation, Delescluze and 
 Dorian went out and conferred with Adam and Ferry. 
 The latter pair, by no means satisfied as to the fate of their 
 captive colleagues, and fearing lest by any act of theirs their 
 friends should be massacred, and they themselves hurled 
 out of the windows, agreed to the amnesty, and to bygones
 
 THE THIRTY-FIRST OF OCTOBER 203 
 
 being bygones. All shook hands, and the two envoys 
 from the Hotel de Ville returned to the palace. 
 
 At this moment information reached Adam that the 
 Indre Mobiles had been ordered to enter the Hotel de Ville 
 by a subterranean passage uniting that building to the 
 Napoleon barracks, that they had carried out the order, 
 and were entering the Hotel. 
 
 M. Ferry declined to venture into the subterranean 
 passage. Adam hastened thither, and emerged with the 
 Mobiles into the yard of the palace. 
 
 He endeavoured to induce them to evacuate it, and 
 succeeded in keeping the Breton Mobiles in check until the 
 first batch of the Garde Rationale were clear away. 
 
 Ferry burst open one of the side doors of the building, 
 and in his turn rushed into the Hotel de Ville, and was lost 
 in the crowd. 
 
 Finally, everybody walked off, arm in arm. Tamisier 
 got hold of Blanqui to take him away, the Government was 
 set at liberty, and the grotesque masquerade came to an 
 end about 3 AM. 
 
 No sooner were they out of the clutches of the riot, mild 
 enough on this occasion, than the members of the Govern- 
 ment met at the Louvre to consult with the Governor. 
 Their exasperation knew no bounds, and it was a most 
 comical sight to see these men, whom the revolution had 
 made what they were, and who had profited by I do not 
 know how many riots, superbly indignant at being hoist 
 with their own petard. 
 
 It is always the same. There is no worse policeman 
 than a converted rioter, no more supple chamberlain than a 
 gilded jacobin, no harder master than an ex-workman. 
 
 They wanted to prosecute, arrest, and bring before 
 councils of war, all the people they had recognised in the
 
 2o 4 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 abortive movement, which, after all, was inferior to that of 
 the 4th of September in one single particular — its want 
 of success. And before they went to bed they had drawn 
 up very long lists of persons to be arrested on the following 
 day. 
 
 But when the following morning arrived the Prefect of 
 Police appeared at the Foreign Office, where the Govern- 
 ment were assembled, and absolutely refused to molest any- 
 body in connection with the affair of the preceding day. 
 He said that he had given his word to Dorian and 
 Delescluze, who had stipulated, in the name of the insur- 
 gents, that the rising should not result in any prosecutions. 
 He tendered his resignation. It was refused, and the 
 meeting was adjourned to the same evening at the residence 
 of the Governor. 
 
 At the adjourned council Picard urged the necessity of 
 arresting the ringleaders of the 31st of October, and Adam 
 insisted that the promise given should not be broken. 
 
 ' Who promised ? ' exclaimed M. Ferry. 
 
 ' You did yourself,' replied Adam. 
 . ' That is not true.' 
 
 Contradiction and provocation ensued. M. Ferry was 
 pronounced by his colleagues to be in the wrong, so he 
 apologised and held out his hand to the Prefect of Police. 
 
 As the Government persisted in ordering arrests to be 
 made, Adam resigned and left the Prefecture of Police. As 
 for Dorian, whose popularity had put the Government in 
 the shade, but had nevertheless saved it, he was implored 
 so urgently to remain in the ministry that he consented. 
 
 M. Cresson was appointed Prefect of Police. 
 
 Proceedings were commenced against the ringleaders of 
 the 31st of October, but the supernumeraries only were 
 arrested. The proceedings had no significance, and accorded
 
 THE THIRTY -FIRST OF OCTOBER 205 
 
 with the armistice. Paris, which has already forgotten the 
 31st of October, neither understood nor was interested in 
 the discussion. Those who were condemned to death did 
 not die — at all events, not on this account. Those who 
 were imprisoned did not remain there. The Commune- 
 arrived in time to make both classes magistrates or generals. 
 
 Such is the history of the 31st of October. 
 
 Was Adam right to leave the Prefecture rather than 
 1 >r< sak his word ? Undoubtedly. No man is forced to give his 
 word of honour so lono- as he has the alternative of death : 
 but when once he has given it, be it to a murderer, a 
 bandit, or a red Indian, he must keep it for his own sake, 
 and for the sake of him to whom he has given it. 
 
 Turenne was one day robbed on the Pont-Neuf. He set 
 great store by a watch which had been given him by the 
 King. He offered to repurchase it from the thieves for a 
 sum which he himself would pay them if they would call 
 at his house for the money. He gave his word. The 
 thieves took him at it. , He kept it, and so far from having 
 them arrested, he paid them to the uttermost farthing. 
 
 In the days I am describing there was unfortunately no 
 lack of descendants of these thieves in Paris. The descend- 
 ants of Turenne were the people conspicuous by their 
 absence.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 ELECTIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS 
 
 The Moderation of the Chancellor. — M. Thiers at Paris. — At Versailles. — The 
 Negotiations. — Everything broken off. — A Lesson in Politeness. — Paris 
 Kesigned. — A Fresh Plebiscite. — Municipal Elections. — Universal Suffrage. 
 
 One of my colleagues went to Sevres on the 30th of October 
 to receive M. Thiers on his return from Europe and to Paris, 
 after having crossed the Prussian lines and sojourned at 
 Versailles, where he was received by M. de Moltke and inter- 
 viewed M. de Bismarck, without, however, having any con- 
 versation with either of them on war or politics. 
 
 This same colleague escorted M. Thiers when he 
 returned to Versailles on the afternoon of the 31st October 
 armed this time with instructions and powers in due form, 
 having a vague idea that a rising had taken place, but in 
 ignorance of its importance and unable to learn its 
 result. 
 
 It is known how he reached the Prussian Head-quarters
 
 ELECTIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS 207 
 
 011 the Monday evening, and spent Tuesday and Wednesday 
 negotiating with M. Thiers, and, strange to relate, up to 
 Thursday the Germans knew absolutely nothing about what 
 had happened at the Hotel de Ville on Monday. 
 
 If one could have believed three-fourths of the French 
 publications relative to the war, the newspapers and 
 public opinion foreshadowed by them — the Chancellor of 
 Prussia, Count Bismarck, would have been, in regard to his 
 master, not only a species of Richelieu beneath whose will 
 everything bent, who commanded but accounted to no one for 
 his conduct, a man of iron resolved upon achieving success 
 and exhausting victory to the bitter end, who had prognosti- 
 cated our fall and all that appertained to it, whom nothing- 
 stopped, who cared no more for the rest of Europe than for a 
 cherry-stone, and who, in a word, knew exactly how far he 
 could go and would not stop before he got there. 
 
 Nothing can be more erroneous than this conception. 
 
 First of all, the authority of the Chancellor was not 
 without control, nor was it unlimited. He was continually 
 obliged to explain his conduct, to discuss his actions, to 
 convince the king, to fight against the counter-influence 
 around him, against the counter-influence of the Prince 
 Royal, against the counter-influence of Queen Augusta, 
 against the counter-influence of the court habitues who 
 had followed the king, and lastly, most powerful of all, 
 against the military party. 
 
 The struggle between the Chancellor and the military 
 party was incessant ; it began with the Hohenzollern 
 question, and only came to an end after the conclusion 
 of peace. 
 
 To say that M. de Bismarck did not want war, would 
 be silly. To say that he was resolved upon it and meant 
 to carry it on to the bitter end, would be unjust.
 
 2o8 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 When a gambler sits down at a baccarat table with 
 a few thousand franc notes, and says to himself, ' I am 
 going to break the bank,' he generally leaves the table 
 without a franc. 
 
 When, on the contrary, he has sufficient command over 
 himself to be bold methodically, and be ready to withdraw, 
 he nearly always succeeds. To this latter class of gamblers 
 M. de Bismarck belonged. 
 
 In the month of July, when Benedetti was discussing 
 the question, all sorts of phases of opinion alternated at 
 Ems just as in Paris. One day war was in every mouth, 
 and old Moltke at once appeared to grow younger, his 
 wrinkles disappeared, his face became more youthful, and 
 his figure more upright. On the following day everybody 
 said peace was assured, and once more Moltke became 
 wrinkled, bent, and aged. 
 
 Count Bismarck would willingly have stopped after 
 Sedan, and would probably have been content with Stras- 
 bourg as an indemnity. It was already in train. When in 
 the presence of M. de Moltke, who was uneasy because he 
 wanted to place his batteries round the edge of the basin 
 at the bottom of which was our demoralised army, and he 
 hoped to blow them in the air, when in his presence 
 the Chancellor asked Napoleon III, ' Sire, are you 
 surrendering your own sword, or that of France ? ' he 
 expected the Emperor to reply, ' The sword of 
 France.' 
 
 But instead of that, the Emperor said, 
 ' I am personally your prisoner. As for peace, that 
 rests with the Paris Government.' 
 
 And a smile of satisfaction stole over the ascetic and 
 monkish face of the Chief of the Great Staff. The war 
 would go on.
 
 ELECTIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS 209 
 
 At Ferrieres M. do Bismarck did not reject the pro- 
 posals for peace; but his demands had increased, and Jules 
 Favre considered them intolerable. 
 
 A fortnight later, in the early days of October, when 
 General Burnside went to Paris, the success of his unofficial 
 mission would not have been displeasing to the Chancellor. 
 His luck continued. Count Bismarck had still tremendous 
 power in reserve, but he would willingly have ' pocketed ' 
 the enormous gain already realised. 
 
 At the beginning of November, when confronted by 
 M. Thiers, he was actuated by the same sentiments of 
 prudence and comparative moderation. Gambetta made 
 him uneasy, though he was not afraid of him. He did not 
 exactly know how long Paris could hold out, and already 
 on several occasions he had allowed signs of impatience to 
 escape him. 
 
 ' You will see,' he had said, ' we shall be here still when 
 Spring comes.' 
 
 In order to imagine that at this period he would have 
 been as exacting as he was three months later ; to imagine 
 that we should not have been more leniently treated, either 
 from a territorial or a monetary point of view, or both, it 
 would be necessary to prove that the surrender of Paris, 
 the final annihilation of the provincial armies, south, east, 
 w r est, and north, and the conclusion of the conventions 
 which created the empire of Germany, were not weights in 
 the scale ; in other words, it would be necessary to prove 
 an absurdity. 
 
 Consequently, when M. Thiers approached M. de 
 Bismarck, he found a man disposed to come to terms, 
 having wrung permission from his master to do so, and 
 having, in order to wring that permission, fought and 
 conquered the influence of the military party.
 
 2io JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 At the outset the negotiations proceeded favourably. 
 The Chancellor consented to the armistice and the re- 
 victualling, the latter a capital question, for an armistice 
 without revictualling is a voluntary blockade, a continuance 
 of the siege without danger to the besieger and without 
 hope for the besieged. He did not agree to legislative 
 elections for Alsace and Lorraine, but he consented to a 
 selection of notables to represent the population of those 
 countries. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that these negotiations were 
 set on foot, not for the conclusion of peace, but for a 
 suspension of hostilities to allow of the election of an 
 Assembly and the formation of a regular Government, 
 and that consequently there was no obligation to give us 
 any information about any definite claims on our territories 
 or our money. 
 
 Tilings were in this state, and M. Thiers was sanguine 
 of success, when on Wednesday night or Thursday, infor- 
 mation was received at Head-quarters, first of all from the 
 reports of the advanced posts and soon afterwards from the 
 Paris newspapers — which were always to be had some days, 
 occasionally only a few hours, old — of the events of the 31st 
 of October. 
 
 The war party did not miss their turn to play. 
 Marshal Moltke urged the King to adopt his views. 
 What ! were they to stop when victory was within their 
 grasp ? What ! were they going to declare peace with 
 people who were tearing each other in pieces ? What ! were 
 they going to renounce the glory of taking Paris, chano-ino- 
 a Government of scarcely reasonable rioters for a Govern- 
 ment of rioters even worse ; and all this when the defence 
 was on the eve of being paralysed, and the regular army of 
 Paris probably occupied in fighting the Garde Rationale ?
 
 ELECTIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS 211 
 
 Were they going to negotiate, as they would with a great 
 nation, with people who were killing each other, and of 
 whom one-half would possibly ask the assistance of Germany 
 against the other half ? That was a grand idea, truly. They 
 would be more than kind, they would be dupes, they 
 would be fools to do anything of the sort ! 
 
 On Thursday morning, M de Bismarck was summoned 
 to the presence of the King. He argued the point to begin 
 with, gave way in the end, and went back to his own 
 quarters where M. Thiers met him. 
 
 There he spoke of the troubles inside Paris, of which M. 
 Thiers was entirely ignorant. For the amateur governors 
 who had come to terms with the rising had never even con- 
 ceived the very elementary idea of sending an envoy to 
 their representative to let him know that the rising was of 
 no importance, and that they themselves were stronger than 
 ever. That was far too simple a step for them to take. 
 
 Destitute of news, and not knowing whether they 
 from whom he had received his instructions and authority 
 were still living, M. Thiers fell an easy prey to the 
 Chancellor, who had agreed to a continuance of the war. 
 The latter had only to advance fresh arguments just as M. 
 de Moltke sent forward fresh troops. He demanded military 
 guarantees, a fort or two. It was precisely the same thing 
 as demandino- Paris itself. 
 
 M. Thiers could not refrain from saying, 'It is an insult. 
 From that moment M. de Bismarck, quite imperturbable, 
 continued the conversation in German until his visitor, 
 completely put out of countenance, said to him with tears 
 in his voice, 
 
 ' But, Count, you know very well that I do not under- 
 stand German.' 
 
 And the Chancellor, who knows and speaks^ French as
 
 212 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 well as they do at the Academy, who knows the genius of 
 our language as well as any professor of grammar, replied, 
 
 ' I came back to my own language because only my 
 ignorance of yours would have caused me to utter what 
 you are pleased to call an insult.' 
 
 He himself has told this story and its lesson to his 
 intimate friends. 
 
 There was only one thing left for M. Thiers to do — 
 to return to the Sevres bridge and confer with Jules Favre, 
 for it did not suit him to re-enter Paris, where he did not 
 consider himself safe, and which he was destined to leave 
 so hurriedly on the 18th of March. M. Thiers had at this 
 time already taken his precautions, and had committed his 
 house and his old servants to the care of Edmond Adam, 
 the Prefect of Police, who had undertaken to look after 
 them. 
 
 M. Thiers was ambitious and very clever, a very well- 
 informed writer, a very clear sighted popularity-monger ; 
 but he was never a thoroughly brave man, and a proof of 
 this, if I may be pardoned for my levity, is that he was as 
 clean-shaved as an actor or a priest. He loved to talk 
 about war, but not to make it. He was fond of reviews, 
 but did not relish powder and shot. Nobody is perfect, and 
 taking into consideration his situation he was right. The 
 object attained here below by those who kill each other is 
 the building up of the fortunes of lawyers and orators. It 
 is not the dog that gets the game. One cannot be dog and 
 hunter at one and the same time. 
 
 M. Thiers returned to Sevres, and saw Jules Favre. 
 The Government deliberated, rejected the armistice with 
 the additional burdens proposed by M. de Bismarck, and 
 despatched M. Thiers into the Provinces again. 
 
 It must not be supposed that his mission, if it had
 
 ELECTIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS 213 
 
 succeeded, would have displeased the middle classes of the 
 capital, who were the most numerous, and the only people 
 really interested. These classes were quite resigned to the 
 idea of an honourable peace, and they began to discover 
 that the siege was a very lengthy business, though they 
 were perfectly ready to undergo, as they actually did, re- 
 newed distress and privation so long as they thought that 
 honour commanded them to hold out, and that all was not 
 lost. 
 
 The armistice would only have displeased a few military 
 men who still deceived themselves, a few enthusiastic 
 patriots, a few tenacious republicans who, after having 
 admitted that the Empire was bound to be the ruin of 
 France, could not admit that the Republic was powerless to 
 save her, and lastly, the rabble of the 31st of October, who 
 did not want peace because they were not fighting against 
 the Prussians ; they were being nourished on having 
 nothing to do, and liked bearing arms because they hoped 
 to make them implements wherewith to gain freedom, 
 enjoyment, and idleness. 
 
 I had almost forgotten to mention the grocers who had 
 not yet sold off their provisions, who were hiding them so 
 as to realise better prices, and who, by the rumour of an 
 armistice, were compelled to expose them for sale at a 
 lower rate. Everything that remained unsold on the day 
 when the armistice was rejected, disappeared into the 
 cellars and came out again worth its weight in gold. 
 These brave people were willing to be patriotic on 
 condition that their patriotism did not interfere with their 
 business. 
 
 How many men, alas ! there are who think they are 
 saying, 'I love my country,' while in reality they say 'I 
 love myself.'
 
 2i 4 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 For this reason the best government is that which 
 knows how to attach to the interests of its country the 
 greatest number of personal and private interests. 
 
 When this is the case, men adore their country, in 
 adoring themselves in her, to such an extent that they 
 occasionally forget themselves, and sacrifice themselves for 
 her. 
 
 It will be conceded, I imagine, that I do my best to be 
 frank and to refrain from flattering anybody. 
 
 In all sincerity I ought to say that my conscientious 
 belief is that the prospect of peace, of an honourable and 
 lasting peace, preceded by the desired revictualling, counted 
 for something in the vote of the 3rd November. People 
 were not sorry to strengthen a government which was pav- 
 ing the way for peace, or to vote down the crowds who 
 shouted, 'Pas d' Armistice ! ' 
 
 It was a confused, singular, and fantastic vote. 
 
 On the 31st of October, it will be remembered, the pro- 
 minent question was the carrying into effect the municipal 
 elections, as the Government supporters called them ; the 
 Commune elections, as they were styled by their opponents. 
 The Mayors assembled at the Hotel de Ville had decided 
 upon them, and the Government had consented. Placards 
 in accordance with this arrangement were posted up, and 
 immediately taken down. 
 
 On the following day the vote was to be taken on the 
 question if the elections were to take place at once. 
 
 On the day after, the point at issue was changed, those 
 who wished to continue the Government of the Defence in 
 office were to vote Aye and the others No. 
 
 Aye and No. I recognised that. It was the plebiscite. 
 
 Yes, the plebiscite organised by its opponents. Aye
 
 ELECTIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS 215 
 
 canvassed by the partisans of No. The boots of Bonaparte 
 worn by the lawyers. 
 
 Nothing was wanting, not even the vote of the army. 
 
 In the month of May the Imperial plebiscite had been 
 inconvenient enough to reveal to Germany, our rival, the 
 number of our soldiers almost to a man. It was considered 
 an absurd and dangerous proceeding. 
 
 In the month of November, that is to say six months 
 later, day by day the Republican plebiscite revealed to our 
 rival, now our besieger, the number of our defenders almost 
 to a man. The Government, composed of men who had in 
 May justly condemned the vote of the army as absurd and 
 dangerous, in November considered this vote intelligent 
 and without danger. 
 
 The voting took place on Thursday, the 3rd of November. 
 
 The army gave 236,623 Ayes, and 9,053 Noes. The 
 population, 321,373 Ayes, and 53,585 Noes. 
 
 Like Napoleon III, the Government issued a proclama- 
 tion expressing its satisfaction, and thanking the people for 
 their confidence. 
 
 It was admirable. 
 
 On Saturday, the 5th, the nomination of the Mayors 
 took place, and a certain Mottu, one of the leaders of the 
 31st of October, an out-and-out revolutionist and completely 
 unknown, received the largest number of votes. 
 
 On the following day the Deputy Mayors were appointed. 
 There were numerous abstentions, and the majority of these 
 magistrates represented minorities. 
 
 I hope my readers have a sufficiently good opinion of 
 me to know, without my telling them, that I took no part 
 in these electoral fooleries. The expression is a strong 
 one, but I am not afraid of it. 
 
 I fancy I see myself, an officer, going to deposit in <^
 
 216 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 urn a voting paper worth just as much as that of my 
 General Commanding-in-Chief, or that of the soldier who 
 cleaned my boots or groomed my horse ; and no human 
 power could have made me do a thing which I considered 
 the most stupid and revolting of absurdities. 
 
 I am looking at the question from a purely military 
 point of view. 
 
 If I had wished to look upon the question as a citizen, 
 I should have done precisely the same. My brain absolutely 
 refuses to understand a political mechanism which gives 
 complete equivalence to the opinion of a doctor of laws and 
 that of a man who can neither read nor write, to the opinion 
 of M. Thiers and that of his hall-porter, to the opinion of 
 Victor Hugo and that of his valet, to the opinion of the 
 Archbishop of Paris and that of a town bully, to my opinion 
 and that of my servant. 
 
 A nation whose existence depends upon that anti-scien- 
 tific idea, on that barbarous mechanism, is an absurd nation, 
 and in nature that which is absurd does not last. I am 
 sorry for it, but so it is. 
 
 Paris, comforted by the news of the re-capture of 
 Orleans, saw her dreams of armistice and peace fly away 
 without any very excessive regret. The ordinary military 
 and official routine recommenced after the stirring excite- 
 ment of the 31st of October. 
 
 The Government made speeches and held sittings ; the 
 Governor worked and visited the arsenals ; General Schmitz 
 shut himself up and revelled in his infernal work ; and we 
 received visitors in the green room, listened to their com- 
 plaints, and responded to their demands. 
 
 There were, however, several changes among the higher 
 Government officials. Edmond Adam has resigned rather 
 than break his word by participating in the arrest of the
 
 ELECTIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS 217 
 
 authors of the abortive rising which took place after the 
 plebiscite. General Tamisier had played rather a pitiful 
 part on the 31st of October. As a matter of fact, a portion 
 of the Garde Nationale had mutinied. He commanded 
 that corps and had not been able either to support it or to 
 manage it. The result was that one half of the men de- 
 prived the other half of their arms. He resigned the 
 command in favour of Clement Thomas, who seemed to 
 be gifted with more firmness. His lot, too, was far 
 different ; he was not put aside by his soldiers : he was 
 destined to be shot by them. 
 
 Blustering Arago no longer took any pleasure in 
 associating with the Members of the Defence after he 
 had begged them to decree the municpal elections, and 
 after he had divested himself in their presence of his tri- 
 coloured scarf, the badge of his office. 
 
 These gentlemen never forgave him for not having 
 succeeded in arranging for their safety in the Municipal 
 Palace. He was replaced by Jules Ferry, who had the 
 reputation of being very energetic, and whose bearing in 
 opposition to Edmond Adam I have already described, as 
 well as the military part he played on the 31st of 
 October. 
 
 Marching companies of the Garde Nationale were 
 organised, and several reconnaissances were made round 
 Paris. Preparations were also made for the great 
 Champigny affair. 
 
 Meanwhile Paris amused itself with its pigeons and 
 their microscopic despatches, with its balloons, and with its 
 clubs, where the orators were more violent and foolish 
 than ever. 
 
 The moment has now arrived, I think, to give a sketch
 
 218 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 of Paris in a state of siege, and to record the fresh forms 
 which the inner life of Paris assumed during the closing 
 days of November, when the siege may be said, without 
 exaggeration, to have been at its height.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 PARIS 
 
 Paris as an Individuality. — Everybody a Soldier. — Provisions. — Rationing Tails. — 
 Cats and Dogs. — The Animals in the Zoological Gardens. — Elephants' Trunks 
 and Feet. — Price of Provisions. — Gas and Balloons. — Carrier Pigeons. — 
 Restaurants. — Canteen and Ambulance Women. — A Friend. 
 
 The Parisian no doubt exaggerates the importance of his 
 town, and is apt to call up a smile when he talks of it as 
 the centre of the universe, but he must nevertheless be 
 credited with a serious, profound, and deep-rooted affection 
 for the corner of the earth which he inhabits. If the 
 former of these two sentiments stands in need of an excuse, 
 the second requires no explanation, for Paris, I assert, 
 possesses everything necessary to seduce, not merely the 
 idler and the trifler, but the thinker and the artist. 
 
 Where can you find a town whose appearance is in itself 
 so full of life and character ? Or one possessing more in- 
 dividuality, or better calculated to tempt the pencil or the 
 pen, to induce a dream or rouse curiosity ?
 
 2 2o JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Paris lives, Paris has a countenance, gestures, customs, 
 vicious habits, manias. When you know Paris, she is not a 
 town, she is an animated being, a natural person, who has 
 her moments of fury, madness, stupidity, enthusiasm, 
 honesty, and lucidity, just like a man who may sometimes 
 be charming, and sometimes unbearable, but never in- 
 different. 
 
 She is loved and she is hated ; she attracts or repels, 
 but is never regarded coldly. 
 
 Nothing, therefore, could be more interesting and in- 
 structive than to depict, both in their entirety and in detail, 
 the profound modifications brought by the siege into this 
 colossal life and its outward appearances. 
 
 Unfortunately, for any such effort I should need the 
 pen of a great writer, coupled with the pencil of a great 
 artist, and I confess that personally I am utterly inadequate 
 to the task, and that, moreover, it is outside the limits 
 which I have set to this work. 
 
 I wish, however, to place on record here some of the 
 pictures which struck me and roused my attention, for 
 the simple reason that they in no way resembled anything 
 I had hitherto seen. 
 
 The first thing that struck you in besieged Paris was the 
 number of the uniforms. Everybody was a soldier, and the 
 members of the Government were the only persons who did 
 not wear at all events a kepi as a symbol of military 
 costume. As soon, therefore, as any action was announced 
 or in preparation, the streets and boulevards were filled 
 solely by persons got up in clothes, the buttons of which, if 
 not the cut, betokened uniform. 
 
 A stripe of red cloth sewn on a pair of trousers, a dozen 
 white buttons on a jacket, a kepi costing thirty sous, and an 
 absence of whisker denoted the soldier, the defender of his
 
 PARIS 221 
 
 country. Individuals were met with their rifles on their 
 way to fall in somewhere or other ; the omnibuses traversed 
 the boulevards, bristling with barrels and resembling pin- 
 cushions or porcupines. 
 
 In the cafe's and restaurants the same military air pre- 
 vailed. The squares and open places, as well as the 
 ramparts, were utilised as drill grounds where improvised 
 officers taught what they did not know to soldiers who 
 knew even less. 
 
 Everybody, or nearly everybody, was a soldier. As for 
 their being good soldiers, that is quite another matter. 
 The middle classes, the shopkeepers, the t , , and the 
 
 aristocracy, of whom the battalions of the centre consisted, 
 did their duty steadily and seriously. But I should be 
 uttering a falsehood were I to say that the battalions of the 
 faubourgs, the popular battalions, were good troops; and I 
 am bold enough to state that they as a rule refrained from 
 pushing themselves forward when the Prussians had to be 
 fought, and only behaved themselves properly, from a mili- 
 tary point of view, when they were confronted by the 
 French army. 
 
 There were too many what we call pratiques in these 
 battalions ; and when they are not kept in order by ener- 
 getic officers and non-commissioned officers, one of them will 
 suffice to disorganise the company to which he belongs, and 
 to which he serves both as an amusement and a dissolvent. 
 
 Everybody did not fight every day, neither did every- 
 body go on guard, but everybody had to eat ; and the ques- 
 tion of provisions was not only the most important of all 
 questions, but also that which, more than anything else, 
 left its mark on the appearance of Paris. 
 
 During the period with which I am dealing, rationing 
 was strictly carried out. It ought to have been put in
 
 222 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 effect the day after the investment ; hut at that time even 
 those who were responsible for the government and issued 
 the proclamation did not believe in the prolonged duration 
 of the siege. The idea of holding out as long as possible 
 was only indulged in later on, so as to compel as many 
 Germans as possible to concentrate round Paris, and thus 
 to second the action of the young dictator who, with a stamp 
 of his foot, was making armies spring out of the ground. 
 
 Rationing was, therefore, put in force too late. If the 
 step had been taken in time, Paris might have held out, 
 perhaps, a month longer, for it is certain that at the 
 besrinningr of the sieofe much flour was wasted. 
 
 Rationing obliged every individual, or every family, to 
 attend in person at the shops of the butchers and bakers. 
 Each household was furnished wiih a card issued by the 
 municipalities and authorising it to receive so many grammes 
 of meat or bread. The nurse, or the mother of the family, 
 or the daughter, or the child, stood for hours outside the 
 shop doors in rain and snow, with wet feet and shivering. 
 God knows how many chest complaints, or how many cases 
 of consumption and rheumatism were brought about in this 
 way. The unhappjr women bore these fatiguing expeditions, 
 which were their sorties, without flinching or complaining. 
 The women, throughout the siege, gave the men examples 
 of courage, self-denial, and devotion, which the latter did 
 not always sufficiently imitate. 
 
 It was a painful but touching; sicrht to see these lontr 
 lines of women, almost all dressed in black, huddled to- 
 gether at the tradesmen's doors, kept back by the soldiers 
 on duty, with whom they began to joke until suffering and 
 cold lulled gaiety to rest and occasionally substituted tears 
 for it. 
 
 By degrees the shops became empty. The reserves
 
 PARIS 223 
 
 collected hastily before the siege, were exhausted, and 
 while small children deprived of milk died in numbers, 
 while others nourished on sweetened wine and bread 
 became afflicted with rachitis, the adults set their wits 
 to work to supplement the meagre ration allowed by the 
 authorities. 
 
 The cat and dog butchers established themselves. Rat 
 pies made their appearance. Stewed cat is not bad, and 
 the poor beast had passed from the tiles to the saucepan 
 long before the Prussians came. A young,, plump dog is 
 tolerable eating. As for the rat — the sewer rat — very fat 
 and very large, except for a slight musky odour, he is 
 twice as good, with plenty of pepper and nutmeg, as a 
 duck in pastry. 
 
 The rats in Paris affect certain special localities, such as, 
 for example, the neighbourhood of restaurants and hotels. 
 One of their favourite haunts is the Jardin des Plantes, 
 where they dispute with the rare animals or birds the food 
 provided by the administration. Their sojourn in the 
 Jardin des Plantes was very sad at this period, because the 
 employes of the Museum slaughtered them in quantities 
 and ate them. 
 
 The messmates of the rats — in other words, the animals 
 in the menagerie, representing a considerable value, had, 
 through the care of the executive under the direction of 
 Milne-Edwards, been provided with sustenance enough to 
 carry them through the privations of the siege. There was 
 hay for the herbivorous, grain for the birds, and the 
 carnivorous never lacked a succulent joint, seeing that, 
 when Paris surrendered, there still remained more than 
 30,000 horses. 
 
 But if they had enough to live upon, they had no means 
 of entertaining, and it happened that at the commencement
 
 224 
 
 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 of the siege, the animals of the Jardin d'Acclimatation, 
 driven out of the Bois de Boulogne by the shells, went to 
 their comrades for hospitality. 
 
 This could not last long, and from the middle of October 
 it became necessary to sacrifice the new comers. 
 
 I give a list of the animals sold, killed, and eaten, 
 which, I believe was never published. At all events, I am 
 sure that it is curious, and I owe it to the kindness of M. 
 Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, director of the Jardin d'Acclam- 
 atation. 
 
 Date of Sale. 
 
 Purchaser. 
 
 Nature of Animal. 
 
 Price. Francs. 
 
 Oct. 18, 1870 
 
 M. Courtier 
 
 1 Dwarf Zebra 
 
 350 
 
 „ 18 „ 
 
 
 2 Buffaloes 
 
 300 
 
 „ 23 „ 
 
 M. Lacroix 
 
 2 Deer 
 
 500 
 
 „ 23 „ 
 
 55 
 
 12 Carp 
 
 150 
 
 „ 24 ,, 
 
 M. Deboos 
 
 2 Yaks 
 
 390 
 
 „ 25 ,, 
 
 M. Groszos 
 
 ;, < W'cso 
 
 (iO 
 
 ,, 27 „ 
 
 M. Lacroix 
 
 1 Small Zebra 
 
 400 
 
 „ 28 „ 
 
 M. Bignon 
 
 Lot Fowls, Ducks, &c. 
 
 862 
 
 „ 31 „ 
 
 M. Deboos 
 
 1 Lot of Ducks 
 
 115 
 
 Nov. 3 ,, 
 
 M. X 
 
 11 Rabbits 
 
 100 
 
 » 17 „ 
 
 M. Deboos 
 
 2 Reindeer 
 
 800 
 
 „ 21 „ 
 
 
 2 Nilghaus 
 
 1,000 
 
 „ 22 ,, 
 
 M. Lacroix 
 
 1 Bengal Stag 
 
 300 
 
 „ 26 „ 
 
 M. Deboos 
 
 2 Wapitis 
 
 2,500 
 
 Dec. 9 „ 
 
 
 1 Nilghau 
 
 650 
 
 „ 15 » 
 
 
 2 Camels 
 
 4,000 
 
 „ 15 „ 
 
 
 1 Yak Calf 
 
 200 
 
 „ 20 „ 
 
 
 2 Camels 
 
 5,000 
 
 „ 29 „ 
 
 » 
 
 2 Elephants 
 
 27,000 
 
 I shall readily be believed when I say that in the 
 slauohter-houses of Paris there existed no tradition 
 relative to the slaughtering of elephants, and that, in 
 consequence, there was some embarrassment in regard to 
 transforming those two huge animals, Castor and Pollux, 
 into butcher's meat. 
 
 M. Derisme, the gunsmith, came armed with a carbine 
 and an explosive bullet, which was intended to overwhelm 
 the brute. Castor received the bullet in his body, and was
 
 PARIS 225 
 
 not overwhelmed in the least. He merely bled profusely, 
 but that might have gone on for a long time without caus- 
 ing death. The animal, accustomed to continual care, seemed 
 convinced that the wound was due to an accident, and did 
 everything his butchers told him with the greatest docility. 
 
 He next received a conical chassepot bullet, tipped with 
 steel, in his head. Castor fell, but a third bullet was neces- 
 sary to put an end to him. 
 
 Pollux did not offer so much resistance, and was killed 
 by a bullet fired point blank behind his ear. 
 
 The elephants, as well as many other animals, were pur- 
 chased, as has been seen from the list, by M. Deboos, the 
 proprietor of the English butchery in the Avenue Friedland. 
 This establishment became a sort of institution during the 
 siege. It did an enormous business without seeking to 
 make large profits. It remained to the very end hung 
 round with strange appetising meats, and the ill-fed detach- 
 ments of the Garde Nationale, when on their way to the 
 ramparts, very frequently protested by shouting and hoot- 
 ing against the gastronomic riches displayed to view, and 
 indeed, M. Carnot, Mayor of the district, and his deputy 
 M. Denormandie, had to take measures for the safety of 
 this establishment. 
 
 Elephants' flesh was sold at from 50 to 60 francs the 
 kilogramme. The trunk fetched 80 francs the kilogramme. 
 In fact the trunk and feet were pronounced by epicures to 
 be delicious eating. 
 
 In the same house a litter of wolf cubs realized an 
 average of 24 francs the kilogramme. The flesh was soft 
 and flabby. 
 
 The animal for which M. Deboos paid dearest, was a 
 little live lamb, weighing 25 lbs., which a franc-tireur had 
 stolen from beyond the advance posts. It realized 500 francs.
 
 226 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Yak's flesh was unanimously preferred to all the others, 
 ami was acknowledged as being of quite exceptional quality. 
 
 The butchery did not sell horse flesh, but it procured 
 some foals which it retailed as antelope meat. Those who 
 ate it pronounced it succulent. 
 
 The cassowary flesh was bought by Baron de Rothschild, 
 a good customer, and nearly all the parrots were eaten by 
 Arsene Houssaye and Dr Ricord. 
 
 I append a few prices extracted from the books of M. 
 Deboos : 
 
 Francs 
 
 Paid for two small Wild Boars 1200 
 
 New Holland Cassowaries 200 
 
 Bears 500 
 
 2 Geese and 7 various Fowls 155 
 
 Paid for 2 Wolves and 1 Hind 570 
 
 2 Porcupines 100 
 
 1 Kangaroo 100 
 
 1 do. 150 
 
 1 Grand Cassowary 000 
 
 To return once more to the elephants, I have come across 
 a letter from M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, to the great English 
 butcher, of which the following is a copy, 
 
 'Paris, December 2Qth, 1870 
 ' Monsieur Deboos, 
 
 ' In these days we do not know who is living or who 
 is dying. Consequently we must not do business hap- 
 hazard. 
 
 My responsibility to the Socict} r which I represent will 
 not permit of my handing over the elephants to you with- 
 out having received the purchase money, or, at all events,
 
 PARIS 227 
 
 without having some security in my hands. Will you, 
 therefore, oblige me, if you take over my animals to-morrow 
 or before I come off guard, by giving the keeper, Blondel 
 a letter addressed to me, stating that you will pay the 
 price of the two elephants, 27,000 francs, on Thursday 
 morning the 29th of December. In this way, having 
 security in our hands, my responsibility will be covered. 
 
 'Do not take this in bad part, I have entire confidence in 
 you, but business is business. 
 
 ' With cordial regards, 
 
 (sig.), Geoffroy Saint Hilaire.' 
 
 Here is one more very exact list of the prices of provi- 
 sions at the end of the siege : 
 
 1 Kilogramme of Horse Flesh 
 
 Francs 
 
 20 
 
 1 do. Dogs 
 
 do. 
 
 8 
 
 1 do. Ham 
 
 
 80 
 
 1 Cat 
 
 
 15 
 
 1 Rabbit 
 
 
 50 
 
 1 Turkey 
 lEgg 
 1 Rat 
 
 
 150 
 5 
 2 
 
 1 Pigeon 
 
 
 15 
 
 1 Kilogramme of Butter 
 
 
 160 
 
 1 Litre of Haricot Beans 
 
 
 8 
 
 1 Bushel of Carrots 
 
 
 75 
 
 1 do. Potatoes 
 
 
 35 
 
 1 do. Onions 
 
 
 80 
 
 1 Cabbage 
 
 
 16 
 
 1 Leek 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 Head of Celery 
 1 Shallot 
 
 
 2 
 0.50 
 
 Green Wood, per 100 kil. 
 
 
 20
 
 228 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 It will have been concluded from a perusal of the letter 
 of M. Geoffrey Saint Hilaire, that no credit was given. That 
 is true. Ready money was paid for everything. But, by 
 way of compensation, a truce had been arranged between 
 debtors and creditors. Landlords and tenants had signed a 
 suspension of hostilities which was countersigned by the 
 concierges themselves. And the bank clerks, instead of 
 going from door to door with pocket-books whence issued 
 notes to order, or where were engulphed bank notes, were 
 under arms, like brave fellows that they nearly all are, in a 
 splendid battalion which protected the Bank not only during 
 the siege, but also during the Commune. 
 
 While the happy ones of the period, the wealthy, fed like 
 XLohicans and discovered in Paris culinary resources which 
 virgin forests reserve for the hardy trapper, I leave my 
 readers to imagine what sort of food was eaten in the small 
 restaurants, in the soup-kitchens and breakfast houses. 
 
 A few large restaurants alone had kept their aristocratic 
 customers, the Cafe Anglais, Bignon, Voisin and Durand. 
 
 The Cafe Anglais was the place where the last piece of 
 white bread was eaten. It was kneaded in the cellar. 
 Voisin's was distinguished for the appetising way in which 
 the nature of the food was concealed. 
 
 The stewards of the clubs rivalled each other in zeal 
 and ingenuity. The tables of the clubs were a precious 
 resource for a number of Parisians who had deposited their 
 families in places of safety, and who had returned, as 
 bachelors, to take part in the fatigues and excitement of 
 the siege. The cost of these meals was only increased to 
 an insignificant extent, and a man could appease his hunger 
 without spending his wife's dowry in a week. 
 
 The candidates for admission into the large clubs were, 
 consequently, numerous, very numerous, but generally un-
 
 PARIS 229 
 
 successful, the old members not wishing to run the coffee- 
 room fund too deeply into debt, or to exhaust the ac- 
 cumulation of provisions too rapidly. 
 
 There were, however, a tolerable number of admissions 
 into the Jockey Club. It will, I think, be interesting to 
 give a few details. In January, 1871, were admitted, 
 M.M. Prince de Clermont Tonnerre. 
 
 E. Blount. 
 
 Arthur O'Connor. 
 
 Baron Brunet. 
 
 Baron J. N. de Rothschild. 
 
 Comte de Kergariou. 
 
 Vicomte de la Londe. 
 
 Vicomte d'Haussonville. 
 
 Richard Wallace. 
 
 Comte de Quinsonas 
 
 Comte de Vigneral. 
 
 Vice-Admiral La Ronciere le Noury. 
 
 Charles Haas. 
 
 Jules Be'ge. 
 
 Edgar Passy. 
 
 Vicomte Edmond de La Panouse. 
 
 For the benefit of those who would like to know how 
 the Jockey Club lived then, I give the menu of the 1st of 
 January, 1871 : — 
 
 Potage au Pain. 
 1st Service. 
 Cote de bouf rotie. 
 Poule au riz. 
 
 2nd Service. 
 Epinards au gris. 
 Glace groseille et vanille.
 
 230 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 That was not so bad after a siege of fchree-months-and 
 a-half, was it ? But it was meagre as compared with the 
 ordinary menus of the Club. By way of comparison, here 
 is an ordinary menu : — 
 
 Menu of January 1, 1884, at the Jockey Club. 
 
 Potage. 
 Consomme' aux oeuf poches. 
 
 1st Service. 
 
 Soles a la Colbert. 
 
 Culotte de boeuf a la namande. 
 
 Poulet sautes a la chasseur. 
 
 2nd Service. 
 Cuissot de chevreuil, sauce poivrade. 
 Pommes de terre a la creme. 
 Pannequets a l'abricot. 
 
 Dessert. 
 Poires, pommes. 
 Mendeauts, petits gateaux. 
 
 While I am on the subject of the Jockey Club, I trust 
 I may be pardoned for displaying some confraternal pride, 
 and may be allowed to put aside the cooking and the 
 victuals in order to recall the fact that eight of the 
 members of that large and aristocratic club lost their 
 lives in battle. Here is the glorious list : — - 
 
 Comte Robert de Vogue\ captain 1st Spahis. August 6. 
 Battle of Reichshoffen. 
 
 Guy Dubessey de Contenson, colonel 5th Cuirassiers. 
 August 30. Engagement of Mouzon. 
 
 Francois Fievet, colonel lGth Artillery. September 1. 
 Siege of Strasbourg. 
 
 Vicointe de Rafelis de Saint-Sauveur, captain 3rd
 
 PARIS 231 
 
 Zouaves. September 1. Mortally wounded at the Battle 
 of Reichshoffen. 
 
 Louis Armand le Sergeant d'Hendecourt, captain on the 
 Staff. September 1. Battle of Sedan. 
 
 Andre* Picot, Comte de Dampierre, commandant 1st 
 battalion Mobiles of Aube. October 13. En^ao-ement of 
 Bagneux. 
 
 Vicomte de Grancey, colonel, Mobiles of Cote-d'Or. 
 December 2. Battle of Chainpigny. 
 
 Charles d Albert, Due de Luynes et de Chevreuse, cap- 
 tain and adjutant-major 1st battalion Mobiles of the Sarthe. 
 December 2. Engagement of Ligny. 
 
 I ought perhaps, in obedience to the law of contrast, 
 after having spoken of the still comfortable life of the rich 
 citizen, to depict, in black colours and with bitter force, the 
 existence of the poor, the workman without work, and the 
 beggar. It would be difficult for me to do so for a very 
 good reason. The siege of Paris was undoubtedly the pre- 
 cise period in our history when we had the fewest paupers. 
 As a matter of fact, the State paid and fed every able- 
 bodied man, his wife, and his children ; and the public fund 
 — the State once more — took charge of the others. 
 
 By the force of circumstances, Paris at this time became 
 a species of huge national workshop ; and I shall not easily 
 be disabused of the idea that, if the national workshops of 
 184S brought about the days of June, the forced and paid 
 idleness of the siege had very much to do with the birth of 
 the Commune. 
 
 And this is all the more true because wine and brandy 
 were the only things which never had to be limited. The 
 Garde Nationale took advantage of this, and all the world 
 knows that the consumption of alcohol during this period 
 was enormous. Add to this the continuous excitement of
 
 232 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 the clubs, and the fever engendered by absurd despatches 
 and necessarily inflammatory proclamations, which fell 
 from time to time into the midst of the population ; the 
 never-ceasing alternations of enthusiasm, anger, deception, 
 and hope; the trouble wrought in the public mind by 
 unaccustomed sights and panic succeeding to confidence ; 
 the brain disturbance caused during the last days of the 
 siege by the continual roar of the bombarding ordnance ; 
 and perpetual anxiety — and you have the elements which 
 made up what was called the obsidional madness. 
 
 Nevertheless, the Parisians of Paris, surrounded by 
 neighbours knowing their districts, and sustained by the 
 firmness of their mutual relations, got on pretty well ; but 
 what can be said as to those unfortunate beings who had 
 fled before the invading armies, and were swallowed up in 
 Paris without knowing a soul there ? What can be said 
 as to the poor devils who were driven out of their homes 
 by the bombardment, and were hurled back towards the 
 centre by the shells ? 
 
 All unoccupied buildings were requisitioned for the 
 people generally, some of them very luxuriously decorated, 
 and inhabited in quiet times by aristocratic families. The 
 refugees were encamped in elegant drawing-rooms. From 
 walls lined with satin or from gilt mouldings were 
 stretched cords, on which the washing or babies' swaddling 
 clothes were hung to dry. Horse flesh was roasted at 
 porphyry fireplaces. And these bewildered refugees, not 
 knowing their way about the unfamiliar streets, remained 
 indoors stupified, without thinking, and without knowing 
 where they were or what was to become of them. 
 
 In the early days of December, Paris at night — and 
 night falls quickly in December — was simply melancholy. 
 
 The Gas Company so cleverly managed by M. Camus,
 
 PARIS 233 
 
 had done everything that it could. At the outset it had 
 laid in a considerable stock of combustibles, but what stock 
 would have held out against the 800,000 gas burners which 
 burned in the public thoroughfares of Paris, and against 
 the millions of burners lighted in private localities ? The 
 latter were the first to be deprived of light, andthengradually 
 the lighted lamps in the streets became more and more rare. 
 In some streets oil lamps were placed, in others, candles ; 
 but the majority remained in darkness, leaving the immense 
 blots of shadows which spread over the town to increase 
 around them. 
 
 Paris without gas is fearful. When you are walking in 
 the open country, if it is as dark as inside an oven, you 
 have a feeling that everything is at rest and asleep around 
 you. In Paris it is quite another thing. In the darkness 
 and silence you feel that some huge, sinister thing is 
 hissing and coiling itself round you. You become actually 
 terrified. You might imagine yourself in a cavern full of 
 suspicious rustling, of stifled groans, of open traps, until 
 terror paralyses you and you feel your hair standing on 
 end and changing colour. 
 
 The Gas Company, in proportion as it limited its 
 lighting operations, converted its unoccupied workmen into 
 a battalion, and then into two battalions organised, and 
 wonderfully organised, by itself. 
 
 And it also husbanded its combustible resources to keep 
 up with the requirements of the balloons, and to make head 
 against the inevitable loss through leakage. 
 
 Everybody knows the history of the balloons during the 
 siege. Their starting place was on the Place St Pierre, at 
 Montmartre, and the first which ascended, on the 12th of 
 September, was a captive balloon of 1200 cubic metres 
 which was first of all used as a military observatory, and
 
 234 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 afterwards, on the 24th of September, was despatched with 
 the first batch of letters. 
 
 In regard to making good the leakage in the pipes, that 
 was a matter of paramount necessity for this reason. 
 Everybody knows that gas for lighting purposes is com- 
 bustible, but not explosive ; it only becomes explosive when 
 combined with air in a certain proportion. 
 
 To avoid this combination the pipes must always be kept 
 full. That condition being observed, there was no need to 
 anticipate, as was feared during the siege, the sight of an 
 entire quarter of the town being sent into the air through 
 the explosion of a gasometer. 
 
 First of all, a gasometer does not explode. The gas in 
 it burns like a huge firework, if it is lighted, and that is all. 
 We had an instance of this. A German shell burst in a 
 gasometer. The gas caught fire and escaped in a few 
 moments, like a gigantic and flaming meteor, throuo-h the 
 opening made by the shell, and all was over. Another 
 shell burst in another gasometer, and on this occasion the 
 gas did not even catch fire. The Gas Company had in 
 every one of its works sheet-iron plates, ready to be bolted 
 on to the perforated parts. These measures of precaution 
 were carried into effect, and repairs were executed under 
 fire. 
 
 It would be unjust not to mention the organisation of 
 our ambulance service, and the generous pecuniary sacrifices 
 which the defence of the capital owes to the powerful 
 Parisian company. 
 
 I have just mentioned balloons, and now I think of you 
 poor little messengers — timid creatures — who have borne 
 under your wings so many joys, sorrows, hopes and griefs, 
 you carrier-pigeons, descended from the dove of the Ark, 
 who, like her, left the Ark, of which Trochu was the Noah,
 
 PARIS 235 
 
 and who never returned, alas ! like her, with an olive 
 branch in your beak to tell the wayfarers that the deluge 
 was over, and that the waters were returning to their 
 proper limits, that the German was returning to the 
 country he had enlarged at our expense. 
 
 If you had lived in days of old, brave little carriers, 
 altars would have been raised to you, or, at all events, as at 
 Venice, a home would have been made for you. You were 
 not only faithful, but you were heroic, for many a time 
 have your little bodies been found frozen and prone at the 
 foot of the trees wherein you had taken refuge in those 
 terrible nights, when the cold sent the mercury down to 
 twenty-five degrees below zero. 
 
 But we are as ungrateful as we are vain. France has 
 treated you, O carrier pigeons ! as she treats her great men. 
 Not only did she forget you, but after the siege how many 
 of you terminated your epic career in a saucepan, while 
 your sons were dishonoured by the daily marketing of 
 Versailles stupidities ! 
 
 As far as I am concerned, I confess to being fanatic or 
 foolish enough — whichever you please — not to have eaten 
 a pigeon for the last fourteen years. 
 
 When a balloon went up, it carried, suspended to its 
 cordage, baskets containing a number of couples of carrier- 
 pigeons. When the balloon escaped the Germans, and when 
 the pigeons consequently did not furnish a relish to sourkrout 
 or sausages, they were carried to the seat of government, 
 and were there entrusted with despatches in the following 
 manner. 
 
 The tail of these birds is composed of nine large feathers, 
 on the centre one was fixed a small quill in which was 
 rolled the despatch, written on a scrap of thin paper, the
 
 236 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 writing being reduced as much as possible by means of 
 photography. 
 
 The power of reduction was such that the four pages of 
 the Journal Official of Tours or Bordeaux were contained 
 on a piece of paper no larger than a postage stamp. A 
 pigeon in this manner could carry as many as 20,000 
 private messages, or as many as would make a fair load 
 for a carriage, if written in ordinary hand writing on 
 ordinary paper. 
 
 The carrier-pigeon started, mounted upwards, flew near 
 the wind, and made at once for Paris. Unless frozen by 
 the way. or shot by the Prussian rifles, he arrived at Paris 
 and entered his home by lifting up with his beak a little 
 trap, which fell down behind him, and made him prisoner. 
 Nothing now remained to be done but to detach the quill 
 and take it to the Post Office. 
 
 The scrap of thin paper, by reason of the small characters 
 on it, resembled a bit of grey paper. It was enclosed in an 
 apparatus furnished with magnifying lenses and traversed 
 by a jet of electric light, and the despatch was reflected on 
 the wall, magnified immensely, and in the midst of a panel 
 of light covering several square yards. 
 
 Seated at a table facing the wall twenty clerks then 
 copied the despatches on to as many separate sheets as 
 might be necessary, and the telegrams were sent off to the 
 Government and private individuals on yellow paper, bearing 
 at the top a small rectangular stamp bearing the words 
 Indication dti Service, and underneath, written by the 
 clerks, the additional word, Pigeon. 
 
 The majority of the carrier-pigeons were supplied to 
 the Government by M. Gassier, who, on the 27th of October, 
 had himself taken a great number of these little messengers 
 in a balloon, and had set them at liberty with his own hands.
 
 PARIS 237 
 
 In the month of July, 1871, that is to say, six months 
 after the siege, I had the curiosity to ask him what had 
 become of the pigeons. He replied that he had only four 
 left. The remainder, more than two hundred in number, 
 had succumbed under their fatigues. 
 
 From the letter he wrote me I extract the following — 
 
 ' I append a list of the pigeons which have survived the 
 fatigues of their flights, and have carried communications 
 for the Government since the month of September last, 
 when I offered them to General Trochu for the service of 
 the National Defence. 
 
 1st. A red cock, taken from Paris by M. de Keratry. 
 Returned in the middle of October (without a 
 numbered despatch). 
 2nd. A red hen, left Tours, December 19, 1870, bear- 
 ing official despatch series No. 36 ; arrived in Paris, 
 December 20. 
 3rd. A blue hen, left Saint-Pierre-des-Cors, January 
 
 12 or 13, with despatch series No. 45. 
 4th. A mottled hen, left Saint Maur, January 18, in 
 fearful weather, and arrived January 20. This 
 pigeon, No. 4, closed the series of official despatches. 
 It was the last to arrive in Paris during the sieo-e.' 
 
 Paris, then, deprived of gas, went to bed early during 
 this never-to-be-forgotten winter, and yet, from time to 
 time it found means of going to the theatre, and the Gas 
 Company still lighted, here and there, a few footlights in 
 front of the actors. 
 
 The Come'die Francaise gave performances from its 
 ordinary repertoire at least twice a week throughout the 
 siege. The artists of the opera jointly gave several short
 
 238 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 performances. Other theatres, especially the Porte Saint 
 Martin, opened their doors for charitable performances. 
 An ambulance had to be assisted, or a gun cast, or a 
 battalion or a company containing artists had to be 
 furnished with the means of doing a good work, and a 
 comedy or a drama was played with interludes. 
 
 The Ghdtiments of Victor Hugo was an almost com- 
 pulsory interlude. I confess that I had no taste for these 
 songs of hate bursting forth in the midst of Paris, darkened 
 as she was, and in the grasp of the enemy's hand. But 
 everybody spouted their poetry, and just as, when I was a 
 little boy, on every tine evening I invariably heard some 
 girl or other warbling, ' Petite fleur des Champs' just as, 
 later in life, I had to swallow the 'Feuilles Mortes ' millions 
 of times ; so when I went to the theatre or a concert, I 
 was sure to come across some dismal individual who, 
 rolling his ferocious eyes, would say, 
 
 ' L 'enfant avait regit deux balles dans la tete.' 
 
 And everybody immediately made a face indicative of 
 irritation and conviction. While pity was being aroused 
 by the two bullets which had strayed into the head of this 
 hypothetical child, the German shells made mincemeat of 
 real children at a range of some hundreds of yards. 
 
 I remember receiving the following expressively laconic 
 circular letter — 
 
 ' Monsieur and Madame Jules Leqendre regret to have 
 to inform you of the death of their daughters, Alice, aged 
 thirteen years and six months, and Clemence, aged eight 
 years, killed by a Prussian shell.' 
 
 I have already said a word or two about the admirable 
 women of the poorer classes who were to be found waiting 
 at the doors of the butchers and the bakers. And how
 
 PARIS 23Q 
 
 about the others ? you will say. They were all of them 
 sublime or charming. 
 
 First of all, there were the ambulance women. I have 
 no intention of giving a list of all the ambulances, public and 
 private, or of taking my readers to the Palais d'Industrie, 
 where the main depot of linen was established — in itself a 
 very strange and wonderful sight. I wish merely to record 
 that the most distinguished ladies of Paris held it an honour 
 to wear the white apron — actresses as well as women of 
 the middle classes and the aristocracy. I dare not mention 
 names lest I should forget any. I will make one exception, 
 however, in favour of that amiable and very superior 
 woman — Madame Adam. Whether as a private individual 
 or, while her husband was Prefect of Police, as the wife of 
 one of the foremost officials of the capital, she rendered 
 herself universally revered by the ardour she brought to 
 bear on everything, not only in ministering to the wounded, 
 but in the struggle against want and in the charitable 
 bazaars. She was, in a word, a compendium of every 
 patriotic initiative. 
 
 And the vivandieres ! What a treat for the eye when 
 they marched boldly in rear of their battalions in red and 
 black spencers, natty boots or morocco gaiters, kepis well 
 on one side of their head, and the little casks on their hips. 
 
 Several actresses solicited this conspicuous mission. 
 Dica Petit and Lina Munte were cant [meres of the Rue de 
 Bondy battalion ; Berthe Legrand, of the Rue Drouot ; 
 Massin, of the Rue St Honore", &c, &c. It was charming, 
 and all the more so because if fighting did take place the 
 o-allant battalions would never have allowed the Germans 
 to damage their pretty little cantinieres, who looked as if 
 they were made of china. Some pleasant moments were 
 spent by us after all.
 
 2 4 o JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 One other circumstance contributed to render the 
 inconveniences of the situation more bearable ; this was 
 the pleasant relations, the exquisite cordiality established 
 between people whose social standing varied considerably, 
 but who stood shoulder to shoulder in the same rank, and 
 were bound together by the holy brotherhood of the same 
 danger incurred, the same death confronted together. I 
 might cite thousands of cases of devotion which happened 
 under my own eyes. Here is one among others. 
 
 On the 28th of November there were dining together at 
 Bignon's, the Comte de Coriolis, Orderly Officer to General 
 Mellinet ; the Due de Castries, sub-lieutenant of Cavalry ; 
 M. Arthur Meyer, and Captain de Neverlee. 
 
 There was to be a sortie and fighting on the following 
 day, and the champagne was flowing. 
 
 Suddenly Neverlee, a fine, intelligent fellow whom I 
 knew in China, said, raising his glass as if to drink a toast, 
 
 ' This is my last glass of champagne. I shall be killed 
 to-morrow.' 
 
 The others remonstrated with him. 
 
 ' I shall be killed to-morrow,' he repeated, obstinately. 
 
 At this moment an American, Mr Hutton, who had been 
 arrested as a Prussian spy at the beginning of the siege, but 
 was subsequently released, made his appearance. He had 
 been assigned a post in connection with the ambulances, and 
 passed for a very well-informed man. 
 
 He held in his hand one of the first copies of the pro- 
 clamation of Ducrot, which he had procured from that 
 General's head-quarters. 
 
 ' Dead or victorious,' he repeated. 
 
 On the next day but one, Neverle'e was killed a few 
 yards from a loop-holed wall. He and his horse had re- 
 ceived thirty-eight bullets.
 
 PARIS 241 
 
 The One <lo Castries, who loved Neverlee as a brother, 
 persuaded — at what cost I know not — a hackney driver to 
 take him to the field of battle. He turned the dead over 
 one after another, and at length under a heap of corpses he 
 found the body of his friend, and brought it back with 
 him in the carriage. 
 
 Was not that noble ? 
 
 Q
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 VILLIERS CHAMPION Y 
 
 The Grand Sortie. — Proclamation of Ducrot. — Dead or Victorious. — The Rise of 
 the Marne. — The Engagements at Villiers. — Ladreyt de La Charriere. — 
 Renault the Rear Guard. — A Tragical Meeting. — On the Field of Battle. — 
 My Brother Wounded. — A Day's Respite. — At the Louvre. — The Despatch. 
 — On a Mission. — Champigny. — The Ambulance Women. — A Priest. — The 
 Ravens. — Under Shell Fire. — Trochu Exposes Himself. — Ducrot. — The Re- 
 treat. — The Second Affair of Bourget. — General Blaise. — New Year's Gifts. 
 
 The logical and inevitable result of the proceedings of 
 the 31st of October, of the plebiscite which succeeded it, 
 of the rupture of negotiations, and of the good pleasure 
 of the Parisians, was very clearly marked out. It was 
 obligatory on the part of the Government to arrange for 
 military action on a large scale against some point of the 
 investing lines. 
 
 The Staff discussed the most advantageous direction 
 from which to make the attempt to break through the iron 
 circle. To go northwards led to nothing. From that
 
 VI LL 1 EBS CHAMPIGN7 243 
 
 quarter had come the torrent of helmeted men who had 
 overrun the remainder of France. 
 
 Southwards it would be necessary to carry by assault 
 the almost impregnable positions of Chatillon, lost by us at 
 the very commencement of the siege. 
 
 There remained the west and the east. 
 
 To the west lay Normandy, a district adapted for an 
 easy and abundant supply of provisions, of which we 
 should do well to deprive the enemy so that we might 
 make use of them ourselves. A sortie westwards was, 
 therefore, taken into serious consideration, and we felt 
 almost certain that on that side the German was weaker 
 than elsewhere. 
 
 Meanwhile, the provincial armies were manoeuvring 
 round Orleans, resting on their right. To meet them and 
 unite them to an army issuing out of Paris, to sew the 
 Parisian strip, detached and cut off by the German army, on 
 to the rest of the territory somehow or other was un- 
 questionably the most reasonable movement. Provisions 
 on this side were less abundant and less easy to acquire. 
 But victory would have given greater military results, and 
 would have produced an immense moral effect. It was de- 
 cided to make the sortie by the east. 
 
 Pontoon bridges were prepared to span the Marne be- 
 tween Joinville le Pont and Nogent. Boats were 
 requisitioned for the transport of the wounded and a 
 portion of the warlike material. The Generals were told 
 that their troops would be massed on the plain of Vincennes. 
 
 •The movement commenced on the 28th of November. It 
 was announced to the population by three simultaneous 
 proclamations, the first signed by the members of the 
 Government, the second by the Governor alone, and the
 
 244 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 third by General Ducrot, who was appointed to command 
 the force to be employed. 
 
 The last mentioned proclamation was quite antique in 
 style. It electrified the Parisians. It contained the 
 famous words, ' I shall only return dead or victorious.' 
 
 In connection with this celebrated sentence I am in a 
 position to give what I believe to be a detail hitherto un- 
 known. During the last days of November General Ducrot 
 was in the habit of dining in the Rue de Miromesnil, fre- 
 quented also by Ferdinand de Lesseps. While there the 
 General received the proofs of his proclamation from the 
 Imprimerie Nationale. He read it. De Lesseps, taking out 
 his pencil, said to the General, 
 
 ' You ought to add, — " As far as I am concerned, I am 
 resolved that I will only return dead or victorious." ' 
 
 ' The devil,' said Ducrot. ' You strike hard ! ' 
 
 And after hesitating for a few seconds, he said, 
 
 ' Very well, if you are bent upon it, " dead or victorious " 
 it shall be.' 
 
 And so the famous sentence for which Ducrot was so 
 severely reproached belongs to M. de Lesseps. 
 
 Two diversions had been ordered so as to mask the 
 movement, distract the attention of the Germans, and draw 
 away their troops from the point actually threatened. One 
 was an attack on the peninsula of Gennevilliers. The other 
 was an attack on Choisy le Roi, during which the marines 
 carried the Gare-aux Boeufs by assault with admirable 
 bravery. 
 
 During the night of the 29th the troops took up their 
 positions on the polygon of Vincenncs, conveyed thither by 
 trains following each other at a few hundred yards distance. 
 The artillery rumbled with a sound like distant thunder 
 along the roads hardened by the cold. The Marne was to
 
 VILLIERS CHAMPIGNY 245 
 
 be crossed at once. The bridges were ready, but the river 
 had risen, and it was necessary to lengthen them. The 
 Governor, who had retired to Vincennes for the night, 
 chafed with impatience. There was nothing to be done 
 but to wait until the Engineers had repaired the fault of 
 the Marne. 
 
 On the 30th before daybreak the divisions moved for- 
 ward against the enemy, who had had twenty-four hours to 
 prepare for their reception. 
 
 The Faisanderie redoubt opened fire, and its shells, pas- 
 sing over the heads of our advancing infantry, reached the 
 Prussian lines. 
 
 Three divisions took part in this first day's proceedings. 
 
 The Blanchard and Renault divisions, pushing straight 
 on, drove the enemy back to the foot of the slopes of 
 Champigny, while the Susbielle division attacked Mesly 
 and Mont-Mesly on the right. It took possession of them, 
 but was compelled to abandon them in consequence of the 
 return of the Wurtembergers reinforced by fresh troops. 
 It fell back on Creteil. The Mobiles, who were decimated, 
 gave the signal of wavering, and dragged with them the troops 
 of the line. There General Ladreyt de La Charriere fell ; this 
 brave soldier died like a hero. From the spot where we were 
 posted behind the governor, we saw the heads of the columns 
 hesitate, then waver, and finally recoil before the Germans, 
 who were really magnificent in battle, coming on in dark 
 masses, and, at the moment of taking skirmishing order, 
 raising their rifles above their heads as one man with deaf- 
 ening cheers, the result being that their battalions, like the 
 grotesque figures in a circus, seemed to increase in size. 
 The Mobiles, who had never seen anything like it, took 
 fright. Ladreyt de la Charriere galloped towards them, and 
 with the idea of drawing them on, he put his kepi on the top
 
 246 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 of hissword and called out ' En avant !' He was certainly 
 not fifty yards from the Prussians. Suddenly the kepi and 
 the sword fell together — a bullet had smashed the General's 
 wrist. Three minutes afterwards he himself fell with a 
 bullet through his thigh. He was carried to the rem-. 
 
 This retreat left the right of the troops operating against 
 Champigny uncovered. In the afternoon the Mobiles were 
 re-formed, and the Susbielle division was led on again to 
 the attack. 
 
 Its efforts expired at the foot of the crests of Villiers, 
 which the Prussians had fortified and garrisoned, and which 
 £>ave their name to this first eno-ao;ement. 
 
 The sun was setting. All was over for that day. 
 
 Before returning to Vincennes, the Governor sent me 
 with a despatch to the left wing, which had held its posi- 
 tions, and where Ducrot was. 
 
 In going and coming back, two very dramatic en- 
 counters befell me. In going I passed General of Division 
 Renault, who was beino- carried to the rear with his leg 
 broken by the bursting of a shell. 
 
 Poor old Renault ! What a soldier ! In Africa he had 
 been nick-named ' Renault the Rear-Guard.' He only 
 understood the bayonet, and if he had dared he would 
 never have allowed his soldiers to lire a shot. Before each 
 action he had his sword sharpened, like a good workman 
 who is going to make use of a familiar tool. 
 
 He was carried home. He lived for four days longer 
 without a suspicion that his leg had been amputated, obstin- 
 ately bent on reading the papers to see the news, and 
 nearly always a prey to terrible delirium, in which he 
 never ceased to abuse poor General Trochu, who was his 
 bete voir, and to heap insults upon him.
 
 VILLIERk CHAMPIGNY 247 
 
 On my return the encounter I had was not only dra- 
 matic, but it was distressing and in a way providential. 
 
 I must explain that towards the end of November, 
 when any battle was vaguely announced and expected, the 
 requests for permits, such as were issued to people desirous 
 of searching among" the wounded on the field of battle, 
 multiplied until they assumed considerable proportions. 
 
 It had happened more than once that the arrival of 
 these voluntary nurses with spring vans, hackney carriages, 
 wagonettes and private carriages, on the field of battle had 
 interfered with the movement of our troops, when, to use 
 the time-honoured phrase, they were falling back in good 
 order, and scenes of confusion were the result. The Governor, 
 who had been an eyewitness of some of these scenes, gave 
 an order putting a stop to the distribution of the permits, 
 the issue of which was made by us personally during our 
 turns of duty. 
 
 On the evening but one before the .sortie, I was visited 
 in the green room by two ladies, very well dressed, who 
 came to request a permit to enable them to bring back one 
 of the wounded and to take care of him at their own house. 
 
 I refused at first, and then one of them with tears in 
 her eyes said, 
 
 'You see, sir, I have a nephew in the army of the 
 Loire. And it seems to me that what I may be able to 
 do for one of our poor soldiers here may prevent him from 
 being abandoned on the field of battle, should he be 
 unfortunate enough to be wounded.' 
 
 I replied that my orders were precise, and that I could 
 not accede to the request. 
 
 They withdrew. Why I know not, but as soon as their 
 backs were turned a feeling of regret crossed my mind, and 
 seemed to strike my heart. I sent an orderly after them.
 
 2 4 S JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 He overtook them in the courtyard, and asked them 
 to come back. 
 
 ' I am going,' I said to them, ' to abuse my position. As 
 the Governor always ratifies the decisions arrived at by his 
 
 officers, I am going to sign a permit for you and 1 leave 
 
 the rest to Providence.' 
 
 They thanked me with effusion, and I thought no more 
 of the matter. 
 
 Well, on my way back from the left wing at nightfall, 
 throwing the bridle on the neck of my tired horse, gazing 
 on the rays of the setting sun, now red, now violet, with 
 every outline of the neighbouring heights brought out in 
 dark relief, and feeling sure that my horse, if left to him- 
 self, would never, even though his path was plunged in 
 shadow, stumble against one of the wounded whom I heard 
 iiToanino- to the right and left of me in the bitter cold, which 
 made their wounds smart and rendered them livid — I saw, 
 some distance in front of me, an ordinary hackney carriage 
 drawn by two horses at a walk. When I was close behind 
 the carriage I saw a woman in black lean out of the 
 window. She said to the driver, 
 
 ' More quietly, please.' 
 
 I seemed to recognise one of my visitors at the Louvre, 
 the aunt of the soldier of the army of the Loire. She 
 had found her wounded man. 
 
 I rode up, the two poor ladies were there, seated on the 
 front seat, and between them were stretched out the booted 
 legs of an officer, lying down, rather than seated, in the 
 bottom of the vehicle. 
 
 I leaned forward and saw epaulets on the uniform. The 
 wounded man turned his head. It was my brother, the 
 Secretary to the Embassy, Orderly Officer to General 
 Berthaut. A fragment of a shell had struck him in the
 
 VILLIEBS CHAM PIG NY 249 
 
 shoulder. He was delirious. He did not recognise me. I 
 
 jumped off my horse, got inside the carriage, and kissed the 
 hands of the astonished ladies. 
 
 I asked them for their address, which I had forgotten. 
 I begged them to take care of the poor fellow, and promised, 
 if my duty would permit, to spend the night by his side. 
 
 I rejoined the Governor at Vincennes. 
 
 The General, I do not know how, noticed my disturbed 
 countenance. 
 
 ' My poor d'Herisson,' he said, 'you have quite a funereal 
 look about you. Reassure yourself we are not beaten. I 
 am very well pleased with this first engagement. Unfor- 
 tunately, we cannot recommence the struggle to-morrow. 
 These young troops are so quickly disorganised when they 
 have seen the enemy. One or two hours' fighting at close 
 quarters and they are no better than a flock of sheep, in 
 spite of their courage and their good will. We will arrange 
 all that to-morrrow. You will see.' 
 
 I told him of my sad adventure. 
 
 He sent me at once with despatches to General Sclimitz, 
 and told me to remain at the disposal of the Chief of the 
 Staff. 
 
 The following day passed without any fighting, and was 
 spent in the re-organisation of the troops, who had not 
 only suffered during the battle, but also from the cold 
 endured during the following \ night. The dead were 
 buried. Ditches were dug. Champigny was fortified afresh. 
 Soup was made, and everybody warmed himself as best he 
 could. But blankets were wanting. 
 
 The Germans attacked on the following day, the 2nd of 
 December, when the terrible battle of Champigny was 
 fought. 
 
 1 had not been placed under orders to follow the
 
 250 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Governor, and it was the first affair of any importance 
 outside Paris which had taken place without my playing 
 some small part in it. This went against the grain with me. 
 
 The Louvre was almost empty. General Trochu and all 
 his Staff were on the field of battle : and. with the exception 
 of the Administrative Officers and the clerks in the offices, 
 throughout this deserted building and the large rooms as a 
 rule so full of animation, but now so cold and void, there 
 remained but General Schmitz and I. 
 
 The General sent an orderly for me, made me sit down, 
 took an arm-chair near the fireplace himself, and said, 
 
 ' I did not want to send you under fire to-day. It 
 would be only fair that I should not do so, for you have 
 done more than your share in that way. I should have 
 liked to have left you out of this business, so that you 
 might look after your brother. Berthaut has spoken of him 
 to me, and I have been to see him. His mental condition 
 is quite as serious as his physical state, and I quite under- 
 stand that you are anxious in regard to the consequences of 
 the wound he received the day before yesterday.' 
 
 Among military men one is least accustomed to such 
 attentions, to such goodness, or to such almost paternal 
 foresight and — why should I not confess it — the tears 
 came into my eyes. The General continued, 
 
 'I am, nevertheless, compelled to ask you to rejoin 
 General Trochu at once. Listen to me attentively. It is 
 very important. A carrier-pigeon has arrived with serious 
 despatches. Gambetta informs us that the army of the 
 Loire is in >ving, and that he hopes on the 6th it will be 
 encamped in the forest of Fontainebleau. Saddle your 
 best ln>i -e and be off. It is of the greatest importance that 
 tie' General should be warned of this as soon as possible,
 
 VILLIERS CHAMPIGNY 251 
 
 and that he should direct the day's operations with perfect 
 knowledge of the cause — Do you understand r 
 
 ' Yes, sir.' 
 
 ' Very well, repeat to me what I have just told you. — 
 That is quite right. Onc Q on the ground, make enquiries, 
 and go immediately to wherever the General may be.' 
 
 I was going to take up a pencil from the table in order 
 to make sure of my instructions by writing a line, lest my 
 memory should fail me, although my commission was as 
 simple as possible — Army of the Loire, December 6, Forest 
 of Fontainebleau. 
 
 ' Do not write anything,' said General Schmitz, stretching 
 out his arm to stop me. ' If I had wanted you to write 
 anything I should have simply given you a letter to deliver. 
 Your mission is a verbal one entirely. Understand that if 
 you were taken prisoner or killed before you reached 
 General Trochu, the information found on you would be 
 as important for the German Staff as it may be for us.' 
 
 ' Allow me,' said I in my turn to the General, ' to do as 
 I like. If I am killed or taken they will be clever fellows 
 who can decipher my notes.' 
 
 And I wrote the few words I have already noted in 
 pencil on my shirt cuff in Chinese characters. 
 
 Five minutes later I was galloping on the slippery pave- 
 ment and the hard macadam which the frost had render* >d 
 sonorous. 
 
 At Joinville-le-Pont I came across the first troops. 
 These were the infantry battalions of the Garde Rationale. 
 They were in reserve, had piled arms, and with their ration 
 bread stuck on their bayonets, they awaited the order to 
 advance. The Faisanderie redoubt and the batteries placed 
 in position on the banks of the Marne played continuously 
 on the field of battle.
 
 252 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 I crossed the bridges and went alone; the main road, 
 bordered by trees, which leads directly to Champigny. On 
 a lower side of the road was stationed a row of ambulance 
 waggons. 
 
 On the right, in the fields, a sort of encampment of 
 ambulance men and stretcher bearers had been formed. It 
 looked like a lot of bee-hives. They were continually leav- 
 ing empty and returning laden. Some went out to bring 
 back the wounded, others carried them to the river, where 
 they were taken on board little boats flying the white flag 
 with the red cross. For many hundred yards the melan- 
 choly convoys followed one after another, and some of them 
 were converted suddenly into funeral processions. The 
 bearers in that case halted, laid the corpse on the ground, 
 left it there, and went further afield to find another wounded 
 man who might in his turn soon become a corpse. Do not 
 imagine that the detachments of the Garde Rationale en- 
 trusted with this melancholy duty had a sorrowful air. In 
 almost no time they became accustomed to it, and talked, 
 laughed, and joked amid the dead and the wounded. There 
 were also to be seen, making their way among the inde- 
 scribable and bloody mass, many brave women of Paris 
 belonging to every social class, and some of them to the 
 very highest. All were dressed in black with white aprons 
 and the Geneva armlet. They brought, or caused to be 
 brought, with them portable stoves similar to those made 
 use of by the proprietors of the coffee stalls outside the 
 markets in the early morning. The majority were bare- 
 headed and had their sleeves tucked up, and they came and 
 went, active, gentle, devoted, tender, and lovely as minister- 
 ing angels, carrying in their two hands cups of warm soup 
 or smoking chocolate. It was a sight to break your heart. 
 Ten degrees of frost !
 
 VILLIERS CHAMPIGNY 253 
 
 women ! poor women ! dear women! you were more 
 worthy than the men. If they had shown half as much 
 courage as you showed devotion, if they had shed their 
 blood to half the extent that you shed your tears, I believe 
 we should have been successful. 
 
 1 was galloping all this time. A little further on, the 
 road was encumbered with soldiers, and I was compelled to 
 slacken speed for fear of riding over some of them. I rode 
 down the slope on the right, and at the bottom came across 
 a litter, surrounded by a group of persons, on which was 
 lying an officer of the Geneva Cross. His horse was killed, 
 and he himself had been hit by a fragment of a shell. He 
 was a well-known Parisian, M. Ellissen, whom his ardour 
 had tempted into the hottest of the firing. 
 
 I took care to enquire where I had the best chance of 
 finding the Governor. A captain of Mobiles, slightly 
 wounded in the left shoulder, told me that the General was in 
 Champigny. I rode on and reached the first houses of the 
 village, which had been attacked that morning by the 
 Germans, taken by them, retaken by us, and subsequently 
 put by us in a state of defence. 
 
 At this spot there was such an encumbrance of troops, 
 massed one on top of the other that it would have been 
 impossible for me to have got through if the non-com- 
 missioned officers, recognising my duties by my epaulets, 
 had not ordered their soldiers to fall back to let me pass. I 
 was obliged to walk my horse, and it was a good quarter-of- 
 an-hour before I reached the last houses of Champigny. 
 
 I emerged at last right on to the field of battle. 
 
 Never in my life, not in any of the battles at which I 
 have been present, have I heard such a fearful uproar. Shot 
 succeeded shot without the interval of a second. Guns by 
 hundreds, rifles by thousands, mitrailleuse by twenties
 
 _'54 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICE]! 
 
 hurled and vomited lead and steel. It was impossible to 
 hear oneself speak. 
 
 I asked a colonel where the Governor was. Our two 
 horses were touching and our legs also ; I put my mouth 
 close to his ear to speak to him, and he put his mouth close 
 to my ear to answer, and yet we w r ere compelled, in order to 
 make ourselves heard, to shout as if we were each of us on 
 the top of a hill with a valley stretching out between us. 
 
 He had certainly seen General Trochu, but he had lost 
 sight of him. He ought to be on the left of Champigny. 
 While we were thus shouting with all our might in a most 
 confidential attitude, two German shells fell behind us in the 
 midst of the crowded troops. Neither of them burst; the 
 soft contact of the human body prevented them from strik- 
 ing the ground violently and from bursting by percussion. 
 When they fell on the men they made the exact noise of a 
 stone falling in the mud — flac ! One did not injure any- 
 body, by what miracle I know not ; the other literally 
 pounded two soldiers. Their comrades instinctively started 
 aside and left, in an open space, the two poor devils beaten 
 to a jelly, without human form, flattened and as it were 
 .spread out on the cold ground. 
 
 I left Champigny and bore to the left. A lieute ant, 
 whose company was sheltered behind the wall of the last 
 garden, ran quickly towards us, drew me to him, and said, 
 
 ' Don't go that way, Captain. You cannot go ten yards 
 beyond that house without you and your horse being blown 
 to pieces.' 
 
 That was pleasant hearing, and I was nothing loth to 
 make a slight detour. I was not anxious to be killed, and, 
 at all events, I wanted to see the General before that 
 accident happened. Nevertheless, in order to join him, it 
 was necessary to cross the whole of the unoccupied portion
 
 VILLIERS CHAMPIGNY 255 
 
 of the field of battle, and the deserted, shell-ravaged fields 
 
 where, only a short time ago, those troops had been drawn 
 up who were now taking refuge in Champigny. 
 
 At last I discovered a somewhat less dangerous exit. 
 Just as 1 set off at a gallop again a shell hurst in one of tin- 
 houses, and produced such a displacement of air that a 
 number of soldiers were wounded — not by the fragments of 
 the shell, but by the materials of the house, which were 
 scattered in all directions. 
 
 I saw, flying over my head, a window with its shutters, 
 which fell in a neighbouring garden, and played havoc with 
 a clump of currant bushes. Chimneys toppled over ; there 
 was a shower of tiles, beams, planks, rubble, and rubbish of 
 all kinds, and clouds of dust rendering everybody and 
 everything unrecognisable for several minutes. 
 
 1 preferred not resting there, so I set spurs once more to 
 my poor horse, who trembled under me, and was covered 
 with sweat, notwithstanding the intense cold which froze 
 my feet and put me up to my knees to the torture of the 
 brodequin. 
 
 To the left of Champigny, looking at it with my back 
 turned to Paris, I had caught a glimpse of a somewhat ele- 
 vated roadway which led to the open country. I thought that 
 this conformation of the ground would serve as a rampart, 
 and I think I owe my life to it. 
 
 Consequently, instead of keeping to the roadway, over 
 which passed and repassed a mass of metal objects calcu- 
 lated to impede and inconvenience circulation, I rode 
 down into the fields. The roadway, which ran along the 
 top of the embankment, was well over my head, and served 
 as a shelter. I galloped thus for ten minutes, having no- 
 thing to fear except the French bullets which whistled not 
 so very high above me. As for the German bullets, I was
 
 256 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 quite safe from them, and their shells had a trajectory 
 which carried them far beyond me. 
 
 On this battlefield, which a short time before had been 
 covered with living men, and where now the dead and dying 
 seemed so numerous that they might have been taken for 
 whole regiments lying down at the halt — alas ! for the 
 majority it was their great, their last halt — there was only 
 one able-bodied man — a priest of the Foreign Mission. 
 
 Alone and isolated, without appearing to have an idea 
 of the danger he was running, he was doing his duty and 
 attending to his ministry ; he walked about beneath the 
 shells and the bullets with a slow, gentle movement, as if 
 he were crossing a dimly-lit church in the evening on his 
 way to hear the confessions of the women on their knees 
 under the sanctuary lamp. 
 
 When I saw him he was on his knees, in his large black 
 robe, bending over a Mobile, whose pale, beardless face, 
 wrinkled by suffering, gave him the appearance of a lad 
 twelve years old. The priest placed his right arm under his 
 head, and, with his ear to the soldier's mouth, he heard his 
 confession. I approached him, he raised his eyes, gently 
 laid the soldier's head on the ground, and came up to me.' 
 ' Have you seen the Governor ? ' 
 
 ' Yes,' he replied, ' he is down there, five or six hundred 
 yards from here — quite perpendicular to this road.' 
 ' Thank you.' 
 
 And I set off again. When I had gone a few yards I 
 turned in my saddle. He had raised the lad's head again, 
 and was giving him the crucifix to kiss. 
 
 How foolish it is to wish to suppress this, to drive the 
 chaplains away, and to have nothing better to offer to 
 the wounded, instead of the prayers of yore, than a drink- 
 stained Marseilla ise.
 
 YILLIERS CHAMPIGNY 257 
 
 Who can explain the mystery of the association of ideas? 
 I suddenly thought, as I saw him thus half recumbent, with 
 his arms away from his body, that he looked exactly like a 
 raven, and the stupid coiul of the Paris street boy crossed 
 my brain. 
 
 ' Why not, after all ?' I said to myself. ' It is not wide 
 of the mark. These men are ravens, but divine ravens, who 
 light on the battle fields, in the midst of the human carrion, 
 to rifle souls.' 
 
 A few moments later I found the Governor; placing my 
 horse close to his I repeated in his ear, word for word, the 
 message of General Schmitz. It seemed to me that a flash 
 of joy, springing from his eyes, illuminated his grave, severe 
 countenance for a moment. It lasted only for a second, 
 and then he turned his head slightly as a man does when 
 he is not quite sure of anything. 
 
 ' You are certain about the names ? ' he said. 
 
 I was all the more certain because I was reading them 
 off my cuff. 
 
 ' Very well,' he replied. ' You have had a long ride. 
 Stay near me ; I am going to send these gentlemen away.' 
 
 Calling to several Orderly Officers in succession, he sent 
 them off one after the other with orders to different parts 
 of the field. 
 
 General Trochu looked pleased, and his face, as a rule 
 so wrinkled, was positively smoother than usual. 
 
 We went from one point to another, wherever fighting 
 was going on and he deemed that his presence might give 
 courage or dash to the troops. 
 
 At one moment two or three hundred Mobiles fell back 
 in disorder upon us, all of them running with their backs 
 turned to the enemy. The Staff deployed before them 
 like a squadron of gendarmerie, and they halted, pitiful 
 
 R
 
 2 5 S JO URN A L OF A S TA FF OFFIC E 11 
 
 enough, at the sio-ht of the Governor, who at once addressed 
 them. 
 
 This devil of a man, even under fire, knew how to string 
 together charming, persuasive, noble, and correct sentences. 
 He got them together and said a few kindly, affectionate 
 words to them. 
 
 ' Follow me,' were his final words. 
 
 Then, marching straight against the German sharp- 
 shooters, he never stopped until the enemy's bullets whistled 
 round us with that little strident noise one so quickly learns 
 to know, and which indicates that the projectile is at its full 
 speed. It is the proper range. The brave little Mobiles, 
 thus encouraged, took up their position again, and fired 
 away like men. 
 
 An Orderly Officer from Ducrot had just delivered a 
 message to the General. 
 
 ' Very well,' he said ; ' wait for a moment with these 
 gentlemen.' 
 
 We then turned to the left and rode up a little hill, from 
 the top of which one of our batteries, placed in an amphi- 
 theatre, was doing wonders. It was doing so well that the 
 enemy seemed to have only one idea — to dismount it. Not 
 a moment passed without a shell falling, now on the right, 
 now on the left. Fortunately, only a few of them burst. 
 The General seemed to have chosen the exact spot where 
 all these fearful projectiles had appointed to meet. We 
 were all motionless under this iron hail ; and the Governor 
 quietly looked through his glasses at the enemy's positions, 
 which were perfectly distinguishable by the naked eye. If 
 we could see the Prussians moving, we were equally visible 
 to them, and all the more so because we formed a compact 
 and somewhat brilliant mass. Very soon we became the
 
 VILLIERS CUAMPIGNY 259 
 
 target of the German marksmen, and the number of shells 
 redoubled around us. 
 
 The persistence shown by the General in remaining at 
 this particular spot, without any special or particular reason 
 for staying there, began to seem odd to us junior officers ; 
 and I heard the following whispered conversation going on 
 about me. 
 
 ' Do you not think that the General seems bent on being 
 killed ? ' 
 
 ' Precisely what I am saying to myself.' 
 
 ' However, that is his look-out. But I do not see why he 
 should necessarily have us killed too.' 
 
 ' Bah ! What does it matter ? ' 
 
 ' That is just it,' said Ducrot's officer who was side by 
 side with us. ' You should see Ducrot ! He is absolutely 
 mad. All to-day he has been riding a horse as white as snow, 
 and he is continually galloping in front of the Prussians. I 
 should like to have as many francs — not income but capital 
 — as he has had shots, from rifles and ordnance, fired 
 directly at him to-day. Would you believe that he charged 
 the Saxons single handed ? He cut one down with his small 
 sword as if he had a regulation weapon in his hand. He is 
 perfectly mad.' 
 
 And a young captain who was resting his elbows on his 
 holsters, droned out the famous words, ' Dead or victorious.' 
 
 What was the object General Trochu had in view ? Was 
 he so accustomed to danger and did he despise it to such an 
 extent that he paid no attention to it, and did not give it a 
 thought ; and had he taken up his position in this particular 
 place just as he would have done anywhere else ? Possibly. 
 But I confess that for several moments I firmly believed 
 that he was seeking death. 
 
 However, a projectile having fallen under his horse's
 
 2 6o JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 nose, there could be no doubt that to remain there any 
 longer would have been suicidal. The Governor quieted 
 his horse and slowly returned in the direction of Champigny. 
 We then found ourselves between our reserves, who were 
 advancing, and Ducrot's right which was thrown forward. 
 The Orderly Officer of this latter General left us after 
 having heard the Governor's orders. 
 
 We were making a general movement in advance. 
 The part of the battlefield which we were crossing was 
 literally paved with the killed and wounded, and over it 
 were scattered a dozen Christian priests, who were simply 
 and heroically doing their duty. The General saluted them 
 as he passed, and each large black hat was raised for an 
 instant. 
 
 An infantry soldier, lying on the ground, whose left 
 shoulder and arm had been smashed by a shell, raised 
 himself on his right arm, and shouted, 
 
 ' Are you General Trochu ? Well, Vive la Franc*' ! ' 
 The Governor, without stopping, returned the salute 
 and replied, 
 
 ' And we will save her, God helping us.' 
 A little farther on, two poor lank artillery horses, 
 harnessed to the same ammunition waggon, had been 
 wounded. Their traces had been cut, and they had been 
 left there. One of them w T as standing motionless on three 
 legs, the fourth being only a red stump. The other, with 
 a hole in its flank large enough for a child to put its head 
 in, was lying down, quietly nibbling the short but frozen, 
 crackling, frost-covered grass, which nourished and 
 refreshed him, and quenched his thirst. The poor beast 
 was as quiet as if he were in the stable. He was at all 
 events making a i>ood meal before dying.
 
 VILLI Ells CHAMPIGNY 261 
 
 We had got out of the dangerous zone, and involuntarily 
 we began to breathe more freely. 
 
 About five hundred yards in front of us, and conse- 
 quently in a spot as sheltered and safe, one might suppose, 
 a-^ a lady's boudoir, the brilliant and unfortunate Com- 
 mandant Franehetti, leader of a squadron of light cavalry 
 raised by himself and admirably mounted, had just been 
 wounded by a stray shell. Whence it came nobody knew. 
 Ducrot had sent him to the rear to order the reserve 
 artillery ammunition waggons to advance. The wound was 
 mortal. Poor, poor fellow ! 
 
 It was one of those chances which are called providen- 
 tial when they turn out well, and fatal when they end 
 badly. 
 
 On the whole the affair had gone off well. We had 
 fought the first day. We had spent the second day in our 
 positions in recruiting ourselves and reforming our divisions. 
 We had held our own on the third day under honourable 
 conditions. Not only had we not fallen back, but our 
 troops were encamped in positions once occupied by the 
 enemy. 
 
 And then ? Then — well nothing. Get out ? Not one 
 of the Generals had an idea of doing so, and the best proof 
 of this is that the soldiers had not been ordered to bring 
 their blankets with them for night work. As for the 
 convoys of provisions necessary for an army on the march, 
 they would have been useless because we were bound to 
 re-enter Paris, bound to return whatever happened, even 
 if the portion of the Prussian army in front of us had been 
 annihilated or dispersed. 
 
 The Garde Rationale alone imagined that we were 
 going to make our way out. Poor Ga rde Rationale / Their 
 intelligence was subjected to rough proofs during the siege,
 
 262 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 and they did not understand much of what was going on. 
 Not for one single day had they any conception of the 
 possibilities and the necessities of the situation, and nobody 
 had the courage to explain to them, nobody dared say to 
 them, ' My good friends, your duty is to hold out as long as 
 you can, and, by continual battles, to do as much harm as 
 you can to the enemy, whom you force to remain around 
 you, and from whom you thus set free the rest of France. 
 But do not imagine for a moment that you can after any 
 useful fashion pierce those investing lines — in other words, 
 do not imagine that you can get out and join hands with 
 the Provincial armies for a career of victory. Such a thing 
 has never yet been seen, and never will be seen. The most 
 complete victory at any one point could not restore you to 
 liberty.' 
 
 But what was equally unintelligible to the G<ir<le 
 Rationale was the fact that the Prussians in front of them, 
 who were 500 leagues from home, were well clothed, 
 sufficiently fed, and always fresh, while our soldiers, who 
 were at home, only an hour from the Capital, were perish- 
 ing with cold. I confess that, in this instance, I was with 
 the Garde Rationale. 
 
 At half-past four in December it is night. It was, 
 therefore, in the twilight, illumined onl} r by some isolated 
 rifle tiring on the lower ground, that we rode behind 
 Trochu along the ranks of the troops who had just been 
 fighting. Ducrot was not there. He had a slight wound 
 in the neck caused by a fragment of a shell, and was taking 
 a short repose. 
 
 When we returned to Vincennes, we saw behind us the 
 plain before you reach Champigny, and the banks of the 
 Marne which describe a curve in front of that plain, well-
 
 VILLIERS CHAMPIGNY 263 
 
 known to the Prussians, illumined by the flames of the 
 huge fires lighted by the soldiers. 
 
 I have never been able to understand, by the way, why 
 Trochu thought himself bound to give a theatrical account 
 of his return to his quarters from the fort of Vincennes ; 
 why he considered himself obliged to announce to history 
 that he was very tired; why in his proclamation he declared 
 that the second battle was even more decisive than the first 
 — neither the one nor the other was, or could have been, 
 decisive — or why, lastly, the excellent members of the 
 Government felt it incumbent on them to address a 
 collective and public letter to him in order to congratulate 
 him and inform him that they would have been glad to 
 share his fatigues and his glory. They might have done so 
 easily. There was plenty of work at Champigny for every- 
 body, and if these lawyers objected to mingling with their 
 fellow creatures in battle, on the score of being too old or 
 too peaceable, they might have helped the women to tend 
 the wounded. I am perfectly aware that any such pro- 
 ceeding would have been useless and rather ridiculous, but 
 in that case, why did they say that they desired what was 
 useless and ridiculous ? 
 
 The Lord deliver us from literature in matters of 
 Government ! Amen ! 
 
 It was necessary to take steps to prevent our young 
 troops, disorganised by the enemy's fire and demoralised 
 by the cold, from being left any longer face to face with 
 the enemy, who were bringing up reinforcements every 
 hour. The unfortunate soldiers were shivering in their 
 coats, and two-thirds of them could scarcely stir. 
 
 During the night and on the following morning we 
 carried orders to fall back everywhere, and the whole 
 force returned to quarters.
 
 264 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 We had three weeks' rest. 
 
 As for the rendezvous given by Gambetta for the 6th of 
 December in the forest of Fontainebleau, we were not the 
 only defaulters, for the army of the Loire lost Orleans and 
 had to retreat, and on that very 6th of December I took to 
 Sevres a reply from the Governor to General de Moltke, 
 who had the forethought to inform us of the success of his 
 armies, and offered to allow the fact to be verified by a 
 French officer sent from Paris for that purpose. 
 
 During these few days of idleness, Paris turned its 
 attention to the question of food, and suddenly a rumour 
 became current that provisions were running short. Panic 
 reigned for a few days and the Government had to resist it. 
 It did so by this declaration — ' The consumption of bread 
 will not be rationed.' And a few days afterwards the 
 rationing began. In like manner, a month later, the 
 capitulation came to pass very quickly after this other 
 declaration, ' The Governor of Paris will not capitulate.' 
 Be it remarked that all these enormous lies were told by 
 the very men who justly reproached the Empire with 
 continually lying. They borrowed that habit from it as 
 well as the plebiscite. 
 
 For example, there was no lack of wine, brandy, or 
 absinthe. There was too much of them, and their con- 
 sumption was really extraordinary. Oncques never saw so 
 many drunkards as during the siege. History wished to 
 forget itself, they said, and to replace solids by liquids. 
 
 They substituted one for the other so willingly that old 
 Clement Thomas, alarmed at the progress in the consump- 
 tion of alcohol, thought he would make an example by 
 calling public attention to a battalion which reached the 
 advance posts at Cre'teil in zig-zag fashion. The com- 
 mandant himself was reeling. The General declared that
 
 VILLIERS CHAMPIGNY 265 
 
 under such circumstances the (j<ir</<' Rationale, of which 
 he was the chief, constituted an additional danger. He 
 was never pardoned for that piece! of frankness. By it he 
 signed his own death warrant, which was religiously carried 
 into effect, as is well known, in a garden at Montmartre, on 
 the 18th March, 1871. 
 
 The most peculiar feature in the case was that these 
 drunkards, who were ahsolutely incapable of performing 
 any duty whatever, were the most energetic in demanding 
 sorties. They were as difficult to restrain in Paris as they 
 were to maintain in front of the enemy. What a mob ! 
 
 On the 21st of December fighting went on along the 
 entire northern half of the perimeter of Paris, from Mont- 
 ValeYien to Nogent. The Prussians, who had learned to 
 recognise the signs preliminary to the sorties, especially the 
 closing of the gates which preceded them, were everywhere 
 on their guard. 
 
 It was premature. To mass inexperienced and young 
 troops, such as the French were, a very long time was 
 necessary. The extemporised officers did not know much. 
 The extemporised soldiers knew nothing. The} r were never 
 ready. An immense amount of time was lost in getting 
 them into line, man by man. And when the whole lot had 
 fallen in in something like order, the columns got mixed 
 up, the battalions overlapped, the convoys and batteries 
 obstructed the route, and a fresh mess had to be disen- 
 tangled. 
 
 In front of us three words sufficed for the Prussian 
 leaders to manoeuvre their battalions and companies with- 
 out disorder, without any sudden halts, and without any 
 confusion, just as children by a simple movement of their 
 little hands can concentrate or disperse in skirmishing 
 order the wooden figures fixed on a movable trellis-work.
 
 266 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICE II 
 
 The sailors fought like devils at Bourget, in that fatal 
 toAvn which had already cost us so dear, and which now 
 found itself included in the general plan of defence. 
 Six weeks previously, it did not form part of the plan. 
 Why ? I do not know in the least. 
 
 The night was terrible ; I do not even remember having 
 been so cold as I was during the rides I was obliged to 
 take that night. The men were literally frozen in the 
 ditches and hastily dug trenches, in the huts and houses 
 open to every wind. The cold sent them to sleep, and 
 very many of them never awoke again. For the first time 
 I heard men say openly that night, ' We have had enough 
 of this.' 
 
 I had a friend in the staff of General Blaise, and as I 
 was passing close by Ville-Evrard, I shaped my course so as 
 to shake him by the hand, for I knew that there I should 
 find the General. 
 
 He was there, sure enough, with his officers round a 
 large fire of beams and planks supplied from the debris 
 of the houses blown up by our and the German shells. 
 Seated astride a straw chair, with his steaming boots on 
 the hearth, the General and his officers, cigar or pipe in 
 mouth, were talking over the events of the day, and broke 
 off every now and then to take a mouthful of old rum out 
 of the common flask. I got off my horse and tied him to a 
 tree. The greatest suffering a rider has to undergo is cold 
 feet, and I was not sorry to warm mine at the bivouac fire. 
 A place was made for me in the circle, and the conversation, 
 stirred up afresh by a new arrival, became quite gay. 
 There we were, roasted in front and frozen behind, turning 
 ourselves round at irregular intervals as if we were on a 
 gridiron, and surrounded by sentries, when a strange noise 
 made us leap to our feet.
 
 VILLIER8 CHAMPKlNy 267 
 
 ' It is a Prussian trumpet,' said the General. ' Where 
 the devil can it come from ? ' 
 
 He had not finished his sentence when flames were seen 
 coming up through the air-holes of the cellars of the sur- 
 rounding houses, and I saw him fall with his face to the 
 ground by the side of the fire. 
 
 I thought for a moment that we were all blown up, and 
 that the fire from the hearth had reached the chamber of a 
 mine. It was not likely. 
 
 The authors of the catastrophe were some Saxon 
 soldiers who had taken refuge in the cellars of the houses. 
 No search had been made in these cellars, thanks to the 
 general carelessness in the midst of troops whom nobody 
 knew, and to whom the ordinary regulations of discipline 
 could not be applied. These Saxons hoped, no doubt, to 
 escape by favour of the confusion which their discharge 
 would cause in our ranks. They were surrounded and 
 massacred. 
 
 We retired once more after this battle, and were 
 compelled, a few days afterwards, to abandon the Plateau 
 d'Avron, which the fire of some new batteries installed by 
 the Prussians, and suddenly unmasked, rendered untenable. 
 
 This was the last military Parisian episode of the 
 year 1870. 
 
 Her younger sister, 1871, rose mournfully enough. We 
 left cards, however, and exchanged visits. A few exquisites 
 procured, I know not whence, roses and violets for their 
 beloved ones. The confectioners contrived to open a few 
 bags of bonbons. But the favourite, the most refined and 
 most intelligent New-Year's gifts, were eatables. Shouts of 
 joy welcomed the man who arrived with a bouquet com- 
 posed of a cabbage, surrounded with cut paper, or a bunch 
 of carrots similarly adorned. A few nabobs went as far as
 
 268 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 a fowl. Ordinary folk exchanged pots of jam. There were 
 midnight suppers; puddings were eaten, and pancakes were 
 made as well as jokes. 
 
 I know Parisians — and they are the best sort — who, if 
 they had lived at Pompeii, would have snapped their fingers 
 at the lava, and would certainly have been discovered by 
 the 17th century in an attitude ridiculous rather than 
 Roman or classical. 
 
 It is not always necessary to be solemn, stiff, or whining, 
 in order to do your duty, and more than your duty ; and 
 nobody, in France at all events, has laid it down as an 
 axiom that heroism cannot march in front with gaiety. 
 
 At the time I write gaiety, I know, has taken to flight, 
 or to borrow a familiar expression from the siege, has ' re- 
 treated in good order'; but I fear, alas ! that heroism has 
 "one before it in this ruin of old French sentiments.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 HUZENVAI, 
 
 Always the Commune. — A Fan. — A Magnificent Pedestal. — On the Roofs of 
 Mont Valerien. — Across Country. — Forgotten! — By the Breach! — German 
 Prisoners. — To the Bitter End. — A Council of War. — General Vinoy. — The 
 Rising at the Hotel de Ville. — Shooting. — xV Fire in the Wine Market. 
 
 The defeat of Bourget had irritated the Garde Rationale. 
 and from that fact sprang the proceedings of the 81st of 
 October. 
 
 The failure of the military operations of December 
 roused the irritation afresh, and gave the rioters new hope. 
 In order to calm the irritation and destroy the hope the 
 Government thought another battle was necessary. It was 
 more bloody and quite as useless as its predecessors, and 
 brought about the proceedings of the 22nd of January. 
 
 The shocks of Paris never varied. As to defeat 
 succeeded riot, so to riot succeeded defeat. Alternately 
 daughter and mother, one to the other, riot and defeat 
 shared the capital between them. 
 
 After Champigny, after the second engagement of
 
 2-jo JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Bourget, after the evacuation of the Plateau d'Avron, tlie 
 clubs resumed their thunder, and the sinister rascals who 
 were going to organise the Commune began to agitate. 
 
 Their theme was always the same — the Government 
 was incapabable. Paris must take the defence of her 
 destinies into her own hands. 
 
 And the Garde Rationale leagued together and com- 
 menced a series of manifestations. And gradually there 
 entered into the minds of the leaders that cruel, impious 
 and yet logical idea, that the mob would not keep quiet 
 until a certain amount of slaughter was allowed, and that, 
 in order to cure Paris of her fever and reduce her excite- 
 ment, some pints of blood must be taken from her. 
 
 ' These rascals will not be content until we have proved 
 to them ad hominem that they are incapable of extricating 
 themselves out of the mess, and that the time has arrived 
 to lay down our arms,' were the murmured remarks among 
 the Staff. 
 
 Fearful, I admit. But what was to be done ? How was 
 anybody to prove to these men, incapable of understanding 
 military matters, that the only thing left to them was to 
 keep quiet, with piled arms,- patient beneath the shells 
 which began to fall on Paris, (for the bombardment was 
 the present, the New Year's Gift, of Prussia to the capital), 
 until there remained just enough bread in the trough to 
 allow of time to seek for more ? 
 
 Soldiers in these cases have a simple and practical 
 method at hand — 'You want to right ? Go.' 
 And they went to Buzenval. 
 
 This time it was not cold, but it had rained. The 
 
 ground was snaked, and the roads along which our poor 
 
 cannons never ceased to roll, were completely broken up. 
 
 On the 18th of January, Paris was full of the sound of
 
 HUZENVAL 271 
 
 arms. During the night of the 18th and 19th, the troops 
 massed under Mont-Valerien. 
 
 The objective was Versailles, the commander-in-chief 
 was Trochu in person, and the army was divided into three 
 columns : the left wing, under Vinoy, attacked Montretout ; 
 the centre, under General de Bellemare, Buzenval ; and the 
 right wing, under Ducrot, extended as far as Celle Saint- 
 Cloud. 
 
 This army, consequently, changed front to the left, the 
 right on the move, and deployed like an immense fan, hav- 
 ing Mont-Valerien and the Seine as a pivot. 
 
 The right wing had more ground to traverse in order to 
 get into line. It was behind time, encumbered in its evolu- 
 tion by the convoys of artillery and the crowding of other 
 columns on the roads. 
 
 The left and centre began the action, and at ten o'clock 
 the Montretout redoubt as well as the Buzenval wall were 
 carried by assault. So far so good. 
 
 On the terrace-like roofs of the highest portion of Mont- 
 Valerien the Governor took up his position. It was a 
 unique position, which permitted him to follow with eye 
 and glass the movements of his army — a superb pedestal 
 such as probably no commander-in-chief, no conqueror had 
 ever had. 
 
 Surrounded by his entire Staff", he had only to give an 
 order and the officer concerned saluted, went down the 
 steps, found his horse at the postern gate, mounted, and, 
 followed by the eye of the Governor as far as the spot 
 indicated, directed the movement of the troops in sight of 
 him who had just ordered the evolution. It was a marvel- 
 lously grand sight. 
 
 We went on duty by turns. Each was entrusted with 
 his mission, important or insignificant, according to his
 
 272 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 number on the roster. My turn came towards eleven 
 o'clock. T had to go to Montretout, to the left, where 
 the fighting was most severe, and convey an order for 
 the troops to advance in the direction of the Maison 
 Zimmerman, where the Mobiles of the Loire-Infe*rieure, 
 under the orders of their brave Commandant, the Baron 
 de Lareinty, eventually entrenched themselves that same 
 night, and bore themselves heroically. 
 
 Near the gate where our horses awaited us, a squadron 
 of cavalry was posted to furnish orderlies to the officers, 
 according to a roster similar to that which ruled the pro- 
 ceedings on the roof of Mont-Valerien. The very first 
 feeling of every man who is about to risk his life is to 
 have a good look at the comrade whom chance has 
 bestowed upon him, and who may either save him or 
 leave him to die. The cavalry man who followed me 
 had a fair, honest, and sturdy soldier-like face, and he 
 managed his horse in a most reassuring manner. 
 
 I had to remain until the movement ordered had 
 produced its effect, and then to return at once to the fort 
 to report to the. Governor. 
 
 We trotted at first, but soon broke into a gallop. 
 Behind us the batteries of Mont Valerien blazed away 
 without interruption, and the direction of their fire 
 indicated the route I had to follow. T made a slight 
 bend in order to reach the open ground under the 
 protection of the shells, and then I made across country. 
 The farther I proceeded down the slope, the less dis- 
 tinctly I saw my goal, and paying no more attention 
 to the fiic of the heavy guns, I bent my course towards 
 the crackling of the rifles. 
 
 Our horses sank up to their hocks in the muddy ground. 
 A captain on the Stall", galloping as hard as we were, met
 
 BUZENVAL 273 
 
 me. But as he was ascending the slope I was descending ) 
 his horse, half buried, seemed to make no progress. When 
 we were a few paces from each other there was a mutual 
 recognition. It was Comte Delamare, one of my colleagues 
 in the Jockey Club. 
 
 ' Are you going there ? ' he shouted without stopping. 
 
 'As you see,' I replied. 
 
 ' Good luck to you.' 
 
 We were already apart, both in a hurry, he to return 
 and I to go on ; and we were all the less disposed to chat 
 on the way, seeing that he was at the end and I was at the 
 beginning of the dangerous zone. 
 
 At this spot were the vehicles of the Foreign 
 Ambulance. In the crowd of volunteer nurses the 
 majority were absolutely devoted and sincere, but who 
 could say that there were no traitors among them ? After 
 having had a close view of things in general, after having 
 inspected documents, depositions, and papers of all kinds 
 connected with the subsequent enquiries, many of us were 
 convinced that in this particular department there were 
 persons who were perfectly well disposed to give the 
 enemy the benefit of any knowledge which they them- 
 selves possessed. 
 
 Having transmitted my orders and seen the movement 
 executed, I turned my horse's head back towards Mont- 
 ValeYien, and hardly had I done so than a shell fell so close 
 to me and the orderly who was following me, and whose 
 scared horse closed instinctively on mine, that I was 
 covered with earth and mud. At the same time I heard 
 a concert of sharp whistling and deep humming, a mixture 
 of sonorous and sweet notes, all the noises, in short, which 
 are produced by fragments of shells, according to their 
 forms and dimensions, as they are hurled through the air.
 
 274 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Just as I was struggling with my horse, which was 
 peppered to such an extent that he wanted to bolt, my 
 orderly galloped past me. He was still in his saddle. But 
 one of the fragments of the shell had torn away the whole 
 of the lower part of his stomach, and had carried away his 
 intestines. The upper part of his body was only attached 
 to the lower part by the spinal column, and there was an 
 enormous red, gaping- space from his sides to his thighs. 
 He threw up his arms and fell, while his horse, hit in the 
 withers, galloped off into space to the accompaniment of 
 the clink of the empty stirrups. A cold shiver ran through 
 me. 
 
 Three kilometres farther on, I was about to emerge 
 from the dangerous zone, when I suddenly found myself 
 in the midst of a battalion of Mobiles, deep in the mud and 
 hidden from the enemy by a bit of rising ground. 
 
 ' What are you doing there, Commandant ? ' I said to the 
 chief of the battalion. 
 
 ' We are waiting for orders.' 
 
 ' But the whole army is in front. You are not numerous 
 enough to constitute a reserve.' 
 
 ' I believe we have been forgotten, for we have been 
 here for the last seven hours.' 
 
 'Go forward then — Vinoy has just asked for reinforce- 
 ments.' 
 
 ' Possibly ; but we are waiting for orders.' 
 
 ' Very well, I give you the order to advance.' 
 
 ' I can take no orders from you, Captain.' 
 
 ' You are quite right, for you ought to have advanced of 
 your own accord and have joined the main body as soon as 
 you discovered that you were forgotten. I am Orderly Officer 
 to the General-Commanding-in-Chief, and if you do not 
 make your men fall in at once and execute the movement I
 
 BUZENVAL 275 
 
 have instructed you to make, somebody, other than myself, 
 will come and convey the Governor's orders to you, most 
 probably in terms very different from those which I have 
 the honour to employ.' 
 
 He did not answer, hut rallied his men and marched off 
 after favouring me with a look which I did not forget for a 
 long time. 
 
 As soon as I returned to the fort I had to set out again' 
 this time to the right. At the extremity of the Park of 
 Buzenval there was a wall which appeared to stop all 
 movement on that side. I was sent to ask why guns 
 were not brought to bear on it. 
 
 I reached the spot and this is what I discovered. 
 
 A regiment of the Garde Nationale had been there since 
 morning, drawn up behind the wall and a little lower down. 
 
 In this wall there was a breach, and the Prussians from 
 the other side covered this breach with bullets to prevent 
 any one emerging from behind. 
 
 The drummer beat the charge ; the Colonel gave the 
 word of command, ' En avant ! ' the regiment shouted, ' Vive 
 la Repuhlique' and — nobody stirred. That went on for 
 three hours — Ducrot appeared on the scene in person and 
 shouted ' En avant! He was answered by shouts, but no- 
 body moved. 
 
 There were no guns at hand to batter down the wall. 
 At this juncture a company of the Line appeared, com- 
 manded by a thin, grim looking Lieutenant. He was, I 
 believe, Lieutenant Napoleon Ney. 
 
 He placed his men in front of the Garde Nationale, and 
 commanded a sergeant to cross the breach at the head of his 
 section. The sergeant started, heard the whistle of the 
 bullets, and made a sign that it was impossible. The 
 Lieutenant made a gesture as if to tear off his stripes. The
 
 276 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 sergeant repulsed him and marched straight to the breach. 
 He fell, riddled with bullets. But behind him came the 
 whole company ; they hesitated for a moment, and I saw the 
 Lieutenant seize the soldiers by the body and literally push 
 them into the breach. They got through it, deployed in 
 skirmishing order, and dislodged the Prussians. The wall 
 was passed. 
 
 I returned a second time to the fort. It fell once more 
 to my turn to set out, for all my colleagues had been 
 despatched with orders during my absence. On this occasion 
 my mission was not dangerous. It was simply to convey to 
 Paris about sixty German prisoners. They formed fours, 
 and flanked right and left by Mobiles, marched off. 
 
 Under the conviction that none of us understood 
 German, they interchanged on the march some quaint, 
 amusing, and characteristic reflections. 
 
 ' They say they kill their prisoners,' said one. 
 
 ' That is not true,' replied another. ' But there cannot 
 be anything to eat.' 
 
 ' That is of no consequence,' said a third. ' I am only 
 too glad that I have got off without a scratch, and, at all 
 events, I shall see Paris.' 
 
 And their eyes sparkled at the word Paris — a veritable 
 land of Canaan, which they despaired of entering, in spite 
 of the promises of their leaders. 
 
 Thanks to this pacific decision, I avoided sharing with 
 the Governor the greatest danger he had run during the 
 siege. 
 
 Night was falling. In order to make one supreme 
 effort before daylight disappeared, and knowing that this 
 fight would be the last, General Trochu left the fort and 
 went into the midst of the troops to encourage them by his 
 presence. He passed between the various corps. Here
 
 BUZENVAL 277 
 
 were the infantry, rather worn out and disgusted ; there 
 the Garde Rationale, some battalions of which had done 
 their duty heroically, but the majority had crowned their 
 long and furious demands for a wholesale sortie by an 
 equally wholesale desertion of their ranks. The Line 
 twitted the Garde Rationale. 
 
 ' Now,' shouted the former, ' you gentlemen of " war to 
 the bitter end," now is the time to show yourselves. On 
 you go.' 
 
 But the gentlemen of ' war to the bitter end,' did not 
 show themselves. 
 
 On leaving the field of battle at night, after having 
 recognised that he must once more abandon the positions 
 he had taken and the heights he had crowned, seeing that 
 they were menaced by fresh German reserves, the General, 
 surrounded by his officers and followed by an escort, was 
 crossing a field where a disorderly lot of men belonging to 
 the Garde Rationale were marching on their return to 
 Paris. 
 
 Suddenly a voice cried out, 'T he Uhlans ! The Uhlans ! 
 several shots were fired on the spot. 
 
 ' It is I, Trochu,' shouted the General, riding forward. 
 It was all of no avail. The firing went on in greater 
 strength than before, and the Staff had to receive, almost 
 point blank, the fire of a hundred men before the latter 
 saw- their mistake and recovered from their panic. 
 
 The darkness, fortunately, rendered their aim uncertain. 
 
 ' We have got off* very cheaply,' said the Governor, 
 thinking that all his people were intact. As he spoke one 
 of his Orderly Officers, Lieutenant de Langle, fell dead on Ids 
 horse's neck. A chassepot bullet had hit him full in the 
 chest and had oone right through him. His brother, a
 
 278 JOURXAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 meritorious officer, was killed at the commencement of the 
 war. 
 
 What a return to Paris must that have heen for Trochu, 
 after this final effort, this last battle, which rendered any 
 Presh military action impossible, put a stop to the opera- 
 tions, and compelled the generals to hand matters over to 
 the diplomatists. 
 
 If the generals had proved themselves more clever than 
 lucky, the diplomatists were not to be any more clever 
 than lucky. 
 
 And so it happened that the last words which the 
 Governor heard from the lips of his army were contained 
 in that sinister shout, ' The Uhlans ! ' 
 
 Despatch succeeded despatch, confident and reassuring, 
 throughout the day, and Paris slept once more in hope. 
 
 On the following day appeared a final despatch from 
 the Governor, announcing the retreat and expressing the 
 cheering opinion that there would never be sufficient 
 stretchers to bring away the wounded. 
 
 The Members of the Government were absolutely 
 terrified when he came back to the Louvre. As for 
 public opinion, it had energetically pronounrcl against 
 him — not only the opinion of the violent section, for that 
 had been known for a long time, but the opinion of 
 moderate men, the middle classes, everybody. 
 
 A sort of Council of War was held immediately, at 
 which were present the Government, all the Generals, and 
 all the Maj'ors of Paris. 
 
 'There is nothing to be done,' said the Generals. 
 
 ' Your position is no longer tenable,' said the Mayors to 
 the Governor. ' Retire.' 
 
 'I will not tender my resignation. Revoke my appoint- 
 ment,' replied the General, ami he made a long speech on
 
 BUZENVAL 279 
 
 the state of the army and the inconvenience of young 
 troops, in which his desire to get rid of his military 
 position was, nevertheless, evident. 
 
 ' Revoke my appointment' is easily said, but who could 
 do it in the case of General Trochu ? His colleagues ? He 
 had as much authority as they had. The people ? How 
 and by what method of procedure ? 
 
 At length, whether dismissed or having resigned, the 
 Governor of Paris withdrew, retaining the Presidency of the 
 Government. He could not act otherwise in face of the 
 attitude, unanimous this time, of the population. It is 
 needless, I imagine, to say that those very men who had 
 shown themselves the quickest to fly at Buzenval, were not 
 the slowest to rush against him. They could not forgive 
 him for their own disgraceful conduct. 
 
 On the following day a Council of War was held, to 
 which Generals, Colonels, and even Commandants were 
 summoned. All bent before the inexorable necessity of 
 laying down their arms. 
 
 Towards midnight of the same day the friends of 
 Flourens invaded Mazas and brought forth their idol. 
 On the following day, the 22nd of January, there was 
 an attempt at a second edition of the 31st of October, 
 but this time the Hotel de Ville was not broken into. 
 The Breton Mobiles garrisoned the Municipal Palace. The 
 Garde Nationale, massed in the square, fired on them; 
 they replied. There were both killed and wounded, and 
 the red cross ambulances, after having collected the victims 
 to duty who had fallen in the field of battle, now collected 
 the victims of a riot who had fallen in the streets. Chaudey, 
 deputy of the Mayor of Paris, was at the Hotel de Ville, 
 and was accused of having ordered the firing. He was 
 destined eventually to share the fate of Cle'ment Thomas.
 
 280 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 With the cessation of the command of General Trochu 
 the duties of General Schmitz came to an end. The Chief 
 of the Stati' followed his leader in his retreat, and General 
 Vinoy, who replaced General Trochu, chose as his assistant 
 General de Valdan. Our mission was at an end. 
 
 General Trochu, the day after his fall, made use of an 
 expression to us which has remained in 1113- memory 
 because it is instinct not only with mysticism, but also 
 with simple, colossal, and almost blasphemous pride. 
 
 ' I am,' he said to us, ' the Jesus Christ of the situation '. ' 
 
 Was the comparison in exquisite taste ? I know not. 
 But in any case it was somewhat groundless, for Jesus 
 Christ died and Trochu lived ; Jesus Christ saved humanity 
 and Trochu saved nothing at all. 
 
 Shall I confess that I left the Louvre without regret ? 
 The part of a squirrel, always running inside its little 
 wheel, and never advancing a step, began to tire me, and I 
 longed for repose. 
 
 The last episode in my career by the side of the General 
 was rather peculiar. A German shell, falling on one of the 
 casemates of the wine market, had pierced the roof, and 
 burst in the midst of a heap of barrels containing brandy, 
 which caught fire. It was a gigantic bowl of punch, and 
 its bluish names, penetrating through the black branches 
 of the trees on the quays, puzzled the Governor. I was 
 sent to gain information. There was such a smell of 
 alcohol in the neighbourhood, and its emanations were so 
 suffocating, that I promptly succumbed to a mild intoxica- 
 tion, and having arrived on a horse I returned on a chair. 
 
 At the very moment when 1 was revelling in the pro- 
 spect of lying in bed of a morning, a very excusable weak- 
 ness on the part of a man who for a long time had not had 
 a comfortable sleep, events laid hold of me again and
 
 BUZENVAL 281 
 
 forced me to be present at a spectacle which, if not as grand 
 as that of a battle, was no less captivating, intoxicating, and 
 harassing. 
 
 I allude to the negotiations relative to an armistice, the 
 only things left to nie to narrate.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 AT VERSAILLES 
 
 The End. — Request for an Interview with M. de Bismarck. — As an Envoy. — On 
 the Seine. — Dante's Inferno. — At Sevres. — The first Interview at Versailles. — 
 The Conditions of the Armistice. — I go to Versailles. — Two men, two Nations. 
 — At Table. — What a memory. — My little Anecdotes. — The Jews. — Garibaldi. 
 — The Chancellor's Cigar. — General d'Hautpoul. — General de Valdan. — M. de 
 Moltke and Vincennes. — The Emperor at Home. — I walk wit h M. de Bismarck. 
 — The end of the Bombardment. — Jules Ferry. — I treat all alone. — The 
 Colours. — M. de Bismarck in a rage. — The first revictualling. — The Gratitude 
 of Jules Fa vie. — A Piece of Practical Advice. 
 
 On the following day, the 22nd of January, the populace 
 were terrified by the following fearful state of things. 
 French hands joined with German hands in shedding French 
 Mood; the chassepots worked with the Krupps ; the Garde 
 Rationale, harmless against the Prussians, was deadly 
 against the French ; and they were resigned to the prospect 
 of peace. They had had enough. 
 
 On the 23rd of January I received a request from Jules 
 Favre to present myself at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
 The Minister appeared to be a prey to the most lively and
 
 AT VERSAILLES 283 
 
 most demonstrative emotion. He took me by both hands, 
 and requested me to convey a despatch to the address of 
 M. de Bismarck on the following day before dawn. 
 
 I was not to show the despatch to anybody except the 
 German outpost officers, into whose own hands I was to 
 deliver it. 
 
 ' Is it all over, then ? ' I asked Jules Favre. 
 ' Yes,' he replied ; ' we have only enough bread for a 
 few days. God only knows what the Parisian populace 
 will do to us when we are compelled to tell them the truth. 
 It remains for us to guard against the possible disastrous 
 consequences of the patriotic fanaticism which animates 
 them. The Government Avill not withdraw from the re- 
 sponsibilities it has taken on itself, but its imperious duty 
 is to secure food for the capital. 
 
 ' The administrative service has made a mistake. We 
 hoped to be able to resist for a few days longer. That 
 last hope is now torn from us. 
 
 ' Take this despatch and arrange for its transmission to 
 M. de Bismarck as speedily as possible. Take every 
 precaution necessary to that end. I need not tell you what 
 confidence I must have in you to entrust you with such a 
 mission and to tell you such a secret. Nobody, absolutely 
 nobody, must know it. On that depends the tranquillity 
 of Paris and the lives of the citizens, everything in short.' 
 From an excess of prudence the Minister would have 
 wished me not to go to the bridge of Sevres. I pointed 
 out to him that since the business pressed, it would be 
 better to select the spot ordinarily used for our military 
 interviews. To choose another point in the line of in- 
 vestment was to hazard tne possibility of having to wait 
 a couple of days for the reply of the Chancellor, while,
 
 284 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 by way of Sevres, we should have the answer in all prob- 
 ability on the same day. 
 
 In the end I relinquished the ordinary route, and, 
 thanks to a special permit ordering all commanders of 
 guards to lower the drawbridges for me by day or night, 
 I reached Sevres by the Bois de Boulogne, then entirely 
 deserted. The despatch was to be delivered before day- 
 break, and without anybody, not even the advanced posts, 
 having an idea that negotiations were going on. 
 
 In fact at daybreak on the following day, after having 
 waited for an hour-and-a-quarter for the German officer, I 
 handed him the enclosure of Jules Favre addressed to M. 
 de Bismarck at a few minutes before 7 A.M. I informed 
 the Minister of this by an express, and as I had nothing 
 more to do then, and did not care about exposing myself 
 under fire to no purpose, I went and asked, while waiting 
 for the answer from Versailles, General Dumoulin, who 
 was living at the villa of Baron de Rothschild at Boulogne, 
 to ta' e me in. 
 
 In what a pitiable state did I find that superb and 
 charming residence ! And how far distant, and yet 
 actually so near, seemed the days when, after the 
 Longchamp races, the elite of the aristocracy and the 
 flower of European elegance used to assemble beneath 
 its roof. 
 
 Towards half-past two a Mobile brought me a pencil 
 note in the following terms : — 
 
 'Parley Guard, 2.15. 
 ' To M. le Comte d'Herisson, 
 
 'The Prussian envoy has just arrived, and has 
 begged me to say that he is the bearer of the reply of M. 
 de Bismarck. He has also told me that tbe Minister is
 
 AT VERSAILLES 285 
 
 authorised to cross the Prussian lines. A carriage is at the 
 disposal of the Minister. 
 
 'The Officer of the Guard, 
 ' Saintoin.' 
 
 So the whole guard would know that Jules Favre was 
 going to Versailles ! 
 
 An hour later I entered the office of Jules Favre. 
 
 At the sight of the German despatch he was deeply 
 moved, and had to recover himself several times before he 
 was able to open it. His hands trembled. 
 
 He asked me if, as a matter of fact, it would be possible 
 for him to present himself at Versailles that very day. 
 
 I replied that I had everything in readiness for him to 
 leave Paris very early the next morning, as I had just done, 
 but that when I discovered the indiscretion of the German 
 officer, who had made the entire French guard cognizant of 
 the instructions of M. de Bismarck, I had thought it best 
 to request a cessation of firing at the bridge of Sevres until 
 6 P.M. If he would start at once I undertook to conduct 
 him safely to the bridge, provided he would allow me to 
 regulate the route and pace of the carriage. 
 
 The reason for all this was that, though public opinion 
 in Paris had almost resolved upon peace, as I have already 
 said, there were still plenty of enthusiasts who would have 
 looked upon the journey of Jules Favre as treasonable, and 
 who, to intercept him, would have proceeded to any lengths, 
 even to crime. It was, consequently, only necessary to find 
 among any guard a few of these enthusiasts, to be unlucky 
 enough to light upon those of them who were shrewd, 
 suspicious, and alert, and the whole thing would miscarry. 
 
 It seemed to me, therefore, to be prudent to hurry 
 matters before the rumour of the Minister's journey should
 
 286 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 get back to Paris with the return of the guard from the 
 bridge of Sevres. 
 
 In the court-yard of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs I 
 had a coupe which had once belonged to the Emperor, which 
 was driven by an old coachman of his, and drawn by two 
 excellent post-horses from the Imperial stables. 
 
 By starting at once, although we had to reckon upon 
 having to go out of our way in consequence of the barricades 
 which obstructed the roads, we might yet reach Sevres 
 before the firing was resumed. 
 
 ' Very well,' said Jules Favre, ' let us start.' 
 
 A few moments afterwards we were rolling in the 
 direction of the Bois de Boulogne, the party consisting of 
 the Minister, his son-in-law, M. Martinez del Rio, who 
 insisted on accompanying him, and myself. 
 
 At the Bois de Boulogne guard, the Minister who was 
 at the back between his son-in-law and me, hid himself 
 behind us two. I leaned out of the right window, brandish- 
 ing my pass, so as to obstruct the view on that side, and M. 
 Martinez del Rio executed a similar manoeuvre at the left 
 window. 
 
 We entered the wood without having been recognised, 
 without any opposition on the part of the Garde Wationale 
 to the passage of the Minister — that was Jules Favre's 
 great fear — and without having come across any Drouet 
 preparing for us a second edition of the return of Varennes. 
 
 In the wood everything went off well, though every 
 moment we were compelled to retrace our steps by a ditch 
 cut across the road, or a barricade of freshly cut branches, 
 mid to make long de'tours. All these obstacles, which 
 would have been nothing to anybody on horseback, 
 were not easy of negotiation for a heavy carriage, half iron
 
 AT VERSAILLES 287 
 
 under its varnish, and laden with four persons. We were 
 obliged to take them in Hank. 
 
 On emerging from the wood nothing is easier in 
 ordinary times than to get to Sevres. But at this period 
 things wont to be most simple were converted into 
 insurmountable difficulties. For instance, we could not 
 follow the line of the quay alongside the river. Our 
 horses would have been killed by the German riflemen 
 on the other side of the stream before they had gone a 
 hundred yards, and our carriage would have been riddled. 
 We had to bear to the left. But on that side houses in 
 ruins, and palisading torn from waste lands, completely 
 obstructed the road. 
 
 Hoping to find an exit we drove down a private avenue, 
 which turned out to be a labyrinth leading to nothing. At 
 last by plunging through a carriage entrance and across 
 some market gardens, smashing in our course an entire 
 range of melon covers, we succeeded in gaining an open 
 and practicable route which led us straight to the bridge. 
 We had to wait rather a long time in the hut where I 
 usually put up my horse — the House of the Flag of Truce. 
 The German officer, not supposing that we should return 
 the same day, had returned to his household gods, which, 
 I believe, were located in the direction of Ohaville. 
 
 We embarked on board the little boat which some 
 weeks previously had conveyed Burnside and his fortunes. 
 The Prussian sentries had pierced it with their bullets 
 down to the water mark when empty, so that it resembled a 
 skimmer. The weight of our bodies having caused this 
 line to sink below the level of the river, the water rushed 
 in on all sides by a hundred little natural sluices. It would 
 have been just the thing for the preservation of fish. It 
 was somewhat primitive as a means of transport for
 
 288 JOUItXAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Christians. We were really afraid of sinking. We began 
 by stopping- up the largest leaks with fragments of our torn 
 handkerchiefs and pieces of paper. A tinned iron saucepan 
 which we found at the bottom of the boat was transformed 
 into a bailer, and with it I bailed out the water which came 
 in through the smaller holes and the joints. 
 
 The Seine was drifting pieces of ice two or three yards 
 square, which we had to avoid. That was easy, for the 
 current at this spot is not rapid, and the ice made it 
 slower still. 
 
 The night was black, and under the lowering sky the 
 Seine would have seemed a river of ink if the conflagra- 
 tion at Saint-Cloud had not thrown ruddy gleams on the 
 surface of the water. In places these had the appearance 
 of blotches of blood rolling: under a dome of smoke and foo-. 
 It was biblical, magnificent, what you please, but it was 
 horrible. 
 
 With his high hat and badly-made legal black frock-coat, 
 his countenance indented like a crescent of the waning moon, 
 and his ministerial paper-case, Jules Favre was too modern 
 to pose as Dante ; while I, with 1113- tunic, scarlet striped 
 trousers, and kepi, could not have given a very accurate 
 idea of Virgil. But if the appearance of the actors left 
 something to be desired, the scene of Hell surrounded them, 
 complete, sombre, mournful, and drawn by reality in pro- 
 portions certainly more enormous than those of the visions 
 of the immortal Italian poet. 
 
 On the German bank of the Seine — the war had given 
 birth to this monstrous geographical expression — several 
 Prussian officers awaited Jules Favre round an old closed 
 berlin, lined with blue-flowered white chintz, and sur- 
 rounded by an escort of Uhlans. 
 
 They approached with mutual salutations, and I saw that
 
 AT VERSAILLES 289 
 
 the German officers, who had probably received their in- 
 structions, pretended to believe that the Minister was only 
 crossing the Prussian lines in order to repair to London, to 
 assist at a Conference then sitting there to consider the 
 question of the North Sea. 
 
 Some days previously, M. Jules Favre had actually 
 been invited to the Conference by the English Government, 
 and had asked Count Bismarck for a pass. The latter at 
 first consented to the journey. But he afterwards withdrew 
 his consent fearing lest the diplomatic gathering should be 
 made use of to implore the assistance of the neutral 
 Powers, and declining to admit that Europe recognised the 
 Republic by entering into relations with it before he, Count 
 Bismarck, had made up his mind whether to treat with it 
 or restore the Empire. Jules Favre, to whom the trip 
 promised no pleasure, even wrote to M. de Bismarck and 
 thanked him for his refusal, which, he said, had recalled him 
 to a sense of his duties. 
 
 As the Minister did not request my attendance any 
 further, I had no reason for offering him my society. I 
 therefore left him setting out in the berlin surrounded by 
 Uhlans. I saw the little cortege disappear round a corner 
 of the road and I went to Sevres to rest and wait for its 
 return. 
 
 He did not return the same evening, nor did he re- 
 appear until late in the following afternoon. 
 
 His first words when he met me on the landing-place 
 near the boat were, 
 
 ' Ah ! my dear fellow, I was wrong not to have taken 
 you with me. My sufferings have been too great. If you 
 do not mind, I will keep } t ou by me until I return to 
 Versailles.' 
 
 In conversation with Jules Favre at this period, and 
 
 T
 
 2r,o JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 even now when one reads his despatches, correspondence, 
 reports and books, one sees that during the whole of the 
 time he is playing the part of the character in some comedy 
 or other, I forget which, who throughout the piece repeats 
 continually — 'How I suffer, my God, how I suffer! Oh ! my 
 head, my head!' It is very funny. But at this period he 
 gave utterance to his complaints with such thorough con- 
 viction, he threw such an amount of sincerity into his 
 lamentations, that the only feeling he excited was that of 
 commiseration. 
 
 I replied that I was entirely at his disposal and, as we 
 drove back in the Emperor's coupe, he recounted to me 
 in detail his two interviews with the Chancellor. His 
 account, which I wrote out the same evening, differs 
 sensibly from that which, so he asserts in his book, he 
 dictated on the following day and which he published. 
 
 He was conducted straight to the house of Madame 
 Jesse - , 22 Rue de Provence, Versailles, the very modest 
 residence occupied by M. de Bismarck, the only advantage 
 of which was its proximity to the Prefecture, where the 
 King of Prussia, who for more than a week had been 
 Emperor of Germany, was housed. 
 
 After the usual interchange of preliminary compli- 
 ments, Jules Favre having remarked that he came to 
 resume the negotiations of Ferrieres, M. de Bismarck 
 brusquely replied, 
 
 ' The situation is no longer the same, and if you still 
 maintain your Ferrieres contention — ' not an inch, not a 
 stone ' — further conversation is useless. My time is pre- 
 cious, and so is yours. I see no necessity for losing either.' 
 Then, changing the subject, and looking at his visitor, 
 he added, 
 
 ' You have grown whiter since Ferrieres, M. le Ministre.'
 
 A7 1 VERSAILLES 291 
 
 Jules Favre pleaded the cares of Government and the 
 bitterness of defeat; and the Chancellor, reverting once 
 more to the object of the interview, hinted that the Minister 
 had come too late, and announced that he was on the 
 point of treating with an envoy of Napoleon III. 
 
 The scene took place in a little drawing-room on the 
 first floor, and M. de Bismarck pointed to a door behind 
 which the ambassador of the Emperor was supposed to be 
 waiting. 
 
 He explained that nothing would be easier than for 
 him to bring back the dethroned sovereign and impose him 
 on France ; that Napoleon III would easily find among the 
 French prisoners detained in Germany a hundred thousand 
 absolutely devoted men, who would be ample to support 
 him when the Germans retired ; and that, at the worst, 
 there was still the resource of convoking a certain portion 
 of the old Corps Legislatif and treating with it. 
 
 He became more animated as he went on speaking, and 
 he continued almost in these words, 
 
 ' As a matter of fact, why should I treat with you ? 
 Why should I give your Republic a semblance of legality 
 by signing a convention with its representative ? As a 
 matter of fact you are merely a band of insurgents ! Your 
 Emperor, should he return, has a perfect right to have you 
 all shot as traitors and rebels.' 
 
 ' But if he returns,' exclaimed Jules Favre, in dismay, 
 ' we shall have a civil war and anarchy.' 
 
 ' Are you quite sure of that ? And besides, in what 
 way can a civil war injure us Germans ? ' 
 
 ' Then you are not afraid of reducing us to despair ? 
 You are not afraid of driving our resistance to 
 desperation ? ' 
 
 ' Ah ! you talk of your resistance,' said the Chancellor,
 
 2 Q2 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 interrupting him quickly. 'Ah! you are proud of your 
 resistance? Well, sir, let me tell you that if M. Trochu 
 were a German General I would have him shot to-night. 
 Nobody has a right, <lo you understand, nobody has any 
 right, in the face of humanity, in the face of God, and for 
 sheer military vain glory, to expose, as he is doing now, a 
 town of more than two million souls to the horrors of 
 famine. The lines of iron are cut everywhere. If we do 
 not succeed in re-establishing them in two days, and that is 
 by no means certain, a hundred thousand of you will die in 
 Paris every day. Do not talk to me of your resistance. It 
 is criminal ! ' 
 
 Jules Favre, thoroughly out of countenance, begged and 
 implored that France, after all her disasters, should not be 
 made to sutler the shame of having to put up with a 
 Bonaparte. He then began to cry up the advantages of 
 the Republic, an impersonal regime which alone could 
 endure the hard and offensive conditions of the conqueror 
 without absolute ruin, which alone was capable of giving 
 adequate assurance to Germany that an}^ treaty should be 
 faithfully observed. 
 
 To make a long story short, before they separated, M. de 
 Bismarck had promised Jules Favre to put in writing the 
 conditions which seemed desirable to him and had been dis- 
 cussed by them. On the following morning, after having 
 seen the Emperor and M. de Moltke, the Chancellor de- 
 livered to the Minister the plan of a Convention. 
 
 Armistice of twenty-one days — The army to be disarmed 
 and to remain prisoners of war in Paris — The old battalions 
 of the Garde Rationale, sixty in number, to remain armed 
 b.r (lie preservation of order; the remainder, with all free 
 corps to be disbanded. The army to surrender arms and 
 colours : the officers to retain their swords — The armistice
 
 AT VERSAILLES 293 
 
 to extend to the whole of France, and the respective posi- 
 tions of the armies to be marked out — Paris to pay a war 
 indemnity and to surrender the forts to the Germans — The 
 latter not to enter the enceinte during the Armistice — The 
 guns mounted on the ramparts to be thrown into the 
 ditches — Parliamentary elections to be held for the return of 
 an assembly charged with pronouncing on a definite treaty 
 of peace. 
 
 These were only the bases of the convention for an 
 armistice, which was signed at Versailles on the 28th of 
 January. Jules Favre hoped sincerely to be able to mode- 
 rate its severity, and the negotiations between him and 
 M. de Bismarck continued up to the very day of the signa- 
 ture. At intervals, on questions purely military, M. de 
 Moltke and his officers, as well as two French Generals, took 
 part in them. 
 
 In my capacity as Secretary and A.D.C. to the Minister, 
 if I may use such a title, I was present at all these discus- 
 sions except, as I have already said, the first one. It would 
 be useless and wearisome to the reader to follow these 
 negotiations step by step, and to report the successive con- 
 versations which all turned in the same circle. They, 
 nevertheless, gave rise to certain salient, characteristic, and 
 interesting incidents, which have fixed themselves on my 
 memory, and which I think it useful to record. 
 
 On returning from his first interview with the Chan- 
 cellor, the Minister gave me a resume of the conversation I 
 have quoted above. When he got back to Paris, he found 
 his colleagues assembled at his office, and narrated to them 
 the first results of his conference. They congratulated him, 
 saying that, in the desperate situation in which they were 
 placed, he had obtained all that they had any right to expect. 
 The question of the war indemnity was taken into con-
 
 294 JOURNAL or A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 sideration, and Jules Favre was authorised to go as far as 
 
 500,000,000 francs if M. de Bismarck demanded that sum. 
 
 On the following morning, instead of remaining at 
 
 Sevres as on the preceding evening, I accompanied Jules 
 Favre in the berlin, and entered the Jesse" establishment 
 behind him. M. de Bismarck, who was not habitually an 
 earl}- riser, speedily joined us in the drawing-room on the 
 ground floor. There the Minister introduced me to the 
 Chancellor, who looked at me for a couple of seconds as if 
 he had seen me before, and asked us to walk up to the first 
 floor. 
 
 The conversation began. We were all three seated at 
 a round table. The Chancellor spoke ; Jules Favre replied. 
 I took notes, and put on paper the arrangements made and 
 the details agreed upon. 
 
 I was at the outset struck by the contrast between the 
 two negotiators. Count Bismarck wore the uniform of the 
 White Cuirassiers — white tunic, white cap, and yellow 
 hand. He looked like a giant. In his tight uniform, with 
 his broad chest and square shoulders, and bursting with 
 health ami strength, his proximity overwhelmed the stoop- 
 ing, thin, tall, miserable-looking lawyer, with his frock- 
 coat wrinkled all over, and his white hair falling over 
 his collar. A look, alas ! at the pair was sufficient to dis- 
 tinguish between the conqueror and the conquered, the 
 strong and the weak. 
 
 Jules Favre on this occasion insisted especially on the 
 necessity of allowing the whole of the Garde Rationale to 
 retain their arms. He had given way in regard to the 
 Mobile and the regular army, one division of the latter, 
 however, being allowed to retain their arms in order that 
 they might be attached to the troops reserved for police 
 duties, and the firemen. But lie was obstinate in regard to
 
 AT VERSAILLES 295 
 
 the Garde Rationale. He showed that it would he im- 
 possible to disarm them, that they would revolt, that hlood 
 would How. and that to allow them to retain their arms 
 was the only way of making them endure the armistice. 
 
 This lasted a long time, because when General Trochu 
 was not present to extinguish him, Jules Favre was very 
 long-winded. 
 
 At last Count Bismarck consented, but I remember that 
 he made a prophetic remark to Jules Favre : 
 
 ' So be it, but believe me, you are making a blunder. 
 And sooner or later there will be a heavy reckoning for 
 you with the rifles you are imprudently leaving in the 
 hands of these enthusiasts.' 
 
 The war indemnity was again discussed, and the 
 Chancellor said with a smile that Paris was such a fine 
 lad}' and so rich a personage, that it would be an insult 
 to ask less than a milliard. 
 
 We shall never be able to pay it, your Excellency,' said 
 Jules Favre. ' The war has completely ruined Paris. We 
 should have great trouble in getting together a hundred 
 millions.' 
 
 The amount was eventually fixed, as it is well known, 
 at two hundred millions. 
 
 The dinner hour having struck, the Chancellor invited 
 us to dine with him. Jules Favre, who wished to put into 
 proper order the notes taken by me, begged to be excused, 
 and asked that his dinner might be sent up to him. I, 
 therefore, was the only one to follow the Chancellor into 
 the dining-room on the ground floor, where a dozen 
 officers and officials of the Chancellor's department awaited 
 us, all in full uniform. 
 
 The Chancellor, who occupied the centre of the table, 
 placed me on his right hand.
 
 296 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 I remember that the table, otherwise very well set out, 
 and ornamented with massive silver for campaign use, was 
 lighted only by two candles, stuck in the necks of empty 
 bottles ; that was the only detail, calculated perhaps, that 
 reminded one of a camp. 
 
 We had scarcely taken our seats before the Chancellor 
 set to work to eat with a good appetite, talking the whole 
 time, and drinking goodly bumpers of beer and champagne 
 alternately out of a large silver drinking cup which bore 
 his monogram. 
 
 The conversation was carried on in French. 
 
 Suddenly, to my profound astonishment, M. de Bismarck 
 said to me, 
 
 ' Monsieur d'Herisson, this is not the first time I have 
 had the pleasure of meeting you.' 
 
 ' It is true, your Excellency ; but I cannot imagine that 
 an incident, as insignificant for you as it was remarkable 
 for me, can have retained a place in your memory, side by 
 side with such great interests, such vast designs, and such 
 stupendous successes.' 
 
 'Wait a moment,' he continued. 'It was in lftGG, at 
 Baden, on the steps of the Mesmer residence, where the 
 King of Prussia w r as staying, you were introduced to me 
 by the Princess MenschihofF.' 
 
 It was quite true, and I willingly joined in chorus 
 with the officers present, who fluttered with admiration 
 and exclaimed, 
 
 'What a memory ! It is prodigious ! What an astonish- 
 ing man ! There is no one like him !' 
 
 Was this the cause of the fleeting relations already sug- 
 gested between us ? Did the ( lhancellor, who for six months 
 had never seen any but captive or humiliated French 
 officers, ami had never spoken to civilians except to impose
 
 AT VERSAILLES 297 
 
 sacrifices on then), or reject their requests, did he experience 
 an involuntary moral relaxation when confronted with a 
 free-minded officer whom, when seated at his table, ho 
 could neither treat as an enemy or a slave ? Did my 
 attitude of careless unconstraint contrast with the behaviour 
 of Jules Favre, who, on the previous evening, remained 
 throughout the repast as if he had fainted in the chair 
 on which I was sitting ; who, buried in his long hair, 
 appeared, when he was addressed, to rouse himself from a 
 nightmare, and who, from time to time, dried his eyes with 
 his table napkin — was the contrast pleasing to the 
 Chancellor ? Himself a hearty eater and drinker, did he 
 like to see my youthful appetite, for the privations of the 
 siege having left a void within me, I emptied my glass 
 and left nothing on my plate. 
 
 I do not know. But I soon found out, from impercep- 
 tible signs, that I was not disagreeable to Count Bismarck. 
 He stirred me up, gave me my cue, and incited me to speak. 
 He might have been the mistress of a house wishing to 
 show off one of her guests to the best advantage. 
 
 When, to use the familiar expression, I saw how the 
 land lay, I let myself go and began to chaff these gentlemen 
 in true Paris fashion. 
 
 ' Do not believe,' I said to them, ' among other stupid 
 tales, that we are as hungry as all that. And besides, among 
 us there is so much elasticity that what overwhelms other 
 people makes us laugh and joke. For instance at the 
 beginning of the siege, there was a very strong feeling 
 against the Sergens de Ville. They wanted to drown them 
 all, neither more nor less. Then they cut off their moustaches 
 and sent them off by threes to render assistance wherever it 
 was needed. Now nobody pays any attention to them and
 
 298 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 they go about by twos. It is said that this is a necessity 
 because the two who remain have eaten the third. 
 
 And Count Bismarck's admirers, whose formulas were 
 rather lacking in variety, exclaimed. 
 
 'What gaiety! It is prodigious! These Parisians are 
 astonishing ! There are no people like them ! ' 
 
 1 next gave them a history of the China campaign and 
 told them stories of the other world. 
 
 It was better to talk thus, it seemed to me, than to dis- 
 cuss politics which I did not understand, or the Avar just 
 when it was a saddening subject so far as I was concerned. 
 
 The part I had to play possessed neither the importance 
 nor the character of that of Jules Favre, and I am even per- 
 suaded that the small concessions which I personally suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining, as will be seen in due course, from M. 
 de Bismarck, were due to my high spirits, to the persistent 
 gaiety of my character, and a freedom of mind which I 
 continually cultivated. 
 
 M. de Bismarck is totally unlike our statesmen. He is 
 not in the least degree solemn. He is downright gay, and 
 in the middle of the most serious questions he voluntarily 
 makes some little joke, some humorous remark, under 
 which, however, the powerful lion's claw can be felt. 
 
 Moreover, my anecdotes must have pleased him, for I 
 read in a book written by Dr Moritz Busch, his secretary, 
 and called, Conn! von Bismarck and his suite during the 
 War if France. 
 
 'In exchange for these and other anecdotes, the chief 
 told d'Herisson various things that could not then have 
 heen known in the clubs and salons of Paris, but would be 
 heard there with pleasure. Km- example, the conduct of 
 Rothschild at Ferrieres, and the metamorphosis by which 
 grandfather Amschel from a little Jew became a great one,
 
 AT VERSAILLES 290 
 
 thanks to the Elector of Hesse. He several times called 
 
 him the Coaii Jew, and used the same expression in 
 regard to the Jews among the Polish nobility.' 
 
 M. de Bismarck, indeed, told me that the reception of 
 the Germans at Ferrieres afforded much ground of com- 
 plaint. According to him it was the steward of Baron 
 Rothschild rather than the Baron himself who was to 
 blame. • ' But,' he added, ' like master like man.' 
 
 And he then went on to tell me how the Jews were 
 detested and despised in Germany, and how the best society 
 held aloof from them. 
 
 Frankly, it was impossible for me to follow him on this 
 ground, and I confessed that in France, for the moment at 
 all events, we had not the same repugnance. Besides, he 
 must have thoroughly understood that I could not share 
 his sentiments, and that, as a French officer, I was all the 
 more disposed to admire the courage of Baron Rothschild* 
 seeing that in displaying this courage the Baron risked 
 more than many others did. It is very possible that 
 Grandfather Amschel was too fond of money; but, even 
 to-day, when years have elapsed since the conversation, I 
 must state that his grand-children, although they may love 
 their money, know how to spend it not only royally, but 
 intelligently and artistically. 
 
 1 cannot forget that, not very long ago, when I wished 
 to undertake some scientific explorations and archaeological 
 researches which were more honourable to the nations con- 
 cerned than profitable to those who contributed towards 
 the expenses, I found four-fifths of the necessary funds in 
 the highest Jewish society. 
 
 I hastened, therefore, to turn the conversation from the 
 anti-semitic ground where M. de Bismarck had placed it.
 
 300 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 and I told him sonic sporting anecdotes On that score he is 
 inexhaustible. 
 
 When we wont upstairs to rejoin Jules Favre, who was 
 still writing, the ice was broken, and the French Pleni- 
 potentiary appeared quite astonished at the familiar terms 
 employed by the Chancellor in terminating the conversation 
 he commenced with me at the dinner-table. 
 
 The same evening, like some practised coquette who 
 likes to show herself under every aspect, M. de Bismarck, 
 after having astonished me with sparkling evidences of his 
 charming, if somewhat rough, good humour, allowed 
 me to witness an explosion of his formidable anger. 
 To make use of a metaphor more appropriate to 
 this truly great man, I had heard the lion in repose, 
 purring like a cat when she is caressed, and I was 
 going to hear him roar furiously, erect, with his tail 
 stretched out and his mane on end. 
 
 In the course of these long and laborious negotiations, 
 I remember having seen the Chancellor of the Empire 
 seriously angry on three occasions. I am going to narrate 
 the first outburst ; the second arose in connection with the 
 defence of Saint Quentin, M. de Bismarck, in his capacity 
 as a German leader, being furious at having seen an open 
 town offer such an unexpected resistance, that it had forced 
 a German army to retire, and covered the retreat of a 
 French army. He could not forgive the courage and 
 patriotism of a simple lieutenant, whom the force of 
 circumstances had placed in command, for having surprised 
 the great German Head-Quarters Staff and upset its 
 calculations. This lieutenant was my friend, M. Xavier 
 Feuillant. 
 
 Lastly, I had the honour of personally rousing the third 
 outburst of this magnificent anger under circumstances
 
 AT VERSAILLES 301 
 
 which I will recount shortly, and where I was more fortu- 
 nate than prudent — feUcior quam prudentior — as Lho- 
 
 11101 id's syntax has it. 
 
 Well, this evening Garibaldi was under discussion. 
 
 On going up to his room, the Chancellor had a white 
 saucer containing three superb Havannah cigars placed on 
 the round table at which we were sitting. His admirers 
 sent him numbers of boxes, which were piled upon the 
 sideboard. In fact, the enthusiasm of the nation allowed 
 him to want for nothing during the campaign, and the 
 Jesse" establishment received within its portals the most 
 exquisite products of German gastronomy, the finest wines, 
 and the most perfect beer ever brewed on the other side of 
 the Rhine. 
 
 He often said to his intimates, ' If they want me to 
 work well they must feed me well.' And he said to the 
 Prince Royal, whom he had invited to dinner, and who was 
 going into ecstacies over the good things on the table, 
 ' You see, your Highness, that the inhabitants of the 
 Northern Confederation absolutely insist on having a fat 
 Chancellor.' These good inhabitants saw their dream ful- 
 filled, seeing that later on, when he returned to Germany, 
 he must have been obliged to reduce himself. If he worked 
 well at Versailles, he most assuredly fed well ; and I may 
 add, in passing, that he fed his guests well also. 
 
 When the interview was on the point of commencing, 
 the Chancellor took the saucer with the three cigars, and 
 handing it to Jules Favre, he said, 
 
 ' Do you smoke ? ' 
 
 Jules Favre bowed and replied that he never smoked. 
 
 ' You are wrong,' said the diplomatist cuirassier abruptly. 
 ' When an interview has to be undergone which may occa- 
 sionally lead to discussion or give rise to violent language,
 
 3 o: JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 it is always better to smoke while you are talking. When 
 v<>u smoke, you see,' he continued, as he lighted his cigar, 
 4 the cigar you hold in your hand, put between your lips, 
 and do not like to let go, has the effect oi slightly paralys- 
 ing your physical movements. Morally, without depriving 
 ns in any way of our 1 train power, it soothes us gently. 
 The ciffar is a diversion ; and the blue smoke which mounts 
 up in wreaths and is followed by your eyes in spite of 
 yourself, charms you and renders you more conciliatory. 
 You are happy, your sight is occupied, your hand engaged, 
 and your sense of smell satisfied. You are disposed to 
 make mutual concessions, and our work — the work of us 
 diplomatists — is made up of reciprocal and never-ceasing 
 concessions. You, who do not smoke, have one advantage 
 over me, who do smoke — you are more wide awake ; and a 
 disadvantage — you are more inclined to be carried away 
 and to yield to a first impulse,' he continued, with a sus- 
 picion of raillery. ' At all events, I am sure the Captain 
 smokes.' 
 
 And he pushed the saucer towards me. I confess, 
 though from a less elevated point of view than that selected 
 by the Chancellor, that a good cigar always tempts me. I 
 thought it proper, nevertheless, to decline. I wished to be 
 all cars — to have nothing to distract me — and, besides, I 
 felt myself too inferior in position to these two men to 
 allow myself to place myself on the equal footing of persons 
 who smoke together. 
 
 The negotiation began seriously and quietly. The 
 Chancellor said simply and sincerely what he wanted, 
 with astonishing frankness and admirable logic, lie went 
 straight at the mark, and at every turn he disconcerted 
 Jules Favre, who was accustomed to legal quibbles and 
 diplomatic jobbery, and did not in the least understand
 
 AT VERSAILLES 303 
 
 the perfect loyalty of his opponent, or his superb fashion 
 of treating questions, so different from the beaten track. 
 
 The Chancellor expressed .himself in French with a 
 facility I have never met with except among the Russians, 
 who adapt themselves to our language so rapidly and so 
 happily, the difficulties of their own language rendering 
 the study of foreign idioms mere child's play. He made 
 use of expressions at once elegant and vigorous, finding the 
 proper word to describe an idea or define a situation with- 
 out effort or hesitation. 
 
 While taking from the ministerial portfolio the documents 
 as they were required, and writing notes from dictation, I 
 enjoyed this unexpected lesson in rhetoric and conversation. 
 
 When the point arose in connection with Garibaldi and 
 the army of the Dijon, the Chancellor's eyes sparkled, and 
 suddenly assumed an expression of savage anger. It was 
 evident that he could scarcely express his frank but violent 
 ill-will. 
 
 ' I understood,' he said to Jules Favre, ' that we were 
 to leave him and his army outside the conditions of our 
 armistice. He is not one of you. You can well leave 
 him to me. He has in front of him a small Corps d'Armee 
 whose strength is equal to his own or nearly so. Let them 
 fight it out together. Do not let us bother about them.' 
 
 Jules Favre replied that that was quite impossible. It 
 was true that Garibaldi had not been asked for his assis- 
 tance. The first time he offered his services to the 
 Government of the National Defence in a telegram sent to 
 Rochefort on the morning of the 5th September, his assist- 
 ance and that of his two sons were refused. But circum- 
 stances having converted the Italian free-lance into the 
 General of a French Corps d'Armee, it would be cowardly 
 for him, the representative of France, to abandon Garibaldi,
 
 3 o 4 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 and exclude not only him, but also his Corps d'Armec com- 
 posed almost exclusively of Frenchmen, from an armistice 
 which ought to profit all alike. 
 
 Moreover, the Province by accepting Garibaldi's offers of 
 service, which Paris had thought proper to decline, had 
 tn\ eloped the foreigner in the folds of the national flag, and 
 it was impossible to abandon him. 
 
 During this address, very much longer and certainly 
 more eloquent than the colourless abridgment of it which I 
 have o-iven, and whilst Jules Favre was proving that the 
 honour of the country was involved in such a question as 
 this, Count Bismarck's anger had increased. 
 
 He fidgeted in his chair; he even laid down his half 
 smoked and still smoking cigar on the edge of the saucer, 
 and tapping the table very sharply with his forefinger, he 
 exclaimed, 
 
 'I must have him, nevertheless, for I mean to parade 
 him through Berlin with a placard on his back with these 
 words on it ; ' This is the gratitude of Italy.' ' What ! After 
 all we have done for those people 1 It is infamous!' 
 
 At this juncture 1 made a somewhat bold venture, but 
 one which, with a man of Count Bismarck's distinction and 
 education, might have a chance of success. It actually 
 succeeded. 
 
 I took up the saucer with the cigars, and, half smiling, 
 half bowing, in an attitude of respect and entreaty, I 
 handed it to him. 
 
 He remained for a few seconds without seeing what I 
 meant, and then the fire in his eyes suddenly went out. 
 
 'You are right, Captain, lie said. 'It is no use getting 
 angry. It leads to nothing — on the contrary!' 
 
 And the conversation resumed its natural and moderate
 
 AT VERSAILLES 305 
 
 tone. The army of Garibaldi, and Garibaldi himself were 
 included in the Armistice. 
 
 Nevertheless MM. de Bismarck and Jules Favre could 
 not bring matters to a conclusion by themselves. There 
 were certain technical questions to settle, for which the 
 intervention of military men was necessary, and it was 
 agreed that Paris should nominate a General, furnished with 
 the full authority of the Commander-in-Chief, who was 
 to attend on the following day to confer first of all with 
 M. de Bismarck, and afterwards with M. de Moltke. 
 
 On the same evening, after our return to Paris, it was 
 decided that General de Beaufort d'Hautpoul should be 
 entrusted with this disagreeable mission, and I was 
 directed to take a despatch to the General, ordering 
 him to accompany the Minister to Versailles as military 
 negotiator. 
 
 This brave and worthy soldier, who lived in the Avenue 
 Neuilly, when he had made himself acquainted with the 
 contents of the despatch, showed the greatest surprise and 
 anger. He walked up and down the room, gesticulating 
 and exclaiming, 
 
 ' They cannot possibly ask me to do such a thing ! 
 They have no right to dishonour the career of an old 
 soldier by compelling him to put his name to such a 
 capitulation. Am I responsible ? Am I Commander-in- 
 Chief ? I will never do it. I would rather die.' 
 
 And he began to cry like a child. The tears ran down 
 his weather-beaten cheeks, and ran drop by drop along his 
 white moustaches. It was a harrowing sio-ht. He con- 
 tinually came back to the same idea. 
 
 ' Why have they chosen me ? Why me more than 
 anybody else ? ' 
 
 It will be readily understood that I had not set out 
 
 u
 
 3 o6 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 without knowing beforehand that I should have to reply 
 to his objections, which had been absolutely foreseen by 
 the Government and the Staff. I remarked, therefore, to 
 the General that he was the Senior Divisional General 
 in Paris. 
 
 ' Not at all,' he replied quickly; 'there are other Divi- 
 sional Generals in Paris who were promoted on the same 
 day that I was.' 
 
 I replied that that was true, but that, among all these 
 Divisional Generals, he had been the Senior Brigadier. 
 
 He had nothing more to say. The task he had to per- 
 form was horrible and repulsive: it certainly was a blow 
 to his honour as an old soldier, but this same honour made 
 him accept the sacrifice he was asked to make, and showed 
 him that duty compelled him to submit and obey. 
 
 A few hours afterwards we were all once more at 
 Versailles, sitting round the table with M. de Bismarck. 
 Poor General d'Hautpoul bore on his face the traces of the 
 terrible struggle that had taken place between his pride 
 and his duty. His features were absolutely distorted, and 
 he had aged ten years during the journey. Brusque, 
 sombre and taciturn, he sat with his table-napkin on his 
 knees, scarcely touching the dishes that were set before 
 him, with choking throat, and only replying in mono- 
 syllables to the questions addressed to him by the 
 Chancellor in tones of courteous sympathy and deference. 
 
 He drank glass after glass of cold water, and after some 
 observation or other made by a German officer, he suddenly 
 broke out, as if an explosion had taken place within him, 
 and replied hotly, 
 
 'Ah! it is a very lucky thing for you that we have 
 come here to treat with you, for our troops are animated 
 with excellent feelings. My Mobiles and my Gardes
 
 AT VERSAILLES 307 
 
 Nationaux have become perfect soldiers, and if it had 
 depended on me, instead of dining here at your ease as you 
 are doing at this moment, you would be far away, you and 
 your dinner too.' 
 
 When a profound silence at a dinner-table succeeds 
 an animated conversation, some people say, ' An angel is 
 passing,' others say that ' A chill has been cast.' There 
 certainly was a great chill, but I prefer the former 
 metaphor — an angel passed by. It was the angel of 
 patriotism soaring above our heads. 
 
 The end of the repast was most painful. On getting up 
 from the table I placed myself behind Jules Favre. M. de 
 Bismarck motioned his guests to the door of the room. 
 They understood the silent order of their chief, and dis- 
 appeared. The Chancellor then rejoined us, and, pointing 
 over his shoulder to General d'Hautpoul, who was feverishly 
 drumming on a window at the other end of the room, he 
 said to the Minister. 
 
 ' If you intend to bring that gentleman here again, you 
 may as well say at once that you do not wish to continue 
 the negotiations, and we can break them off from this 
 moment.' 
 
 Jules Favre apologised. He explained that the General 
 had come much against his will, and solely to obey, to 
 accomplish a very painful duty. He promised the 
 Chancellor that on the following day he would be 
 accompanied by another military plenipotentiary. 
 
 The Germans have sought to explain this unexpected 
 scene by saying that the General had drunk too much, 
 and was intoxicated. Poor, brave man ! He had only 
 drunk three glasses of water. In this instance they have 
 given proof of almost as much good faith as when they 
 confidently affirmed that they never fired on a flag of truce-
 
 308 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 The same day, on my arrival at Versailles, I discharged 
 a commission entrusted to me on the previous evening by 
 General Trochu. Deprived of all military power, he was 
 restricted to his functions as President of the Government, 
 and had lost almost all his prestige and all his influence 
 over his colleagues. He called me to him, and said, 
 
 ' My dear Captain, as you go every day to Versailles, do 
 me a service. I know Prince Wittgenstein, aide-de-camp 
 to the Emperor, personally. I should like you to give this 
 letter into his own hands.' 
 
 I held out my hand. 
 
 ' "Wait a moment,' he added. ' I have no idea of trans- 
 forming you, now that I have no more military despatches 
 for you to carry, into a postman ; and if, outside the nego- 
 tiations carried on at Versailles by the Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs, I address a letter to Versailles, I wish you to know 
 its contents.' 
 
 I was about to protest from motives of politeness, when 
 I very opportunely remembered a remark once made to me 
 by General de Montauban. It was in the Straits Settle- 
 ments, and we had to drive across Singapore in a carriage. 
 The General asked me to get in first, and I persisted in 
 declining what I thought was too much honour. I had, 
 nevertheless, to give way, and when we were fairly seated 
 in the carriage, the General said to me, 
 
 ' I made you get in first because, just now, you are on 
 the side of the carriage where you ought to be as inter- 
 preter. I am not at all angry with you for having wished 
 to give way to me, but remember that among soldiers the 
 first politeness is obedience.' 
 
 I was mortified, and the lesson was graven on my 
 memory. I listened, therefore, without protest to the 
 letter of the General to Prince Wittgenstein. It was a
 
 AT VERSAILLES 309 
 
 miniature masterpiece in style and sentiment. The ex- 
 Governor addressed himself to the heart of his old comrade 
 — to his feelings of honour and equity — and without humb- 
 ling himself in any way, he begged him, so far as might be 
 in his power, to influence the mind of the Emperor, whose 
 friend and aide-de-camp he was, so that conquered Paris 
 should be respected as she deserved to be. 
 
 After reading the letter, the General added, 
 
 ' It shall never be said that I did not do everything I 
 could in the interests of the town I was charo-ed to defend.' 
 
 I sealed the letter myself and took it with me. 
 
 The Emperor resided in the Prefecture — in the same 
 building which was very soon to serve as a palace for 
 M. Thiers. Prince Wittgenstein was on duty in attendance 
 on him. I betook myself to the Imperial residence, and at 
 the door a sentry received me with his bayonet at the 
 charge ; the brave Saxon could not understand an armed 
 French soldier having the audacity to endeavour to enter 
 the Sovereign's house. The officer of the guard did not 
 share the scruples of the sentry, but sent an orderly to 
 conduct me to the rooms occupied by the Prince. 
 
 I record this somewhat insignificant incident because 
 the spectacle then presented by the Salle des Pas-Perdus, 
 which served as a vestibule or waiting-room to the imperial 
 apartments, struck me and moved me profoundly. 
 
 In the Salle there was a veritable army of generals, 
 officers of all grades, of every age and branch of the service, 
 all in brand new full-dress uniforms, and all adorned with 
 embroidery, large ribbons and decorations of every kind. 
 Helmets glittered, spur-rowels jingled, and swords clattered 
 on the marble flags. And what athletic and haughty figures 
 they had, how full of joy and pride they looked ! What 
 tranquil and easy assurance was theirs.
 
 3 1 o JO I'll WA L OF A s l\ l FF OFFIC ER 
 
 Everything breathed of success, health, opulence, and 
 strength. 
 
 Just as I arrived the Emperor was going out. The 
 grenadiers presented arms, from the court yard came the 
 noise of the horses' hoofs of the troop falling in, the pawing 
 and whinnying of a lot of frisky horses awaiting their 
 masters, a few short words of command from the officers, 
 and in the midst of the living hedges of bowing officers, and 
 above the rounded backs crossed by many coloured ribbons, 
 I saw, from the corner where I was hurriedly shut in and 
 concealed, the modern Charlemagne, proclaimed only a week 
 previously, pass along the grand glass gallery of the palace 
 of Louis XIV, the sovereign master who held us all beneath 
 his knee, calm, smiling, and with his helmet in his hand 
 allowing us to see his aged head and his rough, fatherly 
 countenance. 
 
 And when in thought and with the rapidity of 
 lightning I traversed the route which was the scene of so 
 many of my journeyings, and when I saw our generals, sad, 
 sombre, unattended, flying in a way from the troops they 
 had commanded, their uniforms soiled and themselves worn 
 out by the labours of the siege, and when I thought of the 
 poor tattered soldiers — the harrowing contrast which was 
 before me day by day in my little room in the Rue de 
 Provence, I mean the contrast between the Ministers of the 
 two nations, Bismarck the colossal and Jules Favre the 
 lachrymalwin, stood out in bolder relief and assumed 
 enormous proportions. 
 
 I bit my lips till they bled to repress the sob called 
 forth by that involuntary resurrection in my brain of our 
 misfortunes and our shame confronted by all this glory and 
 prosperity. 
 
 The same day I heard a curious interchange of impres-
 
 AT VERSAILLES 311 
 
 sions and opinions between M. de Bismarck and Jules Favre, 
 for it must not be imagined that they conversed all the 
 time solely on the object of their mission. The conversa- 
 tion, guided as a rule by the Chancellor, frequently 
 wandered, and capriciously touched upon every possible 
 subject. 
 
 Jules Favre had been speaking of the love of France 
 for liberty, her taste for a republic, and her republican 
 sentiments. 
 
 ' Are you quite sure,' replied the Chancellor, ' that 
 France is as republican as you make her out to be ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly,' said Jules Favre. 
 
 ' Well, I do not agree with you. Before we entered into 
 negotiations with you, we did not neglect, as you may well 
 suppose, to study the moral state of your country and to get 
 at an exact account of it. In spite of this war which has 
 been so disastrous to you, imposed, by the way, on Napoleon 
 III by the French nation rather than desired by him, as I 
 have already told you — and it was this consideration which 
 allowed us, after having overthrown the Empire, to fight 
 France, our old and real enemy — in spite of the disasters 
 and defeats of your army, nothing would be easier, believe 
 me, than to re-establish the Empire. I will not maintain 
 against you that it would have been received with acclam- 
 ation in Paris, but it would certainly have been accepted or 
 sul >mitted to in the country. A plebiscite would have done 
 the rest. 
 
 ' No ; if we have not treated with the Bonapartes, it is 
 simply because we have found it more advantageous to 
 treat with you. As for the pretended love of France for 
 the Republic, it would have disappeared with marvellous 
 facility. 
 
 'You have not been long in rower. Wait: when you
 
 3 i2 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 have had the management of men for some years, from the 
 liberal you are now you will become authoritative, from 
 republican, monarchist, Believe me, you cannot lead a 
 great nation, nor can you render it prosperous, outside the 
 principle of authority, in other words, monarchy. 
 
 As Jules Favre protested, the Chancellor continued, 
 
 'You will come to it. It will he in spite of you, I 
 admit thoroughly, but you will come to it all the same. 
 You are too clear-sighted not to recognise it speedily, and 
 too patriotic to persist in that case in your error. Look at 
 me. How did I begin ? I was a liberal, and it is only by 
 sheer force of reasoning, by the evidence of facts and the 
 experience of men that, loving my country and longing for 
 her good and her greatness, I became a conservative — 
 ultra-conservative if you prefer it. The Emperor con- 
 verted me. My gratitude to him and my respectful 
 affection date from that far-off time — that difficult period 
 when he had such confidence in me that he supported me 
 alone before and against everybody. If to-day I am the 
 man whom you see, if I have rendered some service to my 
 country, I owe it all to the Emperor, and I am no more 
 tired of saying that than I am of loving my Sovereign.' 
 
 Jules Favre did not reply to this profession of faith, 
 but I imagine that, later on, when he asked pardon of God 
 and men, the distant echo of the^Chancellor's words must 
 have vibrated in his poor tired brain. 
 
 I have explained how the military mission of General 
 d'Hautpoul came to an end on the very day that it began. 
 The Chief of the Stall" of the new Governor, General de 
 Valdan, who succeeded General Schmitz, was directed to 
 discuss the terms of the military portion of the armistice 
 convention. This discussion was not under the direction
 
 AT VERSAILLES 313 
 
 of Count Bismarck. It took place in the house occupied 
 by Marshal von Moltke. 
 
 There were present the Marshal, a German General 
 Officer, and two Colonels on the Staff; M. de Bismarck 
 Jules Favre, General de Valdan, and myself. 
 
 After the various clauses of the military convention had 
 been discussed, Marshal von Moltke dictated them, and the 
 text was written in duplicate by a German Colonel and me. 
 
 We were installed in a rather large room with two 
 windows. The Marshal, with his back to the light, pre- 
 sided, having on his left General de Valdan, and on his right 
 M. de Bismarck ; by the side of M. de Bismarck sat Jules 
 Favre, separated from the remainder of the German colonels 
 by a table at which the German Colonel, who acted as secre- 
 tary, and I wrote. 
 
 With his clean-shaven face, which bore evidence of 
 suffering, and was, as it were, crackled with an infinity of 
 small wrinkles, M. de Moltke did not in the least resemble 
 a soldier such as we love to portray them in France. He 
 rather resembled a Benedictine monk, or an ascetic, or an 
 old actor. 
 
 Each one of his words, clear, sharp, and precise, seemed 
 to be produced by the vibration of a steel tongue. You 
 could feel instinctively that he thoroughly enjoyed having 
 under his hand the humble plenipotentiaries of humiliated 
 France and conquered Paris. 
 
 Dressed in a very simple uniform, he wore the ribbon 
 of the Iron Cross knotted in his button-hole and not sewn 
 on his breast. The majority of the German officers wore 
 the same decoration, just as the Russian officers wear their 
 principal military order — the Cross of St George. He had 
 at his neck a cross in blue enamel resembling a Maltese 
 cross.
 
 3 1 4 JO I ' R X. 1 1 F A S T. I FF FFICER 
 
 Tn his white tunic, at once simple and imposing, and 
 despite the propinquity of the conqueror of all our armies, 
 Count Bismarck, amid this small staff, nevertheless 
 resembled a monarch surrounded by his court. 
 
 General de Valdan was in undress uniform with 
 epaulettes, and Jules Favre naturally wore his everlasting 
 frock-coat, which, when he was sitting down, gave his 
 chest the appearance of the bellows of an accordion. Both 
 General and Minister had a sad and downcast air, as may 
 easily be understood. 
 
 When the discussion turned on the various points round 
 Paris which were to be occupied by the Prussian army, and 
 the enumeration of the forts which were to be handed over 
 to them, General de Valdan said that he was desirous of 
 sparing the Parisians the humiliation of surrendering the 
 fort of Vincennes. 
 
 ' It represents to us,' he added ' a remarkable historical 
 reminiscence. At the time of the invasion it was gloriously 
 saved l>} r General Daumesnil.' 
 
 Marshal von Moltke replied very quickly and very 
 drily, that he regretted it very much, but that they had 
 not met to discuss questions of sentiment or history, and 
 that, considering the situation of the fort, completely 
 surrounded by trees, it was of the highest strategic im- 
 portance that it should be occupied by the German armies. 
 
 General de Valdan replied that he did not know that 
 the position was of such importance, and that if he made a 
 point of exempting it from the Prussian occupation, it was 
 solely — he begged pardon of the Marshal — in order to give 
 a semblance of patriotic and moral satisfaction to the 
 Parisians, a satisfaction which in its way Mas a political 
 question interesting to both nations, and calculated to 
 facilitate their mutual relations.
 
 AT VERSAILLES 315 
 
 The Marshal persisted, and we were about to pass on, 
 when I thought I might interpose a timid observation. 
 
 ' I beg your Excellency ten thousand pardons,' I said, 
 ' but I believe you are mistaken.' 
 
 'How?' replied M. de Moltke, who looked at me with 
 blinking eyes, as if he wanted to see something in the far- 
 off distance. 
 
 ' Because the fort of Vincennes is not surrounded by 
 trees. It certainly is at the side of the forest of Vincennes, 
 but it cannot be said that a fort near a forest is surrounded 
 by trees.' 
 
 ' I beg your pardon in my turn, Captain,' replied the 
 Marshal ; ' the fort is completely surrounded by trees. 
 However, it is easy to ascertain that.' 
 
 And taking a map which one of the officers had hastened 
 to pass to him, he spread it out on the table where we were 
 writing. 
 
 The map was coloured, and on it appeared the fort of 
 Vincennes completely surrounded by a green tint. 
 
 ' This map is not correct,' I exclaimed at once. ' There 
 is no wood on this side ; and again, here on the right there 
 is no indication of the camp of St Maur.' 
 
 ■ Are you sure ? ' said the Marshal, surprised by the 
 confident assurance of my assertions. 
 
 ' Perfectly sure, your Excellency, and there is no great 
 merit in it. My brother, Orderly Officer to General Berthaut, 
 was encamped at St Maur for long enough with the Mobiles, 
 who were commanded by that General, for me to have 
 ample leisure to study the environs of the fort of 
 Vincennes.' 
 
 'Let me see your map,' said the Marshal turning 
 abruptly to General de Valdan. 
 
 The latter shruo-ged his shoulders, and at the same time
 
 316 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 raised his two hands to show that he had not brought a 
 map, and he in his turn applied to Jules Favre, who was no 
 better supplied with a detail which one would have thought 
 indispensable. 
 
 This rapid scene recalled to my mind a duel in which I 
 was second with Count Exelmans. Each of the two groups 
 of seconds was under the impression that the duel would be 
 fought with the opposite side's weapons, so that when we 
 arrived on the ground, a considerable distance from Paris, 
 with the traditional landaus waiting under the trees, there 
 was only one thing wanting to enable us to fight — the 
 duelling swords. 
 
 Jules Favre had relied on the General, and in all proba- 
 bility the General had relied on Jules Favre. 
 
 Fortunately I had with me one of the maps which 
 General Schmitz had given to each officer of the Staff; it 
 never left me. I proved decisively that the camp of St 
 Maur was neither a myth nor a dream, to the painful 
 surprise of Marshal von Moltke. 
 
 The Marshal did not appear surprised that I knew the 
 locality better than he did, but he seemed vexed that it 
 had been proved before numerous witnesses that the map 
 he possessed was incorrect. He experienced a shadow of a 
 feeling of confusion. The line traced in red pencil which 
 marked the limit of the German occupation was rectified. 
 
 And the fort of Vincennes was thus saved by ' General 
 de Yaldan,' so wrote Jules Favre. 
 
 This happened on the 2Gth of January. Nothing was 
 as yet officially concluded, but matters were sufficiently 
 advanced for one to state that the negotiations would termi- 
 nate definitely, and that a rupture was impossible. 
 
 .lules Favre and I had been writing for nearly two 
 hours on the first floor of the Jesse establishment. As my
 
 AT VERSAILLES 317 
 
 work was finished, I went down stairs to get some fresh 
 air in the Chancellor's garden, and to stretch my legs, 
 unaccustomed to office immobility. I had not been there 
 more than a few moments, strolling along an alley at the 
 bottom of the garden, when M. de Bismarck joined me, and 
 asked me, with his customary courtesy, if, instead of turn- 
 ing like a squirrel in the garden, I should not prefer to 
 take a walk with him in the town. 
 
 I first of all looked at the Chancellor with a certain 
 amount of astonishment, because, as a matter of fact, the 
 armistice was not yet signed, and the promenade of Count 
 Bismarck with an Orderly Officer of General Trochu as- 
 sumed a political importance. 
 
 However, I hastened to accept, but I requested per- 
 mission to go and ask the Minister how much time I had 
 to myself. The Chancellor understood quite well that it 
 was only a polite pretext, that I wished to let Jules Favre 
 know, and that I did not wish to take upon myself to show 
 a French uniform in Versailles side by side with a German 
 uniform. 
 
 I put Jules Favre in possession of the situation in a 
 very few words. 
 
 ' Go,' he said to me. ' However painful may be the 
 situation in which you find yourself, you must accept it. 
 The Chancellor has his reasons. He no doubt wishes all 
 Versailles, and therefore all Europe to know how matters 
 are progressing, and that he no longer considers a rupture 
 possible.' 
 
 M. de Bismarck was waiting for me down below, at the 
 door leading out into the street. I drew back to let him 
 pass, but he insisted that I should go out first. I record all 
 these trivial things, because the smallest details of these 
 days are indelibly engraved on my memory.
 
 3 i8 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 We were in the Rue de Provence. We turned to the 
 right, and we emerged almost at once into the Boulevard 
 de la Reine. 
 
 The Boulevard was crowded with German officers and 
 ladies. It was the hour when the Prussian ladies who had 
 joined their husbands came out to show themselves to the 
 officers of the various Staffs. They treated M. de Bismarck 
 with an amount of respect almost as profound and dis- 
 tinguished as is shown, almost everywhere except in France, 
 to the members of the Royal Family. 
 
 This quite natural respect, about which there is no 
 hesitation, did not astonish me. Brought up in Germany, 
 I knew from having mixed with it, admired it, and envied 
 it, the social hierarchy which reigns in that country, where 
 the people do not seek to lure everybody to their nest, and 
 where each class of society renders to the superior classes 
 the same marks of deference which it receives from the 
 classes below it. 
 
 Great was the surprise to see a French officer walking 
 on the left of Count Bismarck and conversing with him. 
 The news of this promenade, the meaning of which w r as 
 grasped by everybody, spread with the rapidity of light- 
 ning. It was telegraphed to London, to Berlin, and to 
 Vienna, that the Chancellor of the German Empire had 
 been seen walking in a public place with the aide-de-camp 
 of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 And on the following day how many mothers, wives, 
 and daughters must have thanked God for this news of the 
 speedy return of those dear ones whom each day they 
 feared they should never see again ! 
 
 In the evening, when we were setting out, and just as 
 we were £ettinp; i n t ur carriage. M. de Bismarck said to 
 Jules Favre,
 
 AT VERSAILLES 319 
 
 ' Then we are agreed on all points, are we not ? ' 
 
 ' Perfectly,' replied Jules Favre. 
 
 ' In that case it is useless to burn our powder any 
 longer. I propose to you that the bombardment shall 
 cease this very day. At midnight M. de Moltke is pre- 
 pared to telegraph to all points to that effect. Do you 
 agree ? ' 
 
 ' Ah ! Monsieur le Chancelier,' said Jules Favre, seizins 
 the hand held out to him by the Count, ' you make me very 
 happy. I dared not ask you for that, only, your Excellency, 
 allow Paris to fire the last shot.' 
 
 ' It is agreed. Adieu.' 
 
 That evening, though I was very tired, I determined to 
 give myself the pleasure of being awake at that absolutely 
 psychological moment, as the Chancellor called it, and I 
 went for a walk on the quays. The batteries of Meudon 
 and Chatillon were doing their utmost. 
 
 I remember hearing the first stroke of midnight as I 
 was standing at the foot of the clock tower of the Palais 
 de Justice. 
 
 The watches of the German army must have been well 
 regulated, as well as our own, for before the second stroke 
 of the bell sounded from the old tower, an imposing, solemn 
 mournful silence reigned everywhere. 
 
 You may believe me or not as you please, but it seemed 
 to me that something was wanting. 
 
 And I am not sure but that a goodly number of 
 Parisians, already asleep in the gas-bereft town where 
 nobody sat up to watch, did not awake, stirred by the 
 silence of the atmosphere from their first sleep. 
 
 Just in this way do the dwellers in the neighbourhood 
 of the markets, who are rocked to sleep all night long by 
 the rumbling of the waggons of the market gardeners on
 
 320 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 the pavement, awake with a start amid the quiet of the 
 country. 
 
 On the following day Paris knew that negotiations 
 were on foot, and that an armistice was on the point of 
 being signed. A few enthusiasts protested, gave utterance 
 to desperate resolves, talked about a sortie, and of blowing 
 the whole place up. Nobody attempted a sortie ; nothing 
 was blown up. In reality Paris had had enough, and was 
 feeling the need of passing to some other exercise. 
 
 Before bringing the recital of these negotiations to a 
 close with a dramatic and impressive episode, I wish to 
 recount a detail which I should pass over in silence were 
 it not that the personage whom it concerns has, since that 
 period, made a great political fortune, and acquired a con- 
 siderable position in the country. 
 
 Officially, the question of revictualling predominated 
 over all the others ; I say officially, because I am persuaded 
 that very few people knew the exact truth in regard 
 to the question of subsistence, and that we were not 
 so much at the last gasp as was represented. The 
 month of March was first spoken of as the extreme 
 limit of our provisions. Then it was said that a mis- 
 take had been made, and that we could not hold out 
 longer than the first days of January. Was a mistake really 
 made ? I do not think so. The proof of the correctness of 
 my view is that plenty reigned in Paris before, in point of 
 time, the provision trains could have reached the stations; 
 and that, long after peace was concluded, I ascertained that 
 almost everywhere there were stocks of spoiled flour, rotten 
 potatoes, rancid bacon, &c, &c. I do not blame the Govern- 
 ment for having anticipated the moment when bread would 
 really have failed, and in default of other excuses a perfectly 
 adequate explanation of the capitulation was to be found in
 
 AT VERSAILLES 321 
 
 the alarming increase in the mortality, especially among 
 children, during the closing weeks of the siege. 
 
 Officially, therefore, the most considerable and most 
 urgent question, the question which had brought Jules 
 Favre to Versailles, being that of the revictualling of Paris, 
 it was natural that the engineers and directors of the rail- 
 ways should go and make arrangements with the German 
 authorities for the necessary restoration of the lines which 
 had been cut, for the repairs of bridges and tunnels, and for 
 the provision of rolling stock. This latter had been got ready 
 beforehand by the Germans who, when the armistice was 
 definitely signed, proved themselves absolutely exact and 
 even foreseeing. 
 
 It was also natural that, in his capacity as Mayor of 
 Paris, M. Jules Ferry should go to Versailles in connection 
 with the revictualling. He went there several times, and I 
 made a third with him and Jules Favre in the Emperor's 
 cov,pe which had rendered us such signal service. 
 
 M. Jules Ferry was far more elegant than M. Jules 
 Favre. Two Jules. Indeed the Jules abounded in the 
 Government. Simon was called Jules, and Trochu him- 
 self was afflicted with that prenomen, somewhat too 
 common among our powers that were, who had only that 
 in common with Caesar. M. Jules Ferry wore a short, 
 tight frock-coat, light grey trousers (in spite of the season 
 of the year), and lavender gloves. His figure was well 
 made up. 
 
 Although on several occasions, when in our narrow 
 vehicle, M. Jules Ferry thought fit to whisper in the ear of 
 Jules Favre — a piece of doubtful politeness so far as the 
 third passenger was concerned — I was fully aware that 
 these two honourable gentlemen were principally pre- 
 occupied about the provincial elections, and the nccessit}^ 
 
 x
 
 322 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 that they should result in favour of the republican cause; 
 
 about the attitude of Gambetta, who did not appear to be 
 at all enthusiastic on the subject of the armistice; ami 
 about the necessity of the Garde National being allowed 
 t<> retain their arms — on this point M. Ferry was as perti- 
 nacious as Jules Favre; — and lastly and principally, about 
 the maintenance of the Republic. 
 
 I confess that I should have preferred to hear them 
 converse a little less about their petty political combina- 
 tions, and a little more about the grand dilemma which 
 they appeared to • have completely forgotten — was peace to 
 be concluded, or was the war to go on ? 
 
 I should have made them laugh if I had spoken to them 
 of these things. For some time past, in common with the 
 majority of Frenchmen, and with the regular army almost 
 to a man, they had come to the conclusion that peace was 
 inevitable. 
 
 It was all over, the military negotiations were concluded 
 and the armistice convention had been written out in 
 duplicate. Jules Favre carried off the copy by the German 
 Colonel in order to submit it for final acceptance by his 
 colleagues. The other, which I had written out, remained 
 in the hands of the Germans. 
 
 After the Government had considered the matter at the 
 EEdtel de Ville, Jules Favre brought away the convention, 
 duly signed, in his paper-case, and directed me to take it to 
 M. de Bismarck early on the following day. I need not say 
 that although the missive entrusted to me was scaled, I 
 knew its contents by heart, word for word, seeing that 
 those contents had been dictated to me, and that 1 had 
 assisted at the laborious birth of each one of its sentences. 
 
 While I was on my solitary journey to Versailles in the 
 Imperial coupe, a mad idea crossed my brain, returned
 
 AT VERSAILLES 323 
 
 again and again, and speedily took up its abode there with 
 disheartening obstinacy. It was that I should undertake 
 a little additional negotiation at my own proper risk and 
 peril. 
 
 ' What have I to risk ? ' I asked myself. ' M. de Bismarck 
 will never credit me with sufficient hardihood to suppose 
 that the observations I am going to make to him, the 
 modifications or additions I am going to solicit, have not 
 been dictated to me by the Government. If my altogether 
 patriotic stratagem is discovered, I shall be repudiated, 
 blamed and punished by these gentlemen of Paris ; and 
 neither blame, nor repudiation, nor punishment will weigh 
 the least with me in comparison with my desire to serve 
 my country, and the glory of being of use to her. Well, a 
 very exceptional opportunity of satisfying that desire and 
 of gaining that glory now presents itself. Forward — I do 
 not suppose they will shoot me. I know now how to carry 
 on a diplomatic conversation. No doubt about that. I do 
 not require to be show T n how to proceed. People should 
 never do anything in the presence of children.' 
 
 After having duly considered the pros and cons, after 
 having reflected on what I was about to do, repeated my 
 sentences, rehearsed my part in fact, I arrived at the 
 residence of M. de Bismarck, firmly resolved to run the 
 whole risk. 
 
 I was shown into the dining-room on the ground floor, 
 which communicated with the anti-room by means of three 
 or four steps. The Chancellor was busy, and I was 
 requested to wait a few moments. 
 
 The table was laid for breakfast. A dozen covers were 
 laid on a table-cloth stained in several places, the stains 
 proving, wdiat indeed I already knew from experience,
 
 324 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 that beer was not the only beverage indulged in by the 
 warriors and diplomatists of the north. 
 
 The customary seat of the chief — so he was called by 
 his pacific Staff — was marked by his campaign service and 
 his silver cup. 
 
 It often happens that in moments of waiting and 
 idleness, the strangest and most fantastic ideas cross one's 
 brain. It is as if the mind, condemned to a forced repose, 
 profited by the truce to wander about and explore — a 
 moment of folly in which reason accpaires new strength. 
 
 I thought to myself that it was eminently imprudent 
 to allow an enemy to wait as I was waiting in a dining- 
 room, an enemy whose reason might be affected by the mis- 
 fortunes of his country, and who might very easily put a 
 drop of prussic acid into the bottom of the drinking cup of 
 the man who was on the point of snatching Alsace and 
 Lorraine from our arms. The colossus would fall prone 
 to i he ground. The great thinker would be nothing but an 
 inert mass, and starving Paris would be bending the knee 
 before a corpse. It is quite true, I thought, that no good 
 would come of it, because M. de Bismarck's successor would 
 not have his genius and might possibly not have his mode- 
 ration. It is also true that M. de Moltke would sacrifice to 
 the enraged shade of his fellow labourer hecatombs of which 
 history would never cease to speak. Decidedly it would be 
 a bad speculation as well as a most cowardly attack. 
 
 I had reached that point in my philosophical-criminal 
 reflections when I heard the shaking staircase of Madame 
 Jesse' creak. The door opened, and M. de Bismarck was 
 before me. 
 
 'I was expecting you, Count, 5 lie said. 'I hope every- 
 thing is finished, and that you have, according to arrange- 
 ment, brought the convention with you duly signed.
 
 AT VERSAILLES 325 
 
 ' I have brought it to your Excellency,' I replied ; ' but 
 in order to avoid loss of time and more useless journeys, 
 I am not to hand it over until your Excellency has con- 
 sented to the introduction into it of a few minor altera- 
 tions. In case your Excellency does not consent, I must 
 withdraw and await the arrival of M. Jules Favre.' 
 
 The Chancellor, who was already holding out his hand, 
 showed me quite suddenly a countenance animated by an 
 expression of irritated surprise. 
 
 ' What is all this about ? ' he exclaimed. ' Everything 
 was settled. Is M. Jules Favre absolutely bent on starving 
 this capital, and allowing Europe to think that it is our 
 fault ? ' 
 
 ' M. Jules Favre,' I replied, ' has not changed his mind. 
 He had to submit the convention to the Government. He 
 has submitted it, and I have the honour to bring you 
 the reply.' 
 
 ' Come, come,' said the Chancellor, ' let us see what 
 these alterations are, and whether it is possible to agree 
 to them.' 
 
 ' Here they are: — 1st, The Government desires that, in 
 conformity with the wishes expressed more than once by 
 our plenipotentiaries in the course of the numerous dis- 
 cussions which have taken place on the subject, you will 
 withdraw your stipulation that the guns now mounted on 
 the fortifications of Paris shall be thrown over into the 
 ditches. The Government asks you to consent to these 
 guns being simply dismounted and placed in the roadway 
 in rear of the ramparts. 2nd, That you will consent to 
 the line of investment round Paris as set forth in the 
 tracing by the French Head-quarters Staff, and that you 
 will abandon the line finally marked out by the German 
 Staff. 3rd, Lastly — and this is a sine qua non — the
 
 326 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 Government desires that, in opposition to what has 
 already been agreed upon, the Army of Paris shall retain 
 it- colours.' 
 
 T stopped, frightened at my own audacity, and listening 
 to my own words as if somebody else had uttered them. 
 
 .M. de Bismarck's anger, which had been gradually 
 rising, burst forth suddenly, and, banging the door which 
 he had left half-open behind him, he said to me, emphasis- 
 ing his words and raising his voice, 
 
 ' Do not these gentlemen understand that all this is 
 forced on me by our Staff? That I personally have 
 nothing to do in this particular matter ? And that, as I 
 have told M. Jules Favre, our officers are never tired of 
 saying, 'Soldiers win the victories, and diplomatists spoil 
 them ? ' 
 
 Me walked up and down for several moments with such 
 a wrathful expression on his face that I thought I had 
 vone too far, and if it had not been for my ardent desire to 
 succeed, I should have made up my mind to apologise. 
 
 ' Wait here,' he said at last, ' I will go and speak to the 
 iMiiperor.' 
 
 He put on his white cap with the yellow band, and 
 with a determined step left the house. 
 
 I waited for two hours, a prey to the liveliest anxiety in 
 regard to the result of my attempt. The breakfast, hour 
 had past a considerable time before the Chancellor, for 
 whom I had never ceased to watch, returned, as calm now 
 as he had been agitated before. 
 
 ' I am very late,' he said, ' but it is all the fault of M. 
 de Moltke. I had prevailed on the Emperor to accede to 
 your requests; the Marshal interposed and begged his 
 Majesty to refuse. The Emperor had therefore formally to 
 Signify his pleasure. All is now settled. The guns are not
 
 AT VERSAILLES 327 
 
 to be thrown over into the ditches. We will limit the in- 
 vestment to line No. 1 on the French tracing ; and as for 
 the colours, the Emperor's own words were, " You can in- 
 form the envoy of the French Government that we have 
 enough trophies of our victories, and enough colours cap- 
 tured from the French armies, to have no need to add those 
 of the army of Paris." ' 
 
 I at once took my leave of the Chancellor. I felt as 
 light as a bird, and I did not even pay any attention to the 
 downright rudeness of the employes in the ante-room, not 
 one of whom made room for me to pass. They were 
 making me pay for the politeness they were compelled to 
 show me when I was with the Chancellor. I shrugged my 
 shoulders, and merely came to the conclusion that Henri 
 Heine had seen clearly when he said, ' The German is 
 born a fool, education makes him mischievous.' For 
 in proportion as Count Bismarck is a personage of dis- 
 tinction and would remain one, to whatever nation- 
 ality he might belong, and in proportion as the majority 
 of the German officers were polished — so the Government 
 officials, who do not belong to the aristocracy and, con- 
 sequently, do not belong to the army, were by nature 
 rude and uncivil. 
 
 Who was most astonished, on my return, at the boldness 
 of my experiment and its unheard of success ? My old 
 chief, General Schmitz, to whom I went first of all to 
 recount my adventure, and who undertook to inform the 
 Government of it. The excellent General was very much 
 moved ; he embraced me several times, and such is the 
 value of the esteem of certain men, that I considered his 
 emotion and reception as the sweetest and most precious 
 recompense of my efforts. 
 
 I did not return to Paris alone. Just as I was taking
 
 328 JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 my leave of M. de Bismarck, or rather, just as he gave me 
 to understand that I was to go. with that grand manner 
 incidental to sovereigns who know, by signs perceptible 
 
 only to the initiated, how to convey to their visitors an 
 intimation that they have ceased to please — just at that 
 moment, dissembling the profound joy which filled my soul, 
 and abusing for the last time the condescension that he had 
 hitherto manifested towards me, I had the audacity to 
 make an absolutely personal request. 
 
 ' Your Excellency,' I said, ' I have come alone and I am 
 not afraid of compromising my Minister by the propinquity 
 of a few eatables. Will your Excellency authorise me to 
 introduce into Paris the first convoy of provisions, and 
 permit me to wait in your garden while I send into the 
 town for some bread, butter, and fowls.' 
 
 M. de Bismarck burst out laughing. 
 
 'I ought,' he replied, 'to have thought of sending you on 
 that errand some days ago.' 
 
 Great God ! What delicacies were to be had in Versailles 
 for a hundred francs intelligently spent ! And what a 
 fortune I might have made if, instead of a cowp6 and a few 
 louis, I had had at my disposal a large cart and a few 
 thousand francs. 
 
 And to how many people I was able to bring happiness 
 that day — people who were far from suspecting that the 
 most precious things I brought back from Versailles were 
 my bread, my butter, and my fowls. 
 
 And now, dear reader, be sure of one thing, which is that 
 I should never have told you all this had it not been for the 
 document signed ' Schmitz,' which you have read as a sort 
 of preface to this volume, and to which I beg to call your 
 attention if you have not already read it. 
 
 For I can quite understand the feelings which must be
 
 AT VERSAILLES 329 
 
 roused within you by the individual who has just told you 
 in so many words, 
 
 ' You are not aware oi' the fact ? Well, I prevented the 
 guns being thrown over the ramparts into the ditches. I 
 rescued from Prussian occupation several French towns, 
 and, lastly, I spared Paris the shame and humiliation of 
 surrendering her colours to the conquerors.' 
 
 If this individual has not in his hands the proof of his 
 assertion he is and must be a fool. 
 
 In bringing to a close this journal, in which I have 
 conscientiously and correctly noted the great and small 
 events in which I took part, quorum pars parva fwi, in 
 those days which Victor Hugo has so justly called the 
 Terrible Year, I think I ought to insert the last three 
 letters I received from Jules Favre. They will go far to 
 prove what men are, and what their gratitude is worth. 
 
 Very often, on our return from Versailles, after those 
 terrible negotiations of which I was the sole witness, and 
 those hopeless battles of which I was the sole spectator, the 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs used to say to me, 
 
 ' You are destined to render real service to your 
 country, and before I leave the Ministry I shall give 
 myself the satisfaction of placing you in a position where 
 you may distinguish yourself.' 
 
 One day, as we were driving, Jules Favre reminded me 
 with a laugh of an awkward position from which I had 
 extricated him. In the course of an interview, the 
 Chancellor had asked one of those military questions which 
 are so far removed from being technical that they are 
 familiar to everybody. The eminent lawyer did not know 
 what answer to make, and, as he did very frequently, lie 
 hinted bv kicking- me under the table that I had better 
 reply.
 
 33o JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 1 Let me see,' he said to me ; ' where would you like me 
 to send you ? ' 
 
 ' It seems to me,' I replied, ' that China would be 
 active service, and that I might be of some service there, 
 seeing that I speak the language of the country.' 
 
 'True, true,' said Jules Favre, slapping his leg with his 
 right hand. ' Why did I not think of that before ?' 
 
 Later on, when he had had time to keep the promises 
 he made, and which he gave without my having asked for 
 them when there was no longer need of my humble exist- 
 ence, the attitude of the Minister changed. 
 
 I must confess that, in his book, Jules Favre has been 
 good enough to thank me, and bring my discretion pro- 
 minently forward. He was right, for, in spite of all that 
 I have narrated, I am conscious that at this very time I am 
 giving further proof of that discretion. 
 
 I will also add that I fully understand the desire to 
 keep in the background the only witness of events so 
 grave, of conversations so embarrassing ; and I understand 
 too, that when once the peacock has paraded himself in the 
 feathers of the jay — contrary to what generally happens — 
 it is decidedly to the interest of the king of the farm-yard 
 that the stripped fowl should go and hide himself in the 
 forest. 
 
 The first of these letters is as follows : 
 
 'February 7, 1871. 
 'My Very Dear Aide-de-camp, 
 
 'I am not going to Versailles to-day. I may 
 possibly go to-morrow. I will let you know. 
 
 ' Yours sincerely, Jules Favre.' 
 This is the second. 
 
 'February 10, evening. 
 
 ' I am exceedingly touched by all your goodness, my very
 
 AT VERSAILLES 331 
 
 dear Captain. I should not like to abuse your kindness 
 and your fatigue. If, however, it will not inconvenience 
 you too much, I shall leave my house at a quarter-past 
 eleven to go to the Orleans railway station, and in any case 
 I shall be very glad to shake hands with you. 
 ' Thanking you again, 
 
 ' Yours sincerely, 
 
 ' Jules Favke.' 
 
 That was the last journey we made together. 
 
 To tell the truth, and as one ought to be frank in all 
 things, I was stupid enough to imagine that Jules Favre 
 was still thinking of his ' dear captain ' and his ' dear 
 fellow.' I presented myself once or twice at the Foreign 
 Office, but I was never fortunate enough to be received. 
 
 Seeing that, in order to take part in the war, I had 
 actually broken off a diplomatic career which was just in its 
 infancy, seeing that I should have merely considered it just 
 and legitimate to join once more the broken thread of 1113^ 
 destinies under the auspices of the man whose body I had 
 covered with mine when he was trembling in front of the 
 sentries of the Garde Rationale— I wrote him a long letter 
 in which I reminded him of the services I had rendered, and 
 the promises he had spontaneously made — 
 
 ' The Minister of Foreign Affairs will have the honour of 
 receiving Captain d'Herisson on Saturday, March 18th, at 
 5 o'clock.' 
 
 'Paris, March 17///, 1871.' 
 
 The 18th of March. Does not that read like a romance ? 
 
 On that day Jules Favre returned to Versailles, but as 
 the Germans were no longer there he had no need of me. 
 
 The usher of the Ministry of Foreign affairs had 
 neglected to sign his name to the invitation. It was a
 
 332 JOURXAL OF A STAFF OFFICER 
 
 misfortune, for the two letters from his master, with his 
 own, would have formed an exact pendant for the letters of 
 Metternich, and the communication from the usher of the 
 Austrian Embassy. 
 
 A long time afterwards, however, accident threw me 
 across the path of Jules Favre, who at once said to me, 
 
 'lam always thinking of you, my dear fellow. Your 
 turn will come one of these days.' 
 
 I had already some knowledge of men. I knew how 
 far I could count on them. It was fortunate that I did, 
 because, if I had not known that, I should have been wait- 
 ing my turn for the last fourteen years. 
 
 And now, dear reader, as you have followed me so far, I 
 wish to recompense you for your trouble and your fidelity 
 by giving you a little good advice. 
 
 If you love your country sacrifice yourself for her 
 without hesitation. If she asks little of you, give it her ; 
 if she asks everything of you, still give it her. 
 
 But if, outside this patriotic immolation, you are a 
 practical man — a citizen who does not care about being 
 ilouted, or a private individual who knows the value of his 
 time and trouble, never serve, never serve anybody, neither 
 Republicans, nor Bonapartists, nor Royalists, nor any of 
 those facetious individuals who aspire, so they say, to 
 make your fortune. 
 
 They are all the same ; no one of them is worth more 
 than another. 
 
 Make use of them, that is legitimate, for they aspire to 
 make use of you, but give particular heed to these common- 
 sense words with which I bring my book to an end, 
 
 ' Never devote yourself to anybody.' 
 
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