Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN
 
 " 4 

 
 EECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 VOL. I
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 CAPTAIN THE HON. D. BINGHAM 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 'THE SIEGE OF PARIS," "THE MARRIAGES OF THE BOXAPARTES," "THE LETTERS 
 
 AJD DESPATCHES OF THE FIRST NAPOLEON," "THE HISTORY OF THE 
 
 BASTILLE," "THE MARRIAGES OF THE BOURBONS." 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. I 
 
 LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, LD. 
 
 1896 
 [All rights referred]
 
 RICHARD CLAT & SONS, LIMITED, 
 LONDON & BUNGAV.
 
 TTo prince Sattbgans Strattmann 
 
 DJEAK BATTHYAUY, 
 
 Our friendship lias already lasted some thirty years 
 without interruption how time slips away ! and as you have 
 always displayed so much interest in my labour, permit me to 
 otter you the dedication of the following pages. 
 
 Ever yours most faithfully, 
 
 D. BINGHAM. 
 CHELTENHAM.
 
 PKEFACE 
 
 I HAVE traced the following pages in the form of 
 " Recollections," having only kept a Diary during such 
 eventful periods as the Siege of Paris and the Com- 
 munist insurrection. 
 
 During my stay in the French capital, I witnessed 
 the closing scenes of the Second Empire and its fall, 
 and the rise and development of the Third Republic, 
 which, seeing the troubles which surrounded its infancy, 
 I was convinced it would have but a brief existence. 
 But the gods saw otherwise. It has certainly enjoyed 
 a wonderful run of good luck. In the first place, it 
 reaped the benefit of disasters for which it was in a 
 great measure responsible. Had not the Liberal 
 Chamber, elected under the auspices of M. Emile 
 Olivier and his friends, refused men and money to 
 the Empire, being confident that the National Guard 
 was a sufficient protection for France, the probability 
 is that the Germans would never have over-run the 
 country, and that Napoleon III. would have been able 
 to weather the storm which, in 1870, produced such 
 dire consequences. The Third Republic has also been 
 very fortunate in its Presidents, although they have 
 all been obliged to resign office with the exception of
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 M. Carnot, who was assassinated. M. Thiers, favoured 
 by the Legitimists and Orleanists, managed to pull the 
 Republic through its first difficulties. Marshal Mac 
 Mahon gave it respectability, and served it with honesty. 
 The astute M. Grevy filled his first terra of office with 
 credit to himself and to France, and but for the delin- 
 quencies of his son-in-law, Daniel Wilson, 1 would no 
 doubt have happily terminated his second term. He 
 stuck to his son-in-law, and was forced by the Chamber 
 to lay down office. M. Carnot, elected President as 
 neither M. de Freycinet nor M. Jules Ferry were able 
 to secure the necessary majority, and who owed much 
 to his name, got through his duties automatically, and 
 cut a much better figure at the Elysee than did the 
 parsimonious M. Grevy, his bourgeoise, his daughter 
 Alice, and his son-in-law Daniel, who sat at the receipt 
 of custom and dabbled in the sale of decorations. M. 
 Casimir-Perrier, who succeeded poor M. Carnot, had a 
 short and not a merry time of it. Being a man of 
 vast wealth he refused to be made a puppet of for so 
 much a year and a palace or two to inhabit, and per- 
 haps too unceremoniously made his bow to friend and 
 foe, and retired into private life. When M. Felix 
 Faure was elected I had left Paris. A good many 
 persons thought and wished that instead of Felix Faure 
 being chosen to fill the chair, a certain descendant of 
 
 1 Daniel Wilson's father made a large fortune in France in 
 connection with the introduction of gas, which fortune was 
 squandered by Daniel in very good company as far as social 
 position went. Daniel then sat in the Chamber of Deputies under 
 the Empire, and distinguished himself on questions of finance. 
 How he came to marry the only daughter of the very thrifty 
 M. Grevy would furnish matter for a pretty romance. But, as 
 Rudyard Kipling would say, "That is another story."
 
 PEEFACE IX 
 
 Robert le Fort would have been called on to fill the 
 throne. 
 
 More good luck for the Third Republic : no disturb- 
 ance followed the removal of its Presidents. There was 
 no guillotining as in the days of Louis XVI. ; no 
 occupation by the Allies as when Napoleon I. was 
 forced to abdicate, and afterwards to seek safety in 
 flight; no "three days of July" and gutters running 
 blood, as when Charles X. beat a hasty retreat and sought 
 the protection of the British Lion he had so recently 
 bearded by seizing on Algeria; there was no such 
 fighting in the streets as when Louis Philippe, who 
 also bearded the British Lion and then crossed over to 
 England, was forced to abdicate ; no terrible three days 
 of June, as when Cavaignac restored order, and coup 
 d'ttat of December 2, as when the Second Republic was 
 replaced by the Second Empire ; no Sedan or insur- 
 rection such as preceded the establishment of the present 
 order of things. 
 
 The Third Republic, too, enjoyed wonderful good 
 luck in the matter of Pretenders and possible Dictators. 
 Had the Comte de Chambord not clung to the white 
 flag he would certainly have reigned ; had he died and 
 not stood in the way of the Comte de Paris, France 
 would have seen another Constitutional Monarchy. 
 Then the deaths of Napoleon III., of the Prince Im- 
 perial, of Gambetta and Boulanger, were all fortunate 
 events for the present form of government. Fortunate, 
 too, has the Third Republic been in securing the good- 
 will both of Czar and Pope. Russia has protected it 
 from foreign dangers, and the Vatican from religious 
 discord.
 
 X PREFACE 
 
 Writing as I did daily for the old Pall Mall Gazette, 
 almost from its first appearance, under the able editor- 
 ship of Frederick Greenwood aided by Hamilton Fyfe, 
 and seldom taking a holiday, and writing also for the 
 Army and Navy Gazette under my dear old friend 
 Billy I mean Sir William Howard Russell for five- 
 and-twenty years, and for other papers like the Scotsman, 
 I kept a close watch on the ever-shifting scene of 
 French politics, and naturally had many curious ex- 
 periences, some of which I have set down in the follow- 
 ing pages. If I have touched but lightly on many 
 serious matters, it is because they have passed into the 
 domain of history and are too well known.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. DUC DE MORNY ... ... ... ... 1 
 
 II. ROGER DE BEAUVOIR ... ... ... ... 16 
 
 III. CHANGARNIER ... ... ... ... 19 
 
 IV. IRISHMEN ... ... ... ... ... 22 
 
 V. MARGUERITE BELLANGER ... ... ... 44 
 
 VI. G 50 
 
 VII. DEMI-MONDE ... ... ... ... ... 55 
 
 VIII. DEPUTIES, 1889, AND THE PRESS ... ... 76 
 
 IX. A BALL ... ... ... ... ... 82 
 
 X. CLOSE OF THE EMPIRE ... ... ... 84 
 
 XI. THE LATTER DAYS ... .., ... ... 96 
 
 XII. STREET NAMES IN PARIS ... ... ... 121 
 
 XIII. BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA ! ... ... ... 155
 
 KECOLLECTIONS OF PAEIS 
 
 18651885 
 
 I 
 DUG DE MORNY 
 
 ON March 10, 1865, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, 
 Due de Morny, died. He preferred leaving this world 
 as the Regent Philippe d'Orleans did. He had to choose 
 between renouncing the pleasures or sins of youth 
 and a sudden catastrophe, and he chose the latter. 
 He was attended in his last illness by Sir Joseph 
 Olliffe, an English doctor who had long practised here ; 
 and by those who were not aware of the real facts of 
 the case, his treatment of the Duke was severely 
 censured. Shortly before he expired, the Due de 
 Morny received the visit of the Emperor, who found 
 the Comte de Flahault by the bedside of his son, 
 for the Comte had been the lover of the Queen 
 Hortense, the mother of Napoleon III. 1 
 
 1 Talleyrand is supposed to have been the father of the 
 Comte de Flahault. 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 In his Recollections of the Second Empire, M. Grander 
 de Cassagnac relates how, in 1852, M. de Morny took 
 him into his confidence. "At a reception at the 
 Ministry of the Interior he introduced him to an 
 elderly gentleman of lofty stature and imposing appear- 
 ance, and said, 'Let me present you to my father, 
 the Comte de Flahault.' " We are then told that the 
 future duke was brought up mysteriously by the 
 Comtesse de Souza, 1 the daughter of the Comte de 
 Flahault by his first marriage. He was afterwards 
 adopted by the Comte de Moruy, for a consideration, 
 and assumed his name. 
 
 Louis Napoleon and de Morny never met until a 
 short time before the coup d'etat of December 2, 1851. 2 
 The Prince made his half-brother Minister of the 
 Interior, but he resigned office when the President 
 
 1 Queen Hortense is said to have given Madame de Sonza 
 ,8000 to pay for the child's education, which sum she lost at play. 
 
 2 The success of the coup d'etat was in a great measure due to 
 the courage, coolness, and good-humour of de Morny, who took 
 possession of the Ministry of the Interior, then occupied by M. 
 de Thorigny, at the head of 250 Chasseurs. At the Opera on the 
 evening before the coup d'etat a lady, having asked him which 
 side he would take in the event of the broom being necessary, de 
 Morny wittily replied that he would take the side of the handle. 
 In 1851 de Morny, like Prince Napoleon and all his friends, was in 
 needy circumstances. He had had a liaison with a wealthy lady, 
 
 Madame L , who had a very fine mansion, now the Italian 
 
 Embassy, at the bottom of the Champs Elysees, and who had 
 made him a present of a bachelor's hotel, separated from her own 
 by a drive. This the wits called la niche a Fidele. In 1851 de 
 Morny was obliged to sell this house and all it contained.
 
 DUC DE MORNY 3 
 
 confiscated the property of the Orleans princes. 1 He 
 was afterwards appointed to preside over the Lower 
 House, and was looked upon as the beau idtal of a 
 President of the Chamber ; he was not only the pink 
 of politeness, but there was a peculiar charm in his 
 manner which disarmed faction ; nor was he wanting 
 in firmness. He was to the manner born. It is true 
 that when he was President there was no uproarious 
 Opposition; the Opposition consisted of only five 
 members, but three of these were men of talent. 
 The French Government Avas said to be a despotism 
 tempered by epigrams, and Jules Favre, Emile Olivier, 
 and Ernest Picard assailed the Second Empire in its 
 zenith with a plentiful stock of shafts to compensate 
 themselves for the want of liberty. But neither the 
 venom of the first, the eloquence of the second, nor 
 the wit of the third could ruffle the equanimity of 
 the Due de Moray, or disturb his dignity, and the 
 consequence was that no scenes of violence dis- 
 graced the Chamber over which he presided. His 
 personal appearance, too, was greatly in his favour ; 
 he was more distinguished than handsome ; a 
 man whom Lord Chesterfield would have found 
 after his own heart, as far as the outward graces 
 went. 
 
 The Duke retained his post as President until he 
 
 1 This act of spoliation was wittily called " le premier vol de 
 Vaigle."
 
 4 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 died, when, strange to say, he was succeeded by a 
 natural son of the first Napoleon, Comte Walewski, 
 who had a rougher time of it in the chair than his 
 predecessor. De Morny was said to have been very 
 proud of his "illustrious birth," as he termed it, and 
 I remember hearing that he wished the Emperor, 
 instead of creating him Due de Morny (1862), to give 
 him the title of Comte d'Auvergne, a title once borne 
 by a royal bastard, to wit the son of Charles IX. and 
 Marie Touchet. 1 This the Emperor refused, considering 
 that it would be casting a slur on the memory of his 
 mother. In 1857 de Morny had caused the Court 
 no little annoyance by his pretensions. He had been 
 appointed to go to St. Petersburg to represent France 
 at the marriage of the Czar, and on this occasion he 
 assumed as armes parlantes a hortensia in flower, and, 
 to render this heraldic language more clear, took for 
 his device Tace, sed memento. At St. Petersburg, de 
 Morny married the beautiful and wealthy Princess 
 Troubetzkoi, who sorely bewailed his death, and who 
 cut off her luxuriant tresses and placed them in his 
 coffin. It was feared at one time that she would lose 
 her senses, but she recovered and afterwards married 
 the Duke de Sesto. 
 
 1 It is curious to note that the Emperor was at Clermont, 
 in Auvergne, when he signed the Duke's patent ; also that 
 de Horny, after leaving the army, established a sugar manu- 
 factory in that town which he afterwards represented in the 
 Chamber.
 
 DUG DE MORNY 5 
 
 The Due de Morn}' was always considered one of 
 the pillars of the State, and it was often remarked 
 that with his death the glory of the Second Empire 
 departed. There was some truth in this, but still 
 the Duke was in a great measure responsible for 
 the disasters which so quickly followed on his dis- 
 appearance from the scene. In a word, M. de 
 Morny was one of the instigators of that fatal 
 Mexican expedition, in which the blood and treasure 
 of France were uselessly squandered and her honour 
 compromised. 
 
 A few words on this matter. England, France, 
 Spain, and the United States had all to complain 
 of wrong done to their subjects in Mexico, and as 
 no redress could be obtained, the three European 
 Powers agreed to use force. The Cabinet of Wash- 
 ington would take no part in coercive measures. 
 The expeditionary force had hardly landed when it 
 became evident that, contrary to treaty, the French 
 meant to establish themselves in Mexico, and to set 
 up an Empire there, and on closer examination 
 their claims were considered preposterous. Spain and 
 England withdrew. 
 
 The Due de Morny had a pecuniary interest in this 
 affair. The Emperor wished to carry out a plan which 
 he had studied when a prisoner at Ham the cutting 
 of a Nicaragua canal and his dreamy imagination 
 was also tickled with the idea of amalgamating the
 
 6 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 Latin races, and of giving away a throne in imitation 
 of his great uncle. The Empress, too, was in favour 
 of re-establishing the throne of Iturbide. As a Spaniard, 
 she wished to see Mexico brought once more under 
 Spanish domination, and as a fervent Catholic she 
 desired the triumph of the Clerical party, and the 
 defeat of the Liberals. There were several Mexican 
 ladies in Paris at the time who encouraged the 
 Empress in her ideas. 
 
 What induced de Morny to put a finger in such a 
 pie ? Lucre ; filthy lucre. In his youth he had been 
 a soldier ; then he had gone into business, and been 
 concerned in commercial speculations; then he had 
 been elected a Deputy. His tastes were of the most 
 costly description, and he was always in pecuniary 
 difficulties. While the Mexican business was only 
 simmering, there came to him one Jecker, a Swiss 
 banker, who had negotiated a loan with Miramon, 
 who had temporarily seized upon supreme power in 
 Mexico. When order was re-established, and Juarez, 
 the regularly elected President, ruled once more, 
 matters looked very bad for Jecker, and in fact he 
 became a bankrupt. As a last resource he went to 
 Paris to see what could be done. He was fortunate 
 enough to get an introduction to the Due de Morny, 
 and he laid his case before him ; Juarez, he said, had 
 refused to pay the money which he had advanced to 
 Miramon (to overthrow Juarez !) ; might not the sum
 
 DUC DE MORNY 7 
 
 owing be included in the French claims, to their 
 mutual benefit ? Jecker had advanced 750,000 dollars 
 in exchange for 15,000,000 in Treasury bonds. If 
 France would insist on the payment of these bonds, 
 he would share the profits with the Duke. Here was 
 a golden opportunity for turning a dishonest penny at 
 the expense of the nation. De Moray accepted. To 
 get over the difficulty of France trying to force Swiss 
 claims down the throats of the Mexicans at the point 
 of the bayonet, Jecker was accorded letters of naturaliz- 
 ation, 1 and thus the Swiss claim was made a French 
 claim. 
 
 Sir Charles Wyke, our representative in Mexico, thus 
 referred to this matter in a despatch to Earl Russell. 
 
 When the Government of Miramon was drawing to 
 a close, the house of Jecker lent him 750,000 dollars, 
 
 1 Among the letters found in the Tuileries after the fall of the 
 Empire, and published by the Government of the National 
 Defence, was one written by Jecker to M. Conti, secretary to 
 Napoleon III., and dated December 8, 1869. In this letter 
 Jecker complains of having been ill-treated. I make one or two 
 extracts " You are aware that I was associated in the Mexican 
 affair with the Due de Morny, who pledged himself, in return for 
 30 per cent, of the profits, to cause my claims to be respected and 
 paid by the Mexican Government. ... In 1865, after the death 
 of the Due de Morny, the protection which the French Govern- 
 ment had accorded me, ceased completely." And Jecker, " com- 
 pletely ruined in consequence of the Mexican expedition ! '' 
 threatened to lay the whole afi'air before - the public, and foresaw 
 "the effect which such a confession will produce, and the bad 
 light it will throw on the Government of the Empire, especially 
 in the critical times in which we live."
 
 8 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 and received in return bonds payable at a future 
 date to the amount of 15,000,000 dollars. After this 
 atrocious act Miramon was overthrown and replaced 
 by his rival, Juarez, who was summoned by M. Jecker, 
 then protected by France, to pay the above-mentioned 
 enormous sum, on the ground that he must be held 
 responsible for the acts of his predecessor. Juarez has 
 refused, and his resolution is supported by every im- 
 partial person in Mexico. I have always understood 
 that his Government would pay the sum of 750,000 
 dollars, with five per cent, interest, &c. &c. 
 
 Earl Russell instructed Lord Cowley to remonstrate 
 with the French Government, and M. Thouvenel was 
 inclined to withdraw the Jecker claims, but the in- 
 fluence of the Due de Morny prevailed. 1 It was argued 
 that every Government is answerable for the debts 
 of the Government preceding it, and that France, 
 during her many changes of regime, had always recog- 
 nized this principle. Juarez, too, would have sent 
 over an agent to plead his cause, but he had no money. 
 A costly and sanguinary war followed. Napoleon III. 
 had the ephemeral glory of setting up an Emperor in 
 the person of the Archduke Maximilian, and a Mexican 
 loan was floated in Paris, to enable him to ascend the 
 throne; and out of this loan Jecker succeeded in 
 obtaining, in spite of many earnest remonstrances, 
 
 1 The Comte de Flahault was at this time French Ambassador 
 in London.
 
 DUC DE HORNY 9 
 
 no less a sura than 12,660,000 f. ; for Maximilian, on 
 the principle above referred to, was held to be re- 
 sponsible for the debt of Miramon. How much of this 
 money went into the pockets of M. de Morny may be 
 easily guessed. 
 
 When the first loan was exhausted, owing to the 
 hole made in it by Jecker, a second loan was placed 
 on the Paris market. It had required all the eloquence 
 of M. Rouher in the Chamber, and all the efforts of 
 the official and semi-official press, to get the first loan 
 subscribed, and additional pressure had to be brought 
 to raise a second. I remember hearing that even 
 officers in the army, whose pay is not brilliant, were 
 invited to subscribe, in a way they could hardly refuse. 1 
 
 The Opposition tried in vain, first to prevent the 
 expedition, then to persuade the Government to with- 
 draw from an affair which, as M. Thiers said, " is 
 costing the country 14,000,000 f. a month, and neces- 
 sitates the employment of 40,000 men, whose services 
 may at any moment be required at home." M. Thiers 
 
 1 France, in fact, lent to Mexico 300,000,000 f., or 1,200,000, 
 of which sum only 3,549,948 f. has been repaid by Mexico. 
 Taking into consideration the indemnity which the French 
 Government felt itself morally bound to accord, the position of 
 affairs in 1890 was that 160 f. have been paid on each bond of 
 500 f., leaving 337 f. still due ; but this sum, with six per cent, 
 interest, dating from July 1866, now comes to 802 f. The bond- 
 holders are now pressing the Government to force Mexico to pay 
 their claims, and the bonds, known as petits bleus, are quoted ou 
 the Bourse at 9 f.
 
 10 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 spoke like a prophet the men, the money, and the 
 military stores devoured by the Mexican expedition 
 would have been invaluable in 1870. 
 
 It was not until 1866 a year after de Moray's 
 death 1 that Napoleon III. determined to withdraw 
 his troops from Mexico. It was with regret that he 
 was forced to abandon Maximilian to his fate, but the 
 United States would not hear of an Empire being 
 erected on its frontier, in contradiction to the Munro 
 doctrine, and when the civil war was over he received 
 notice to quit from Mr. Seward in one of the most un- 
 courteous despatches ever written the French army 
 was to evacuate Mexico within a very short period. 
 M. Drouyn de Lhuys, who had succeeded M. Thouvenel 
 at the Foreign Office, remonstrated. He said that a 
 great nation like France could not consent to receive 
 so blunt a command. The American Ambassador here 
 conveyed this remonstrance to Mr. Seward, who repeated 
 his injunction, and adhered to the date which he had 
 originally fixed for the evacuation of the French army 
 commanded by Bazaine. With this insult, what M. 
 Rouher had called "the brightest idea of the reign" 
 terminated. 
 
 There was an epilogue. The news that the Emperor 
 Maximilian had been shot, and that the Empress 
 
 1 What an example of the irony of fate! A detachment of 
 Austrian volunteers passing through Paris, en route for Mexico, 
 joined in the procession which conducted the Due de Horny 
 to his grave.
 
 DUC DE MOENY 11 
 
 Charlotte had gone mad, reached the Tuileries on July 
 2, while a ball was going on. It was the year of the 
 Exhibition (18G7). The Sultan was there. The Court 
 went into mourning. On the 8th, the Emperor 
 Napoleon III. reviewed the army of Paris 40,000 
 strong. On the 14th a mass was performed in the 
 chapel of the Tuileries for the repose of the soul of 
 poor Maximilian, and on August 4, the Emperor and 
 Empress, having . thrown off their mourning, went to 
 the theatre to see Mr. Sothern play Lord Dundreary. 
 So wagged the world. 
 
 I may add that when the Due de Morny died there 
 were 145 horses in his stables, which cost him about 
 20,000 a year. His works of art, sold after his death, 
 fetched 100,000, and he left his heir over 30,000 
 per annum. 
 
 Here are a couple of anecdotes concerning him. 
 
 Alphonse Karr used to tell the following one. He 
 said that two ladies, who had just arrived from the 
 country and wished to see Paris, implored him to take 
 them to the bal masqutf at the Opera. After a little 
 gentle pressure he consented, and everything passed 
 off in the most agreeable manner possible. On leaving 
 the ball at a late hour in the morning, the party 
 adjourned to the Cafe Anglais for supper, and as the 
 ground-floor was full, went up-stairs to a room in which 
 tw.o tables only were occupied. They had not long 
 been seated, when four revellers, supping at one of the
 
 12 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 tables, began to address impertinent observations to 
 the ladies, and finished by laying hands upon them 
 and endeavouring to remove their masks, in spite of 
 all Alphonse Karr could do. Upon this the gentlemen 
 at the other table rose and offered their services to tho 
 author of Les Guepes, one of them saying, " If you 
 desire it, we are quite ready to aid you in turning 
 those unmannerly fellows into the street." Fortunately 
 there was no necessity for resorting to physical force, 
 for the aggressors, on seeing the turn which matters 
 had taken, beat a hasty and undignified retreat. When 
 all was over, Alphonse Karr and the ladies learned that 
 the gentleman who had first intervened . in their favour 
 was the Due de Morny. 
 
 Of refined taste, the Due de Morny was a patron of 
 art and literature, and he so far dabbled in the latter 
 himself as to write several trifles, and among others a 
 comedy called M. Clioufleury restera chez lui, which 
 was played at the Bouffes with considerable success. 
 At the same epoch the Bouffes gave Orphde aux Enfers, 
 which Offenbach set to his most sparkling music. This 
 creation, which at once delighted the ear and made one 
 hold one's sides with laughter, ran for months, and drew 
 all Paris. One of the principal performers was an actor 
 called Bache, who, off the stage, had more the appear- 
 ance of a Methodist parson than a comedian, and who 
 might be seen rambling through the streets all alone, 
 very severely attired, and as if in quest of lost souls.
 
 DUG DE MORNY 13 
 
 In fact, the Bache of the pavement offered a very 
 strange contrast to the Bache of the boards. Now 
 when Orpke'e aux Enfers was in full swing, and sending 
 away crowds every night, poor Bache became immersed 
 in a sea of trouble. He was summarily arrested, tried, 
 condemned, and packed off to Ste. Pelagie, to be there 
 incarcerated for the space of one month. The manager 
 of the Bouffes was in despair ; the felonious Bache was 
 not an actor to be easily replaced ; he cut so peculiar 
 a figure on the stage, he was so lanky and sallow, so 
 sui generis, that he was a popular favourite, and you 
 might have as well attempted to play Orphfa aux 
 JZnfers without Bache as Hamlet without the Prince 
 of Denmark. Of what heinous crime had Bache been 
 guilty ? It appears that one day he was passing by 
 a house the entrance of which was draped with black 
 cloth. There was a hearse at the door, and a string 
 of mourning-coaches drawn up behind it. The under- 
 taker's men were loitering about until they should 
 receive orders to go up-stairs and fetch the corpse. 
 They waited and waited in vain, and then had to drive 
 home empty, instead of going to Pere Lachaise. What 
 had happened ? Why, Bache had suddenly made his 
 appearance in the midst of the bereaved relatives and 
 friends of the deceased, and in the most solemn manner 
 had declared on the part of the authorities that he 
 could not permit the body to be removed. Then he 
 made his bow and departed, leaving doubt and con-
 
 14 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 sternation behind him. Evidently there was a suspicion 
 in official quarters that tho defunct had not died a 
 natural death, and that a post-mortem would be ordered. 
 By degrees the funeral party broke up, wondering by 
 what foul means the deceased had been hurried into 
 eternity, and trying to guess who the guilty individuals 
 could be, and why a crime had been committed. 
 Up-stairs, with the coffin, were a few near and dear 
 relations, sadly perplexed, but submissive to the law. 
 They anxiously awaited some further action on the part 
 of the authorities, and that action, when it came, added 
 to their bewilderment. They were to be prosecuted for 
 keeping a dead body above ground longer than by law 
 allowed. This led to explanations, and in the end the 
 author of the mystification was discovered and con- 
 demned to durance vile. In his despair the manager 
 of the Bouffes appealed to the Due de Morny why 
 should many suffer for the fault of one ? Bache had 
 played a most reprehensible hoax and deserved condign 
 punishment, but why visit the sin of Bache on others 
 on the manager, on the comrades of the offender, and 
 on the public ? The Duke, with his usual tact and 
 good-nature, soon managed to arrange matters to the 
 satisfaction of all parties. Ste. Pelagie is a prison 
 generally tenanted by men of letters, who manage to 
 kill time there very pleasantly. It was settled that 
 Bache, while continuing a prisoner, should be taken 
 to the Bouffes every evening, under good escort, to
 
 DUG DE MORXY 15 
 
 play his part, and, the performance over, be reintegrated 
 in his cell. 
 
 What could have induced Bache to commit such a 
 misdemeanour none ever knew. He carried the secret 
 to the grave. To have looked at the man, you would 
 have thought him incapable of playing a joke, even 
 with death. It was the very grimness of his appearance 
 which imposed upon the funeral party, and quelled all 
 doubt as to the intruder being a ministerial functionary. 
 
 The story of Bache being let out of prison to perform 
 his part in Orphfo aux Enfers reminds me of a singular 
 affair which took place in 1846. On July 8, of that 
 year, a serious railway accident took place between 
 Arras and Douai, in consequence of which M. Petillet, 
 the chief engineer of the line, who was held to be 
 responsible, was sentenced to fifteen days' imprison- 
 ment. I may explain here, as I take the following 
 from a French report, that the French fortnight is 
 fifteen days, and the French week eight days. When 
 M. Petillet had been in the Madelonnettes for eight 
 days, he was asked to organize a special train for Louis 
 Philippe, who was going to Eu. Naturally M. Petillet 
 refused to accept any responsibility for a trip he could 
 not superintend. He was consequently released from 
 prison, and accompanied the King, who was so amiable 
 during the journey that he felt sure of obtaining a full 
 pardon. But M. Petillet was sadly mistaken. On his 
 return to Paris he was reinstated in prison, where he
 
 16 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 had to remain, not eight days to complete his time, 
 but fifteen days, because, according to law, his sentence 
 was to be undergone without interruption. It is laugh- 
 able to think what a comical expression the features of 
 Bache would have assumed had a similar jurisprudence 
 been applied in his case ! 
 
 The Due de Horny founded Deauville, and an 
 equestrian statue in bronze was raised there to his 
 honour; but it was pulled down after the fall of the 
 Empire, and the municipal authorities still refuse his 
 son permission to set it up again. The pedestal still 
 stands there all forlorn, a " heap of testimony " of this 
 political hatred. As for the Communists, one of their 
 last acts was to wreck the splendid tomb which 
 sheltered the Duke's remains at Pere Lachaise. 
 
 II 
 ROGER DE BEAUVOIR 
 
 ONE day I was taken by a friend to see Roger de 
 Beauvoir, who in his time had been a man of wit and 
 fashion, good-natured, rather too fond of showing off, 
 like most of his countrymen, and an intimate friend of 
 Alphonse Karr. He ran through a considerable fortune, 
 changed his name from Roger de Bully to Roger de 
 Beauvoir, married an actress from the Theatre Franqais 
 named Mme. Doze, and had issue. When I saw him
 
 ROGER DE BEAUVOIR 17 
 
 he was living in the Batignolles, a not very aristocratic 
 quarter, and was a mere wreck. We found him in a 
 room almost destitute of furniture a couple of chairs for 
 visitors, and in one corner a mattress. He was seated 
 in an arm-chair in the middle of the room, while his legs, 
 swathed in flannel, reposed on another arm-chair. He 
 was evidently in pain, and all the time we remained 
 kept swaying backwards and forwards like a galley-slave 
 labouring at the oar. And yet his conversation was 
 cheery enough. It was a sad spectacle to see this poor 
 fellow, still handsome and hardly past the prime of 
 life, rocking himself to and fro in that lonely apart- 
 ment, and with no prospect of recovering the use of 
 his lower limbs 
 
 "... sedet seternumque sedebit 
 Infelix Theseus ..." 
 
 In a letter to a friend he said " I pass terrible days, 
 and still more terrible nights. Beneath my window I 
 have a little garden where a few sickly flowers grow. 
 ... I receive a number of people in my arm-chair, 
 though I am no Scarron ; l but what torture to have to 
 
 o * 
 
 listen to some people without being able to raise the 
 siege and run away ! " 
 
 One of his most frequent and welcome visitors was 
 the Vicomtesse de Saint Mars, better known under her 
 nom de plume the Comtesse Dash. 
 
 Alphonse Karr in his Wasps gives an account of a 
 
 1 Scarron, the first husband of Madame de Maintenon, also a 
 martyr and a wit. 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 18 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 literary squabble which took place between Roger de 
 Beauvoir and Balzac, and which nearly led to a duel. 
 Roger de Beauvoir asked his friend Leon Gatayes to 
 act for him, but as he was always getting into scrapes 
 and out of them, Gatayes refused to be his second, and 
 strongly advised him to fight sans phrases. Being 
 unable to secure the services of his friend, whom he 
 called, owing to his experience in such matters, the 
 " first of the seconds," Roger de Beauvoir sent a hostile 
 message by other hands to the author of La Come'die 
 Humaine. Now as Balzac was very portly, short of 
 wind, and did not consider his offence worthy of blood- 
 shed, he promised a rectification in his Review. The 
 rectification never appeared, as the Review did not get 
 beyond two numbers, and nothing more was heard of 
 the duel. The quarrel arose in this way. A man 
 called Peytel was condemned to death on very flimsy 
 evidence. Balzac took up the cudgels in his favour. 
 Roger de Beauvoir made a sharp attack on Balzac in 
 verse, and told him that he was ill-combed, &c. Balzac 
 retaliated by saying that Roger de Beauvoir was neither 
 Roger nor Beauvoir; inde ircc. All this was very 
 personal and paltry, but no blood was drawn. 
 
 One of the peculiarities of Roger de Beauvoir was 
 his total want of confidence in banks and in all invest- 
 ments. If he did not keep his talents actually wrapped 
 up in a napkin, he kept what money he had in a strong 
 box, and lived on his capital.
 
 CHANGARNIER 19 
 
 III 
 CHANGARNIER 
 
 CHANGARNIER is dead, and thus a long, curious, 
 and fitful existence has been brought to a close. To- 
 morrow there will be a display of flowers and of 
 rhetoric over the grave of the old soldier; then dust 
 to dust, ashes to ashes, and the grave-diggers when 
 left alone will crack their jokes. I knew the deceased 
 but very slightly ; he was a bit of a dandy up to the 
 last, and a most self-infatuated man, greatly over- 
 estimating what talent he possessed. He was fond of 
 talking of " his sword accustomed to conquer," which 
 was strange language on the part of an officer whose 
 military reputation reposed for the most part on the 
 manner in which he covered the retreat of the French 
 army from before Constantine in 1836. When the 
 Second Republic was established, Changarnier offered 
 his services to the new form of government, and asked 
 to be sent to the most exposed frontier. As no 
 frontier happened to be threatened, our Bombastes 
 Furioso was given the command-in-chief of the National 
 Guard, and Louis Napoleon, when President, added 
 to his command that of the first military division, or 
 the army of Paris. 
 
 Now Changarnier did not behave well towards the 
 Prince. Alter having offered to take him to the
 
 20 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 Tuileries and to proclaim him Emperor, he conspired 
 against him. One of his accomplices, Solar, relates 
 that ten times the General girded on his sword to go 
 to the Elysee to arrest the President, but finally 
 decided that the arrest should take place on the 
 occasion of a grand review to be held at Satory, after 
 the troops had marched past. The arrest was to be 
 accomplished by Solar and two of his friends on a sign 
 from the General. The sign was not made. Strict 
 orders had been issued that the infantry were to march 
 past in silence ; but when the cavalry rode past the 
 saluting point, the colonel in command of the leading 
 regiment rose in his stirrups, waved his sword, and 
 turning round to his men shouted, Vive Napoleon ! a 
 shout which ran like wild-fire along the whole line, 
 and was changed into Vive I'Empereur I when Colonel 
 de Montalembert and his Lancers rode by. It was the 
 enthusiasm of the cavalry which prevented Changarnier 
 from making the preconcerted signal. 
 
 The General was shortly afterwards removed from 
 his double command, and was one of the conspirators 
 arrested during the coup d'etat of December 2, 1851. 
 When the police-officer charged to secure his person 
 forced his way into the apartment, Changarnier rushed 
 from his bedroom in his night-shirt, without slippers, 
 and a pistol in each hand. Assured that his life was 
 in no danger, he gave up his fire-arms, dressed, and 
 allowed himself to be driven to Mazas like a lamb.
 
 CHANGARNIER 21 
 
 On his road there, he remarked that the re-election of 
 the Prince President was certain. Then he added, 
 "Should the President declare war against a foreign 
 power, he will be happy to come and find me in order 
 to entrust me with the command of the army ! " 
 
 The General did not remain long in captivity, and 
 little more was heard of him until he wrote an article 
 in a leading periodical to prove the immense superi- 
 ority of the French over the Prussian army. Shortly 
 afterwards the Franco-German War broke out, and 
 exposed the fallacies of the article in question. When 
 hostilities were declared, Changarnier applied for a 
 command, and he even went to Strasbourg, where he 
 was kindly received by the Emperor. His Majesty, 
 while refusing him an active command, allowed him to 
 remain with the Head-Quarters' Staff, and after the 
 battles round Metz he was shut up in that place with 
 the army under Bazaine. When a capitulation became 
 inevitable, he offered to act as negotiator, but he was 
 unable to obtain any concessions from the German 
 commanders. Strange to say, although he was in- 
 vested with no command, he insisted upon attaching 
 his signature to the act of capitulation. Alas ! poor 
 Nicolas Anne Theodule Changarnier was ready to 
 purchase notoriety at any price. Had he lived in the 
 days of Eratostratus he would have burned down the 
 temple of Diana na Ephesus sooner than have allowed 
 his name to perish. One of his last acts was to aid
 
 22 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 in the downfall of M. Thiers, being convinced that a 
 grateful country would reward his services by calling 
 him to preside over its destinies. It was a sad blow to 
 his self-infatuation when he learned that everything 
 had been arranged for Marshal MacMahon to succeed 
 M. Thiers a blow from which he never recovered. 
 
 IV 
 IKISHMEN 
 
 ONE of the first Irishmen I met in Paris was a 
 dapper little man, with a slight amount of swagger and 
 a very affected manner of speaking, but he was highly 
 cultivated, excellent company, and had no mean share 
 of mother wit. He had served for a time in the 
 Lancers, but quitted the army, which did not leave him 
 leisure enough to do nothing. When in Paris, where 
 he spent most of his time, he used to live at the 
 Westminster, in the Rue de la Paix, an expensive 
 hotel, and there he died, somewhat like Alfred de 
 Musset's Eolla, having spent his last farthing. It 
 would perhaps be going too far to say that he poisoned 
 himself, but for the last month of his existence he took 
 nothing but cayenne pepper and cura^oa. He some- 
 times went over to London in the season to see old 
 friends. I met him one day at Long's, which was then
 
 IRISHMEN 23 
 
 kept by a worthy called Jubber, well known to all the 
 golden youth of the period, and one whose experiences 
 must have been extremely varied and often unpleasant. 
 
 R was dining there in joyous company, O'F 
 
 playing the part of host. I asked R the next day 
 
 how he could possibly dine with a man who had 
 squandered his last sixpence, upon which he replied, 
 
 " I didn't dine with O'F , I dined with Jub-bar ! " 
 
 And I suppose it practically amounted to that. 
 
 I remember poor R telling me of another dinner- 
 party at which he was present a festive and annual 
 gathering of the " Irish lot," which took place, on 
 
 the occasion in question, on board of O'S 's yacht, 
 
 which was lying in the Thames. My good old 
 
 friend, W. H. R , was one of the party, and 
 
 late in the evening, when he had probably reached 
 his cross tumbler, he took exception to the haw-haw 
 
 dialect which R affected, and turning suddenly 
 
 round, apostrophized him in the following terms, to 
 which a rich brogue added an additional charm 
 
 " Sir," said W. H. R , in a tone of exasperation, 
 
 " I admire your conversation, but your exaggerated 
 English pronunciation entirely destroys the pith of 
 your remarks." There was certainly a wonderful 
 Hibernian roll about this protest, set off with the 
 
 brogue, which tickled R immensely, but did not 
 
 cure him. I shall ever feel grateful to R for 
 
 having presented me with Carlyle's History of the
 
 24 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 French Revolution, and a copy of Swinburne's early 
 poems. 
 
 Colonel Palmer, who introduced me to E, , also 
 
 introduced me to a Mrs. Beamish, whose husband's 
 family hailed from the county of Cork. She was an 
 elderly widow when I was presented to her, had a snug 
 little house, gave nice little dinner-parties, and was 
 exceedingly agreeable, though excessively deaf. Her 
 brother-in-law, a fine soldierly-looking fellow who had 
 served in the bodyguard of Charles X., and was a 
 staunch Royalist, was a frequent visitor. I remember 
 him telling me how, quite accidentally, he saw two 
 memorable events as a boy he saw Napoleon ride into 
 the Elysee on his return from the fatal field of Waterloo ; 
 and not long afterward, when creeping unwillingly to 
 school, attracted by the sight of some soldiers in the 
 garden of the Luxembourg at early morn, he peered 
 through the railings and saw Marshal Ney shot. 
 The statue of "the bravest of the brave," judicially 
 murdered, now marks the spot where this deed was 
 perpetrated. In what did Ney's crime consist ? In 
 joining the army under Napoleon, on the eve of 
 Ligny, to fight against the enemies of his country, 
 instead of following Louis XVIII. to Ghent. 
 
 About the same time, during a visit to Vichy, I 
 made the acquaintance of Mr. O'Shea, a Spanish 
 banker, who had retained all the characteristics of the 
 Emerald Isle, impecuniosity excepted. I was very much
 
 IRISHMEN 25 
 
 surprised at the richness of his brogue, especially when 
 he told me that he had never been in Ireland, and 
 that neither his father nor grandfather had been there. 
 He one day told me a tale of a brother Spanish banker 
 of great wealth, but sordid appearance, who, during a 
 visit to London, was struck with admiration at the 
 attitude of a small groom, who, in his leathers and tops, 
 tight-fitting coat, and hat with cockade, was standing 
 with folded arms and imperturbable air at the head of 
 a superb cab-horse, while his master was paying a visit. 
 What a splendid article for importation, thought Don 
 Alonzo, and how all Madrid would envy his possession ! 
 Whereupon Don Alonzo gravely approached the youth, 
 and offered to take him into his service. The reply 
 \vas short, sharp, and decisive " What would a beggar 
 like you do with a tiger like me ? " And Don Alonzo 
 thought that the best thing to be done was to beat a 
 
 O o 
 
 hasty retreat, and return to the banks of the Manza- 
 nares, and the Prado, and olla-prodrida, and all that sort 
 of thing. Mentioning the brogue of the O'Sheas and 
 
 O O O 
 
 others, reminds me that one day when crossing the 
 Place Vendome, I met an Irish Judge, who now occupies 
 a very exalted position, and who sat for some time in 
 Parliament. After the usual greetings the conversation 
 turned upon foreign affairs, which appeared threatening, 
 Mr. Gladstone's denunciation of the unspeakable Turk, 
 and the scarecrows which the innocent Canon McColl 
 was persuaded by a wag were impaled Christians
 
 26 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 " Shure," ejaculated the Judge at last, " we should never 
 have heard a word of all this if the ' Boolgarian 
 athrocities ' were not such a mouthful." Ah ! if the 
 Canon had only seen his scarecrows in some land 
 of one syllable, might not the Sublime Porte have 
 escaped the invectives of Mr. Gladstone, ever ready to 
 be made the sport of his exuberant eloquence ? The 
 Judge was evidently of this opinion. But was not a 
 certain Spanish Ambassador in the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth greatly offended because her Majesty ordered 
 an opulent citizen, one John Cutts, a man with a 
 monosyllabic name, to receive him ? Isaac Disraeli, in 
 his Curiosities of Literature, has cited many instances 
 of the influence of names. Here it is a very common 
 practice for literary men to follow the example of 
 Erasmus and Melancthon ; Voltaire, Moliere, and 
 Brantome were all assumed names, and a recent author 
 of scurrilous biographies eagerly purchased, who signed 
 his pamphlets Eugene de Mirecourt, turned out to be 
 a simple M. Jacquot. Had he signed Jacquot, no 
 one would have read his prose. Napoleon I. attributed 
 his marvellous success in early life to seven distinct 
 causes, the seventh being his sonorous name. There 
 is no doubt about the influence exercised here by 
 both names and phrases, or mots. Of this I might 
 furnish many examples. 
 
 There was one Milesian, or rather, as they say in 
 America, " a fraud," I never had the pleasure of
 
 IRISHMEN 27 
 
 meeting. He exercised the humble profession of 
 barber, but then, according to his own account, he was 
 a direct descendant of one of the old Irish kings. 
 On the strength of his illustrious lineage he managed 
 to raise money. His name, he said, was Don Mac 
 O'Levy wonderful combination ! and not only was 
 he entitled to enormous estates in Ireland, but the British 
 Government duly acknowledged these claims every year 
 in the Blue Book ! The only thing required from him 
 was to prove that he was the rightful heir, the real 
 Don Mac O'Levy, and this the barber protested that he 
 could easily do if any one would advance him money 
 to go to Frankfort ! in quest of certain documents 
 necessary to prove his identity. I knew one poor 
 Frenchman who was victimized by this mendacious 
 rascal, and who was very angry with me because I 
 pooh-poohed Don Mac O'Levy and his story, and 
 refused to approach the British Government on the 
 matter, or get him a Blue Book. Alas ! when I last 
 met the confiding Gaul his hat was greasy, his garments 
 threadbare, and his shoes dilapidated. He blushed, 
 poor fellow, as we shook hands, and informed me that 
 he was on the road to fortune the road which had 
 worn out his shoes. I trust that he has got hold of 
 something better than the barber this time. Alas I it 
 is so easy to gull a Frenchman with any tale of wrong 
 committed by perfidious Albion. 
 
 One day on a tramway I made room for a lady, and
 
 28 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 this led to a conversation. After a while, she asked 
 me if I was an Englishman, and I informed her that I 
 was Irish. "Ah !" she said, "one of our best friends 
 is a countryman of yours." " Who may he be ? " " Le 
 Comte de Tyrone." " Strange, one of my ancestors, 
 Sir Richard Bingham, sent over the head of one of his 
 ancestors as a present to Queen Elizabeth." Perhaps 
 I should not have mentioned this little episode of days 
 gone by. It certainly did not create a favourable 
 impression, and brought our intercourse to an abrupt 
 close. 1 
 
 In the equivalent of our Court Guide, one finds 
 a large number of Irish names. There are several 
 MacMahons the Marshal, Duke of Majenta, a Marquis, 
 and two Counts, also a Mahon de Monagham. Among 
 other Macs are MacCarthy, MacDermot, and Mac- 
 namara, the Superior of the Irish College. Also of O's, 
 not a few O'Connels, O'Connors, O'Donnels, O'Moores, 
 O'Niels, O'Gormans, O'Keenans, O'Mearas, O'Calla- 
 ghans 2 ; and I have known here O'Heas, and O'Sheas, 
 
 1 Earl of Tyrone is now the second title of the Marquis of 
 Water-lord. 
 
 2 I read the following notice in Godignanfs Messenger the 
 other day "M. Albert O'Callaghan is about to marry Mile. 
 Therese de Cre"cy. The O'Callaghan family is of Irish origin, 
 but has long since become French, having contracted matri- 
 monial alliances with the Dreux-Breze and other distinguished 
 families. The Cre"cy family belongs to the old nobility of 
 Burgundy." The Crecy family can have nothing to do with our 
 Crecy, which lies in Picardy.
 
 IRISHMEN 29 
 
 and the O'Gorman Mahon. To a certain extent these 
 old Irish families, victims to their fidelity to the ancient 
 faith, keep up old traditions. They dine together on 
 St. Patrick's Day, and no doubt curse the " pious, 
 glorious, and immortal memory of William of Orange," 
 and empty a glass in honour of " the little gentleman 
 in the brown velvet coat." 
 
 By the way, I used to meet an O'Callaghan at the 
 house of a mutual friend ; he was highly educated, had 
 a' vast amount of native wit, but dropped his h's in a 
 most lamentable manner, having been born and bred in 
 Sheffield. In addition to other occupations, he filled 
 the post of Professor of English in one of the principal 
 colleges here and at Versailles. What the English he 
 taught was like may be imagined from the following 
 specimen. He told us that he was one day walking 
 past one of the artificial lakes in the park of Versailles, 
 when all of a sudden " the frogs set up an owl." The 
 idea of frogs "owling" with an h Avould have been 
 funny enough. I thought I should have died. Fortu- 
 nately O'C imagined that we were laughing at the 
 
 frogs. 
 
 One of the most interesting of my Irish acquaint- 
 ances was Mr. Mahony, better known as Father Prout. 
 We used often to meet of a morning at Galignani's in 
 the editorial sanctum of Mr. Hely Bowes, who was 
 then editor of the English side of the Messenger. At 
 first the good Father treated me in a rather super-
 
 SO RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 cilious manner, but pleased with an article which 4 
 had written in the Daily News, he became more genial, 
 and used invariably to greet me with, "Bon jour, 
 Capitano," and he even got me to replace him as 
 correspondent of the Globe when he went away on his 
 holidays. I often take up his Eeliques now, and 
 smile over his quaint conceits and the tricks he played 
 Tommy Moore. I have a great admiration for some of 
 his translations, especially for the Vieux Drapeau of 
 Beranger, which opens with 
 
 " Comrades, around this humble board, 
 
 Here's to our banner's bygone splendour." 
 
 And afterwards 
 
 " For every drop of blood we spent, 
 
 Did not that flag give value plenty ? 
 Were not our children as they went 
 Jocund, to join the warrior's tent, 
 Soldiers at ten, heroes at twenty 1 " 
 
 And then 
 
 " Leipsic hath seen our eagles fall, 
 
 Drunk with renown, worn out with glory ; 
 
 But, with the emblems of old Gaul 
 
 Crowning our standard, we'll recall 
 The brightest day of Valmy's story." 
 
 On the other hand, it is impossible to read his ' Lesbia 
 hath a beaming eye,' his ' Charming Judy Callaghan,' 
 and his ' Molly Carew ' done into Latin verse without 
 laughing ; at least at the two latter.
 
 IRISHMEN 31 
 
 He was pleasant enough when I met him, was Father 
 Front, although rather absent-minded. It more than 
 once happened to me to come across him in the street, 
 and in the midst of a conversation to see him walking 
 quietly away with his hands folded behind him and his 
 head bent slightly forward in profound meditation. 
 
 He lived a very solitary life in a small apartment in 
 the not over-fashionable Rue des Moulins a street of 
 ill-fame. His conscience was somewhat ill at ease, for 
 he had strayed away from the ancient faith, and was 
 living beyond the pale of the Church. However, a 
 short time before his death, the Abbe Rogerson, who 
 long officiated here, persuaded him to return to the 
 fold, and the quondam incumbent of Watergrass Hill 
 pronounced his mea maxima culpa, and was received 
 back into the bosom of the Church. This was all very 
 well, but poor Frank Mahony passed from the hands 
 of the Abbe Rogerson into those of a fanatic, who 
 insisted on him going to mass at six a.m. and giving 
 up whisky-and-water, a small flask of which he invari- 
 ably carried about in his pocket. This caused his death. 
 The whisky-and-water, never taken to excess, was a 
 necessity. He died of paralysis of the throat. A short 
 time after his death, the Abbe Rogerson made me a 
 present of his office chair, in which I am now seated. 1 
 1 The Globe published the following paragraph in 1891 
 
 FATHER PROUT. 
 It is with special interest that we hear of the completion of
 
 32 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 One day I was crossing the Rue Tronchet, when I ran 
 up against M. Eugene Duffeuile, a writer of consider- 
 able talent, who, when I first knew him, was a con- 
 tributor to that Academical paper, the Ddbats. When 
 the Ddbats, under the Republic, accepted the existing 
 order of things, he left it, and he is now one of the 
 
 the memorial of Francis Mahony initiated and promoted by Mr. 
 Dillon Croker. That memorial has taken the form of a bust of 
 Mahony, produced by a sculptor who dwells appropriately at 
 Blarney, and now occupying a place in the Municipal School of 
 Art at Cork Mahony's birthplace. Mr. Croker tells us that he 
 would have preferred a mural tablet over Mahony's grave, which 
 is under the shadow of Shandon steeple that Shandon of whose 
 bells the deceased poet (for surely he was a poet) had sung so 
 sweetly and fluently in the days gone by. That the Father Prout 
 of latter-day literature deserved some recognition of the kind will 
 scarcely be denied, even by the most persistent decriers of memo- 
 rials. It is true that a man's works are his best monument, 
 but in his native city he may well have honour done to him in a 
 tangible and visible fashion. A typical Irishman, Mahony called 
 for celebration at the hands of his countrymen, whose best 
 characteristics he illustrated in brilliant and engaging style. He 
 was one of the last of the publicists whose brilliancy was based 
 upon wide linguistic knowledge, and exhibited mainly in wit and 
 song. He wrote verse with equal facility in English, Latin, 
 French, and Italian. And what he wrote had not technical 
 cleverness only : it had esprit and humour, and was valuable per 
 se. The Reliques of Father Prout are perhaps not much read 
 now-a-days, when " each day brings its petty " literary " dust, our 
 soon-choked souls to fill " ; but for the students of the belles- 
 lettres they will always have much attraction and charm. It was 
 to the Globe, as our Paris correspondent, that Mahony contributed 
 some of the best of his prose- work, and hence the personal 
 pleasure with which we hear of the tribute that has been paid to 
 his merits and his memory. Globe.
 
 IRISHMEN 33 
 
 most trusted advisers and friends of the Comte de 
 Paris. He had a large volume under his arm, and 
 when I asked him what prize he had secured, I was 
 rather astonished to learn that it was a copy of the 
 Bible, which he was taking home to read for the first 
 time. I regret to say that I never learned what his 
 impressions were, or if, when once he dived into Holy 
 Writ, he was ever after tempted to search the Scriptures 
 daily. But it struck me as very strange that a man of 
 his culture should have passed the prime of life with- 
 out having perused a work of even more than reli- 
 gious interest. This reminds me of John Augustus 
 O'Shea, whose acquaintance I made in the old convent 
 in the Rue de Lacepede, a rollicking young Irishman, 
 with a wonderful flow of animal spirits, occasionally 
 replenished. He was afterwards attached to the 
 Standard, and was some years ago ordered by the 
 editor to repair to Ammergau and there to write 
 a report of the celebrated Passion Play. Passing 
 through here, he called on my dear old friend, the 
 Paris correspondent of the great Conservative organ, 
 and confessed that he was rather in a quandary, as 
 he knew nothing of the incidents of the Crucifixion. 
 Knowing that I had devoted a good deal of time 
 to the study of the early French Theatre and to 
 Passion Plays, Hely Bowes sent Paddy O'Shea, as 
 we irreverently called him, on to me, and I not only 
 coached him up in the history of Passion Plays, but 
 VOL I. D
 
 34 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 gave him a copy of the New Testament, which was 
 rather a revelation to him, and from which he gathered 
 much useful information on his road to Bavaria. The 
 
 letters which he wrote from A were much admired, 
 
 not only for the erudition they displayed, but for the 
 freshness of their views ; the latter being no doubt 
 attributable to the fact of the correspondent approaching 
 his subject for the first time. 
 
 By the way, Paddy O'Shea had been a pillar of the 
 Church. At least he had joined the Irish Volunteers, 
 who, in 1860, flocked to Rome to defend the Holy 
 Father against his rebellious subjects and the Pied- 
 montese, and had seen service in Umbria and the 
 Marches, under that renowned Paladin, General Lamo- 
 riciere. I do not think, from the account he gave me of 
 the campaign, that he had a very high opinion of the 
 courage and tenacity of his comrades except in the 
 matter of self-preservation. However this may be, the 
 heroes, who were obliged to lay down their arms at 
 Castelfidardo, were afterwards received by Pio Nono, 
 who thanked them for their devotion, and gave them, 
 not his toe, but his hand, to kiss. Paddy O'Shea, who 
 perhaps over-rated the value of his services at the 
 moment, or was overcome by emotion, told me that 
 when his Holiness held out his hand, mistaking the 
 Pope's intention, he endeavoured to draw the pastoral 
 ring from his finger, a predatory act at which Pio Nono 
 good-humouredly smiled.
 
 IRISHMEN 35 
 
 Here, by the way, a great fuss was made over the 
 defenders of the Pope, and masses were celebrated 
 with much pomp for the repose of the souls of those 
 who had fallen in the good cause. The clergy at 
 that moment were highly irritated with the Imperial 
 Government, and the Pope had just declared that 
 " Perfidy and treason now reign supreme, and our soul 
 is afflicted to see the Church persecuted, even in 
 France, where the chief of the Government had shown 
 himself so friendly to us, pretending to be our pro- 
 tector. Now it is difficult to distinguish whether we 
 are protected by friends or held prisoners by enemies : 
 Pctrus cst in vinculis." The effect of this Papal allocu- 
 tion was immense. Among the most violent adver- 
 saries of the Government were Monsignor Dupanloup, 
 Bishop of Orleans, and Monsignor Pie, Bishop of 
 Poitiers, the latter prelate going so far as to compare 
 Napoleon III. to Pontius Pilate. It was rather through 
 opposition to the Government than to procure any 
 relief for the souls of the Papal Zouaves in purgatory 
 that the masses were celebrated. Unfortunately for 
 the clergy, and especially for Monsignor Pie, an un- 
 toward event occurred which excited almost universal 
 hilarity. Among the gallant children of France who 
 had rushed to the defence of Pius IX., was one Louis 
 
 G , and the Bishop of Poitiers, in addition to the 
 
 prayers of the Church, pronounced a funeral oration of 
 great eloquence in honour of the departed. He related,
 
 36 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 from the pulpit, how, " before flying to the aid of the 
 
 Holy See," G had demanded his blessing, and he 
 
 told his congregation that he would never forget the 
 expression of happiness which illuminated his face 
 .when he rose from his knees. And then, addressing 
 
 himself to the defunct G , he added " Alas ! 
 
 neither father, nor mother, nor sister will weep over 
 your death ; but Poitiers, the town of your adoption, 
 sheds its tears for you at the present moment. But 
 this is not enough ; we wish to see on the slopes of 
 that hill by the Tiber where you are lying, not under 
 the green grass and in the indolent attitude of the 
 poet udum Tibur, supinum Tibur but in the blood- 
 stained winding-sheet of the martyr, a modest monu- 
 ment erected over your tomb with these words engraved 
 
 upon it : 'To Louis G , who died in defence of the 
 
 Papal States.' And on this marble all the most noble 
 names of our province, &c., &c." And, blessed with a 
 vivid imagination, Monsignor Pie declared that he saw 
 the humble Zouave clothed in white raiment standing 
 close to the Mercy Seat. Unfortunately for the Bishop 
 
 of Poitiers, it soon turned out that Louis G was 
 
 not dead but living. He did not fall fighting for the 
 temporalities, and his mortal remains were not re- 
 posing on a lonely Roman hill-side. Louis G 
 
 was in the flesh, and, before the tears of his adopted 
 town were dried, was arrested for " divers swindlings," 
 and was condemned to fifteen months' imprisonment
 
 IRISHMEN 37 
 
 by the Correctional Tribunal of Laval. It may be 
 imagined how this made the scoffers laugh, and with, 
 what pitiless raillery the over-confiding prelate was 
 assailed ! 
 
 A few years ago I made the acquaintance of an Irish 
 gentleman and most accomplished scholar, who passed 
 most of his time in turning Greek authors into very 
 elegant English verse. He had once held a very high 
 position in the literary world in London, but he got 
 into trouble and sought refuge in this indulgent city. 
 He had been accused o having stolen a valuable volume 
 from a book-stall, and he was found guilty. His friends 
 always maintained that he took up the work, dipped 
 into it, and becoming engrossed in its contents, walked 
 away with it quite unconsciously. It is certain that 
 Macaulay, and other literary celebrities, never passed 
 through Paris without paying the exile a visit. He 
 lived in a very handsome apartment here, surrounded 
 by works of art, and his library must have been a most 
 valuable one. I have often wondered where and how 
 he acquired his passion for books, and have smiled over 
 an anecdote he told me one day, when the conversation 
 turned on the memoirs of Sir Jonah Barrington and 
 duelling. " When I was quite a youngster," he said, 
 " I remember my father, during a dinner, having an 
 altercation with one of his guests, which ended in the 
 lie direct. My father immediately rang for the butler, 
 and ordered him to take candles and pistols into the
 
 38 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 library." Shots were exchanged without effect; prin- 
 cipals and seconds returned to table, and recent 
 difficulties were drowned in fresh libations. But what 
 a want of respect for books to fight in the library ! 
 Into what authors did the stray bullets find their 
 way ? 
 
 Another Irishman I met during the siege of Paris, 
 a Major O'Flanagan, was said to have done the 
 State some service in India, where he won the heart 
 and rupees of a dusky princess. He was a fine-looking 
 fellow, about six-foot-two, and reticent when not in his 
 cups. He served in the Ambulance Corps. There was 
 a good deal of hard fighting in and round Bourget, to 
 the north-east of Paris, which was taken and re-taken 
 several times. After one sanguinary struggle for the 
 possession of the village, there was an armistice agreed 
 to, in order that each side might bury its dead and 
 remove its wounded. While these operations were 
 being carried out, great was the surprise of both parties 
 to see the Major, who had evidently been indulging too 
 freely in the bottle, suddenly make his appearance on 
 a very small animal, and, wild with whisky and excite- 
 ment, gallop into the German lines, gesticulating 
 violently, and shouting at the top of his voice, " Vive 
 la France!" Fortunately for the Major, the Germans 
 did not take a serious view of this irruption. They 
 merely turned the head of the Major's horse round, and 
 sent him back as fast as he had come. And a very
 
 IRISHMEN 39 
 
 sad figure did the Major cut, half-sobered by the 
 adventure, as he rode home with the loss of his cap, 
 his long legs nearly touching the ground, and discon- 
 certed by a storm of derision from both friend and 
 foe. I did not see him again until the Communist 
 insurrection broke out, when I met him on the 
 Boulevards, quietly smoking a cigarette. " Ah ! Major," 
 I exclaimed, " they tell me that you have been pretty 
 well shelled." "Had six in my bedroom," was the 
 curt reply. I may explain that the Major and his wife 
 lived in the Avenue de la Grande Armee, at a short 
 distance from the Arc de Triomphe. Now, during the 
 Commune, the Versailles troops kept up an almost 
 incessant fire on the Arc de Triomphe from the two 
 batteries one at the Pont de Neuilly, and the other 
 at Courbevoie. 1 Courbevoie, the Pont de Neuilly, and 
 the Arc de Triomphe are in a straight line. The 
 French guns threw a little to the right, and the con- 
 sequence was that the houses in the Avenue de la 
 Grande Armee, on the proper right of the above-named 
 batteries, and on the side on which the Major resided, 
 were regularly ploughed with shells. I lived just to 
 the left of the Arc de Triomphe, and my house was 
 struck merely by a few splinters. 
 
 The first day that the Versailles army opened fire 
 
 1 I have explained, in another place, that the Versailles troops 
 kept up a fire on the Arc de Triomphe to prevent the Communists 
 from mining it.
 
 40 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 up the Avenue, Charles Austin of the Times and 
 Lewis Wingfield had gone to share the Major's hospit- 
 ality. The repast had hardly commenced, when the 
 guns at the Pont de Neuiily began playing, and this 
 so alarmed the Major's wife that she got under the 
 table. The position was whimsical. One does not 
 often hear of a party breakfasting with a princess 
 under the table. 
 
 The Princess insisted upon shifting her quarters as 
 soon as possible, but the Major was not so easily dis- 
 lodged. He gallantly stuck to his apartment, in spite 
 of the entreaties of his spouse, who actually wrote to 
 M. Thiers (the President), begging of him to order his 
 artillerymen to cease firing when the Major was 
 crossing the Avenue. 
 
 Both the Major and the Princess got safely through 
 the siege and Commune, and then mystery. We 
 learned that the Major was not a major, and that he 
 had been simply an officer's servant; also that the Prin- 
 cess was not his wife. What became of the false major 
 I never heard ; but he was deserted by the Princess, 
 who remained here, married a fellow-countryman of her 
 former admirer an assistant apothecary at a chemist's 
 in the Rue de la Paix ; and this couple got into society, 
 and their names used to figure in the list of fashion- 
 ables invited to the Elysee when Marshal MacMahon 
 was Consul. 
 
 Another Irishman I had the pleasure of meeting was
 
 IRISHMEN 41 
 
 a Mac-somebody. For some reason or another he liked 
 to make himself out a Scotchman, and he dressed a 
 handsome lad of his in Highland costume. He was for 
 many years an editor of Galignani, his duty being to 
 mark out paragraphs in the French papers for trans- 
 lation. He was said to be cross-tempered, but I always 
 found him pleasant enough. However, we were never 
 on intimate terms. He was married to a very pretty 
 young woman, and was as jealous as Othello. The 
 report was, that before leaving home to take his seat 
 on the editorial stool, he used to give his wife long 
 sums to do, and that the unfortunate woman's exist- 
 ence, in the absence of her lord, was spent in poring 
 over long columns of figures. Surely he might have 
 given her a shirt to make ! But what I chiefly 
 
 remember Mac as, was neither editor nor husband, 
 
 but collector. He seldom let a day pass without a 
 visit to the Hotel des Ventes, where one usually finds 
 a dozen auctions in full swing. By dint of patience 
 he picked up a curious and varied collection little by 
 little. Strange to say, he purchased, at long intervals, 
 the Idtons of three French Marshals, all three Mar- 
 shals being of foreign extraction ; that of Marshal Saxe, 
 the son of the lovely Aurora von Konigsmark and 
 Augustus of Poland, called by Carlyle, owing to his 
 numerous progeny, " the physically strong," and " the 
 paternal man of sin." Is it not a mystery how the 
 baton of this old soldier, who died in opulence and
 
 42 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 dissipation at Chambonl, could have drifted into the 
 Hotel des Ventes ? and it was knocked down for less 
 money than the value of the silver with which it was 
 ornamented ! It is true that the auctioneer, shortly 
 after the sale, said that there had been an error, and 
 
 wished to put the baton up again ; but Mac had 
 
 it in his pocket, and refused to part with it. Clearly 
 the baton of the Marshal who commanded at Fontenoy 
 should have been purchased by a grateful country, and 
 not allowed to pass into the hands of the stranger. 
 The second baton was that of one of Napoleon's heroes 
 of Scotch descent Marshal Lauriston, a grandson of 
 the celebrated Mississippi Law, who started in life as 
 a goldsmith in Edinburgh, and after ruining half Paris, 
 died in a garret at Venice. How this baton, too, found 
 its way into the Hotel des Ventes it would be difficult 
 to explain. Looking at it reminded me not only of the 
 gallant and honest soldier, but of the negotiator who 
 brought us over the ratification of the treaty of 
 Amiens, to the great delight of the people of London, 
 who took the horses out of his carriage and drew him 
 to Downing Street. By the way, a similar compliment 
 was paid here to General Lafayette, when, on the pro- 
 clamation of the Constitutional Monarchy, and after 
 the Reign of Terror, the Directory, the Consulship, the 
 Empire, and the Restoration had swept over France, 
 he, the Marquis who had stirred up the Revolution, 
 ventured back to Paris; only he never saw his horses
 
 IRISHMEN 43 
 
 again. And the third baton? Well, that possessed 
 but little interest ; it had been made for Marshal 
 MacMahon, who, having some fault to find with it, 
 returned it to the maker. 
 
 Mac had also two valuable swords by Andrea 
 
 Ferrara, and you might almost have tied the blades 
 in a knot. He was nearly becoming the possessor of 
 a third, but it escaped him under the following cir- 
 cumstances. There were two Andrea Ferraras for sale, 
 the hilt of one being richly inlaid with silver; he 
 determined to remain satisfied with the other, which 
 was plain, but at the same time the better weapon 
 of the two. The former was put up to auction first, 
 and went for a song; but for the other the bidding 
 was fast and furious, and both irritated and astonished, 
 
 Mac had to abandon the struggle. On inquiry, 
 
 the mystery was explained. A gentleman, who was 
 anxious to purchase an Andrea Ferrara, had sent a 
 friend to the Hotel des Ventes with instructions to 
 secure the plain one, as the silver-mounted one would 
 probably run to too high a price ; hence the competi- 
 tion which ended in Mac 's defeat. Among other 
 
 curios were a quantity of silver playthings made for 
 the children of Louis Philippe, which fell into the 
 hands of the sovereign people when his Constitutional 
 Majesty, umbrella in hand, sought safety in flight ; 
 also a picture, which came from the Tuileries, and bore 
 the sign-manual of said people in the shape of a gash
 
 44 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 from sword or bayonet. In fact, one could pass a very 
 
 pleasant hour or two in examining poor Mac 's 
 
 collection. What became of it when he died I know 
 not. When Mazarin, a few days before his death, 
 tottered through the galleries of his palace, rich with 
 all the art of Europe, he exclaimed to the friend on 
 whose arm he was leaning, " To think that I must 
 leave all these and they cost so much ! " And I can 
 
 imagine, in poor Mac 's case, the ruling passion 
 
 also being strong in death; and both he and Mazarin 
 enjoyed the reputation of being exceedingly close, and 
 thus must have felt a double pang on leaving their 
 treasures behind them. I believe that addition or 
 multiplication drove the poor wife mad, and the son 
 lost his life in India. 
 
 MARGUERITE BELL ANGER 
 
 UNDER the Second Empire there was very little 
 Court scandal, as Caesar's wife was above suspicion ; but 
 the same cannot be said of Caesar himself, whose 
 escapades sometimes produced domestic broils, the 
 noise of which reached the public ear, though in an 
 uncertain and diluted form, thanks to the Press being 
 muzzled. For example, in 1860, the Empress. sud- 
 denly left for Scotland. It was at first supposed that
 
 MARGUERITE BELLANGER 45 
 
 her object was simply to visit the home of her ancestors. 
 Soon, however, it was whispered that there was a lady 
 in the case ; that when the Court was at St. Cloud, her 
 Majesty, wishing to enter the Emperor's bedroom, had 
 found the passage barred by Bacciochi, had boxed the 
 chamberlain's ears, and had determined to leave the 
 country ; and it required a good deal of diplomacy and 
 the intervention of Pio Nono to induce her to return. 
 But, strange as it may seem, after this show of in- 
 dignation, the Empress never objected to receive the 
 
 lovely Comtesse de C at court, in spite of the 
 
 length to which the Emperor carried his admiration 
 
 for that lady. By the way, the Comtesse de C 
 
 was the cause of another domestic broil at the Tuileries, 
 which threatened to end in another flight. This matter 
 became public property when the Empire fell. 
 
 In 1863, a certain Franchise Leboeuf, who commenced 
 her career in a laundry, then took to the stage, and 
 acquired a certain reputation at the music-halls and 
 lesser theatres in the Latin quarter as Marguerite 
 Bellanger. She was presented to the Emperor. His 
 Majesty had just been informed that a young lady, 
 discreetly called at Court Mile, de Fontanges, after 
 one of the mistresses of Louis XIV., was in an interest- 
 ing position. It was absolutely necessary to conceal 
 this fact, and Marguerite Bellanger was asked to pass 
 herself off as the mother of the child when the proper 
 moment arrived. She consented. Mile, de Fontanges
 
 46 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 retired from the world, and Napoleon III. transferred 
 his affections to Margot, just as Louis XIV. transferred 
 his to the widow Scarron, who had been charged \vith 
 the education of the children of the Marqtuse de 
 Montespan. 
 
 The child came into the world on February 24, 1864, 
 and the certificate of its birth set forth that it was of 
 the masculine gender, born in Paris, 27 Rue des Vignes 
 (the house of Marguerite Bellanger), the father and 
 mother being unknown. This certificate was duly 
 signed by the doctor and three other persons, who 
 stated that they were ignorant of the name and 
 residence of the mother ! This looks as if Mile, de 
 Fontanges had gone to the Rue des Vignes to be con- 
 fined. As it was, the child was passed off as the son 
 of Marguerite Bellanger, and but for two untoward 
 circumstances nothing more would have been heard of 
 the matter. Entirely devoted to Margot, the Emperor 
 neglected not only Mile, de Fontanges, but the Com- 
 
 tesse de C , who, finding that the bills of her 
 
 milliner and coachbuilder had not been paid out of the 
 privy purse, rushed off to the Tuileries and revealed 
 everything she knew to the Empress concerning the 
 creature his Majesty was mad about and the little boy 
 he adored. It may easily be imagined that her Majesty 
 was highly incensed at this unexpected denunciation 
 which took her completely by surprise; she had, 
 tolerated mistresses, but she would not tolerate a
 
 MARGUERITE BELLANGER 47 
 
 bastard ; this was an insult to herself and her son, 
 and she would leave the country, and take him with 
 her. In fact, the terms in which the Empress expressed 
 herself were said to have been violent, picturesque, and 
 Spanish. It was all in vain that M. Rouher, General 
 Fleury, and then the cdnfessor of her Majesty, the 
 Abbe Deguerry, endeavoured to appease her. The 
 Emperor and the Empress had not seen each other 
 for two days, when M. Devienne (a son of the first 
 Napoleon), First President of the Court of Cassation, 
 came to the rescue, and finally arranged a modus vivendi. 
 On the breaking out of the storm, Marguerite Bellanger 
 had been sent to pass a few weeks with her family in 
 the Department of the Maine et Loire, and thither M. 
 Devienne repaired on a mission. He was to persuade 
 Margot to confess that she had deceived the Emperor 
 with regard to the child, which was not his, but the 
 son of another lover. Before starting he instituted 
 some inquiries in Paris, and discovered two important 
 facts that Marguerite Bellanger had never given birth 
 to a child either before or after her connection with 
 the Emperor ; and that she could not have been brought 
 to bed on February 24. In fact, M. Devienne discovered 
 that a doctor in the Rue des Champs Elysees had on 
 the night of the 25th been aroused from his slumbers 
 by a lady in the greatest distress, who, arrayed in her 
 dressing-gown and with her head bare, brought him a 
 lapdog who had a bone stuck in his throat. This
 
 48 EECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 was Marguerite Bellanger, who, had she been confined 
 on the previous evening, would hardly have been in a 
 position to have paid the doctor, to whom she was 
 well known, this nocturnal visit. M. Devienne after 
 this inquiry started for Saumur, and what happened 
 afterwards he thus related " He found Margot at a 
 farm near the village of Villebernier dressed as a 
 peasant, short petticoat- and wooden shoes; she was 
 sitting at table with her parents round some cabbage 
 soup flanked by pitchers of cider. She excused herself 
 for receiving him in such a place, begged him to return 
 to Saumur, and promised to pay him a visit there in 
 the course of the evening. With many curtsies she 
 accompanied him to his carriage, and bowing with 
 great respect said, ' A safe journey to you, Mr. President ; 
 I shall be at your orders this evening.' Then in a 
 lower tone and with a peculiar smile she added, 
 ' You know, my old fellow, that you will have to pay 
 me a supper.' " 
 
 The mission of M. Devienne was completely success- 
 ful. Margot copied out two letters, one addressed to 
 M. Devienne himself, and the other to her cher seigneur, 
 in which she acknowledged that she had deceived him, 
 and that the child to which she had given birth was 
 not his. These letters shown to the Empress, and 
 accompanied by expressions of contrition on the part 
 of the chief culprit, brought about a reconciliation 
 between their Imperial Majesties.
 
 MARGUERITE BELL ANGER 49 
 
 It was said at the time that several crosses of the 
 Legion of Honour were distributed on this occasion to 
 persons who had suffered from the resentment of the 
 Empress ; that two were made receivers, and one a 
 Prefect. As for Margot, who had already received 
 40,000 for allowing a child to be mothered on her, 
 she was presented with the Chateau de Monchy, pur- 
 chased from the Marquis de Poret in the name of 
 Auguste Bellanger. The price paid for this property 
 was 700,000 f., and it has been declared that the 
 Emperor defrauded the State by paying duty as if it 
 had cost only 400,000 f. 
 
 I several times met the Emperor driving up the 
 Champs Elysees of an evening in his brougham to 
 the Rue des Vignes, where Margot held a veritable 
 court. " The gravest and most frivolous persons flocked 
 thither," wrote a chronicler during the siege ; " ministers, 
 senators, equerries, chamberlains, diplomatists, tenors, 
 soldiers, and buffoons, picking up crosses and places 
 which the lady of the house obtained with the greatest 
 facility from her cker seigneur." 
 
 When Margot's letters were published in 1870, 
 during the siege of Paris, the Government of National 
 Defence ordered M. Devienne, First President of the 
 Court of Cassation, to appear before the Court to 
 answer for his conduct in having been mixed up in 
 a " scandalous negotiation." He was superseded. And 
 considering that he was the real author of the letters 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 in question, which contained a falsehood, it must be 
 admitted that in his desire to patch up a family quarrel 
 he had compromised the dignity of the ermine. 
 
 The child, whose existence had so ruffled the temper 
 of the Empress, was brought up as Auguste Bellanger, 
 and very few people know who his real mother is. 
 The last I heard of Margot was, that when the 
 Prussians were marching on Paris in 1870, they re- 
 spected the Chateau de Monchy. Perhaps her cker 
 seigneur, when a prisoner of war, interceded in her 
 behalf, and begged that she and the little Auguste 
 might not be molested. 
 
 VI 
 G 
 
 "A QUEER nation !" said G , who was himself a bit 
 
 of an oddity, with nothing to do, and neither wife nor 
 child. He delighted in poking his nose into strange 
 places, and making strange acquaintances. Having 
 been born in France, he was familiar not only with 
 the tongue, but with the manners and customs of the 
 French. The above exclamation " a queer nation ! " 
 had been elicited under the following circumstances. 
 Seeing that a house was for sale, he presented himself 
 as a would-be purchaser, although he had no idea of 
 investing in real estate, and was allowed to visit the
 
 G 51 
 
 various apartments. The first flat he found occupied 
 by a gentleman in a blouse; he had a rubicund face, 
 and was smoking a pipe. A variety of instruments 
 and tracing-paper were on the drawing-room table. 
 There was a large pier-glass over the mantelpiece ; the 
 ceiling represented a blue sky with a few clouds for 
 scantily-dressed cherubs to sit upon ; the cornices were 
 
 gilded. Who dwelt upon the intermediate flats G 
 
 did not say, but on the fifth floor, where there was 
 neither painting nor gilding, he found M. le Marquis 
 
 and Mme. la Marquise de cowering over a few 
 
 embers, and looking the picture of misery and solitude. 1 
 Had M. le Marquis squandered the paternal acres and 
 the dowry of his wife, and was his heart now gnawed 
 by remorse, or was he one of the victims of the Revo- 
 lution, which put down the mighty from their seats, 
 and exalted well, not exactly the humble and meek ? 
 There are a great number of needy nobles in our 
 Republican France, and what with the division of 
 property and other causes, few houses have been able 
 
 1 " I have seen a family of the old aristocracy send out every 
 day for some horrible black broth smelling of grease, and running 
 up a bill of .20. The wife bore a name celebrated in the history 
 of the Revolution a name sung by poets and immortalized by 
 heroism and pity. . . . These unfortunates, listening to the dic- 
 tates of their hearts, had given an asylum to an expelled monk, 
 and nothing more strange than to see this chaplain blessing the 
 repasts procured from a low eating-honee in presence of a maid- 
 of-all-work whose wages were unpaid." DRUMONT, La France 
 Juive.
 
 52 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 to keep up their original splendour. Yet titles still 
 possess their charms, and carry a certain amount of 
 influence with them. 
 
 " You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will, 
 But the scent of the roses will hang round it still." 
 
 So true is this, that a few years ago the Eepublican 
 Government issued an edict against persons using 
 armorial bearings who had no right to them, and as- 
 suming titles to which they could lay no valid claim. 
 This edict was passed in order to protect the trading 
 community, which allows itself to be imposed upon, 
 which gives credit to false counts and sham barons, and 
 burns its fingers exceedingly. 
 
 I remember how on one occasion G returned to 
 
 Paris with a bull-dog, which he had purchased in the 
 Black Country at an exorbitant price. He was what 
 is vulgarly termed " an ugly-looking customer," and his 
 training had been deplorable. In fact he was a " trial 
 dog," and when any likely-looking puppy was bred in 
 the neighbourhood, he was sent to test his metal with 
 
 Venture, as G 's animal was called. Venture may 
 
 have been born with the most peaceful disposition, but 
 by education and as a matter of business he became 
 decidedly aggressive. He had not been many days in 
 Paris when he fell upon a Newfoundland dog in the 
 street and killed him. This exploit naturally cost 
 G a handsome sum, and gave him much trouble
 
 G 53 
 
 with the authorities, who naturally poked their noses 
 
 into the matter, asked G for his passport, the 
 
 Christian names of his parents, and if he had been 
 vaccinated. A short time afterwards Venture thought 
 it the correct thing to fly at an omnibus horse and 
 seize him by the nostrils. Fortunately the horse shook 
 him off, and unfortunately for Venture he fell so awk- 
 wardly that one of the wheels of the omnibus passed 
 over his tail, and seriously damaged that appendage. 
 This necessitated taking him into a chemist's shop, 
 where amputation had to be performed. Venture 
 behaved like a martyr during the operation, and didn't 
 even look over his shoulder to see what was going on 
 
 at the other extremity. G , who after this accident 
 
 was nicknamed Alcibiades, now began to think that he 
 had had about enough of his new acquisition, and he 
 was much relieved when the proprietor of that famous 
 old restaurant, Les Trois Fr&res Provengaux, which, 
 alas ! has long ceased to exist, confided to him that he 
 was very anxious to procure an English loule. I don't 
 know where French naturalists place the bull-dog, but 
 I remember being much struck when I first visited 
 the Jardin des Plantes, where wild beasts are kept 
 and lectures on natural history given, to read over the 
 entrance a notice to the effect that no dogs or loules 
 could be admitted. 
 
 To make a long story short, Venture was transferred 
 to the proprietor of the Trois Fr&res ; G modestly
 
 54 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 declining to accept any remuneration, which might 
 have preyed on his conscience. Monsieur was duly 
 warned of Venture's propensities, and earnestly advised 
 not to allow him within reach of other animals of his 
 species. Now Monsieur, who was a bit of a sportsman, 
 was just starting for his country seat to have some 
 partridge shooting, and had given fifty guineas for a 
 couple of pointers. He placed Venture and the pointers 
 in a cellar to pass the night, but took the precaution 
 of muzzling the former, and chaining him to an iron 
 pillar. The next morning, fully accoutred for la chasse, 
 and with his gun over his shoulder, he descended in 
 search of his pack ; but what was his astonishment on 
 opening the cellar-door to find himself warmly greeted 
 by Venture, who was wagging what remained of his 
 tail. He had torn off his muzzle, had broken his chain, 
 had worried the two pointers, who were lying stone 
 dead on the ground, and was evidently proud of his 
 night's performance. It is almost needless to add that 
 Monsieur requited that performance by blowing poor 
 Venture's brains out. A sad dog was Venture, and he 
 came to a sad end.
 
 DEMI-MONDE 55 
 
 VII 
 DEMI-MONDE 
 
 ESTHER GUIMONT, CORA. PEARL, PEPITA SANCHEZ, MME. 
 MUSARD, MME. DE PAIVA, ALICE DOUGLAS, BARUCCHI. 
 
 ESTHER GUIMONT died the other day, hardly in the 
 odour of sanctity, and almost forgotten, and yet she 
 played an active if not a brilliant part when Louis 
 Philippe was King. She had been brought into 
 fashion by Nestor Roqueplan, editor of the Figaro. 
 Alphonse Karr in his Log-book says that the first 
 exploit of this coquine, who afterwards became famous, 
 was to captivate a greenhorn who had a liaison with 
 a lady of quality, and, feigning jealousy, to persuade 
 him to hand her over the letters of her rival. With 
 these letters in her possession she proceeded to levy 
 blackmail, and their writer had to sell her jewels in 
 order to procure money enough to save her honour. 
 This was the commencement of Esther Guimont's 
 fortune. She afterwards had a liaison, which lasted 
 a long time, with a celebrated political writer, and 
 served as intermediary between him and a statesman 
 frequently qualified as " austere." x 
 
 Alphonse Karr, who knew her when she was young 
 and lovely, met her afterwards when she was old and 
 
 1 Guizot.
 
 56 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 painted, and she upbraided him for never visiting her. 
 "You will meet a number of your old friends at 
 my house," she said. After a short conversation, he 
 added " There is a question which I have long wished 
 to ask you; I have been acquainted with several of 
 your lovers ; you never prided yourself on your fidelity, 
 and you have sometimes separated on bad terms ; how 
 comes it, therefore, that they continue to treat you 
 as a friend ? " "I can answer that question at once," 
 she replied ; " the reason is that I never leave a lover 
 who is worth the trouble, or who may become some 
 one, without having in hand the wherewithal to send 
 him to the galleys." And, according to Alphonse 
 Karr, this amiable creature, who had a finger in all 
 the swindling and scandalous affairs of the day, both 
 commercial and political, gave the lovers against whom 
 she was not so well armed, hopes that she would leave 
 them her ill-gotten wealth. I am sorry that I cannot 
 add to this interesting sketch of modern society any 
 information as to where Esther Guimont's money 
 went. 
 
 A friend of mine told me the other day that as he 
 was driving along the road to Geneva in company with 
 a shoddy American who had been having a " fine high 
 time of it " in Paris, he exclaimed " There's Coppet, 
 where the celebrated Mme. de Stael lived " upon 
 which Shoddy, who had evidently never heard of 
 Necker's fair daughter Stael the epicene, or Corinne
 
 DEMI-MONDE 57 
 
 asked if she were fair qr dark, imagining her to 
 belong to the demi-monde, and being rather surprised 
 
 that he had never met her in Paris. B told 
 
 this anecdote at the club dinner 1 one evening in 
 presence of the Due de Broglie, who threw up both 
 his hands, exclaiming " Oh, ma pauvre grand'mere, 
 ma pauvre grand'mere ! " And what would Mme. de 
 Stael herself have thought of the error ? " she whose 
 infancy and adolescence," according to a confession 
 attributed to Talleyrand, " had been so carefully 
 directed in the matter of modesty, that she would 
 not perform her toilet in the presence of her mother's 
 little dog." 
 
 The ladies of the demi-monde played a very promi- 
 nent part during the Second Empire, and displayed an 
 amount of luxury which was simply scandalous. The 
 regime was to a certain extent to blame for this. 
 The first Napoleon found the crown in the gutter, 
 as he expressed it himself, and picked it up with the 
 point of his sword. The advent of the third Napoleon 
 was less heroic, and he would in all probability never 
 have recovered the Imperial crown but for the aid of 
 a member of the English demi-monde. One evening 
 I met a gentleman at dinner who was well acquainted 
 with Mrs. Howard, the lady in question. He told 
 me he was at Drury Lane one night when he met 
 Mrs. Howard, who expressed a wish to ask his advice 
 1 Members, as a rule, dine together at French clubs.
 
 58 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 on an important matter. She confided to him that 
 she had recently lost her protector, and that there 
 were three claimants for the vacant place the Duke 
 of this, Lord that (both very wealthy and generous), 
 and Louis Napoleon, who had next to nothing. She 
 confessed that she was in love with the Frenchman. 
 B. B., little dreaming of the destiny which awaited 
 him, strongly advised her to accept the Prince, and she 
 did so. The next time B. B. met Mrs. Howard was 
 in a railway-carriage going down to Dover; she had 
 with her all the ready money she could scrape together, 
 and her jewels, and was on her way to Paris to lay 
 her wealth at the feet of her lover, who, as they say 
 in France, had the devil by the tail, and was surrounded 
 by adventurers as needy as himself. Fortune smiled 
 on the Prince, who always stuck to his friends, and 
 he did not show himself ungrateful to Mrs. Howard. 
 Their liaison lasted until the Emperor married, and 
 his mistress, who had received the chateau of Beau- 
 regard and 12,000 a year, then retired into private 
 life, and was little heard of. During the time that 
 Mrs. Howard was the reigning favourite, festivities 
 were frequent at Beauregard, and I remember a 
 gentleman relating at a club what Mrs. Howard 
 thought of one of her guests, Mile. Eugenie de Montijo, 
 and what she told " poor Louis " about his intended 
 when she heard of the projected marriage. Mrs. 
 Howard died long before the fall of the Empire. She
 
 DEMI-MONDE 59 
 
 left a son behind her, who prides himself on being 
 the natural son of Louis Napoleon, but who was born 
 before the liaison with Mrs. Howard commenced. 
 The Emperor created him donate de Bechevet, refusing 
 to give him the title of Beauregard, which would have 
 been on the part of his Majesty equivalent to acknow- 
 ledging a paternity to which he did not pretend. 
 Not long after the Franco-German war, Beauregard 
 was sold to a Hebrew banker. 
 
 It must be admitted that the Empress Eugenie was 
 both a virtuous sovereign herself, and discouraged 
 immorality in others. Whilst she was at the Tuiieries 
 the Court was remarkably pure as far as the women 
 were concerned, and scandals were few and far between. 
 But there was a great difference between Court and 
 city. In the city vice stalked openly abroad, and 
 became an institution. Now it was some famous 
 actress, then a Spanish, an Italian, or an English 
 woman, who held the "upper side of the pavement," 
 and whose name was on every lip or rather the name 
 they assumed. Military names were at one time all 
 the fashion. I remember one French demi-monde lady 
 taking the name of Catinat, and another that of 
 Soubise, while an English girl, whose father used to 
 show visitors over the field of Waterloo, took, for a 
 time, the name of Lady Wellington. I saw one of 
 her cards. She dropped her title on being told that 
 Lord Cowley, who was then English Ambassador here,
 
 60 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 would bundle her out of Paris if he heard of her 
 vagary. 
 
 The Englishwoman, however, " the most in view " 
 here, was one Emma Crutch, who assumed the more 
 euphonious name of Cora Pearl, and rose to the top 
 of her profession. Among her many adorers was Prince 
 Napoleon, 1 and the son of Duval who started the cheap 
 restaurants here, called " Bouillons," and made a large 
 fortune, would fain have placed his name on the list, 
 and great was the scandal when that rash youth, in a 
 moment of despair or jealousy, attempted to commit 
 suicide in the house of the frail one. This was an im- 
 mense shock to her princely and aristocratical adorers, 
 especially to the twelve whose coats-of-arms figured 
 in a certain necklace, which was thus described at the 
 time by a Parisian chronicler. " From a massive gold 
 chain depend twelve lockets of most exquisite work- 
 manship, emblazoned with the devices of the best and 
 oldest families of France. A central locket bears the 
 
 1 The Emperor was very much annoyed by this liaison, and 
 one of his familiar spirits suggested (the joke will bear trans- 
 lation) that the Prince should be decorated. When Prince 
 Napoleon died in March 1891, one of the anecdotes published 
 about him in the papers ran thus " During one of his voyages, 
 being in Dublin with Cora Pearl, and the report of his arrival 
 having spread abroad, he was surprised in the not very edifying 
 company of that lady by the Lord Mayor, who had called to pay 
 him a visit. The adventure made a great noise, caused much 
 scandal, and the Princess Clothilde, when she heard of it, was 
 deeply afflicted."
 
 DEMI-MONDE 61 
 
 arms of the lady herself with this appropriate motto, 
 ' Honi soit qui mal y pense.' Within the lockets are 
 twelve portraits of . . ." 
 
 At one time Cora Pearl tried the stage. The house 
 was crowded to suffocation with ladies and gentlemen 
 of quality to witness her first" appearance as Cupid 
 in Offenbach's Orphee aux Enfers. She played and 
 sang tolerably well, but after three nights she dis- 
 appeared from the boards, and retired into what one 
 can hardly call private life. This was in 1867. I 
 remember little of the performance, except that Cupid 
 played with great self-possession, that she was not 
 much encumbered with garments, and that the buttons 
 of her boots were large diamonds of the purest water. 
 
 Whittaker in his obituary informs us that Cora 
 Pearl died in July 1886. Few people knew where, 
 or cared, for she had long been forgotten. The fact 
 is that she died in the Beaujon Hospital, deserted by 
 all her quondam admirers. A year before her death 
 she got a French journalist to write her autobiography, 
 but it contained little worth reading, and the pro- 
 bability is that this literary venture was simply a 
 means of levying blackmail, and that her quondam 
 adorers paid money in order not to figure in her 
 chronique scandaleuse. She appears at this time to 
 have been reduced to a state of abject poverty, having 
 been robbed of over 20,000. In connection with 
 this affair, a man named Printz was arrested and
 
 62 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 condemned to five years' imprisonment. He stoutly 
 refused to say what had become of the money. Shortly 
 after his release he made the acquaintance of a man 
 called Eodolphe, and told him that the money was 
 safely lodged with a German banker at Berlin. The 
 accomplices endeavoured to get a Paris banker to 
 advance them 400 to go to Germany to claim the 
 stolen property, but the banker had them arrested, and 
 the last I heard was that the pair were awaiting trial. 
 
 There was also a Spanish woman of the Phryne 
 class, who cut a considerable figure amongst the 
 daughters of dissipation towards the decline of the 
 Second Empire, and whose death under the Third 
 Republic was enveloped in mystery. While still in the 
 " flower of youth and beauty's pride," she was killed by 
 falling from her balcony in the Boulevard Haussmann. 
 This tragic event, which created quite a sensation at 
 the time, was attributed by some to an accident, by 
 others to suicide. One version was, that as her lover 
 was leaving the house, she leaned over the balcony to 
 say something to him, lost her balance, fell, and killed 
 herself. Version two was, that there had been a dis- 
 pute, and that Pepita Sanchez deliberately flung her- 
 self from the balcony in a moment of anger, with the 
 intention of perishing at her lover's feet, and thus 
 revenging her wrongs. There was also a third version, 
 to the effect that the lady intended to fall on her 
 " friend," but just missed him. He was the son of a
 
 DEMI-MONDE 63 
 
 Hebrew who had amassed an immense amount of ill- 
 gotten wealth in Russia during the Crimean War, by 
 selling very vile vodki to the troops, and then com- 
 plaining that he had been paid for the same with 
 forged notes, which he forwarded to the Minister of 
 War. The story, current here, was that the Czar, to 
 save the honour of the Russian army, made good the 
 loss sustained by the contractor, and afterwards learned 
 that said contractor had himself forged the notes in 
 question. Many other queer stories were told of this 
 Hebrew, who commenced life as a costermonger in St. 
 Petersburg, and who died in one of the finest mansions 
 in Paris, to which refugium peccatorum he had been 
 forced to fly when his iniquities became patent in the 
 land of his birth. He lived like a patriarch, close to 
 the Arc de Triomphe, surrounded by his children and 
 his grandchildren, who formed quite a colony. Living 
 opposite, I used often to meet him of a morning, when 
 I went out, wandering round his vast hotel. He had 
 more the appearance of a confiding British farmer than 
 of a Semite in whom there was any amount of guile. 
 And when the patriarch was gathered to Abraham's 
 bosom, he had a gorgeous funeral, and his coffin was 
 covered with garlands of white roses. One might have 
 supposed that it was the body of Ophelia which was 
 being borne to the grave. 
 
 The death of poor Pepita caused a good deal of 
 commotion in the Hebrew colony, especially as the
 
 64 EECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 police and then the Press put their noses into the 
 affair. It was thought expedient to hush the matter 
 up, which is always to be done with money. Of 
 course to the Jewish instinct this process was very 
 painful. Then all the mud was stirred up again 
 when the property of the deceased was sold by auction, 
 and no heir presented himself to receive the wages of 
 sin. However, some months after the painful event, 
 Paris was rather amused to learn that a Spanish char- 
 coal dealer and his wife had come from the other side 
 of the Pyrenees to claim the property of their daughter, 
 and with the aid of the Spanish consul they made 
 good their rights and titles, and returned to the Penin- 
 sula to pass the remainder of their days in ease and 
 plenty. 
 
 Another lady came to us from America, and out- 
 shone most of her rivals. Musard, who started some 
 concerts here, met her in New York while on a tour, 
 married her, and brought her to Paris. She was very 
 fair to look on, and attracted the attention of the 
 sovereign of a neighbouring State, who made her a 
 present of a large tract of land in the United States, 
 which turned out exceedingly valuable. Oil was struck 
 there, and the lady found herself possessed of 40,000 
 a year. She lived in a splendid mansion close to the 
 Arc de Triomphe. She had a magnificent stud, and I 
 used sometimes to meet her early in the morning 
 driving four blacks in the Bois de Boulogne with her
 
 DEMI-MONDE 65 
 
 coachman seated beside her; the turn-out was a thing 
 to see, although the horses were a trifle heavy. The 
 Daily Telegraph contained the following paragraph 
 concerning this lady in its Paris correspondence 
 
 "A curious dejeuner was given yesterday (April 1, 
 
 1866) by Madame M , whose enormous fortune of 
 
 a million sterling, whose beauty, seat on horseback, 
 horses, carriages, hotels, stables, and the rest (dia- 
 monds ?) are things daily talked of and displayed on 
 the stage of this vast theatre of Paris. The guests 
 assembled in a long gallery, draped with green cur- 
 tains. Breakfast was served and eaten ; coffee and 
 cigars followed ; then a bell raug and all the draperies 
 were withdrawn. And where did the guests find 
 themselves ? Why, in the stable, where stood eighteen 
 magnificent horses. . ." : 
 
 An amusing story was told here lately. It appears 
 that after the death of the Marquis of Hertford there 
 was a great demand for his coachman, who was con- 
 sidered the best in Paris. After many offers had been 
 duly weighed, the functionary in question condescended 
 to accept the terms proposed by Madame Musard, 
 subject, however, to the condition that he was never 
 to be asked to drive M. Musard. He drew a sharp 
 
 1 This of course was a plagiarism on what had happened years 
 ago at Chantilly, when a Prince de Conde feasted some foreign 
 potentate in those huge stables which lie a short distance from 
 what remains of the old chateau, opposite the race-course stands, 
 and which contain about one hundred stalls. 
 
 VOL. L F
 
 CO RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 line between a woman living in open defiance of 
 the seventh commandment and the husband who 
 connived. 
 
 The ceilings of Madame Musard's sumptuous hotel 
 were painted by no less an artist than Chaplin, who 
 told a friend of mine that he found her one day sitting 
 on the back stairs bathed in tears. On inquiring the 
 cause, she informed him that she was bored to death. 
 The fact being that, in spite of all her wealth, she 
 could not get into the society of honest women, while 
 she refused to frequent the demi-monde. She was 
 therefore condemned to live in solitary grandeur as far 
 as her own sex was concerned. She lost her good 
 looks while still young. One morning, when driving 
 in the Bois de Boulogne, the twig of a tree struck one 
 of her eyes, and injuring a nerve, caused the lid to fall. 
 This accident, trifling as it appeared at first, was the 
 cause of her death, for she used lotions which affected 
 her brain and killed her. She wished to leave all her 
 vast wealth to her husband, but much to his credit 
 he refused to take more than a share, so two-thirds of 
 the property were divided between her brother and 
 sister. She might have left some of it to the King 
 or to the Prince, his scapegrace son and heir, who 
 was often sadly in want of money to pay for his 
 follies here. 
 
 The wonderful career of another woman is worthy 
 of notice, to wit the daughter of a Jewish Pole called
 
 DEMI-MONDE 67 
 
 Lachmann. She married a ppor tailor in Moscow, but 
 discontented with her lot she soon left her spouse and 
 made her way to Paris. It is said that she arrived 
 here on foot, that she walked the streets, and 
 that one day exhausted from hunger she fell down in 
 the Champs Elysees, and swore to herself that upon 
 that spot she would build a mansion when Fortune 
 smiled. And it was so. She was young, beauti- 
 ful, had a charming voice, and was clever to an 
 extraordinary degree. She soon had the good luck 
 of finding favour in the sight of M. de Villemessant, 
 the editor and chief proprietor of the Figaro, who 
 " launched " her in the way she ought not to have gone. 
 She began by contracting a morganatic marriage with 
 the celebrated pianist Herz, who presented her at 
 the Tuileries as his legitimate wife. In a very short 
 time poor Herz was ruined and fled to America, and 
 the tailor having departed this life, his widow consoled 
 herself by marrying the Comte de Paiva, a Portuguese 
 nobleman in the diplomatic service. As with the 
 pianist so with the diplomate ; he was ruined, and the 
 lady transferred her charms to the keeping of a wealthier 
 suitor the Count Henckel Donnersmark, a Prussian 
 noble of immense fortune, who built her a splendid 
 mansion in the Champs Elysees, to which all the wits 
 of the Second Empire resorted. After a while the 
 Comte de Paiva, sick of life, committed suicide. The 
 bullet with which he sought relief did not kill him at
 
 68 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 once, and he lingered for some days in the Beaujon 
 Hospital, where a friend of mine went to see him. His 
 wife never even sent to inquire after him. The Portu- 
 guese dead and buried, the Jewess married her Prussian 
 lover, and for the second time became a countess, and 
 mistress not only of the sumptuous hotel in the Champs 
 Elysees, but also of the historical chateau of Pont- 
 chatrain. When the Franco-German war broke out 
 in 1870, the Count and Countess were naturally obliged 
 to leave Paris, and during the siege we learned that 
 the Count had been appointed German Prefect of the 
 Department of the Seine et Oise. The war over, he 
 was appointed Governor of Alsace-Lorraine, but after- 
 wards returned to France; and the story ran that 
 Gambetta and two of his friends used to dine with him 
 and " the Paiva " every Friday, and this at a time 
 when every one was convinced that the ex-Dictator 
 breathing hatred towards Germany dreamed of nothing 
 but revenge. The Countess appears to have purchased 
 some of the jewels sold by the Empress Eugenie to 
 revenge herself for not having been asked to Court, and 
 to have raised a palace in Silesia on the plans of the 
 Tuileries 1 a palace in which she died at the age of 
 fifty-six years of a congestion of the brain. 
 
 1 I remember having read that Bedlam was built on the model 
 of the Tuileries, and that this greatly irritated the French King. 
 Poor Tuileries ! its two wings alone remain, and they are of 
 modern construction.
 
 DEMI-MONDE 69 
 
 Another member of the demi-monde who shone here 
 for a while assumed the name of Alice Douglas, although 
 she had nothing Scotch about her, and was, I believe, 
 a Dutch Jewess. I cannot say under what circum- 
 stances she shifted her quarters from the Hague to 
 Paris, but she was greatly admired here, and after a 
 short and brilliant career married the heir to an English 
 dukedom. It is true that the young gentleman re- 
 nounced all claim to the strawberry leaves in exchange 
 for a handsome allowance for himself, for his wife, and 
 for certain children born before they met. This was 
 paying a heavy price for making the lady honest and 
 himself a fool. Strange to say, after marriage, this 
 couple settled here instead of retiring to some remote 
 nook. However, they lived quietly, and gave no further 
 cause for scandal. 
 
 Apropos to Jews, I one day went to see a Hebrew 
 on some business let us say Gabriel : his friends 
 
 if 
 
 called him the Archangel he was in close confer- 
 ence with another individual, and wanted my advice. 
 There was an introduction, and I found myself in 
 presence of Garcia, the gambler of world-wide fame, 
 who, after breaking bank after bank, ended by being 
 broken himself. 1 He wished Gabriel to advance him 
 
 1 Garcia was ruined by the Due de Morny, in this way. The 
 Duke was at Baden at the same time as the gambler, and wishing 
 to see him play, asked him to take his seat at the tables. Not 
 feeling in luck Garcia at first refused, but, on being pressed, 
 consented, and lost a fabulous sum.
 
 70 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 money to recommence his triumphs, explaining to 
 him how success was certain, and how Fortune 
 favoured the bold. Gabriel was sorely tempted to 
 charter Garcia and to try his luck, and I was appealed 
 to. I did not tell Gabriel that I had once burned rny 
 fingers over a martingale in a speculation similar to 
 that now proposed to him. I simply refused to pro- 
 nounce an opinion on what was a matter of chance, 
 with no more solid base to argue upon than the 
 freaks of Dame Fortune, with so much in favour of 
 the bank. In the end the Archangel declined to be 
 lured by the brilliant expectations of the tempter, 
 and the tempter himself got into sad troubles shortly 
 afterwards. 
 
 There was then living in a sumptuous apartment in 
 the Champs Elyse'es a distinguished member of the 
 demi-monde, an Italian named Barucchi, who gave 
 parties, which were anything but " small tea," when a 
 deal of gambling was done. To one of these Garcia 
 was invited, and when he took the bank there was such 
 a speedy transfer of coin that some of the sufferers 
 began to suspect foul play, and finally the cards were 
 seized and found to be marked. This was the end of 
 Garcia here. There were evil tongues who whispered 
 that the mistress of the house was in the swindle. 
 However that may be, she soon afterwards disappeared 
 from the scene, and people no longer beheld her, 
 magnificently attired, driving round the lake in the
 
 DEMI-MONDE 71 
 
 Bois de Boulogne reclining in a splendid phaeton, horses 
 and liveries all to match. 
 
 By the way B informed me one day that Gabriel 
 
 was not a strictly upright and conscientious merchant 
 that there were three Gabriels, brothers, who played 
 into each other's hands, one residing here, another in 
 London, the third at Vienna. When anything went 
 wrong with the Gabriel here he saddled it on the 
 Gabriel in London, and the Gabriel of London white- 
 washed himself at the expense of the Gabriel of Vienna, 
 and so on all round. And, if I am rightly informed, 
 the three Gabriels, in their time as incomprehensible 
 to the ordinary mind as the mystery of the Trinity, 
 gave the law-courts of France, England, and Austria 
 much thread to unravel, and, thanks to the difficulty 
 of proving their entity, slipped through a countless 
 number of meshes. Each Gabriel was pure where he 
 
 "squatted," the other two being evil-doers. B 
 
 told me that Gabriel's chief business lay in insuring 
 ships beyond their value, and getting the captains tp 
 run them ashore. As chance would have it, I had 
 hardly learned these peculiarities when I met Gabriel 
 on the Boulevards looking as jovial as possible. In 
 reply to my greeting, " Ah ! M. Gabriel," he assumed a 
 most woe-begone expression, exclaiming "Have you 
 heard of my misfortune ? " I answered " No," upon 
 which he whined out that he had just lost another ship, 
 which had run aground going into New York. "And
 
 72 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 the insurance money ! " I said, and walked on with a 
 laugh. 
 
 I met Gabriel but once afterwards, in the Avenue 
 des Champs Elysees, whither he had transferred his 
 household gods. He told me that he had just married 
 his daughter to a French nobleman, and so I concluded 
 that he had prospered in his nefarious practices, and 
 had lost more ships. As the young lady was of very 
 unprepossessing appearance he could not have sold 
 her into bondage, but on the contrary must have given 
 her a handsome dowry. 
 
 I have mentioned the audacity with which women 
 of the demi-monde assumed great and honoured names, 
 trailing them in the mire. One curious case of a 
 double usurpation came under my notice some years 
 ago. I one day returned the visit of a gentleman who 
 had called to thank me for some civility shown to him 
 by my family in Ireland. I found him seated in a 
 garden at the back of a charming little house close to 
 the Champs Elysees. He had evidently just finished 
 breakfast; evidently also some one had been startled 
 
 by my visit and had flown. E and I were soon 
 
 on good terms; the day was hot, and I should be 
 ashamed to say how many bottles of the most exquisite 
 champagne were emptied before we rose from table to 
 
 take a drive in the Bois. E had given 900 for 
 
 the trotter which whisked us along at a pace which I 
 considered alarming, and which he asked me if I did
 
 DEMI-MONDE 73 
 
 not think "respectable!" The animal was, I believe, 
 of the Orloff breed, and was one of a pair given to 
 Kahil Bey by the Emperor of Russia. The other 
 having been killed by an accident, the Bey parted with 
 the one behind which I had the honour of sitting. 
 
 I was rather astonished at the luxury which E 
 
 displayed in Paris, as in Galway he had lived very 
 quietly, and had never done anything to astonish the 
 natives beyond eating young donkey a taste he had 
 acquired in South America. He explained to me 
 afterwards that he had lost several relatives within a 
 few days of each other, on the eve of the celebrated 
 " Black Monday " ; that they had all left him money, 
 which, when the crash carne, he invested in stock 
 which had fallen to next-to-nothing, but which rose 
 again after the panic had subsided. This accounted 
 for the hotel furnished with old Irish oak, for the 
 champagne, for the trotter, and for the lady who had 
 fled at my approach when I entered the garden. And 
 who was she ? Well, she had been married to the son 
 
 of an Irish marquis, and she was Lady A. C . She 
 
 had ran away from his lordship, who was a very de- 
 plorable lot, and at the time I speak of had formed 
 a third alliance. She used to give herself out as a 
 French lady of high rank Alphonsine Louise Laure 
 de Narbonne. All I know is that her first admirer 
 found her getting up linen, and induced her to leave 
 her iron and follow him. She had been an extremely
 
 74 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 lovely woman, but when she met E she was no 
 
 longer in the flower of youth and beauty's pride, but 
 must have gained a good stock of experience. I 
 very seldom went to the hotel in the Rue de Vernet. 
 
 E , who came of good people, ought not to have 
 
 been vulgar, but he was, and having taken a lady of 
 title to his bosom, he made his servants call him "my 
 lord ! " I was rather astonished one day to learn that 
 
 E had been driven out of his little Paradise by 
 
 his irregular Eve. The Black Monday fortune had 
 dwindled down considerably, and the ex-washerwoman, 
 foreseeing a catastrophe at no distant date, had warned 
 
 her lover off the premises. E could do nothing ; 
 
 he had taken the house in her name, and she kept all 
 the beautiful carved oak and other chattels. 
 
 When the legitimate lord and husband heard of this, 
 he hurried back to take possession, and violent was 
 the scene which passed between him and his erratic 
 spouse. Alphonsine Louise Laure nearly died of vexa- 
 tion. It was she who had killed cock-robin, and she 
 was not to enjoy the prey ! When there was nothing 
 to make the pot boil, the shackles of matrimony had 
 been knocked from her delicate Avrists, and she had 
 been allowed, as they say here, " to throw her cap over 
 the windmill," and now that she had realized what she 
 fondly thought was independence, she was to resume 
 her fetters! In the end matters were arranged; his 
 lordship consented to depart for a consideration, and
 
 DEMI-MONDE 75 
 
 Alphonsine Louise Laure once more became a grass 
 widow, and was conspicuous for her ill-doings. In the 
 end she died, I believe, of shame arid anger at having 
 been made the dupe of a handsome but profligate 
 young Englishman of high family, who relieved her of 
 a portion of her treasure. Ah ! " the gods are just, and 
 of our pleasant sins make instruments to scourge us." 
 
 And what a pickle was the nephew of his lordship ! 
 I first made his acquaintance when I was a lad at 
 Rugby. He had been a Queen's page, and then went 
 into the Guards, but not for long; then he lived, if not 
 on his own wits, on the credulity of others and a 
 sinecure. He was an Apollo on a rather small scale, 
 if one can imagine the son of Jupiter and Latona with 
 a strong brogue. At Rugby, where he took up his 
 hunting quarters, his mode of life was so opposed to all 
 notions of morality that he was requested to leave that 
 ancient seat of learning, and many of the tradespeople 
 were foolish enough to regret his departure, for had he 
 remained longer their anguish would have been more 
 poignant. 
 
 I saw him casually in after life, and one day met 
 him in the Champs Elyse'es, when he told me that he 
 was going to be married, and that he was waiting for 
 
 his betrothed, Mrs. X , whose divorce had made 
 
 some noise in the world. As he expressed a wish to 
 introduce me, I remained with him till the lady made 
 her appearance. She was strikingly handsome, with a
 
 76 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 beautiful complexion, hair, and eyes, but rather too 
 much of a grenadier for Apollo. The marriage took 
 place, and whether the pair were happy or unhappy 
 during the honeymoon I know not ; but Apollo shortly 
 grew weary of his lady, and coolly informed her that 
 their marriage was null and void, as it had been con- 
 tracted one day too soon after the divorce. The matter 
 was taken into Court, and the Court had to decide in 
 
 favour of the defendant, who had conducted Mrs. X 
 
 to the altar 364 days after her previous marriage had 
 been dissolved instead of 365 as the law enacts. It 
 cannot be said that the reputation of the gentleman 
 suffered by this little bit of infamy ; it was too lament- 
 able for that already. He became an earl, and then a 
 marquis, but I don't think that he ever ventured to 
 take his seat in the House of Lords. 
 
 VIII 
 DEPUTIES, 1889, AND THE PKESS 
 
 ON January 17, 1873, I made the following observa- 
 tions in my daily letter to the Pall Mall Gazette, then 
 edited by Mr. Frederick Greenwood 
 
 "A number of provincial journalists had an interview 
 yesterday with the redoubtable quaestor of the Chamber, 
 M. Baze. These gentlemen humbly requested that 
 some accommodation might be afforded them for
 
 DEPUTIES, 1889, AND THE PRESS 77 
 
 following the debates, but the manner of their reception 
 by M. Baze left little doubt as to the result of the 
 application. The deputation withdrew, much irritated 
 at the uncourteous language of the quaestor, who de- 
 clared, among other things, that the old official analysis 
 of the proceedings of the Assembly would be resorted 
 to once more. This is very grievous, but it must be 
 remembered that no one has been more badgered by 
 the Press than M. Baze by the slings and arrows of 
 adverse criticism. The tone, also, of many of the papers 
 in dealing with the Assembly is calculated to bring the 
 Chamber into contempt, and to irritate deputies with 
 the fourth estate. M. Gambetta's one eye, M. Dufaure's 
 nose and waistcoat, M. Ernest Picard's rotundity, M. 
 Naquet's hump, M. Batbie's volume, and the personal 
 peculiarities of other members, are subjects for constant 
 merriment on the part of several widely circulating 
 journals, who despatch the funniest man on their staff 
 to do the Chamber. Turning to the Figaro of this 
 morning, I find the following pen-and-ink sketch of 
 M. Belcastel, who yesterday asked for some explanations 
 respecting the Roman incident. The funny man says 
 ' M. de Belcastel is less of a deputy than an apostle. 
 He is one of those ascetic old monks of days gone by, 
 with an angular head, pointed cranium, a yellow worn- 
 out face, thin straight nose, grey eyes, hollow cheeks : 
 he is thin, long, bony, wearied with fasting and prayer, 
 and devoured by a single thought mystical and pro-
 
 78 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 found. His beard is short and grey like that of the old 
 Christian martyrs, and envelops a wrinkled and austere 
 mouth. The voice of M. de Belcastel is shaky, stifled, 
 and without warmth. . . . He is a Peter the Hermit in 
 a riding-coat,' &c. c. M. Albert Millaud, the author 
 of the above sketch, concluded his report with the fol- 
 lowing fable, entitled, 'M. Dufaure's nose and Provi- 
 dence,' which he attributes to M. Baze, the quaestor 
 
 " ' Dieu fait bien ce qu'il fait. Personne ne 1'ignore. 
 Or, qui fit le nez de Dufaure ? 
 C'est Dieu ce createur parfait. 
 
 MORAL. 
 Le nez de Dufaure est bien fait.' " 
 
 M. Baze is dead and gone long ago, but the funny 
 man remains, and deputies are still held up to ridicule, 
 as witness the following sketches of members sitting in 
 the present Parliament, culled from the columns of the 
 Figaro. I am told that deputies don't object, and, 
 rather than be passed over in silence, prefer having 
 their weak points, botli mental and physical, exposed to 
 the public view. The old French maxim that ridicule 
 kills must certainly be wrong. But the sketches 
 
 " COSMAO, DUMANEZ. Fifty-two years of age. Doctor. 
 Will not make much noise in the Chamber. Is called 
 in his part of the country the mute doctor. Kosraao 
 in Breton means old sheep ; surname well suited to the 
 new deputy, who will vote like a sheep any way that 
 his chiefs desire."
 
 DEPUTIES, 18S9, AND THE PEESS 79 
 
 "M. HENON. Barrister at Qniinper. Republican, 
 married, moderate fortune, belongs to a family of 
 artisans, patronized by the Comte de Came. Much 
 amusement was caused during the elections by the 
 production of the following letter 
 
 ' M. LE COMTE, 
 
 ' I shall feel much obliged if you will be kind 
 enough to obtain a bourse for the son of your quondam 
 shoemaker. 
 
 ' HEN ON, PERE.' 
 
 Henon fils is a hard worker and a distinguished 
 orator." 
 
 " CITIZEN BAUDIN. Engaged in a porcelain manu- 
 factory. Socialist. Small, thick-set, long black beard ; 
 looks intelligent ; head of an apostle. Condemned to 
 death by default for the part he played during the 
 Commune. Was sent to prison for provoking several 
 strikes." 
 
 " DOCTOR GRISEZ, Belfort. Type of a rural doctor. 
 Numerous patients, there being no other medical man 
 in the district where he resides. Brought up in a 
 seminary. Lisps. Will amuse the Chamber if he 
 speaks. Will vote in favour of all Jacobin measures. 
 Is a Catholic because he was born one, but is an enemy 
 of religion. Reminds us that Darwin and Littre pretend 
 that man descends from the monkey." 
 
 " DOCTOR MANDEVILLE. Like most country doctors,
 
 80 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 vulgar in his manners and without distinction in his 
 profession; incapable of pronouncing two consecutive 
 phrases in public. No limits to his ambition. . . ." 
 
 "DOCTOR DAVID. A very amiable, gay, and clever 
 dentist. The author of several works on dental surgery. 
 Knight of the Legion of Honour. . . ." 
 
 " DOCTOR HERBET. Opportuniste and medico. 
 Agreeable physiognomy. Small fortune. Bachelor." 
 
 "DOCTOR LANGLET. Cold, serious, intelligent, few- 
 patients, not rich enough to bring up his family without 
 fees. Radical. Honest and austere. Has some diffi- 
 culty in expressing himself in public." 
 
 "DOCTOR THOMAS. High colour, jovial face, but 
 sarcastic smile; loses his temper easily. . . ." 
 
 "DOCTOR RET. Another country doctor. Takes 
 great interest in agricultural and viticultural questions. 
 Looks like a churchwarden in Sunday clothes. An 
 income of about 1200." 
 
 " M. DEVILLE-GAMBETTA was the son of a grocer ; he 
 was a grocer himself, and, after having acquired a certain 
 competence, was elected mayor, then Councillor-General, 
 then deputy. Obstinate, good father, honest, and in 
 spite of his uncouth manners would not hurt a fly." 
 
 " M. DAVID. Returned for Chateauroux because he 
 is the son of his father, and because, at fairs, he sits 
 down at table with peasants and horse-dealers. Middle 
 height; pericranium lugubriously bald and shiny. 
 Between the occiput and the fatty fold of the neck
 
 DEPUTIES, 1889, AND THE PRESS 81 
 
 there is a narrow fringe of bright red hair. Large 
 fortune. Bachelor. Priest-hater. Was rejected for 
 military service during the war of 1870 owing to his 
 obesity." 
 
 " GENERAL MACADARAS. A mystery and a marvel. 
 Brought over a free corps in 1870, and hence ' General.' 
 An Irishman. He was formerly a captain in the 
 Indian army. It is related at Sisteron that he won 
 battles all alone. Disappeared after the war. Re- 
 appeared three years later very rich, took a mansion in 
 Paris, and purchased a chateau at Sisteron. Always 
 took a prompter to public meetings. He talked of 
 le Btp-i&Mique, which did not prevent him from beating 
 his Republican rival." 
 
 "CoMTE LEMERCIER. The new deputy for Saintes 
 was born the same day as the Comte de Chambord. 
 His mother, a daughter of Marshal Jourdan, died in 
 giving him birth. Widower. No children ; 5000 a 
 year. He is justly blamed because, though an ardent 
 Conservative and strict Catholic, he patronizes with 
 speech and purse all the ungodly, freethinking, atheist- 
 ical, and freemasonic works in his department. He 
 breakfasts with the Almighty, and sups with the Evil 
 One." 
 
 "M. GARNIER. Returned for Marennes. Rich. 
 Married. If Roger Bacon had not discovered the secret 
 .of powder, he would still fight with a crossbow. Was 
 
 elected Councillor-General in 1867, when he had a 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 splendid Court costume made, in which he appeared 
 at the Tuileries; his waistcoat was decorated with 
 diamonds of the first water, which, since 1871, are used 
 by Mme. Gamier to adorn the body of her dress." 
 
 IX 
 A BALL 
 
 I SHALL never forget an incident which took place 
 at my first French ball. I knew nothing of the host 
 or hostess, who were musical celebrities, and owed my 
 
 invitation to Mme. de V , whose husband possessed 
 
 large vineyards in Champagne. About midnight I was 
 
 dancing a quadrille with Mme. de V as my partner, 
 
 and her daughter was vis-d-vis. Suddenly there was 
 a flutter. A servant made a communication to the 
 hostess, the hostess whispered something to Mme. de 
 
 V , who rushed over with the news to her daughter, 
 
 and all three vanished, exhibiting signs of great excite- 
 ment. Our quadrille was dislocated, and the gentleman 
 opposite and myself, with our partners flown, were left 
 looking at each other in mute astonishment. About 
 
 ten minutes elapsed, when Mme. de V returned 
 
 and explained the mystery. Her daughter had been 
 married about twelve months before, and had brought 
 a baby to the ball. This infant, installed in a neigh- 
 bouring room, had been roused from his slumbers,
 
 A BALL 83 
 
 and requiring sustenance, had commenced to squall, 
 and it was to appease him that the young mother 
 
 had been hastily summoned, and Mme. de V , 
 
 of course, thought it necessary to accompany her 
 daughter. I was all the more amused by this 
 family incident, as for a moment I had been seized 
 with a vague alarm that some untoward accident 
 had happened. Although a grandmother, Mme. de 
 
 V was extremely young-looking and handsome, 
 
 and while her features beamed with intelligence and 
 good-nature, there was something very majestic in her 
 bearing. 
 
 When the ball was over, I was rather surprised to 
 hear the host, who seemed to be 
 
 " Washing his hands with invisible soap 
 In imperceptible water," 
 
 express his intense satisfaction to Mme. de V that 
 
 all the ladies had done him the honour to appear in 
 new dresses. This observation, coming from the master 
 of the house, appeared to me rather strange, but M. 
 
 B was far too highly flattered to conceal his 
 
 delight.
 
 84< KECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 CLOSE OF THE EMPIRE 
 
 IN 1867 we had a Universal Exhibition in the Champs 
 de Mars, which was a great success in every way. It 
 was not so large as that which followed, after the fall 
 of the Empire, when Marshal MacMahon was President, 
 but it was much more enjoyable. It attracted to Paris 
 not only a vast concourse of people from all quarters 
 of the globe, but several crowned heads, and but for 
 a formidable display of artillery and a monster Krupp 
 gun, we might have thought ourselves on the eve of 
 the millennium. At last, said people, the famous 
 declaration made at Bordeaux in 1852 L' Empire c'est 
 la paix is about to receive its consecration. The 
 Bordeaux declaration, it is true, had been swiftly 
 followed by the Crimean War, and afterwards there had 
 been war with Austria, and military expeditions not a 
 few. 
 
 The mention of the Bordeaux incident reminds me 
 of a couple of good anecdotes. The declaration of the 
 newly-crowned Emperor was hailed with such delight 
 in Paris, that directly it was known, the Theatre 
 Franqais announced in its play-bill " Cantate
 
 L'EMHRE C'EST LA PAIX 85 
 
 L Empire c'est la paix." As ill-luck, and certainly not 
 design, would have it, the last piece mentioned in the 
 same play-bill was one of Alfred de Musset's charming 
 proverbs, as they are called, entitled " II ne faut jurer 
 de rien!" 
 
 Anecdote number two is this Bordeaux went to 
 vast expense to give the Emperor a reception worthy, 
 if not of his fame, of his name, and at one spot a 
 splendid triumphal arch had been constructed, from 
 which a superb crown of flowers with this legend " II 
 I'a lien mdrite " was to descend as his Majesty passed 
 through. Unfortunately on the night preceding the 
 entry, there had been a violent storm which had 
 disarranged the mechanism, and when the proper 
 moment for lowering the crown arrived, the rope and 
 the legend alone descended ! It may be easily 
 imagined that this little contretemps, which set the 
 wits in a roar, was carefully hushed up. 
 
 The first two great sovereigns to visit Paris were the 
 Czar, who was put up at the Elysee, and the King of 
 Prussia, who was lodged in the Tuileries. The Emperor 
 of Austria and the Sultan arrived afterwards. Driving 
 along the Rue de Rivoli one sultry evening on the top 
 of a coach, I remember seeing his Majesty William dining 
 with some dozen guests, looking the picture of amia- 
 bility. The windows of the banquet-hall were wide open. 
 A few days afterwards I had another and better 
 view of the Prussian monarch. There was a grand
 
 86 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 review held in the Bois de Boulogne, to which I duly 
 repaired, and the better to see I scrambled up on the 
 roof of a cab. Hardly had I attained that elevated 
 position, when a detachment of the Cent-Gardes swept 
 by, and a few minutes later came riding abreast three 
 sovereigns followed by a numerous and brilliant staff 
 the Emperor Napoleon III., with the King of Prussia 
 on his right and the Czar on his left, and they all 
 reined up at a few paces from me, for the French 
 Emperor, seeing that the Cent-Gardes had taken a 
 wrong direction, had sent an aide-de-camp forward 
 to rectify the error, and while this was being done a 
 halt was called, and the three' potentates sat on their 
 steeds conversing very cheerfully almost within earshot 
 of where I was perched. 
 
 This same visit, by the way, very nearly had a fatal 
 termination for the Czar, for on returning to Paris in 
 an open carriage with the Emperor, he was fired at by 
 a Pole called Berezowski. Fortunately the bullet 
 missed the Czar, and the only damage it did was to 
 wound the horse of an aide-de-camp and a lady called 
 Madame Laborie, whose acquaintance I afterwards made ; 
 she was very little hurt. Naturally this untoward 
 event caused great excitement and indignation, and it 
 seemed likely for a moment that there would be a 
 massacre of Polish refugees, or at all events that they 
 would be banished from France. The Czar, however, 
 behaved very well in the matter, and the ferment
 
 VIVE LA POLOGNE 87 
 
 cooled down. The Ultras of course excused the 
 attempt. 
 
 On another occasion poor Nicolas was publicly 
 insulted. He was paying a visit to the Palais de 
 Justice, when a rising young lawyer of extreme 
 opinions went up to him and shouted " Vive la Pologne, 
 Monsieur ! " in his face. This was M. Floquet, who 
 afterwards modified his opinions, became President of 
 the Chamber, served in more than one administration, 
 and in 1888 filled the post of Prime Minister, or 
 President of the Council as it is called here. In 1888, 
 by the way, the Russian alliance was the great hobby, 
 and it was feared for a time that the formation of a 
 Floquet Ministry would be resented at St. Petersburg. 
 However, the Russian Government consented to over- 
 look M. Floquet's early bad manner and youthful 
 indiscretion. The above incident reminded me of 
 Peter the Great, who probably visited the Palais de 
 Justice during his stay in Paris at all events he 
 visited the courts in London, and was much astonished 
 at the number of lawyers he saw " I have only two," 
 he said, "in all my dominions, and I intend to hang 
 one on my return." 
 
 At this moment there are a great many Poles of 
 high and low degree in Paris, and one of Napoleon's 
 pet aides-de-camp is Prince Poniatowski (grandson of 
 the hero who perished in the waves of the Elster), with 
 whom I am acquainted. He is loud in his praises of
 
 88 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 the Emperor, and told me the other day that only upon 
 one occasion had he received a reprimand from him. 
 This was at Compiegne, where their Majesties were 
 entertaining a select circle. The Baroness Burdett 
 Coutts had been invited, and was to arrive for dinner. 
 Dinner was announced, but there was no Baroness. 
 The Emperor insisted upon waiting. Still her chariot- 
 wheels tarried. An hour, two hours slipped away, but 
 at last she came. Prince Poniatowski had forgotten 
 to send to the station for her, and in despair she had 
 at length chartered a country vehicle of some sort, had 
 arrived at her destination, and had dressed. Naturally 
 the Prince was reprimanded for his neglect. 
 
 The Poles had always been popular in France, if not 
 from the time when the Duke of Anjou, afterwards 
 Henri III. of France, was King of Poland, at all events 
 since the days of Louis XV., who married Maria 
 Leczinska, daughter of Stanislas, the exiled King of 
 Poland. In 1733 came the war of the Polish Succes- 
 sion, which ended in France acquiring Lorraine for 
 Stanislas, with reversion to herself on his death. In 
 1772 came the first partition of Poland, which was a 
 sad blow to French influence, and was not accomplished 
 without a struggle in which Francis Dumouriez, Choisy, 
 and other French officers took a brilliant part. The 
 same year France annexed Lorraine and Corsica. The 
 second and third partitions of Poland speedily followed ; 
 both hateful to France, then unable to interfere, being
 
 POLAND 89 
 
 in the throes of the First Revolution, and "freedom 
 shrieked when Kosciusko fell," crying Finis Polonice. 1 
 Under the First Empire, Poles flocked to the standard 
 of Napoleon, allured by his fallacious promises of 
 re-establishing their kingdom. There was a Polish 
 campaign : battles or butcheries of Eylau and Friedland, 
 followed by Treaty of Tilsit, but no reconstruction of 
 Poland, which Napoleon never seriously contemplated, 
 only the creation of a Duchy of Warsaw, which did not 
 long exist. It was when at Warsaw that Napoleon 
 had a liaison with the Countess Walewska, who bore 
 him a son, whom the Poles thought and hoped might 
 one day reign over them. This was the Count 
 Walewski, who under the Second Empire rose to be 
 Foreign Minister, and was afterwards President of the 
 Chamber. To come down to our days : in 1830 there 
 was a rising in Poland, and another in 1861, which was 
 put down with such cruelty that France remonstrated, 
 and war with Russia was on the point of breaking out, 
 the Poles fondly hoping that Count Walewski would 
 induce Napoleon to strike a blow in their favour. 
 Numbers of Polish refugees flocked to France, were 
 welcomed with open arms, and received pensions. As 
 late as 1891, there were one hundred and forty-eight 
 
 1 Kosciusko escaped, and settled for a while in France. In 1812, 
 Napoleon tried to persuade him, but in vain, to join in the march 
 to Moscow, but he doubted the intentions of the Emperor, after 
 the Tilsit affair.
 
 90 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 of these unfortunates, including Theodore Wydle, 
 aide-de-camp to Dictator Langiewicz, in receipt of 
 pensions. 
 
 No wonder that the sympathies of liberal France 
 were on the side of the Poles, and shortly after the 
 attempt on the life of the Czar there was a revulsion 
 of feeling in their favour, which was so manifest that 
 the Government did not venture to have Berezowski 
 executed ; he was merely transported to La Nouvelle, as 
 the French criminal classes call New Caledonia. 
 
 Two events, before the close of 1867, caused much 
 excitement and a painful impression in Paris the news 
 of the death of the Emperor Maximilian in Mexico, and 
 the wonders worked by the chassepot rifle at Mentana. 
 The tragedy with which "the brightest idea of his 
 reign " terminated was a sad blow to the popularity of 
 Napoleon III. and the prestige of France, while his 
 Italian policy was strongly condemned by all lovers of 
 freedom, whose sympathy was enlisted on the side of 
 Garibaldi, and not on that of the Pope. On the eve 
 of conferring liberal institutions at home, the French 
 Emperor attacked liberty beyond the Alps. 
 
 I was a pretty good cricket-player in my youth, and 
 when at Rugby rose to be second in the eleven. I 
 more than once played with old Lillywhite, who was 
 the first to introduce round-arm bowling, and on one 
 occasion I was asked to play with the All England 
 eleven, which in those days used to travel about playing
 
 CRICKET 91 
 
 the different counties, and generally took one gentle- 
 man with them. My parents, however, would not allow 
 me to accept the offer. In 1867 I played my last 
 match during the Exhibition. A small cricket club 
 had been formed here, and one day the Emperor and 
 Empress came to witness the game, which was duly 
 explained to their Majesties by the secretary, Mr. 
 Sparks. They even examined a cricket-ball. This 
 visit saved the club, for a few days afterwards an old 
 Oxford man while making a run tripped, fell, and broke 
 his arm. The matter was at once reported to the 
 police, and the club was going to be shut up as danger- 
 ous had not an appeal to the Emperor prevented so 
 dire a contingency. With the aid of some artillery- 
 men, who had come over with English guns to the 
 Exhibition, we got up a very fair eleven, of which I 
 was captain, and played a foreign eleven an eleven of 
 Spaniards ! Spaniards, or Spanish-speaking lads, from 
 the South American Republic, who were being educated 
 in England, and had come over to Paris to see the 
 Exhibition. Strange to say, this match was played on 
 a plot of ground in the Bois de Boulogne known as 
 the lawn of Madrid a lawn in front of a chalet called 
 Madrid, because Francis I. inhabited it for a time on 
 his return to France, after having been released from 
 captivity in Spain. Alas ! we lost the match by one 
 run. The Spanish bowling was a trifle too good for us. 
 The French have never taken to cricket. In the
 
 92 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 South a funny incident happened with some English- 
 men, who were indulging in the national pastime. The 
 mayor of the commune, in which they were playing, un- 
 able to understand what it was all about, and suspecting 
 something dangerous to the safety of the State, con- 
 fiscated bats, balls, and wickets, and sent them to Paris, 
 asking for instructions. This was on a par with the 
 rising which took place in Brittany, on the introduction 
 of eight-day clocks, the peasants suspecting that they 
 had some connection with the hated salt tax ! 
 
 A short time ago I saw a sketch in an illustrated 
 paper representing " Napoleon cutting his corns before 
 Waterloo," and I reflected on the indifferent manner 
 in which his countrymen still talk of that great disaster. 
 
 " We do not curse thee, Waterloo ! " 
 
 wrote Byron in An Ode from, the French; the funds 
 went up as soon as the news of the defeat reached Paris, 
 and Louis XVIII. was shortly afterwards welcomed back 
 once more to the capital by his fickle subjects, though 
 not with the enthusiasm of 1814. 1 What a light- 
 
 1 In 1814, at a gala representation given at the Opera, in 
 honour of the Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia, the 
 allied sovereigns were most enthusiastically received, and songs 
 were sung in their praise, commencing thus 
 
 " Vive Alexandre ! 
 Vive ce roi des rois, &c. 
 
 Vive Guillaume 
 
 Et ses guerriers vaillants," &c.
 
 WATERLOO 93 
 
 hearted people ! The memorable phrase, never uttered 
 La garde meurt et ne se rend pas half consoled them 
 for the loss of the battle. I have often had French- 
 men say to me, after losing money at cards " It's my 
 Waterloo." 
 
 On August 2, 1761, Voltaire wrote "I always 
 imagine, when some great disaster occurs, that the 
 French will be serious for six weeks. I have not yet 
 been able to get over the idea." 
 
 However, Voltaire himself erred in this way : con- 
 tinually covering serious matters with ridicule. I read 
 an apology the other day for this method. Voltaire, 
 said the writer, was thoroughly French, and the frivolity 
 of his language, and sometimes of his conduct, explains 
 his enormous influence over his contemporaries, and 
 over France of to-day. In Candide (ch. xxiii.), where 
 he wants to console his countrymen for the loss of 
 Canada, he makes Martin speak of that colony as a few 
 acres of snow. And how did he write to Frederick the 
 Great, after that monarch had so roughly handled 
 Soubise and his army at Rossbach ? 
 
 " Hero clu Nord, je savais bien 
 Que vous tailleriez des croupieres 
 Aux soldats du Roi tres chretien 
 Qui vous montreraient leurs derrieres ! " 
 
 Be it remembered that at Rossbach the French lost 
 3000 killed, 7000 prisoners, and sixty-three guns, and 
 that Soubise wrote to Louis XV. " I address your
 
 94 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 Majesty in the depth of my despair. The defeat of 
 your army is total; I cannot tell you how many of 
 your officers have been killed or captured." What 
 remained of the army was dispersed, and the unfortunate 
 General knew not what had become of it. Paris re- 
 venged itself in satiric songs and epigrams of this 
 description 
 
 " Soubise dit, lanterne a la main : 
 J'ai beau chercher ou diable est mon armee : 
 Elle e"tait la pourtant hier matin. 
 Me l'a-t-on prise, ou 1'aurais j'egaree ? 
 Ah ! je perdi tout : je suis un etourcli." 
 
 And the next year when Clermont, 1 nicknamed by 
 Frederick the Great the General of the Benedictines, 
 lost the battle of Crevelt, Paris sang 
 
 " Moitie plumet, moitie rabat, 
 Aussi propre & 1'un comme a 1'autre, 
 Clermont se bat comme un apotre, 
 Me sert Dieu comme il se bat." 
 
 Or, half feathers, half bands, as fit for one as for the 
 other, Clermont fights like an apostle, and serves God 
 as he fights. 
 
 It is true that poor Clermont's army was, as a French 
 historian (Duruy) says, " very badly composed." When 
 he took over the command from Richelieu, " he had to 
 cashier eighty officers, and one saw 12,000 carts of 
 
 1 The Count de Clermont, who belonged to the family of 
 Conde, was titular Abbe of St. Germain des Pres, and hence the 
 jokes aimed at him as a Churchman.
 
 SONGS AND EPIGRAMS 95 
 
 traders and sutlers with the army. On the day of 
 battle there were 6000 marauders absent from the 
 ranks." 
 
 Taine, in Les Origines de la France Contemporaine, 
 has noticed this fury of his countrymen for turning 
 everything into songs and epigrams " Alliances, battles, 
 taxes, treaties, ministries, coups d'ttats." And he tells 
 us how some young gentlemen of the Court, after dis- 
 cussing the mot of the day, recapitulated all the songs 
 made on the disasters of France " The song on the 
 battle of Hochstadt (Blenheim) was found bad, and 
 some of them said on this subject, ' I am sorry for the 
 loss of this battle ; the song is worth nothing.' 1 As a 
 set-off, the song on the battle of Rosbach was found 
 charming." 
 
 The other day I read a work recently published, The 
 Memoirs o/Canlcr, which contains a very graphic account 
 of the great battle, or a corner of the field. As a 
 conscript's view of what passed, I found it so interesting 
 that I translated it. 
 
 1 We had our popular verses about Blenheim, in which 
 Southey said, for example 
 
 " And everybody praised the Duke, 
 Who such a fight did win. 
 But what good came of it at last ? 
 Quoth little Peterkin. 
 Why, that I cannot tell, said he, 
 But 'twas a famous victory."
 
 96 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 XI 
 THE LATTER DAYS 
 
 HENRI ROCHEFORT did more at this time than any 
 one else to render the Second Empire unpopular, with 
 La Lanterne, a small pamphlet with red cover, which 
 appeared every morning, and greatly rejoiced the Parisian 
 mind. It was very audacious, very incisive, and very 
 witty; it was eagerly purchased, and its circulation 
 soon touched 100,000 copies. It said that there were 
 36,000,000 subjects in France, without counting those 
 of dissatisfaction, and it flagellated the Imperial system 
 with scorpions. Naturally this could not long be toler- 
 ated, and one morning Paris learned on awaking that 
 Citizen Rochefort, ci-devant Marquis, had quitted its 
 walls and had shifted his quarters to Belgium to avoid 
 arrest. After this flight it was of course very difficult 
 to procure La Lanterne, the publication of which was 
 continued over the frontier. Copies, however, were 
 to be had, if not for love, for money. They used 
 to be smuggled into France in a variety of ways, 
 and on one occasion the "merchant" who furnished 
 me now and again with a copy at an average price 
 of from four to eight shillings, received a supply 
 enclosed in a bust of his Imperial Majesty Napoleon 
 III. ! Of course persecution rendered the little red
 
 THE ELECTIONS 97 
 
 pamphlet more popular than ever, giving it the savour 
 of stolen fruit, and the more it was persecuted the 
 fiercer and more relentless it became. When the 
 Emperor felt that the ground was slipping from 
 under his feet, he determined to resort to a direct 
 appeal to the nation. The Constitution of 1852 had 
 been modified in 1860, and France was now asked to 
 approve of the liberal modifications made since the 
 latter date. Seven and a half million of voters out of 
 nine million replied Yes ! upon which Henri Roche- 
 fort took up his pen and wrote that Napoleon III. 
 resembled a sick man getting out of bed and painting 
 his face before venturing to look into the glass. And 
 in fact, in spite of the Senatus Consultum and the 
 seven and a half million voters, the Empire was sick 
 unto death. 
 
 In the month of May we had a general election, 
 which was disastrous for the Empire. Paris, Lyons, 
 Marseilles, and a number of other large constituencies, 
 went dead against the Government. There was a great 
 deal of excitement and some rioting in the provinces 
 and the capital. I attended several of the political 
 meetings in Paris, and was amazed at the violence with 
 which the proceedings were conducted and the absurdity 
 of the theories advocated. At the Chatelet theatre, M. 
 Ernile Olivier, who had adhered to the liberal Empire, 
 met with a stormy reception, and it was long before he 
 could obtain a hearing. It was all in vain that he 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 spoke at the top of his voice, all he said was drowned 
 in uproar. He hit upon another plan which met 
 with all the success it deserved. Instead of trying 
 to make himself heard above the storm, he lowered 
 his voice and spoke in an almost inaudible tone ; 
 then the people tried to catch what he was saying, 
 and there were cries of Hush ! hush ! and in this 
 way the young orator was able to declare and defend 
 his policy. 
 
 The elections went sadly against the Empire in spite 
 of its new liberal tendencies. In Paris, Marseilles, 
 Lyons, and other large centres the official candidates 
 were nearly all defeated, and it was only after a second 
 ballot that Etnile Olivier was returned. For many 
 years the Opposition consisted of five deputies; after the 
 elections of '66 it rose to thirty-five, and now it counted 
 no less than 116, and among these were Henri Roche- 
 fort, Jules Ferry, and Gambetta, who had from a rather 
 rowdy and impecunious law student just acquired 
 celebrity by the boldness and eloquence with which 
 he defended Delescluze at his trial for a press offence. 
 Just after his speech, a portion of which I heard, I was 
 presented to the young orator and to his client. A 
 short time afterwards I met Gambetta just as he was 
 going into the Chamber for the first time. He looked 
 very awkward in a new suit of clothes, like a tradesman 
 in his Sunday best. We exchanged a few words, and I 
 wished him good luck, little imagining the role he was
 
 THE CHAMBERS 09 
 
 about to play. I did not often go to the Chamber, but 
 I heard Henri Rochefort address the House for the 
 first time. He spoke from his place, contrary to 
 custom, said only a few words, and the subject was 
 one of no importance, but I was much struck by the 
 amount of assurance he displayed. I also heard another 
 speech which has remained impressed on my mind 
 the last speech made by M. Rouher before handing 
 over the reins of office to Emile Olivier, in which he 
 made an eloquent defence of his policy. He was pale 
 with emotion ; he had wielded almost unlimited power 
 for about six years, and was evidently very loath to lay 
 down office. He had succeeded Billault, on the death 
 of that minister, and though shortly after his appoint- 
 ment a wit exclaimed " Quantum mutatus a Billault ! " 
 he was a more able man than his predecessor. He 
 had been given the nickname of the Vice-Emperor. 
 On his resignation he received the comfortable berth 
 of President of the Senate, which he was not long to 
 enjoy. 
 
 Amongst other persons who came prominently to the 
 fore at this period was M. Jules Grevy. He had sat in 
 the Constituent Assembly in 1848, and in order to prevent 
 the election of Louis Napoleon as President of the 
 Republic, had proposed that no member of any family 
 which had reigned in France should be eligible to fill 
 that post. He went even further ; he desired that there 
 should be no President, little foreseeing that he would
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 afterwards himself be twice elected to fill that office. 
 He was in favour of governing by means of Committees 
 as in the days of the Convention, and, as a writer 
 recently remarked, there will always be in Paris more 
 partisans of the regime of the* Convention than of the 
 Presidential regime, which is a sort of elective royalty 
 which easily turns into a dictatorship. It is true that 
 the Convention had sixty-three Presidents who finished 
 badly ; eighteen were guillotined ; three committed 
 suicide ; eight were transported ; six were condemned 
 to perpetual imprisonment ; twenty-two were outlawed ; 
 and four went mad. The sixty-three Presidents above 
 referred to were what we should call chairmen. When 
 I had the pleasure of making his acquaintance, he was 
 lutonnier, or President, of the Paris bar, and had recently 
 been elected to represent the Vosges, of which depart- 
 ment he was a native. His return, at a bye election, 
 was considered the first slap in the face given to the 
 Empire. In those days M. Grevy went every afternoon 
 to the Cafe de la Regence for a game of chess or 
 billiards, and I had been playing at chess with him one 
 day when Jarnes Mortimer asked me if I knew who my 
 opponent was. On replying in the negative, he informed 
 me. M. Grevy was unlike most of his countrymen ; 
 he had no French exuberance, and always maintained 
 a dignity of manner which was an effectual bar to 
 familiarity. However, he was exceedingly amiable, and 
 often furnished me with information on historical and
 
 DUMAS AXD WALEWSKI 101 
 
 other topics, for he was well read, a good classical 
 scholar, and a special admirer of Horace. He used 
 sometimes to unbend so far as to call me Perfide Albion 
 when I got him into difficulties at chess. I may 
 mention that the Cafe de la Regence, in the Rue St. 
 Honore, has long been the head-quarters of chess- 
 players in Paris. In an inner room is a little silver 
 plate let into a marble table which informs the stranger 
 that at that table Bonaparte was accustomed to play, 
 probably in the days of the Revolution, when it was 
 the fashion to say check to the Tyrant instead of to 
 the king. 
 
 A little theatrical incident happened in 1869 which 
 is worth mentioning. Be it observed that one of the 
 privileges of the Theatre Francois is that of being able 
 to take any piece performed at another house and to 
 play it, of course remunerating the author, always 
 enchanted with such an honour. Now when Count 
 Walewski was Minister of the Emperor's household, 
 and had the theatres under his control, the Theatre 
 Francois wished to appropriate the Demi-Monde of the 
 younger Dumas, which had been played with great 
 success at the Gymnase, but Count Walewski forbade 
 the banns on the ground that the comedy was immoral. 
 Alexander Dumas revenged himself by relating how in 
 1840 a piece called LEcole, du Monde, written by M. 
 Walewski, was represented at the Theatre Francois, 
 and how the author in a preface protested against the
 
 102 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 charge of immorality brought against it, saying " In 
 the days in which we live there is a virtue rare and 
 noble in a man, that of having the courage of his 
 opinion." And Alexander Dumas added " A man 
 who, having attained power, says and does exactly the 
 opposite to what he said, thought, and did before he 
 attained it, that is not new, it is not original, but it is 
 always amusing." 
 
 To this of course Count Walewski could only reply 
 tcnipora mutantur. 
 
 This reminds me of a writer who after being appointed 
 to the Censorship received an invitation to dine with 
 several of his old comrades of the Press, and who 
 declined in a witty quatrain, the two last lines of which 
 ran thus 
 
 " A la fois, on ne pent pas etre 
 Braconnier et garde champetre." 
 
 By the way, Count Walewski dedicated his play to 
 Victor Hugo, who was continually at war with the 
 censors. 
 
 Towards the close of 1869, the theatre of the Chatelet 
 announced the performance of " The, Vengeur, naval 
 drama, in five acts." This created some astonishment, 
 as it would be sure to lead to Republican demonstra- 
 tions; but Anastasie, as the censorship is called, had 
 become very indulgent under the Emile Olivier 
 Government, and what had a liberal Empire to fear
 
 'LE VEXGEUR' 103 
 
 from the representation of one of the most heroic acts 
 of the Revolution on the boards of the Chatelet, even 
 to the accompaniment of the Marseillaise ? 
 
 Most people are aware of the French legend of our 
 "glorious first of June," and how the Vcngeur, sooner 
 than strike her flag to " the enemies of human nature," 
 went down with all hands singing the Revolutionary 
 anthem. A report was made upon this sublime affair 
 to the Convention by Bertrand Barrere, the Anacreon 
 of the Guillotine, considered by Carlyle as a greater liar 
 than Mendez Pinto, Munchansen, Cagliostro, or Psal- 
 manazor, and who has received similar treatment at the 
 hands of Macaulay. 1 
 
 Before going to the Chatelet to see this naval drama, 
 I looked over the report of the sitting in the Convention 
 
 1 In his essay on the " Memoirs of Bertrand Barrere, preceded 
 by a historical notice by H. Carnot, 1843," Macaulay says of the 
 hero "There have been many men as cowardly as he, some as 
 cruel, a few as mean, a few as impudent. There may also have 
 been as great liars, though we have never met with them or have 
 read of them." And very hard was Macaulay on the father of our 
 President of the Republic (1892) for his apology of this "spiteful 
 yahoo." "It is no light thing," he wrote, " that a man in high 
 and honourable public trust, a man who from his connections and 
 position may not unnaturally be supposed to speak the sentiments 
 of a large class of his countrymen, should come forward to demand 
 approbation for a life black with every sort of wickedness, and 
 unredeemed by a single virtue. This M. Hippolyte Carnot has 
 done. By attempting to enshrine this Jacobin carrion, he has 
 forced us to gibbet it ; and we venture to say that from the 
 eminence of infamy on which we have placed it, he will not 
 easily take it down."
 
 104 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 at which Barrere read his description of the battle. 
 After expatiating in the language of the period on the 
 heroism of the crew of the Vengeur, he cried " Miser- 
 able slaves of Pitt and of Georges, did you think that 
 French Republicans would deliver themselves into such 
 perfidious hands, or would treat with enemies so vile as 
 you ? No ! The Republic contemplates them, and 
 they will know how to live or die for her . . . They 
 might have deliberated an instant on their fate. But 
 no, citizens, our brothers no longer deliberate ; they see 
 the English and their country ; they prefer going to the 
 bottom to dishonouring themselves by surrendering; 
 they do not hesitate ; their last prayers are for the 
 Republic ; they disappear." 
 
 At this point of the report the whole Convention rose 
 and cried Vive la Rtpublique ! and the greatest emotion 
 reigned in the galleries. It was declared that the 
 English journals had themselves related this sublime 
 episode, and when Barrere resumed his seat the Con- 
 vention, in a fit of enthusiasm, voted a fete and hymns 
 in its honour ; also that a miniature Vengeur should be 
 constructed and suspended from the roof of the Pantheou, 
 and that the names of the sailors composing the crew 
 should be inscribed on one of the pillars in the Temple 
 of Glory. There was no fete ; there were no hymns ; 
 no miniature Vengeur was suspended in the Pantheon, 
 for the truth soon oozed out, and the Revolution had 
 other fish to fry.
 
 'LE VENGEUR' 105 
 
 What happened was this. The Vengeur was sinking, 
 and hung out signals of distress, whereupon "the 
 enemies of human nature " sent boats to her assistance, 
 and rescued 267 officers and men from a watery grave. 
 The captain of the Vengeur was one Renaudin, and it 
 seems that he and his officers were the first to get into the 
 English boats ; then followed the men who were unhurt ; 
 and the sick, the wounded, the dying, and the dead 
 alone went down with the Vengeur. This is what 
 appears from the report of the affair signed by Captain 
 Renaudin and several of his officers, and dated Tavis- 
 tock, 1 1st Messidor, year 11. 
 
 Jal published this report, which is also to be found in 
 the French naval history of Leon Guerin. Notwith- 
 standing this, Renaudin was declared by M. Thiers to 
 have been drowned, and by Lamartine to have been 
 cut in two, whereas I have elsewhere read that he 
 breakfasted on board the English flag-ship with Admiral 
 Howe. He was certainly exchanged after some months 
 of captivity, and on his return to France was made a 
 rear-admiral and given a pension, on condition of hold- 
 ing his peace, and leading a retired life in some sea- 
 coast village. He died in 1809. 
 
 I have but an indistinct recollection of the drama, 
 which was of course written on the lines of Bertrand 
 Barrere's report. Instead of Captain Renaudin, it was 
 Captain Richard who commanded the Vengeur, and 
 
 1 Where the captain was residing en parole.
 
 106 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 Captain Richard was in love with the Citoyenne Annette. 
 There was a Royalist conspiracy and other padding 
 which made the audience impatient, and excited the 
 hilarity of the gallery as well as that of the boxes and 
 the pit. What cared the public for such accessories ? 
 What it wanted to see was the grand tableau, which 
 had been extensively advertised. It came at last, and 
 we had Captain Richard ordering his colours to be 
 nailed to the mast, refusing to strike to the English ; 
 wild embraces, cries of Vive la Republique ! singing of 
 the Marseillaise, and finally the good ship Vengeur 
 heeling over and disappearing beneath the waves with 
 Captain Richard and his crew. All this was exceedingly 
 well done, and excited universal enthusiasm. The 
 drama was patriotic and Republican, and flattering to 
 the national vanity, and these qualities were enough to 
 ensure success. If the dialogue was lacking in interest, 
 this defect was in a great measure atoned for by the 
 beauty of the decorations, the richness of the costumes, 
 and the excellent working of the machinery, which 
 covered a multitude of sins. In addition to the tableau 
 of the sinking of the Vengeur, there was another tableau 
 deservedly admired, that of a fete in honour of Ceres 
 given on the Pont-Neuf. 
 
 Close to me was seated a well-known and able critic, 
 called Louis Ulbach, who " did " the melodrama for the 
 Figaro, and I was much astonished at the boldness with 
 which the next morning: he demolished Bertrand
 
 'LE VENGEUR' 107 
 
 Barrere's fiction, and related what had really happened. 
 However, it is difficult to kill a legend in France, 
 especially when that legend is calculated to take the 
 sting out of some disaster, and make heroes of the 
 vanquished. It is always Marshal Tallard's remark to 
 Marlborough after Blenheim " Your Grace has beaten 
 the finest troops in Europe." In 1892 the Vengeur was 
 served up again to French patriotism, not in the shape 
 of a play, but in that of a panorama. The doomed 
 vessel was represented at the moment that she was 
 going down. On the deck, which was red with blood, 
 were bare-footed seamen with their red caps; some 
 were locked in a last embrace, others shouting and 
 singing and firing off their last cartridges. In order to 
 strike the imagination of the spectator more forcibly, 
 and to render a greater appearance of reality to the 
 scene, shots were fired behind the curtain, and an 
 invisible chorus every now and again sang the Mar- 
 seillaise. It is only fair to add that the artist 
 so far adhered to historical truth as to depict 
 English boats putting off to rescue drowning French- 
 men, and for this concession M. Poilpot deserves great 
 credit. 
 
 Other plays of a revolutionary character were per- 
 formed now that liberal ideas were in the ascendancy. 
 In one, which created rather a sensation, an actress 
 appeared on the stage in rags and sang an abominable 
 song, entitled La Canaille, asserting at the end of each
 
 108 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 verse "<Ten suis." This was the triumph of rag-tag and 
 bob-tailery in which the sovereign people made a very 
 deplorable exhibition of themselves. 
 
 About this time I went to see Frederick Lemaitre, 
 the last time, I think, that he appeared on the stage. 
 He was of course only the ghost of his former self, and 
 his faulty articulation, more than his gestures, whicli 
 at times were remarkable for their dignity and appro- 
 priateness, betrayed his great age. It was melancholy 
 to witness this popular idol in its decay. What an 
 actor and what a favourite he had been ! Here is what 
 Victor Hugo said of him when he appeared in B,uy 
 Bias in 1838 "As for Frederick Lemaitre, what can be 
 said ? The enthusiastic applause of the audience hailed 
 him on his entry and followed him until after the 
 denouement. Dreamer and profound in the first act; 
 melancholy in the second ; grand, passionate, and sublime 
 in the third ; he rose in the fifth to one of those prodi- 
 gious tragic effects from the height of which the radiant 
 actor dominates all the souvenirs of his art. For the 
 old play-goers it was Lekain and Garrick in one. 
 For us, his contemporaries, it was the action of Kean 
 combined with the emotion of Talma. And then, 
 everywhere, throughout the dazzling flashes of his play, 
 Frederick has tears, real tears which make others weep ; 
 tears like those of which Horace speaks : Si vis meflere, 
 dolendum est, est primum ipse tibi. In Ruy Bias 
 Frederick Lemaitre realizes our ideal of a great actor.
 
 ' HAMLET ' 109 
 
 It is certain that all his theatrical existence, the past as 
 well as the future, will be illuminated by this brilliant 
 creation. The evening of November 8, 1838, was not a 
 representation, but a transfiguration." So wrote the 
 poet in a note appended to the play. 
 
 Poor Frederick Lemaitre ! it is strange that he lasted 
 as long as he did, for he required a good deal of priming. 
 Before going on the stage he used to work himself up 
 to a certain, and sometimes an uncertain, pitch, rinsing 
 his mouth with large quantities of wine, which he did 
 not swallow but spit out. The fumes, however, at 
 times overpowered him, and got him into scrapes. A 
 friend told me that one evening he appeared on the 
 stage in such a state of inebriety that the audience 
 hissed, upon which the actor, losing his temper, took off 
 his wig, blew his nose in it, and flung it into the pit. It 
 may be imagined what an uproar ensued. Such an 
 insult to the public could not be pardoned in the case 
 of even such a culprit as Frederick Lemaitre, who was 
 forced to go down on his knees and apologize before he 
 could reappear on the stage. 
 
 At this period, too, I went to see Hamlet performed 
 at the Varietes. The translation was in verse, done by 
 Alexander Dumas, who did not know English, and the 
 part of the Prince of Denmark was filled by a woman, 
 Dinah Felix, the talented sister of that great tragedienne, 
 Rachel. I was much pleased with the performance, 
 though it was not quite Shakespeare. The first play I
 
 110 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 ever witnessed was Hamlet when I was a small boy at 
 Rugby, and some of us sneaked down to a booth in 
 which a company of strolling players were performing. 
 The play made a great impression on my juvenile mind, 
 and it has always had a peculiar attraction for rne. I 
 can still see in my mind's eye the actor who filled the 
 role of Hamlet, a tall, slight, well-made fellow, with 
 sunburnt face and dark close-cropped curly hair. I 
 remember something too of Ophelia in a white satin 
 dress. 
 
 Here Hamlet is exceedingly popiilar, and has been 
 translated a dozen times. I am assured that two actors 
 went mad over it. Certainly a poetical genius used 
 often to come to me and declaim his rendering of the 
 masterpiece ; he could think of nothing but Hamlet, and 
 he became, to say the least, 'very eccentric in trying to 
 fathom our poet's philosophy. Portions of his work I 
 found admirable. 
 
 , HamUt is sometimes played at the Theatre Francois 
 when there is an actor considered capable of filling the 
 chief part. The other favourite plays of Shakespeare 
 here are Macbeth, Othello, King Lear ; and Midsummer 
 Night's Dream was not long ago successfully produced 
 at the Odeon. 
 
 What would Voltaire say could he see the statue of 
 Shakespeare standing in the centre of Paris, and our 
 bard's works far more popular than his own ? He 
 seldom lost an opportunity of discharging a shaft
 
 SHAKESPEARE 111 
 
 at him. In submitting his last play, Irene, to the 
 Academy, he attacked Shakespeare in the preface for 
 his manifold crimes against the traditions of the stage ; 
 he even mixed up rhyme and prose. He made people 
 speak according to their condition in life. 
 
 I always admired Victor Hugo for his unbounded 
 admiration of Shakespeare. In his preface to Marie 
 Tudor he says "The aim of the dramatic poet ought 
 always to be, and above all, to search the great, like 
 Corneille, and the true, like Moliere ; or, better still, 
 and this is the highest summit to which genius can 
 ascend, to attain at the same time the great and the 
 true, the great in the true and the true in the great, like 
 Shakespeare. For, be it observed en passant, it was given 
 to Shakespeare, and it is-this which makes the sovereignty 
 of his genius, to conciliate, to unite, to amalgamate 
 incessantly in his work these two qualities, truth and 
 grandeur, qualities almost opposed, or at least so dis- 
 tinct that the defect of each constitutes the contrary in 
 the others. In all the works of Shakespeare there is 
 the great which is true, and the true which is great, and 
 where things true and great are combined art is com- 
 plete. Shakespeare, like Michael Angelo, appears to 
 have been created to solve this strange problem, the 
 simple assertion of which appears absurd to remain 
 faithful to nature while being at times unfaithful to it. 
 Shakespeare exaggerated the proportions while respect- 
 ing the relations. Admirable all-power of the poet ! he
 
 112 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 makes things higher than we are. Hamlet, for example, 
 is as true as any of us, and he is much greater. Hamlet 
 is colossal, and yet he is real. It is because Hamlet is 
 neither you nor me ; he is all of us. Hamlet is not a 
 man he is man." In his preface to Cromwell, Victor 
 Hugo compares Shakespeare to a wide-spreading oak, 
 and sneers at Voltaire's objections, not to his works, but 
 to those of the Greek stage as well. 
 
 Poor Victor Hugo had much to suffer from the 
 " Classics," and he hated them, and with some reason. 
 When his Marion Delorme was brought out in 1829 the 
 opposition to the " Romantics," as the new school was 
 called, was so violent that a petition was presented to 
 Charles, praying him to close the Theatre Frangais. 
 To this extravagant proposition the last of the Bourbon 
 kings replied in a way which did him great credit 
 " In literary matters I merely occupy a place in the pit." 
 
 One of the traditions of the French theatre is that 
 no murder can be done on the stage, and hence, when 
 Othello was played, it was necessary for the Moor after 
 making away with Desdemona behind the scenes to 
 reappear flourishing a dagger, for it would never have 
 done to have rushed on the stage with a pillow. 
 Napoleon L, in one of his letters, refers to " the dagger 
 of Othello," which sounds strange to English ears and 
 requires explanation. 
 
 An author called Ducis, who lived in the last century, 
 translated or rather adapted a great many of Shake-
 
 THE PRINCESS MATHILDE 113 
 
 speare's plays, and it is rather curious that he should 
 have been elected to fill the chair in the Academy 
 left vacant by the death of Voltaire. 
 
 Apropos to the Patriarch, as he is often called, I 
 remember one day on taking my seat in a tramway, 
 being greatly astonished on seeing in the corner of the 
 car an old woman the exact image of him, as represented 
 by Houdon's wonderful statue which stands in the 
 vestibule of the Theatre Franqais Voltaire, a mere 
 skeleton, seated in an arm-chair, leaning slightly for- 
 ward, with his sunken orbs, his hollow cheeks and 
 long bony hands, and yet with features beaming as it 
 were with intellect. This statue the old woman resem- 
 bled in a remarkable degree, and in addition her eyes 
 glittered in the same way which those of Voltaire are 
 said to have done. 
 
 During the Second Empire a good deal of influence 
 was exercised by the Princess Mathilde, being the only 
 daughter of Jerome Bonaparte, the youngest brother of 
 Napoleon I., a cousin of the Emperor. She had been 
 married to the Prince Demidoff, when twenty-one years 
 of age, and after four years of married life they had 
 agreed to separate. She had a fine hotel, was a clever, 
 agreeable, handsome woman, and delighted in the society 
 of men of letters who flocked to her hospitable mansion. 
 For her sake more than one brilliant writer refrained 
 from attacking the existing order of things. One fine- 
 looking man, who occupied the post of minister or director 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 of Fine Arts, was especially favoured by the Princess for 
 a long time, but in due time a rupture ensued. Soon 
 afterwards the report was current in Paris that M. 
 Edmond About was a candidate for the vacancy, and so 
 sure was he of success that one evening, invited to dine, 
 before going to table he gave himself all the airs of 
 being master of the house. What happened to the 
 literary coxcomb was the same fate as that which 
 overtook the presumptuous Beau Brummel when he 
 said " George, ring the bell ! " The incensed Princess 
 rose and rang, without being asked, and ordered M. 
 Edmond About's carriage. 
 
 The de Goncourt brothers, under date December 
 3, 1862, thus wrote, having received an invitation to 
 dinner " We were shown into a room hung with purple 
 silk. Gavarni, Chennevieres, and Nieuwerkerke had 
 already arrived, and the Princess appeared. We sat 
 down to table seven in number, and but for the gold 
 plate engraved with the Imperial arms, and the gravity 
 of the footmen, we would scarcely have imagined our- 
 selves in the presence of royalty, for in this agreeable 
 house there is complete liberty of mind and speech. 
 The salon of the Princess belongs essentially to the 
 nineteenth century, with a hostess who is a perfect type 
 of the modern woman of the world. A woman as 
 kindly as her smile; adorable in her simplicity, and 
 possessing the art of putting you at once at ease. To- 
 day among all these men she was delightfully simple
 
 A PARODY 115 
 
 and charming, bewailing in a pretty witty manner the 
 level to which women have sunk since the eighteenth 
 century." Hence her guests were generally of her 
 own sex. 
 
 The Princess Mathilde, unlike her brother, Prince 
 Napoleon, remained always on good terms with her 
 cousin, the Emperor, through whose good offices the 
 Czar persuaded (?) Prince Demidoff to make her a 
 handsome allowance. 
 
 Although the salon of the Princess was literary and 
 not political she received clever men of all shades of 
 opinions still it was impossible for politics not to crop 
 up sometimes at such a stirring period as that which 
 closely preceded the Franco-German War. 
 
 One of the most popular songs in France is Les 
 deux Gendarmes, by Nadaud. A parody on it recently 
 appeared which, strange to say, was first read at a 
 supper given by the Princess Mathilde, at which M. 
 Billault, then Minister without a portfolio, Sainte- 
 Beuve, the Minister of Beaux Arts, a poet, a high 
 functionary, a celebrated painter, a dramatic author, a 
 member of the diplomatic corps and his wife, two other 
 ladies of high rank, with celebrities from the French 
 Academy and Institute, were present. The Princess 
 Julia Bonaparte had informed her cousin that, during 
 the day, M. Billault had read her a stinging song^ in 
 which the Emperor was roughly handled, and the 
 Princess Mathilde insisted on the verses beinjr read out
 
 116 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 at her table. Every one swore to observe the most 
 impenetrable secrecy, the servants were dismissed, and 
 the doors closed. M. Billauit, after a little pressing, 
 read the following stanzas, the composition of a capital 
 fellow, who had served in his office when he was 
 Minister of the Interior 
 
 A SAINT-CLOUD. 
 
 L'Empereur avec un ministre 
 
 Flanait clans le pare de Saint-Cloud ; 
 Sa moustache pendait sinistre, 
 
 Ses doigts en tortillaient le bout : 
 " Ah ! " disait-il, tout sombre et cloche, 
 
 " Je vois du noir k 1'horizon." 
 '' Majeste," repondait Baroche, 
 
 " Majeste, vous avez raison." 
 
 " Depuis quinze ans que je gouverne, 
 
 Qu'ai-je gagne ] haine et mepris. 
 A mon regime de caserne 
 
 Tout a plie mais a quel prix ? 
 La haine a tous mes pas s'accroche ; 
 
 J'e'tais plus heureux en prison." 
 " Majeste," repondait Baroche, 
 
 " Majeste, vous avez raison." 
 
 " Pour quelque amour que je demande, 
 
 Que faire et que n'ai-je pas fait ? 
 Paris est beau, la France est grande, 
 
 L'Europe admire et Ton me halt ! 
 Beau le loin, suspect k 1'approche, 
 
 Je brille, mais comme un tison." 
 " Majeste," repondait Baroche, 
 
 " Majeste, vous avez raison."
 
 A PARODY 117 
 
 " Espiit liberal, ame bonne, 
 
 Du bien meme on me fait un tort ; 
 Comedien, quand je pardon ne, 
 
 Et tyran, quand j<? frappe fort. 
 Pour la plus petite bamboche 
 
 On m'appelle un Don Juan grison." 
 " Majeste," repondait Baroche, 
 
 " Majeste, vous avez raison." 
 
 " Malgre le baillon et la schlague, 
 
 Tout se sait et se dit ceans ; 
 Ma presse elle-meme me blague, 
 
 Ma police est aux d'Orleans ! 
 L'entretien qu'avec toi je broche, 
 
 Demain sera mis en chanson/' 
 " Majeste," repondait Baroche, 
 
 " Majeste, vous avez raison." 
 
 " Qui sont mes conseillers 1 Des anes. 
 
 Mes generaux 1 Des racoleurs. 
 Mes courtisans 1 Des courtisanes. 
 
 Et mes ministres 1 Des voleurs. 
 Mon Senat 1 Un appui bancroche. 
 
 Ma Chambre 1 Un faux diapason." 
 "Majeste/' repondait Baroche, 
 
 " Majeste, vous avez raison." 
 
 " Qui me sert 1 Des fous ou des reitres ; 
 
 Juges pourris, prefets cretins ; 
 Ici des cuistres, la des traitres, 
 
 Partout mouchards, voleurs, catins ! 
 Vidocq, Cartouche, et Rigolboche 
 
 Dans rna cour tiennent garnison." 
 " Majeste," repondait Baroche, 
 
 " Majestd, vous avez raison." 
 
 " Sauf Persigny le janissaire, 
 
 Et Billault 1'eloquent trembleur, 
 Qui de vous me croit necessaire 
 
 Et n'est pret en cas de malheur 1
 
 118 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 Pourvu qu'on ait rempli sa poche, 
 Le feu pent prendre k la tnaison." 
 
 " Majeste," repondait Baroche, 
 " Majeste, vous avez raison." 
 
 " Tout est possible et rien ne dure 
 
 Chez cette nation de fous, 
 Qui chasse et jette aux tas d'ordures 
 
 Ceux qu'elle adorait a genoux. 
 Qui mit mon oncle sur sa roche ? 
 
 La liaine, et non la trahison." 
 " Majeste," repondait Baroche, 
 
 " Majeste, vous avez raison." 
 
 " Claremont, Prague, et Sainte-Helene 
 
 Ont eu des holes qui, ma foi ! 
 N'avaient pas eu beaucoup de peine 
 
 A regner beaucoup mieux que moi. 
 L'aigle et le coq mis k, la broche 
 
 Sont un presage pour 1'oison." 
 " Majeste," repondait Baroche, 
 
 "Majeste, vous avez raison.'' 
 
 " Qu'aujourd'hui pour demain je creve, 
 
 Qui de vous portera mon deuil ? 
 Mon fils est votre dernier reve, 
 
 Toi, le premier, tu t'en bats 1'oeil ; 
 Plon-Plon, d'ailleures, de pauvre mioche 
 
 S'apprete k barrer le blason." 
 " Majeste," repondait Baroche, 
 
 " Majeste, vous avez raison." 
 
 " Quoi ! j'aurai mis 1'Empire au monde, 
 
 L'Europe en feu, la France a sac, 
 Pour gagner quoi 1 L'eloge immonde 
 
 D'un Veron ou d'un Cassagnac ? 
 Pour trembler a chaque anicroche, 
 
 Et la nnit rever de poison ? " 
 " Majeste," repondait Baroche, 
 
 " Majeste, vous avez raison."
 
 A SECRET 119 
 
 Ainsi Cesar vidait son ame . . . 
 
 II se tut car en ce moment, 
 II voyait son fils et sa femme 
 
 Venir a lui, couple charmant. 
 On eut pu voir, vivant reproche, 
 
 Ses pleurs tomber sur le gazon. 
 " Majeste," repondait Baroche, 
 
 " Majeste, vous avez raison." 
 
 The first couplets were received with profound 
 silence, succeeded by murmurs of stupefaction, stifled 
 laughter, and cries of indignation. However, M. Billault 
 got to the end of his task, in spite of the savage manner 
 in which several of the guests were lashed by the 
 merciless lyrist. The supper-party could not recover 
 its tone, and broke up quite dispirited. The promise 
 of secrecy was renewed by each person present. The 
 next morning the author of the song presented himself 
 as usual at M. Billault's house in the Rue St. Arnaud, 
 and was informed of the success which his verses had 
 met with in the Rue de Courcelles. The author re- 
 minded the Minister that he had promised not to show 
 them. " There's no danger," returned M. Billault. " I 
 showed them in the morning to Madame Julia, who 
 spoke of them to her cousin. I had them in my 
 portfolio, and, my faith, it was necessary to be agree- 
 able to the Princess, who laughed heartily. Never 
 fear! all the people present are discreet; there was 
 
 only the Prince and Princess de M , the Chevalier 
 
 N ," &c. As M. Billault was speaking, a note
 
 120 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 from the Tuileries was handed to him, which ran 
 thus: 
 
 "Mr DEAR MINISTER, 
 
 "I shall expect you to breakfast. Be good 
 enough to bring with you the verses which you read 
 last night at the Rue de Courcelles. 
 
 " Yours affectionately, 
 
 " NAPOLEON." 
 
 The situation was embarrassing. When M. Billault 
 went to the Tuileries, he took the author in his carriage, 
 and, leaving him at the door of the palace, told him he 
 would not be long, and that he would tell him every- 
 thing that happened. When the Minister entered the 
 Emperor's cabinet, his Majesty held out his hand, and 
 asked him, with a laugh, what he thought of his police ? 
 " I knew all about the song at ten this morning," he 
 added, " and I give you my word Pietri had nothing to 
 do with the matter. But let me see the song." The 
 Emperor read it over slowly, without saying a word, 
 twisting his moustache, biting his lip now and then, 
 sometimes smiling, sometimes shrugging his shoulders ; 
 then handing back the manuscript, he asked M. Billault 
 if the author was personally known to him. The 
 Minister said he was an upright man, and a faithful 
 servant of the Government. "So much the better," 
 said his Majesty : " you can tell him that I don't want
 
 STREET NAMES IN PARIS 121 
 
 to know his name, but that I should like to see his 
 next production before it is read to the Princess 
 Mathilde." Here the matter ended : M. Billault found 
 out the next day who had betrayed the secret, but, 
 used to similar acts of bad faith, he refrained from 
 exposing the traitor. 
 
 The way in which the French name their streets 
 in Paris suggested the following article, which I sent 
 to the old Pall Mall Gazette in 1868. There have 
 been a good many changes and additions of course 
 since then. 
 
 XII 
 STEEET NAMES IN PAEIS 
 
 IT really seems to us that some modification might 
 be introduced into our street names, and that some of 
 our King, Queen, and Duke streets, which recall nothing 
 at all, might be advantageously rechristened. The 
 Frenchman who visits London seldom fails to ridicule 
 us for our excessive love of Waterloo and Wellington, 
 as if the battle of the 18th of June were our only 
 victory and "the Duke" our only hero. There must 
 have been an attempt at better things some years ago 
 when Maida Hill was named. The appellation should 
 remind us that Maida, if a small, was a brilliant and
 
 122 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 important affair. It was the first battle which made 
 the French doubt their perfect invincibility : one of 
 Napoleon's pet regiments bolted, General Regnier 
 succumbed to General Stewart, and there was a notable 
 person present on the French side, to wit, Paul-Louis- 
 Courrier, whose pamphlets, written during the Restor- 
 ation, are still read and admired as masterpieces of wit, 
 style, and reason. It would be pleasant to be able to 
 study history at every street corner. Why should the 
 Black Prince be forgotten and Baker be immortalized ? 
 We doubt if even Mme. Tussaud could tell us who 
 Baker was. The Briton may experience some senti- 
 ment of pride when he walks through Trafalgar-square, 
 but Berkeley-square simply reminds him of " Jeames." 
 They manage these things much better in France, 
 where street history is in vogue. We still find in Paris 
 such denominations as the Boulevards of the Daughters 
 of Calvary, the street of the Scalded of St. Germains, 
 and that frequented thoroughfare of which Thackeray 
 wrote 
 
 " A street there is in Paris famous 
 
 For which no name our language yields ; 
 Rue Neuve des Petits Champs its name is 
 The new street of the little fields." 
 
 But the curious names one still beholds will be grad- 
 ually effaced in time. To form Rue Bonaparte three 
 streets were sacrificed, one of them called the " Iron- 
 pot," and another barbarous appellation was replaced
 
 STREET NAMES IN PARIS 123 
 
 some years ago by " Rossini," in which street, appropri- 
 ately, Figaro has established its offices; and we may 
 here mention that Beaumarchais has been honoured 
 with a boulevard for his comedies, which set the Revo- 
 lution rolling. Paris has not only seized on what is 
 French, but what is foreign. Close by Rue Clovis may 
 be found Rue Julius Caesar, and Alfred de Musset and 
 Lord Byron are commemorated in the neighbourhood 
 of the Elysian Fields. Auber, Beethoven, Bellini, &c., 
 represent music; Claude Lorraine, Rubens, Raphael, 
 painting ; Keppler, Galileo, Newton, Laplace, astronomy ; 
 Buffon, Cuvier, Lacepede, natural history; Moliere, 
 Corneille, Racine, Crebillon, the theatre ; Voltaire, 
 Labruyere, Montaigne, letters, &c., &c. There is even 
 Nicot, who reminds us of the weed, and Abbe de 
 1'Epee, of the blind. We are rather disappointed at 
 not finding the name of Shakespeare, 1 and would 
 humbly suggest that the "divine Williams" might re- 
 place "the Butchery of the Invalides" with advantage ; 
 and, again, we are astonished to find in the French 
 capital the Passage of Waterloo. This was probably 
 done by the emigres on their return, and Henri Murger, 
 were he alive, would doubtless recommend that it 
 should be changed into the Passage of the Red Sea or 
 Beresina. 2 
 
 1 Shakespeare has a statue now. 
 
 2 In his Vie de Boheme, Henri Murger describes an artist 
 sending to the Salon a picture of the Passage of the Red Sea
 
 124 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 Although the principal street in Paris is dedicated 
 to Peace and the principal place to Concorde, military 
 celebrities have by no means been neglected. All the 
 exterior boulevards which form the inner circle of the 
 fortifications are named after the great Marshals of the 
 First Empire. Murat, Massena, Soult, Ney, Macdonald, 
 Serrurier, Mortier, Jourdan, Victor, Lannes, Berthier, 
 Bessieres, Davoust, Lefevre, Kellermann, Suchet, and 
 Gouvion St. Cyr. Napoleon commenced this system 
 by calling streets after departed comrades after 
 Cafferelli, who fell at Acre ; Desaix, at Marengo ; 
 Kleber, assassinated at Cairo ; Billy, slain at Auster- 
 litz; Marboeuf, who perished in the snows of Russia. 
 The Bridge of Austerlitz up-stream, and that of Jena 
 down-stream, which the Prussians, but for Wellington, 
 would have blown up during the occupation, with the 
 Rues de Rivoli, Castiglione, Mondovi, and Pyramides, 
 were his work. Round the Place des Victoires, where 
 still may be seen the bronze statue of Louis XIV. set 
 up by Lafeuillade that which stood in the Place Ven- 
 dome was hurled to ground during the Revolution 
 one may read the names of some of Louis' commanders, 
 and that of Aboukir, which has nothing to do with 
 our Nile, but celebrates a victory over the Mamelukes. 
 However, not far from the Rue Aboukir is the Rue 
 
 which was refused. He touched it up and sent it in the next 
 year as the Passage of the Beresina, and when it was again rejected 
 he turned it into the Passage de 1'Opera.
 
 STREET NAMES IN PARIS 125 
 
 Peree. Peree was an admiral who, with a single ship, 
 sustained a combat with four of Nelson's frigates. 
 Suffren has also his avenue for what Carlyle calls seven 
 non-defeats against our Mathews in the Indian seas, 
 but very few admirals fly their names at the street 
 corners. 1 
 
 The Arc de Triomphe is, of course, a great military 
 centre, from which radiate the avenues of the Grande 
 Armee, Friedland. Jena, Essling, Eylau, and Wagram, 
 and those of the King of Rome, King Jerome, Josephine, 
 and Queen Hortense ; and round the Invalides cluster 
 more military names. Amongst others we remark 
 those of Dupleix and La Bourdonnaye, but Lally, who 
 was so scandalously murdered, has not been thought 
 deserving of mention. We cannot say that we have 
 come across many streets apt to wound our national 
 vanity ; the Rue Port Mahon reminds us that the Duke 
 of Richelieu snatched that important place from us ; 
 then, close to the Avenue Saxe, is the Place Fontenoy. 
 In a small work on infantry tactics Marshal Saxe has 
 left his opinion on record as to how British troops 
 behaved at that battle when our allies refused to 
 leave their entrenchments, and allowed the English 
 column, which had carried everything before it, to 
 
 1 Since the above was written matters have changed. The 
 unfortunate La Perouse has now a street, and so has poor Dumont 
 d'Urville, who, after circumnavigating the globe, was burned to 
 death with many other victims on the line between Paris and 
 Versailles, when the train caught fire.
 
 126 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 be crushed under the weight of the whole French 
 army. 
 
 In the vicinity of the Luxembourg stands the Rue 
 Chevert. Few persons may remember that Chevert 
 was one of the causes of the Revolution ; he was the 
 only roturier who, under the Bourbons, gained by force 
 of merit the bdton of Marshal. Louis XVI., horrified 
 at the innovation, decreed in 1786 that no person could 
 become an officer before obtaining from Cherin a cer- 
 tificate of nobility. With the whole country in the 
 state Lord Chesterfield described it, one may imagine 
 how this insane decree was received in Paris. Near 
 the Jardin des Plantes is the Rue Guy la Brosse, which 
 reminds us how a gentleman of that name commenced 
 the zoological part of the gardens by removing, during 
 the Revolution, a lion, a rhinoceros, and a few tufted 
 pigeons from the Royal menagerie of Versailles, laying 
 violent hands on some peripatetic bears, and robbing 
 the Prince de Ligne of a couple of dromedaries. Surely 
 these new denominations are better than the ancient 
 ones to be found in the pages of Sauval and Dulaure, 
 such as Trou-Punais, Vide Gousset, Coupe-Gorge, Qui- 
 me-trouve-dure, and others unfit for publication. There 
 are certain old historical names which one would be 
 sorry to see disappear ; there is the Rue Pelican, just 
 behind the Louvre Hotel, where FranQois I. and Trir- 
 boulet caroused with the ladies of the quarter, and the 
 Rue de 1'Arbre Sec, which was fashionable in the days of
 
 STREET NAMES IN PARIS 127 
 
 the Valois kings, where " the Admiral " l was murdered 
 during the St. Bartholomew; but the old fantastic 
 names are fast disappearing, and the number of saints 
 is being gradually diminished. For instance, there 
 used to be more than forty Rues Ste. Marie, and now 
 there are only half-a-dozen. 
 
 One evening at this time I dined with an engineer 
 called Merton, who had aided Mr. Brassey in laying 
 down the first railways in this country. My right-hand 
 neighbour at table was a Mr. Nelson, and by way of 
 opening a conversation I asked him if he was a relation 
 of our great Admiral. He said he was not. Then to 
 my surprise a gentleman on my left exclaimed, " I am. 
 Not only that, but I am also related to the Empress." 
 He was a young Scotchman, a Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, 
 with fair hair, very delicate features, and bore a marked 
 resemblance to her Majesty. 
 
 I was looking over the papers one day at Galignani's, 
 when Major Burke came in and shook me warmly by the 
 hand. He was a very powerful-looking man and seemed 
 in perfect health. One of his gallant brothers had 
 fallen at Silistria at the beginning of the Crimean War, 
 and a second had perished in Australia during an 
 exploration. The Major had greatly distinguished 
 himself before Sebastopol and elsewhere. He was now 
 on his way home after having travelled through Spain. 
 About ten days after his departure from Paris I was 
 1 Coligny.
 
 128 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 both greatly astonished and grieved to learn that he was 
 dead. He asked a number of old comrades to dine 
 with him at the " Kag," and when the dinner was over he 
 rose, and in a short speech bid them farewell. The 
 next day he had ceased to exist. He had fallen victim 
 to a disease which required abundant nourishment to 
 stave it off, and in Spain he had been half starved. 
 The death of the three Burkes was a great blow to 
 Galway, where the family had a fine place, and was 
 much loved and respected. 
 
 Every now and again the question of the Talleyrand 
 memoirs crops up, and we learn that their publication 
 has been again put off, also that they will not prove 
 very interesting. 1 In connection with this subject I have 
 more than once seen in both English and French prints 
 that Talleyrand married a Madame Grand, who was 
 intensely stupid, and who once asked her husband if a 
 Mr. Robinson who paid them a visit was the celebrated 
 Robinson Crusoe. Now this is what may be found in 
 the letters of Horace Walpole alluded to by Carlyle in 
 Frederick the Great, ch. v. Speaking of the diplomatist, 
 Sir Thomas Robinson, he wrote 
 
 " He was a tall, uncouth man ; and his stature was 
 often rendered still more remarkable by his hunting 
 dress, a postilion's cap, a tight green jacket, and buck- 
 skin breeches. He was liable to sudden whims, and 
 once set off on a sudden in his hunting suit to visit his 
 1 They have since appeared.
 
 VOLTAIRE 129 
 
 sister, who was married and settled in Paris. He 
 arrived while there was a large company at dinner. 
 The servant announced M. Robinson, and he came in to 
 the great amazement of the guests. Amongst others a 
 French obit thrice lifted his fork to his mouth and 
 thrice laid it down with an eager stare of surprise. 
 Unable to restrain his curiosity any longer he burst out 
 with ' Excuse me, sir, are you the famous Robinson 
 Crusoe so remarkable in history ? ' ' 
 
 Of course this took place before poor foolish Madame 
 Grand was born. 
 
 In the year 1867 there was an attempt made to get 
 up a festival in honour of Voltaire, to which I thus 
 alluded in my usual letter to the old Pall Mall Gazette, 
 May 22 
 
 The attack made yesterday on Voltaire by the 
 Bishop of Orleans may be said to have broken down. 
 Increasing years have told upon Monsignor Dupanloup, 
 and it was with difficulty that he could make himself 
 heard in the Senate as he read a written speech filled 
 with quotations proving the scepticism and wickedness 
 of the Patriarch. One of the most formidable indict- 
 ments brought against Voltaire is his treatment of Joan 
 of Arc ; and it is on the anniversary of the death of 
 the Maid of Orleans that it is proposed to celebrate 
 the memory of the author of La Pucdle. In the 
 first place, La Pucelle was a peche, de jeunesse ; and, 
 in the second, that immoral poem was aimed not so 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 much against Joan of Arc as against the clergy and 
 superstition. In his Essay on Morals, which was a 
 serious work, Voltaire wrote " They burned her to 
 whom in heroic ages altars would have been raised, 
 when people raised altars to their liberators." The 
 Liberals now put this pertinent question to the 
 Clericals : How did you treat Joan of Arc ? Captured 
 at Compiegne, she was sold to the English, and by 
 them handed over to the Inquisition, which con- 
 demned her to death. " Bishop of Beauvais," said 
 the victim, " before going to the stake, I die by 
 your hand, and I summon you before God." A 
 cap was placed on her head bearing these words : 
 "Heretic, relapsariau, apostate, idolatress;" and a 
 placard which she wore set forth that " Joan who calls 
 herself the Maid, liar, pernicious deceiver of the people, 
 superstitious blasphemer of God, boastful, cruel, 
 dissolute, invoker of the devil," &c. And when she 
 had been burned, her ashes were flung into the 
 Seine. 
 
 The defence of Voltaire is of course taken up warmly 
 by such liberal writers as M. John Lemoinne. What 
 the Liberals say of Voltaire is that with all his faults 
 "he was humane ; he detested fanaticism; he slew with 
 his sarcasm a crowd of wild and dangerous follies. 
 Voltaire had qualities which we admire all the more 
 because they are wanting at present the power of 
 indignation, the incorruptibility of ridicule. How many
 
 VOLTAIRE 131 
 
 superstitions which are grovelling around us would be 
 swept away by a single peal of his laughter ? " For, as 
 Macaulay has written, " Of all the intellectual weapons 
 which have ever been wielded by man the most terrible 
 was the mockery of Voltaire. Bigots and tyrants who 
 had never been moved by the wailing and cursing of 
 millions turned pale at his name," and "religious 
 persecution, judicial torture, arbitrary imprisonment, the 
 delay and chicanery of tribunals, the exactions of 
 farmers of' the revenue, the slave trade, were the 
 constant subjects of the lively satire and eloquent 
 disquisitions of Voltaire and his friends. On one 
 side was a Church boasting of the purity of its doctrine, 
 but disgraced by the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 
 by the murder of the best of kings, by the war of the 
 Cevennes, by the destruction of Port Royal. On the 
 other was a sect laughing at the Scriptures, shooting 
 out the tongue at the Sacraments, but ready to encounter 
 principalities and powers in the cause of justice, mercy, 
 and toleration." One might quote many English 
 opinions favourable to Voltaire. What Carlyle thought 
 of him may be judged by his frequent references to 
 him in his Frederick the Great. Lord Brougham 
 declared that the emancipation of the human mind 
 from spiritual tyranny owes him a lasting debt of 
 gratitude; Lord Campbell complained of the indis- 
 criminate abuse of Voltaire in England, and Mr. Buckle 
 says : " I have been the more particular in stating the
 
 132 EECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 immense obligations of history to Voltaire, because in 
 England there exists against him a prejudice which 
 nothino- but ignorance, or something worse than 
 
 O v o 
 
 ignorance, can excuse." Lord Holland, by the way, 
 makes some amusing remarks concerning Napoleon's 
 opinion of Voltaire. He says : " He must in his heart 
 have admired Voltaire. His own manner of seeing 
 many things showed that he had read and studied him 
 too." And yet " he was at some pains to decry Voltaire's 
 philosophy, and he employed Geoffroy an'd Fontanes 
 to write down the Encyclopaedists." We are then told 
 that, Geoffroy having been too severe in his criticism, 
 Napoleon secretly atoned for the outrage on departed 
 genius by silently erecting in a church in Paris a 
 marble monument to the great and calumniated 
 Philosopher of Ferney. 
 
 In the Senate yesterday great indignation was ex- 
 pressed concerning Rosbach, on the gaining of which 
 victory Frederick the Great received the compliments 
 of Voltaire in doggrel. But in those days everything 
 ended in song, and all Paris lampooned " Madame de 
 Pompadour's generals." 
 
 It was the same when the Comte de Clermont, Abbe 
 de Saint- Germain des Pres, lost the battle of Ore veldt, 
 and when Coutades was defeated at Dettingen. That 
 Voltaire should have at times spoken disagreeably of 
 his countrymen is hardly to be wondered at. He was 
 twice thrown into the Bastille : once for a satire he
 
 VOLTAIRE 133 
 
 never wrote, and the second time for calling out the 
 Due de Rohan-Chabot, who had caned him. He spent 
 thirty years in exile, and his tragedies were removed 
 from the stage to make place for the execrable works 
 ofCre"billon. 
 
 The sting, however, had been somewhat taken out of 
 the debate in the Senate in consequence of a letter 
 addressed by M. de Marcere to the Prefect of Paris, tell- 
 ing him that the Municipal Council had not the power 
 to institute the fetes they projected in honour of Voltaire. 
 The Bishop of Orleans therefore simply demanded the 
 prosecution of a new collection of the Patriarch's works, 
 which M. Dufaure refused. The fight, therefore, lay 
 between two members of the Academy who are alive 
 over the merits of an Immortal who is dead. 
 
 There is one terrible accusation often brought against 
 Voltaire, who at one time signed many of his letters 
 as did also D'Alembert and Diderot Ecr. Inf. This 
 was said by his enemies to refer to Jesus Christ, which 
 was false. Ecr. Inf. was the abbreviation of Ecrasons 
 I'Infame, and the infamewas not, as the Clericals asserted, 
 our Saviour, but intolerance the intolerance of the 
 Government and of the Church. This is explained in 
 several of Voltaire's letters, and it required a vast 
 amount of bad faith to put a profane construction on 
 the device adopted by the Encyclopaedists. 
 
 On August 15, 1809, the centenary of the birth 
 of the first Napoleon was observed with great pomp
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 and circumstance, although Napoleon III. was lying 
 ill at St. Cloud, his condition inspiring much alarm, 
 and Marshal Niel, after a long and glorious career, had 
 just expired. Now, a holiday is a real holiday in this 
 country. Dear old Lawrence Sterne, in his Sentimental 
 Journey, could not help exclaiming, " Happy people, 
 that once a week at least are sure to lay down all 
 your cares together, and dance, and sing, and sport 
 away the weights of grievance which bow down the 
 spirit of other nations to the earth ! " And so, in 
 spite of a sick Emperor lying upon a sofa at St. 
 Cloud, and a dead War Minister, much respected, 
 and perhaps even loved by the nation, lying stiff and 
 stark in the Rue St. Dominique, with orderlies taking 
 charge of the body, the Gaul danced, and sang, and 
 was merry. He witnessed a grand review in the Champs 
 de Mars, and he scaled the greasy pole in quest of 
 something more substantial than the bubble reputation. 
 In fact at the top of each pole, in place of the 
 traditional leg of mutton, was suspended a gold watch 
 and chain. The theatres were all thrown open to the 
 public ; there was a magnificent display of fireworks 
 in the evening, and all Paris illuminated. As for the 
 Arc de Triomphe, it^ was one mass of flame ; upon it 
 were emblazoned in jets of gas, not only the name of 
 the great soldier, but also the names of his chief 
 victories. Then a chain of lamps on either side of 
 the Champs Elysees ran from the great arch to the
 
 A CENTENARY 135 
 
 Place de la Concorde. It was certainly a marvellous 
 spectacle. And yet there were not wanting prophets 
 of evil who declared that the writing on the wall was 
 visible, and that they could trace the solemn warning, 
 " Mene, rnene, tekel, upharsin ; " that the Empire had 
 been weighed in the balance, and had been found 
 wanting. And were not their forebodings true ? Where 
 was the Empire on the next 15th August ? 
 
 In addition to illuminations, fireworks, review, free 
 theatres, and greasy poles, an amnesty had been 
 accorded in honour of the occasion, an act of grace 
 to which Napoleon III. said that he had been instigated 
 by a letter written by his great uncle no date men- 
 tioned setting forth that the best way to triumph 
 over a political offender is to pardon him, for this 
 changes the current of public opinion, and causes men 
 to blame the person they had before regarded as a 
 martyr, and to extol the generosity of the sovereign ! 
 When did Napoleon I. act upon this charming theory ? 
 not in the case of the Due d'Enghien, nor of his old 
 military instructor, Pichegru, nor Georges Cadoudal, 
 nor the poor bookseller Palm, nor Toussaint-L'Ouverture 
 but the list of martyrs would be too long to give. 1 
 
 1 Strange to say, Louis, King of Holland, the supposed father 
 of Napoleon III., having been violently attacked and calumniated 
 by a priest, instead of throwing the culprit into prison, as his 
 ministers advised, sent for him, convinced him that he was 
 wrong, and made a friend of him. And for this he was soundly 
 rated by his brother Napoleon.
 
 136 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 By the way, a good many people thought it. illogical to 
 grant an amnesty in honour of a tyrant. 
 
 Of course there was a Te Deum sung at Notre 
 Dame on the 15th, and any number of fulsome cantatas 
 in honour of the hero. That performed at the Opera 
 was written by Alberic Second. The first verse re- 
 counted the birth of Napoleon Bonaparte, and resembled 
 a rather profane paraphrase of "Unto us a child is 
 born." The final stanza in which the chorus joined ran 
 
 thus 
 
 " Des echos de la terre 
 Le nom de ce hdros, jusqu'aux astres porte", 
 Retentira comme un coup de tonnerre, 
 
 Par tons les siecles repute. 
 Gloire a Napoldon dans cent ans legendaire ! 
 Gloire ! Immortalite." 
 
 The French, certainly while they are about it, lay it 
 on very thick. Take Chateaubriand's description of 
 Napoleon on his way to St. Helena, where he writes 
 " Stretched on the ship's stern, he did not perceive that 
 unknown constellations glittered over his head; his 
 powerful glance for the first time encountered their 
 rays [then he must have perceived them]. What to 
 him were stars he had never seen from his bivouacs, 
 and which had never shone over his Empire ? And 
 yet each one of them fulfilled its destiny. One 
 half of the universe shed its light over his cradle, and 
 the other half illuminated his tomb." Dear me ! how 
 disappointed the Southern Cross would have been had
 
 A FEARFUL ACCIDENT 137 
 
 Napoleon not been sent to St. Helena ! Chateaubriand, 
 of course, wrote the above before the remains of the 
 great warrior were brought -back to France in La Belle 
 Poule, under the guardianship of the Prince de 
 Joinville. 
 
 The same week as the great Napoleonic fete, there 
 was performed an act of courage in Paris which deserves 
 immortality. I thus described it at the time 
 
 " A fearful accident has just taken place here at the 
 Hippodrome, where Lucas has nearly been eaten by 
 lions coram populo. He was to give his usual per- 
 formance, but had hardly entered the cage, where 
 were two lions and two lionesses, when one of the lions 
 sprang upon him and seized him by the back of the neck. 
 At the sight of the blood from the wound the other 
 beasts got excited and fell on the unfortunate tamer. 
 The spectators were in a state of fearful excitement, 
 women screaming and fainting, and trying to escape. 
 In the midst of the general terror, Lucas's attendant, 
 Jose Mendez, a Spaniard, kept his head, and, arming 
 himself with a formidable iron weapon, entered the 
 cage, and, taking the lions by surprise, rescued his 
 master by the vigour of his attack. Lucas, dreadfully 
 mangled, and in a condition which renders it difficult 
 to say if he can survive, was dragged out of the cage, 
 and immediately bandaged by a doctor. Too much 
 praise cannot be awarded to the dauntless Jose Mendez, 
 who smote the lions hip and thigh, and nearly killed
 
 138 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 the whole lot. A couple of years ago the same Lucas 
 was mauled at the Circus, and it was with much 
 difficulty that he could obtain permission to recommence 
 his performances on his recovery. The Prefect of 
 Police at last consented to some private rehearsals, 
 which having passed off without accident his veto was 
 withdrawn. It will be long before poor Lucas furnishes 
 another public entertainment, which was on the point 
 of being a repast." 
 
 We have had our clerical scandal this week in the 
 provinces ; last week there was one in Paris. The 
 usual story a little girl and her confessor ; but the 
 victim is dead, and the priest has been spirited away, 
 and we shall hear no more of the matter. 
 
 It was customary in France, when a priest got into 
 trouble, to screen him from the secular arm by sending 
 him off to some distant parish, where he appeared and 
 officiated under another name. Father or Brother 
 Pierre got into a scrape in Provence, and was hurried 
 off to Picardy, where he became Father or Brother 
 Jacques, and thus, with the connivance of the ecclesi- 
 astical authorities, saintly sinners escaped punishment, 
 and there was no public scandal. This is no longer 
 possible. The Jews used to play similar tricks until 
 they were obliged to assume surnames. 
 
 In spite of several rather alarming incidents, Paris 
 danced and was merry in the first days of 1870. 
 Among other festivities, I remember a ball given by
 
 A COLONEL 139 
 
 a Colonel Norton in the Champs Elysees, where he 
 occupied a fine apartment. He hailed from the other side 
 of the Atlantic, and had acted as United States Commis- 
 sioner during the recent Exhibition. The entertainment 
 he gave was a fancy dress ball, and dancing was carried on 
 with great spirit until past midnight, when the company 
 found that there were no refreshments to be had, and 
 that supper was altogether out of the question. The 
 Colonel, who had some negro servants, gave out that 
 the darkies had devoured all the good things pro- 
 vided for his guests; but it turned out that Chevet 
 charged to furnish the supper had refused to deliver 
 it except for ready money, which was not forthcoming, 
 and the consequence was that we had to go empty 
 away. However, in spite of the absence of all intoxi- 
 cating liquor, the amount of flirtation done was, as our 
 cousins would say, a caution, and there was great 
 excitement amongst the ladies, when it was rumoured 
 that a Bavarian Baron, in mask and disguised as a 
 princess, had been admitted into their private room. 
 The Baron had such wonderfully small feet that he 
 escaped detection for a long time, and in fact it was 
 not until the following day that the charge against him 
 was fully proved. There was some talk of a duel, but 
 all ended in a laugh. As for the Colonel, he aftenvards 
 took some magnificent offices in the Rue Scribe, where 
 he established a bank, and managed to swindle one of 
 the nicest and most accomplished English gentlemen I
 
 140 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 ever met, who was utterly ruined. The wicked do not 
 always prosper, and after a short and nefarious career, the 
 gallant Colonel was obliged to put up his shutters ; not 
 only that, but he shifted his private residence from the 
 Elysian Fields to a more gloomy quarter. In fact, he 
 was committed to Mazas, in which prison he remained 
 until the Commune broke out, when, having sworn that 
 he had been confined on political grounds, he was 
 released. I knew something of the cashier, who had 
 formerly been in the employment of a well-known 
 English money-lender, and he told rne that the day 
 before the Colonel's bank stopped, he observed a man 
 walking up and down outside the offices for some time ; 
 at last he ventured in, and said that he wished to 
 deposit a considerable sum of money, and this deposit 
 the Colonel unhesitatingly accepted, a couple of hours 
 before the premises were closed. The cashier, who had 
 refused the money, said that it was a very hard case. 
 The victim was a fellow-countryman of the Colonel, 
 who had been working half his life in Italy, and was on 
 his road home with his savings. 
 
 The English changer, mentioned above, also did what 
 he ought not to have done, and after many years of 
 prosperity took first to an extravagant mode of life, and 
 then to malpractices. His sons protested against both ; 
 law proceedings were taken, and the changer was obliged 
 to fly the country for a time. A most plausible indi- 
 vidual he was. I had been changing cheques at his
 
 A MONEY-CHANGER 141 
 
 office for about twenty years when the catastrophe 
 happened. Shortly after his flight I met the changer 
 in London, and seeing that he hesitated to address me, 
 and knowing, nothing against the man's character, I 
 said " Ah ! Mr. So-and-so, how are you ? " Upon this 
 he threw up his eyes in the most melancholy way, and 
 asked me if I had heard of his misfortune. " Yes," I 
 replied, " I heard a vague rumour that you had got into 
 trouble." He now heaved a deep sigh and exclaimed 
 " Only to think of being ruined by one's own flesh and 
 blood, and a red-haired clerk ! " A servant opened the 
 hall-door at which I was standing, and this cut short 
 our interview, the recollection of which has always 
 amused me. 
 
 I was afterwards told a rather good story about the 
 changer, and his method of doing business. An Irish 
 lady, who was the superior of a convent, and had long 
 been accustomed to deal with him, shortly before his 
 decline and fall presented a cheque which was duly 
 cashed. She then asked what he thought of the 
 political aspect. This was in the Boulanger period. 
 " Oh, madam," he said, " things are in a very precarious 
 condition ; we are living on a volcano." " Dear me ! 
 Do you think that there is any danger to be appre- 
 hended ? " "Every danger, and if you have any money 
 by you it would be well to place it where it will be 
 safe." " Ah ! I was thinking of lodging it in the 
 Banque de France." "Madam, that would be most
 
 142 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 indiscreet, for if we have another insurrection, that is 
 the first place which will be plundered by the Com- 
 munists." " Well, I will think the matter over." 
 
 A few days later Miss L returned, and said that 
 
 she had made up her mind to entrust her money to the 
 Rothschilds. Upon this the changer lifted up his eyes 
 to heaven. He had nothing to say against the solidity 
 of the house, but he added, " How can you, a Christian 
 lady, confide in Jews ? Did not the Jews crucify our 
 Saviour ? " " Alas ! alas ! what is to be done ? " and in 
 the end the Lady Superior persuaded the changer to 
 take charge of her funds, and, needless to say, lost every 
 penny. She confided her woes to a friend of mine, who 
 recommended her to prosecute the culprit, but this she 
 declined to do, and perhaps it would have been useless. 
 " Then, madam, what course do you intend to pursue ? " 
 asked my friend. " To pray for him," was the simple 
 answer. 
 
 The session of 1869 was closed in November with a 
 speech by the Emperor, in which he declared himself 
 responsible for order, which seemed to be seriously 
 menaced, and on January 2, 1870, his Majesty sum- 
 moned M. Emile Olivier to form a Cabinet, which was 
 soon completed. This was a great step in the way of 
 liberal government, and Paris was not a little astonished 
 to learn a few days after the new Ministry had taken 
 office, that Baron Haussmann, Prefect of the Seine or 
 Mayor of Paris, who had found the city in brick and
 
 EMILE OLIVIER 143 
 
 left it in marble, had been dismissed. One of the chief 
 causes for this act of ingratitude was a pamphlet written 
 by M. Jules Ferry, entitled Lcs Comptes Fantastiques 
 d ' Haussmann}- It is true that enormous sums had 
 been spent, and a good deal perhaps squandered in the 
 marvellous transformation of the capital, but most of 
 the money was expended in useful work, and not in the 
 building of palaces like Versailles or the Trianons. 
 Then "whispering tongues will poison truth," and of 
 course it was rumoured that the open-handed Baron 
 had feathered his nest as no other bird ever had done. 
 This hasty act of M. Emile Olivier was afterwards 
 atoned for, one of the noblest boulevards in Paris still 
 bearing the name of our modern Vitruvius, surviving 
 the Avenues de 1'Imperatrice, Josephine, de la Heine 
 Hortense, the Rues de Morny, Billault, St. Arnaud, &c. 
 While the great works were in progress, what are called 
 the labouring classes had nothing to complain of, for 
 there is an old saying in France "quand le batiment 
 va, tout va " which is only natural, as when you build 
 a house, you must furnish it. But when the works 
 were done, and the Baron laid down his pickaxe and 
 his trowel, the men who had reared a new city found 
 that they had built themselves out of it. As if by 
 enchantment they had turned dens like St. Giles, where 
 they could get lodgings almost free, into broad streets 
 and stately avenues, where none but the wealthiest 
 1 Paraphrase of Les Contes Fantastiques d'Hofman.
 
 144 11ECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 citizens could afford to dwell. They, the men of brick 
 and mortar, the plumber, the glazier, the painter, the car- 
 penter, the carver, the gilder, the slater, &c., &c., had to 
 seek other quarters, many of them being driven beyond 
 the fortifications far away from their work. Many 
 years after his dismissal, Paris was astonished to learn 
 that Baron Haussmann had died in relative poverty. 
 
 Another event worth recording happened early in 
 1870, when people were infatuated with Emile Olivier, 
 he was elected a member of the Academy. Now it is 
 in accordance with tradition that no matter what the 
 merits of a candidate, one or more of the immortals 
 should vote for some one else. M. Emile Olivier was 
 elected nem. con. Alas for the instability of things here 
 below, before the day arrived fixed for the reception 
 of the new Academician, poor Emile had fallen, fallen, 
 fallen from his high estate. His administration went 
 to pieces even before the fall of the Empire in the 
 month of September, and so harshly was his conduct 
 and that of his colleagues judged, that he was never 
 " received " by the Academy, and after years of waiting 
 at last published in the columns of the Figaro the 
 address he had intended to pronounce on taking his 
 place among the forty immortals. And thus the only 
 member unanimously elected was never accorded a 
 public reception. 
 
 It must have been rather galling to the feelings of 
 Emile Oliver when, shortly after taking office, he found
 
 TROPPMANN 145 
 
 public attention diverted from him and his acts by one 
 of the most startling crimes ever committed, and which 
 made all France shudder. 
 
 A whole family of the name of Kinck was found 
 murdered in a dreary waste called Pantin, of mal- 
 odorous fame, lying just outside the fortifications not 
 far from St. Denis. Intense was the excitement when 
 a couple of carts containing half-a-dozen corpses passed 
 through Paris on their way to the Morgue, the blood 
 trickling from them. It soon became known that this 
 wholesale slaughter had been accomplished by a young 
 wretch called Troppmann, about twenty years of age. 
 For a time he eluded arrest ; managed to get to Havre, 
 and was on the point of embarking for America when 
 he was arrested. It need hardly be added that he was 
 tried, condemned to death, and executed, the jury 
 refusing to listen to the plea of insanity. I remember 
 it being remarked at the time that the murderer's 
 thumbs were unusually long, and persons with long 
 thumbs for several months had a very uncomfortable 
 time of it, being suspected of bloodthirsty designs. 
 
 It was on January 19, 1870, as will be seen by the 
 following curious letter, that this arch-villain was 
 executed 
 
 "Paris, le 20 Janvier 1870. 
 
 " MONSIEUR LE MAIRE, 
 
 "J'ai 1'honneur de vous faire savoir que le 
 
 nomme Jean-Baptiste Troppmann, ne le 5 octobre 1849 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 a Brumstadt, arrondissement de Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), 
 fils de Joseph et de Franchise Fromm, adjusteur meca- 
 nicien, demeurant en dernier lieu a Cernay (Haut- 
 Rhin), est d6M6 hier, 19 du courant, a sept heures du 
 matin, dans votre arrondissement. 
 
 " Agreez, monsieur le maire, etc., 
 
 " MARMAGNE, greffier." 
 
 One might easily be led to infer from the above 
 official document that Jean-Baptiste Troppmann had 
 not, like John the Baptist, lost his head, but had died 
 a natural death. 
 
 Hardly had Paris recovered from the excitement 
 caused by the crime when it was startled to learn that 
 Prince Pierre Bonaparte, a man of quick temper, had 
 shot down a young journalist called Victor Noir. The 
 Prince was not on good terms with his cousin the 
 Emperor, and was living in a retired house in Boulogne- 
 sur-Seine, on the road from Paris to St. Cloud. Having 
 given grave offence to the Ultra party M. Flourens 
 and others it was determined to call him out, and in 
 order to force the Prince to fight, one of the seconds 
 selected to convey the challenge was a powerful and 
 reckless young man who wrote in the press under the 
 name of Victor Noir a kind of bully. An altercation 
 took place, and it is beyond doubt that Victor Noir 
 struck the Prince, who snatched up a pistol and shot 
 him. The other second, who was armed, but was unable
 
 PIERRE BONAPARTE 14-7 
 
 to discharge his revolver, being too much excited, or not 
 understanding the mechanism, fled, leaving poor Victor 
 Noir dead. 
 
 It may easily be imagined what a shrill scream issued 
 from the Republican breast when this catastrophe 
 occurred. It was, of course, presumed that the Emperor 
 would stick to his cousin, and would never allow justice 
 to be done. Immense capital was made out of the 
 event. The Government without any hesitation de- 
 cided that the homicidal Peter should be sent to trial, 
 but not in Paris. The Ultras were not to be appeased 
 by this minute quantity of oil cast on the troubled 
 waters, and great preparations were made for a demon- 
 stration, the leading spirit being the newly-elected 
 Henri Rochefort, who having escaped from the frying- 
 pan was anxious to jump into the fire. Naturally, the 
 day fixed for the demonstration was the day of the 
 funeral. A revolutionary French mob seems to require 
 a corpse in order to lash itself into a proper state of 
 fury. The body of Victor Noir had been taken to the 
 house in which he had lived in Neuilly, and before it 
 an immense crowd assembled on the morning of the 
 funeral. In fact, not only the narrow street in which 
 it was situated, but the avenues leading to it were 
 thronged with people, who appeared ripe for mischief. 
 It was with great difficulty that the bearers and the 
 mourning coaches, in one of which was seated Henri 
 Rochefort, could make their way to the door. I had
 
 148 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 squeezed my way as near to the house as possible, and 
 soon had reason to regret my temerity, for the crush in 
 the street became so great before the body was brought 
 down, that a panic ensued, and had not the shutters of 
 a large shop-front given way and a number of persons 
 tumbled into the premises of a wholesale dealer, many 
 of us would certainly have been trampled to death. 
 However, no serious accident occurred, and after con- 
 siderable delay the cort&ge got under weigh. When I 
 had struggled back into the broad Avenue de Neuilly, 
 my attention was drawn to the Arc de Triomphe, at 
 the top of which were several officers in uniform watch- 
 ing the proceedings with their glasses. It was evident, 
 therefore, that military preparations had been made to 
 prevent any disturbance on the part of Henri Rochefort 
 and his friends, and in fact a large body of troops had 
 been concentrated at the lower end of the Champs 
 Elysees, which later in the day dispersed them without 
 loss of life. A cavalry charge was more than these 
 heroes, who were intent on invading the Tuileries and 
 the Assembly, could stand, and they evaporated. Henri 
 Rochefort, who had not distinguished himself during 
 this foolhardy affair, pale and haggard, rushed off to the 
 Chamber, leaving his dupes behind him. As for Prince 
 Pierre, he was afterwards tried, found guilty of man- 
 slaughter under circumstances of great aggravation, and 
 .sentenced to pay a heavy fine. 
 
 I have mentioned that he was on bad terms with his
 
 PIERRE BONAPARTE 149 
 
 Imperial cousin. He was a son of Prince Lucien 
 Bonaparte, the most intractable and independent of 
 the Great Napoleon's brothers, who, having declined to 
 put away his wife and marry a princess, received no 
 throne as did Joseph, Louis, and Jerome. 1 It is related 
 that when Pierre and his elder brother Lucien were in 
 Rome, in their hot youth, they both fell in love with 
 the same girl, and tossed up which should marry her. 
 Lucien won the toss, and a priest was sent for who, on 
 learning what had occurred, refused to join the pair in 
 holy wedlock. Upon this Pierre produced a pistol, and 
 the ceremony took place. Pierre did not marry until 
 late in life, in fact under the Second Empire, when, 
 much to the annoyance of Napoleon III., he led to the 
 altar a sempstress of the name of Eiffin. The Emperor 
 wished to have the marriage annulled, and did what he 
 could to induce Pierre to throw over his sempstress ; 
 but he stuck to her as his father had stuck to his wife. 
 After the Franco-German war the Princess Pierre set 
 up a milliner's shop in London. 
 
 Emile Olivier had fallen upon hard times. I re- 
 member Gambetta telling him very plainly in the 
 Chamber that he must not count on his support or 
 
 1 Prince Lucien, son of the Prince Lucien mentioned above, 
 who passed many years in England, asked to see me when I was 
 in London in 1873, to thank me for the way in which I had 
 written about his mother. I found him wonderfully like his 
 uncle in many respects. I had the pleasure of meeting him 
 several times, and was much charmed with his conversation.
 
 150 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 that of the Republican party. Then in the turbulent 
 quarters of Paris the concessions made by the Emperor 
 were construed into a sign of weakness and timidity, 
 with the usual consequences, incipient insurrection. 
 Every day brought a fresh crop of trouble, and at last 
 came the Spanish difficulty, which was destined to have 
 such dire results. When Queen Isabella, driven from 
 Spain, sought refuge in Paris in 1868, it was considered 
 a bad omen, and it certainly proved the forerunner of 
 much calamity for France. Her deposed Majesty settled 
 here in a splendid mansion close to the Elysian Fields, 
 the gates and railings of which were speedily ornamented 
 with the fleurs-de-lys of the Bourbons. I went over the 
 new residence of the ex-Queen one day in her absence ; 
 it contained some very fine paintings by Murillo and 
 other Spanish masters, and was furnished with great 
 taste and luxury. Her Majesty's bath, for I was 
 admitted into the most private apartments, was of 
 massive silver Vilius argentum est auro, virtutibus 
 aurum, was some one's reflection. The Queen was 
 very well received by the Emperor and Empress. The 
 King of Spain, who had paid us a visit a few years 
 before and been magnificently entertained, also arrived 
 and occupied a modest apartment, and at the same 
 time Queen Christina, who took refuge here in 1841, 
 resided in a fine hotel in the Champs Elysees. Queen 
 Isabella was much liked in the quarter, owing to her 
 kindly and charitable disposition, and was adored by
 
 MORTIMER 151 
 
 her household. Don Carlos paid flying visits to this 
 capital, and had many followers attached to him, both 
 French and Spanish. Many Legitimists consider him as 
 coming next in succession to the French throne after 
 the Count de Chambord. It almost seemed as if the 
 saying of Louis XIV. had come true " II n'y a plus de 
 Pyrenees." 
 
 In the merry month of May 1870, I was sitting in 
 the Cafe de la Regence, long famed as a rendezvous 
 for chess-players, when Mortimer, chess-player, dramatist, 
 editor, &c., &c., came in accompanied by a small Briton, 
 who appeared to be in a high state of glee. On inquiry, 
 Mortimer, who was on intimate terms with the Emperor, 
 informed me that he had just come from the Tuileries, 
 after having introduced his little companion, who had 
 discovered a means for preserving meat, to his Majesty. 
 The Emperor had not only tasted some, but had ordered 
 forty tons of beef for his Guard, which was not delivered 
 till he had started for the seat of war. But of this 
 more anon. One of the last celebrities who indulged 
 in chess there was Alfred de Musset, who was too 
 much addicted to absinthe, and too much of a poet, for 
 so sober a game, which can hardly be considered as a 
 relaxation. However, we are told that Napoleon found 
 a relaxation in logarithms. 
 
 Apropos to poor Alfred de Musset, I heard the fol- 
 lowing anecdote He was invited to the Tuileries to 
 read a proverb, as his charming one-act comedies were
 
 152 KECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 called, which he had just written. He consented 
 on condition that no one should be present but the 
 Emperor and the Empress. He had not long com- 
 menced when a door opened, and in walked a 
 gentleman without being announced. The intruder 
 was Baron Rothschild. Alfred de Musset angrily 
 closed his manuscript. The Baron refused to go, and 
 the poet refused to continue reading, until entreated 
 by the Empress to finish his play. This shows the 
 sway exercised by his Majesty Money at the Imperial 
 Court. 
 
 Another Majesty or ex-Majesty I met several times 
 as he took his walks abroad, looking, it seemed to me, 
 somewhat disconsolate, although he expressed his satis- 
 faction at having been relieved of a weight of care, 
 and said that he could now sleep o' nights. This was 
 Hudson, the Railway King, who resided for some time 
 at the Hotel Meurice, in the Rue de Rivoli, all alone 
 not even his son the Prince of Rails with him. Mr. 
 Hudson appeared to be a very amiable man, who bore 
 his adversity with fortitude, and without bitterness, 
 which was wonderful, seeing the way in which he had 
 been courted and flattered, and then neglected and 
 spurned. 
 
 A few years before what curious tales were told of 
 poor Mrs. Hudson ! One of them still makes me laugh. 
 A gentleman showing her over South Kensington, or 
 some other museum, pointed out a statue, remarking
 
 HUDSON 153 
 
 "That is Marcus Aurelius," whereupon Mrs. Hudson, 
 who prided herself on knowing all the British aris- 
 tocracy, exclaimed " Lor' ! how like the late Markiss ! " 
 This reminds me that there is an American lady, 
 recently pointed out to me by one of her fellow-country- 
 men, who is addicted to making the most wonderful 
 blunders in 'French, and has more than once set Paris 
 in a roar. The question of wages given to cooks, said 
 my informant, was being discussed the other night at 
 a dinner-party, when she said " Je donne 50 /. par 
 scmaine a mon chef et une Uanchisseuse ! " Meaning of 
 course Uanchissage a washing, not a washerwoman. 
 On another occasion, having found an almond with 
 two kernels in it, she asked a Frenchman next her 
 to faire Philippe ; and when he said that he did not 
 understand, she thus explained what is called, not 
 Philip, but Philippine " C'est quand il y a deux 
 amants sous la meme couverture" Two lovers under 
 the same blanket, instead of two almonds in the same 
 shell ! 
 
 Another sovereign I met in the Rue de Rivoli, or 
 ex-sovereign, for he had been deposed by us, was the 
 King of Oude. I went to pay a visit to my friend 
 Captain Lynch, a great oriental scholar, who had 
 married a charming Englishwoman at Bagdad, and 
 had issue. The ex-King appeared to rne more like an 
 Englishman than the bad Eastern monarch we had 
 deposed some ten years previously. I remember only
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 one peculiarity about him, which was that he ate but 
 one meal a day. 1 
 
 One day I met my old Rugby schoolmaster, Dr. 
 Tait, then Bishop of London, afterwards Archbishop of 
 Canterbury. He was driving up the Champs Elysees 
 in an open carriage, and seemed little changed. It was 
 the same kind handsome face. Poor Doctor ! how he 
 disliked flogging boys. Shortly before I left Rugby 
 there came a large circus to the town, which the Doctor 
 consented to patronize. The whole school went to the 
 performance, and I was hastening thither when I met 
 young Wake in the quadrangle looking rather glum. 
 " Not corning to the circus? " I asked. " Yes, but I have 
 to be coached first." Just then the Doctor appeared 
 in hat and gown, and the pair went into the special room 
 set aside for corporal punishment, furnished with a block 
 on which the victim had to kneel. After the execution 
 the Doctor hurried home, disrobed, and went to the show, 
 and the first thing that greeted his eyes on entering 
 was Wake riding round the arena on the elephant. 
 So the castigation could not have been very severe. 
 
 1 Some years later I met another monarch also in the Rue de 
 Rivoli the King of the Sandwich Isles, who was staying at the 
 Hotel Continental. Lady Brassey had written to call, and I had 
 a short interview with his Majesty. I was much amused a few 
 days afterwards to see the King, wearing a straw hat, drive up 
 in an open carriage to the Institute, to pay a visit to the Academy, 
 several members of which body, arrayed in uniform coats with 
 palm-leaves on the collar were on the steps of the building 
 waiting to receive him !
 
 155 
 
 XIII 
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 
 
 WHO was responsible for the war of 1870 ? All I 
 can say is, that long before the war was declared, war 
 was a common topic of conversation, and that it was in 
 the hearts of the people. The only question was when 
 and where the storm, which was so evidently brewing, 
 would burst. Some few thought that it would be 
 directed against " perfidious Albion," and that Belgium 
 would be invaded and Waterloo avenged ; but the general 
 opinion was that the coming campaign would open on 
 the Rhine. As far back as 1867 a declaration of war 
 against Prussia appeared so imminent that in April 
 there was a panic on the Bourse. It was pointed out 
 that the Baltic seaboard of Prussia was singularly 
 defenceless, and 'that the transports just returned from 
 Mexico might pour 50,000 men into Pomerania and 
 threaten Berlin from Stettin. The war feeling in the 
 provinces was wonderfully strong, and pressure was to 
 be brought to bear on the Emperor in the hope of 
 getting him to engage in " a truly popular war." If
 
 156 RECOLLECTIONS OF PAKIS 
 
 Paris was less inclined to fight, it was on account of the 
 Exhibition which was to be opened in May. 1 
 
 I have already mentioned how the King of Prussia, 
 like many other sovereigns, came here, and with him 
 Count Bismarck and von Moltke to see the Exhibition, 
 and the French afterwards said that it was the immense 
 wealth they there witnessed which determined them to 
 make war on the first opportunity. Even after the 
 opening of the Exhibition, and when all seemed peace, 
 a little incident occurred which created some sensation 
 at the time in Paris, as it was supposed to show the 
 anti-Prussian and very bellicose feelings of the army. 
 This was in the month of August. Sixty of the 
 pupils of the military school at St. Cyr, who had just 
 passed their examination and were about to join their 
 various corps, dined at the Trois Frdres in the Palais 
 Royal, a celebrated restaurant closed some years ago. 
 After numerous toasts to the Imperial family, the Army, 
 &c. had been drunk with the usual honours, the pupils 
 separated, wishing each other not adieu, but au revoir 
 till next spring in Prussia ! 
 
 And this same spirit was constantly manifested up 
 to the time that the great Franco-German difficulties 
 ceased smouldering and burst out into flames. There 
 were many causes to kindle this war. First of all there 
 was Sadowa and the wonderful success of the Prussian 
 arms, which was felt all the more acutely after the 
 
 1 The bone of contention was at that moment Luxembourg.
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 157 
 
 miserable way in which the Mexican expedition was 
 brought to an abrupt termination. Scuttle home at 
 the arrogant bidding of Mr. Seward and leave poor 
 Maximilian to his fate was a humiliating piece of 
 business, a deplorable epilogue to " the brightest idea 
 of the reign." Few Frenchmen ever heard of Mr. 
 Seward's despatch, but all felt that a certain amount 
 of French prestige had oozed away and ought to be 
 made good. What a sorry figure did France cut in 
 presence of a successful Prussia ! Hence a terrible 
 feeling of jealousy. Prussia was on every lip, and 
 
 " the word that floats oil the surface 
 Is as the tossing buoy which betrays where the anchor is hidden." 
 
 For four years before the war broke out, M. Thiers 
 had never ceased bewailing in and out of the Chamber 
 the loss of French preponderance in Europe. Then the 
 French, in spite of Mexico, which had proved a severe 
 drain upon their resources, were confident in their power 
 to go anywhere and do anything. They had the 
 chassepot, which had worked miracles at Mentana ; 
 they had the canon rayt, which was superior to any 
 ordnance in the world ; and the mitrailleuse, which had 
 been secretly experimented at Meudon, and had given 
 results enough to make one's hair stand on end. I 
 remember being struck, just before the war, with the 
 one-sided view taken by most of the persons with whom 
 I conversed. The audi alteram partem seemed quite
 
 158 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 foreign to their nature. I spoke to a retired " heavy " 
 one day in praise of the Prussian cavalry, and he re- 
 ceived my observations with a smile of compassion and 
 a shrug of the shoulders, and was loud in the praises of 
 his own men " Je les connais," he added, as he took a 
 huge pinch of snuff. Yes, but he knew nothing of the 
 others. Poor fellow, the first reverses of his old comrades 
 killed him. 
 
 The French, generally speaking, were in fact for 
 some time before war was declared in a state of bubble- 
 and-squeak, extremely restless and eager for the fray. 
 Few people seemed to have any idea what a terrible and 
 perilous affair war would be. There were exceptions. 
 The Emperor was one. Prince Napoleon was another. 
 He was cruising in the Baltic when he learned that 
 affairs had assumed a serious aspect. He at once 
 determined to return home, and on being asked where 
 he was going, replied "To Charenton (the French 
 Bedlam) ; to that city of madmen which is shouting, 
 To Berlin ! and which is called Paris." A Jewish 
 banker who had assumed the name of Merton and had 
 made a large fortune here in an incredibly short time 
 was a third. I remember when war was declared lie 
 said " The Prussians will be round Paris in a month." 
 He was laughed at as a false prophet, and went over to 
 London, where he committed suicide. He had first been 
 taken up by Cavour, who highly appreciated his sagacity. 
 He was quite young. There were also exceptions among
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 159 
 
 military men like General Ducrot, who knew something 
 of what was going on across the Rhine, and like Baron 
 Stoffel, the French military attache to Berlin, who in 
 vain warned his Government, and told them to beware 
 of the Prussian staff. 
 
 Nothing could equal the excitement when the 
 Spanish-Hohenzollern affair cropped up. Here was the 
 ardently desired opportunity for seizing on the Rhine 
 boundary, for recovering lost prestige, for humbling the 
 Court of Berlin. Whenever there appeared to be a 
 chance of an amicable arrangement the popular fury 
 knew no bounds, and the Ministry was called the 
 " Ministry of Shame." Crowds of people marched 
 along the Boulevards headed by bands playing revo- 
 lutionary and patriotic tunes, and shouting War ! 
 War! 1 
 
 The withdrawal of the Hohenzollern candidature, 
 which satisfied the Emperor and ought to have satisfied 
 the nation, was like oil thrown not upon water but upon 
 fire. When the Constitutiond published the following 
 note it was thought that its offices would have been 
 demolished, and journalists and deputies joined in their 
 abuse of the semi-official print 
 
 1 Emile Zola in La, Debacle says (p. 10)" The Boulevards 
 were filled to overflowing, and bands with lighted torches were 
 shouting a Berlin ! a Berlin / In front of the Hotel de Ville, 
 mounted on the box-seat of a cab, was a fine handsome woman 
 with the profile of a queen, draped in the folds of a flag and sing- 
 ing the Marseillaise."
 
 160 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 " The Prince of Hohenzollern will not reign over 
 Spain : we demand no more, and it is with pride 
 that we accept this pacific solution. It is a great 
 victory which has cost neither a tear nor a drop of 
 blood." 
 
 On August 3, 1870, Gustave Flaubert wrote a letter 
 to George Sand from Croisset, in which he said " How 
 now ! you also are demoralized and sad ? What then 
 will become of the weak ? . . . It seems to me that 
 we are taking a leap in the dark. Here then is man 
 in his natural state. Propound theories now! Boast 
 about the progress, the intelligence, and the good sense 
 of the masses, and the amiability of the French people. 
 I can assure you that any one venturing to preach 
 peace here would be knocked on the head. No matter 
 what happens we are retarded for a long time. Perhaps 
 the wars of races are going to recommence ? l Before 
 another century passes we shall see several millions of 
 men slaughtering each other at a sitting. Perhaps 
 Prussia will receive a good thrashing in accordance 
 with the designs of Providence for the re-establishment 
 of the equilibrium of Europe. . . . The respect, the 
 fetichism displayed for universal suffrage revolts me 
 more than the infallibility of the Pope. Do you believe 
 that if France, instead of being governed by the mob, 
 
 1 It was a very common idea at this time that the Latin races 
 should unite and rule the world ; and of course this plan could 
 aot be carried out without much shedding of blood.
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 161 
 
 was in the power of the mandarins we should be where 
 we are now ? If, instead of wishing to enlighten the 
 lower classes, we had educated the upper classes, we 
 should not have seen M. de Keratry propose to plunder 
 the Duchy of Baden, a measure which the public 
 considers quite justifiable." 
 
 However, for a moment it seemed as if war would be 
 averted. The King of Prussia was at Ems, and insisted 
 on the fatal Hohenzollern claim being withdrawn. To 
 this Prince Leopold consented, and all cause for quarrel 
 appeared to have been removed. Unfortunately the 
 French Government was not contented with this 
 diplomatic success, which had been hailed with delight 
 in Paris, had sent up the funds, and had apparently 
 given general satisfaction. In an evil moment M. 
 Benedetti, the French Ambassador to the Court of Berlin, 
 was now instructed to ask the King of Prussia, in 
 addition to withdrawing the Hohenzollern claim, to 
 five an assurance that that claim would never be 
 
 O 
 
 pressed at any ulterior date. The King of Prussia, on 
 being informed of this fresh demand, referred the 
 French Ambassador to his previous answer, in which 
 he had declared that he considered the Hohenzollern 
 affair terminated ; and when M. Benedetti asked for a 
 further interview to discuss matters, his Majesty sent 
 his aide-de-camp Lieutenant-Colonel Radziwill to him 
 to say that he must positively refuse any further 
 
 discussion on the second point. It was now declared 
 VOL. i. M
 
 162 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 in Paris that the French Ambassador had been grossly 
 insulted by the Prussian monarch, and the cry for .war 
 in and out of the Chamber was unanimous. When too 
 late it was proved that this insult had never been 
 offered. 
 
 After the war M. Ernest Pinard, who was Minister 
 of the Interior for a short time under the Empire, 
 published Mon Journal. Referring to the note in 
 the Constitutionel he wrote 
 
 " I heard in the lobbies, in the tribune, and in the 
 neighbourhood of the Chamber, language of which the 
 following article, taken from one of the journals of the 
 Boulevards, is but a pale copy." 
 
 Then comes the following extract 
 "It is not the Emperor Napoleon of his free will who 
 declared the present war; it was we who forced his 
 hand ; we do not hide this. The warlike resolutions 
 which we are about to take do not emanate from the 
 Government. The Government was irresolute. It 
 desired to allow itself to be disarmed by derisive con- 
 cessions. Our resolutions come from the entrails of the 
 country." 
 
 And to the above M. Pinard added 
 " The immense majority of the newspapers repeated 
 that the conditions of peace were shameful, sinister, 
 and ridiculous. In the evening (an evening I well 
 remember) at the Opera, M. Emile de Girardin, one of 
 the most hot-headed of the party, applauded by the
 
 BELLA, HORR1DA BELLA! 
 
 crowd, shouted for the Marseillaise 1 and L& Rhin, by 
 Alfred de Musset, to be sung, and they were sung with 
 enthusiasm. In the open-air concerts warlike songs 
 alone were listened to, such as the Chant de, Depart 
 which Mehul wrote when Napoleon I. was at Boulogne 
 meditating the invasion of England. At Musard's the 
 great attraction was the Entry to Berlin, set to the 
 roar of big guns with a chassepot accompaniment." 
 
 Who then can be singled out as responsible for the 
 war ? Had it not been declared there would have been 
 a revolution. The Emperor was accused because he 
 yielded. The Empress was accused because people 
 said she considered that nothing but a successful war 
 could secure the succession for her son ; also that as a 
 Spaniard and a Catholic she was indignant at the idea 
 of a German and a heretic reigning at Madrid. 
 Ministers were accused because M. Emile Olivier said 
 that he went to war with a light heart, and the Duke 
 de Gramont was accused because he had committed 
 diplomatic blunders and had concealed the truth. 
 
 Emperor, Empress, Ministers, all incurred the national 
 rage attendant upon want of success. And I must say 
 that it filled me with indignation when, after the war, 
 I saw the vilest caricatures of the Empress in the shop- 
 
 1 Capoul, the favourite tenor of the Opera Comique, was obliged 
 to sing the Marseillaise in front of the Bourse standing up on the 
 top of an omnibus ; and Marie Sasse had to give the same hymn 
 from her carriage.
 
 164* RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 windows, and M. Emile de Girardin driving daily in his 
 open carriage and pair, lolling back luxuriously, and 
 looking the picture of content. 
 
 The following anecdote will show with what gloomy 
 forebodings the mind of the Emperor was filled. When 
 war was declared, General Lepic, much to his annoyance, 
 was appointed Adjutant-General of the Palace. Wish- 
 ing to accompany Napoleon III. on active service, he 
 protested. In his reply the Emperor said that he left 
 him the care of the Empress, in which situation he 
 would perhaps run greater perils than on the field of 
 battle. 
 
 Another anecdote. " When Ministers presented the 
 declaration of war to the Emperor, he not only refused 
 to sign it, but tore it up in a passion, and, being ill at 
 the time, went to bed. The Empress, on learning what 
 happened, persuaded Ministers to re-write the declara- 
 tion, and, suffering from intense emotion, took it to 
 the Emperor, who signed it." 
 
 Many similar anecdotes were told at the time and 
 afterwards, most of them related by people "about the 
 Court," but none of them reposing upon any serious 
 foundation. 
 
 I find in my notes that on Saturday, July 16, 1870, 
 Senators went to St. Cloud, and presented an obsequi- 
 ous address to the Emperor. That his Majesty thanked 
 them for their patriotic sentiments, and declared him- 
 self confident in their support. That great indignation
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA EELLA ! 165 
 
 was expressed when M. Rouher, the President of the 
 Senate, announced how some Prussians had crossed the 
 Rhine about twelve leagues from Metz, and had 
 violated the territory, and that in military circles it was 
 supposed that the Prussians would have made a dash 
 into Champagne. 
 
 And on Sunday, July 17 "The Emperor came from 
 St. Cloud to the Tuileries this morning, when the 
 Cabinet assembled to draw up the usual declaration of 
 war, which will be despatched to Berlin this even- 
 ing. It is thought that he will leave for Metz on 
 Wednesday. 
 
 "Marshal Bazaine left here last night to take 
 command of the 3rd corps, 80,000 strong. Marshal 
 MacMahon, who is to command the 1st corps, is ex- 
 pected to arrive from Algeria this evening. The 2nd, 
 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th corps are placed respectively 
 under the order of Generals Frossard, Ladmirault, de 
 Failly, Marshal Canrobert, and General Douay. General 
 Bourbaki is to command the Imperial Guard. General 
 Trochu is to have a division. General Changaraier, 
 who is seventy-seven years of age, has offered his 
 services. 
 
 " Last night the streets were again paraded by bands 
 of students and workmen with flags and lanterns. The 
 general cry was for war. There were a few people who 
 shouted Vive la paix ! but these were dispersed by the 
 police. The greatest animation reigned in the vicinity
 
 1G6 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 of the Eastern Railway as regiment after regiment 
 marched up to take train for the frontier. A great 
 deal of embracing was done. It was with difficulty 
 that the vivandi&res were torn from the arms of their 
 admirers. An attempt was made to sack the house t>f 
 M. Thiers for condemning the action of the Government, 
 but the gates proved too solid, and resisted until the 
 police arrived." 
 
 I saw the Emperor as he left the Tuileries (for 
 the last time) and was driving along the Seine on 
 the way back to St. Cloud. He was greeted with 
 enthusiasm, and, if he had a worn expression, he 
 appeared pleased with his reception. It may have 
 reminded him of the ovation he received when he 
 started for the Italian campaign, and the people promised 
 not to stir in his absence. In fact, everything proved 
 that he was moving in the popular direction, albeit 
 against his will. This was the last sight I ever had of 
 his Majesty, whose Empire was about to pass from 
 him. War was proclaimed on July 23, and the 
 Emperor went to Metz on the 28th. 
 
 Unlimited confidence was felt in the army and its 
 ability to get to Berlin in a week, and news from the 
 front, where matters seemed rather to hang fire at first, 
 was awaited with feverish anxiety. At length came 
 despatches announcing that the frontier had been 
 passed, and a letter from Edmond About, one of the 
 instigators of the war, boasting that he was the first to
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 167 
 
 enter the country of the enemy. There had also been 
 an engagement in which the Prussians had been 
 repulsed, and in which the Prince Imperial had 
 distinguished himself under the eyes of his father, to 
 the intense delight of the army. Every evening the 
 Boulevards were crowded with people eagerly watching 
 for the papers to appear. Reality was preceded by 
 rumour ; truth by fiction. The news from the frontier 
 was cheering at first, and awoke the most lively 
 enthusiasm. One might almost have supposed that 
 the war was over, and Prussia ready to sue for peace. 
 Some of this news soon turned out to be utterly worth- 
 less. One piece of false intelligence had created an 
 immense impression, and it is still often alluded to as a 
 canard of the first water. Paris was informed that the 
 whole Prussian cavalry, white cuirassiers and all, had 
 been destroyed at some imaginary battle by galloping 
 into the quarries of Jaumont, and a war correspondent 
 who visited the- spot a week later gave a vivid and 
 terrible description of the scene he witnessed horses 
 and their riders in one confused mass or jelly still 
 quivering with life. 
 
 By degrees pleasant dreams were rudely dispelled, 
 and news of disaster arrived 
 
 " First a beak and then a wing, 
 Until the air grew black with ravens." 
 
 And piteous it was to behold the painful expression
 
 168 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 created by the intelligence of the successive defeats 
 which marked the opening of the campaign. The 
 Emile Olivier Ministry was overthrown, and a Cabinet 
 formed under the direction of the Count de Palikao 
 the General Montauban who had commanded the French 
 troops during the Anglo-French expedition to China. 
 I used to go of an evening to the Mairie in the Rue 
 Drouot, where the latest despatches were posted up on 
 their arrival, and never shall I forget the scenes of 
 patriotic anguish I there witnessed. The Government 
 did what it could to deaden the shocks, and one day, to 
 gain a few hours, the Count de Palikao, with the news 
 of a crushing defeat in his pocket, said in the Chamber 
 "If I could only tell you all I know, Paris would 
 illuminate this evening." Then such rumours as this 
 were circulated " Marshal MacMahon has gained a 
 great victory, and the Prince Royal of Prussia and 
 25,000 men have been taken prisoners." 
 
 There soon, however, arose a cry in Paris against the 
 Emperor, who was accused "of incapacity, and the 
 demand was general that he should hand over the 
 command of the army to Marshal Bazaine. This was 
 done. The true state of affairs could no longer be 
 hidden. It was determined to form a camp at Chalons 
 under Marshal MacMahon, and thither the Emperor 
 repaired. Paris found a portion of the contingent 
 which was to go towards forming a new army, and I 
 must say that the raw material which left the capital
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 1G9 
 
 was not of the most promising description. I saw a 
 regiment of Mobiles march. Some of the men were in 
 carts ; they were all accompanied by friends, male and 
 female ; there was a terrible uproar, shouting, laughing, 
 and singing, not a vestige of discipline. One might 
 easily have fancied oneself in Carnival time. I was not 
 much astonished to learn, shortly after the departure of 
 this queer force, that there had been troubles at the 
 camp of Chalons, that the Emperor's baggage had been 
 plundered and his shirts put up to auction. 
 
 Shortly before hostilities with Germany broke out I 
 heard several debates in the Chamber on the military 
 estimates. Marshal Niel was the War Minister, and 
 wished to organize the Garde Mobile. This measure, 
 which would have cost a good deal of money, but would 
 perhaps have saved France from disaster, was so stren- 
 uously opposed by the new Liberal Opposition that 
 little or nothing was done. The Republicans, always 
 wrapped up in the achievements of the First Revolution, 
 considered the National Guard equal to any emergency. 
 Now, after a campaign of a couple of months, France 
 was terribly in want of a reserve, and there was none to 
 be found. One of the devices resorted to for the defence 
 of Paris was to call up the firemen from the country. 
 Never since the days of Falstaff was such an assembly 
 of warriors witnessed. Many of them were tottering on 
 the verge of the grave ; they all wore quaint old 
 uniforms and brazen helmets, and were ignorant of the
 
 170 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 elements of drill. They excited peals of laughter, and 
 were sent home. They were fit only for the stage, to 
 figure in such a piece as La Grande. Duchesse under the 
 orders of General Bourn. 
 
 The "Moblots," as the Gardes Mobiles were called, 
 were a very different lot. They were all active young 
 fellows, and only deficient in that training which Marshal 
 Niel would have given them had he not been thwarted 
 by the Liberals who, after the war, established obligatory 
 . service, and drilled and armed even school-boys. 
 
 Hearing that there was a battalion of Moblots 
 encamped in the Bois de Boulogne just behind the 
 racecourse of Longchamps, I set out one day to visit it. 
 I had a friend in the ranks. I shall never forget my 
 walk through the Bois. In ordinary times it would 
 have been alive with any quantity of carriages, ladies 
 and gentlemen on horseback, and pedestrians in quest 
 of fresh air and an appetite. On the sunny afternoon 
 in question I did not meet a single soul. The shady 
 avenues and the shores of the lakes were alike deserted. 
 It was a melancholy spectacle. I fancied myself for 
 the moment Campbell's " Last Man " 
 
 " Who shall creation's death behold 
 As Adam saw her prime. 
 
 Earth's cities had no sound, 110 tread." 
 
 It was not until I was close to the camp that I heard a 
 human voice or saw a human being. There all was life
 
 BELLA, HOERIDA BELLA I 171 
 
 and animation. I half thought that I had broken in 
 upon a fair. As I was walking through the tents 
 
 inquiring for young de V , there suddenly arose a 
 
 great clamour. This was caused by the approach of 
 four Moblots with a deer, which they had shot in the 
 Bois, and slung on a pole. Their arrival was hailed with 
 shouts of triumph and delight. I could not find my 
 friend, who no doubt was out foraging with some com- 
 rades. Had the Moblots confined their depredations to 
 poaching there would have been little to say, but they 
 were not above doing a bit of loot, and the property of 
 Sir R. Wallace hard by was not spared. The next day 
 the camp broke up, and the battalion marched to join 
 
 the army of Chalons. As for poor de V I never 
 
 saw him again. 
 
 A few days later the Bois presented a more animated 
 appearance, and there was much lowing and bleating 
 throughout its length and breadth ; in fact it was filled 
 with herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, destined for 
 our consumption during the siege. The cattle were of 
 indifferent- quality, and had evidently not been stall 
 fed. But I was struck with amazement at the sight of 
 the sheep. I had no idea that such specimens of the 
 ovine race existed. They all had a shabby under-bred 
 appearance, and numbers of them resembled, not 
 wolves, but Italian greyhounds in sheep's clothing. It 
 was calculated that cattle and sheep would feed Paris 
 for two months.
 
 172 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 Before publishing his work on Sedan in 1892, Einile 
 Zola contributed an article on that battle to the Figaro, 
 September 1, 1891. I made a note of this, and here 
 are one or two paragraphs 
 
 " The army of Chalons, in spite of everything, showed 
 itself great, for it was really an army of martyrs. After 
 Sedan it was loaded with execrations, for no one could 
 understand how 80,000 men allowed themselves to be 
 made prisoners . . . Without doubt there were abom- 
 inable scenes of insubordination ; open revolts in the 
 camp, and the pillage of the railway-station of Rheims. 
 During the march knapsacks and muskets were flung 
 away. Men, hungry and drunk, tumbled into the 
 ditches or begged along the roads. An ever-increasing 
 tail of stragglers sowed the country with a regular 
 horde of vagabonds who levied contributions and 
 robbed the peasants. And not an example was made, 
 not a culprit was shot. There were too many of 
 them." 
 
 A week before the battle of Sedan was fought all 
 Paris was applauding Marshal Bazaine for the skilful 
 manner in which he had saved the country. He had 
 had the talent to unite his forces under the walls of 
 Metz, thus renewing the exploits of Massena at Genoa. 
 He had disorganized three Prussian armies while pre- 
 serving his positions. In a few days MacMahon would 
 fall upon and destroy the remnant of the enemy's 
 troops, and the march on Berlin would be resumed.
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 173 
 
 Such were the optimist opinions expressed by most 
 of the papers. Not many hours afterwards we 
 learned that Metz was completely isolated, and that 
 the army of Chalons was on the march to relieve 
 Bazaine. 
 
 In the meantime General Trochu, who was in com- 
 mand of a division watching the Pyrenees, was sum- 
 moned to take the command of Paris ; Admiral 
 llonciere le Noury and 10,000 sailors were ordered 
 here to man the forts, and preparations were actively 
 pushed forward for the defence of the capital in the 
 event of it being invested guns got into position, 
 ditch cut, sixty bridges blown up, and military zone 
 cleared. All this was very alarming, and a good 
 many sacrifices appeared to me to have been need- 
 lessly made. For instance, one of the bridges 
 blown up was immediately under the guns of 
 Mont Valerien, the most powerful of the forts 
 round Parisin fact between that fort and the 
 enceinte ! 
 
 Many excuses were offered by the French for their 
 defeats. They were crushed by numbers. They were 
 quite unprepared. There was much truth in both. 
 After the war was declared it was found that the 
 strength of the French army was not what it appeared 
 upon paper. Marshal Le Bceuf, who was War Minister 
 under M. Emile Olivier, had declared that everything 
 was ready for war, and that not a gaiter-button was
 
 174 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 wanting. When matters were put to the test every- 
 thing was wanting. The magazines were found to be 
 in the most deplorable condition. There had evidently 
 been an immense amount of pilfering going on which 
 had either been undetected or connived at. I one 
 day asked a friend of mine in the War Office how 
 Marshal Le Boeuf could have made such a declar- 
 ation. He replied "I know him well. He 
 believed what he said. He is quite incapable of 
 having told a falsehood." He was the victim of lying 
 reports. 
 
 Another cause of disaster was the jealousy existing 
 between some of the commanders of army corps 
 jealousy which has been so often fatal to the French 
 arms. The stories told on this subject appeared to 
 me almost incredible, and yet many of them must have 
 been true. The most glaring instance was that of 
 General de Failly refusing to go to the assistance of 
 General Frossard. I should have refrained from men- 
 tioning this case had I not afterwards found it referred 
 to in the Avenir Militaire of October 21, 1886, in 
 these terms " From the beginning to the end of our 
 military history, throughout centuries, it is always the 
 same impious cry which is heard, as on the day of 
 
 Spicheren : ' X is in the filth (a coarser word in 
 
 French), let him remain there.' " X being General 
 
 Frossard. And appended is a note "Vide Les 
 M&hodcs de Gnerre, General Pierron, t. i. 2nd edition,
 
 BELLA, HORRLDA BELLA! 175 
 
 for examples." l At first I thought this story beyond 
 belief and refused to credit it. 
 
 Another failing will always be detrimental to the 
 success of the French armies, the want of respect for 
 superiors. I remember one day asking a French officer 
 quartered in Paris, how it came that the captains and 
 lieutenants did not mess together. The reply was that 
 if they did, the lieutenants would be deprived of the 
 pleasure of abusing the captains. Does not this 
 remind one of the state of the Grecian army before 
 Troy, where Ulysses says 
 
 " The general's disdain'd 
 By him one step below; he, by the next ; 
 That next, by him beneath : so every step, 
 Exampled by the first pace that is sick 
 Of his superior, grows to an envious fever." 2 
 
 France had passed through a terrible month of 
 August. She had lost successively in thirty days the 
 battles of Sarrebruck, Weissemburg, Forbach, Reich- 
 shoffen, Bourg, Gravelotte, St. Privat, and Beaumont. 
 In Paris, however, it was still hoped that MacMahon 
 would be able to relieve Metz, though there was much 
 uncertainty as to his march. 
 
 On September 1, I went to the Chamber and heard 
 M. Keller, whose name bespeaks his Alsatian origin, 
 
 1 Emile Zola in La Debacle, p. 12, says " The Generals were 
 jealous of each other ; each one being intent upon winning his 
 Marshal's baton without aiding his neighbour." 
 
 2 Trottus and Cressida, Act I., Scene iii.
 
 17C RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 make a very impassioned speech on the subject of the 
 cruel way in which the Prussians were carrying on the 
 siege of Strasbourg, not attacking the defences, but 
 bombarding the town for eight or nine hours a day. 
 The bishop, he said, had remonstrated, and been told 
 by the besiegers that they were in too great a hurry 
 'to act according to rule, and therefore wished to in- 
 timidate the inhabitants and make them force General 
 Uhrich to surrender. The Chamber was highly indig- 
 nant, and when M. Keller laid before it an account of 
 the gallantry of the inhabitants, declared that Strasbourg 
 deserved well of the country, and should never cease 
 to be a French town, the members stood up and cheered, 
 the strangers in the galleries joining in the applause. 
 
 All sorts of rumours concerning German atrocities 
 were floating about. At Vitry the invaders were said 
 to have massacred a detachment of the Garde Mobile 
 which had laid down its arms, refusing to recognize 
 the men as soldiers, and considering them as armed 
 peasants not responsible to the War Minister. The 
 Prussians were also accused of firing on ambulance 
 waggons. 
 
 Amongst the curious paragraphs which appeared in 
 the press at this date, I jotted down a few, such as the 
 following "Yesterday' a new-born babe was presented 
 at the Mairie of the Pantheon ward, which bore, clearly 
 marked on its forehead, a Prussian helmet." A cor- 
 respondent, writing from Rheims, said "Let me
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA ! 177 
 
 terminate this letter with a truly French feat of arms 
 performed by a lad of Epernay. When fifty Uhlans 
 were flying before seven Sappers (!) one of them fell 
 with his horse, and his pistol tumbled out of the 
 holster. A boy, only twelve years of age, picked up 
 the weapon and shot the Uhlan, who was struggling 
 under his charger." What a feat to boast of! The 
 Figaro tells us that the commandant of Phalsbourg, 
 called upon to surrender, sent the plucky reply that he 
 would hold out until his shirt-tail caught fire. We 
 have also a wounded Turco and four boys armed with 
 flint muskets putting a cloud of Uhlans to flight ; of 
 ten Zouaves falling on a hundred Prussians and slaying 
 ninety. It is with such tales as these that the French 
 try to keep up their spirits. Their credulity is some- 
 thing marvellous when the subject matter tickles their 
 vanity. 
 
 On September 3, I was walking down the Faubourg 
 St. Honore, and turned into the British Embassy to 
 learn if there was anything new. What a surprise 
 awaited me ! I saw Sheffield, the amiable secretary 
 of Lord Lyons, who told me that they had just received 
 a telegram from London, stating that the French had 
 suffered a crushing defeat at Seda,n, and that the 
 Emperor had been made prisoner. What would happen 
 next ? On leaving the Embassy I went over the river 
 to the Chamber. The sitting had not yet commenced, 
 and the open space in front of the Palais Bourbon was 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 crowded with deputies chatting and laughing. I went 
 up to a group which contained several members I knew, 
 and after listening awhile to the conversation, asked 
 M. Eugene Pelletan if he had heard the news. 
 
 O 
 
 " What news ? " 
 
 " Why, that the army of Chalons has laid down its 
 arms, and that the Emperor has surrendered himself to 
 the King of Prussia." 
 
 It may be well imagined what a sensation this 
 intelligence created. I was pressed with questions. 
 Where did I learn the catastrophe ? When I mentioned 
 the source of my information it was no longer doubted. 
 There was great excitement and hurrying' to and fro. 
 At this moment M. Thiers arrived and was skipping 
 up the steps of the Chamber, when M. Eugene Pelletan 
 and his friends ran and told him what had happened. 
 They at once went to a Committee-room to consult. 
 M. Edouard Herve, now a member of the Academy, 
 to whom I then communicated my intelligence, offered 
 me a seat in his carriage, and we drove along the 
 Boulevards, where nothing had yet transpired, and 
 where life was ebbing and flowing in its usual careless 
 manner people ^lounging about, and drinking and 
 smoking at the cafes. 
 
 When the news became generally known the wildest 
 excitement prevailed. What next ? What would be- 
 come of the Regency and the Government ? Would 
 political differences be laid aside for the moment, and
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 179 
 
 would the nation gather round the Empress until the 
 Germans were disposed of? No. 
 
 The next morning it really looked like civil war. 
 The city was in a ferment. National Guards were 
 marching about in a manner which seemed to promise 
 mischief. I heard that an attack was to be made on 
 the Chamber. I took an open cab, drove to the Place 
 de la Concorde, and found the bridge leading to the 
 Palais Bourbon guarded by Gendarmerie a Cheval. 
 No one was allowed to pass. A number of Republican 
 deputies were standing on the steps of the Chamber 
 watching events. As National Guards were coming 
 ,up in force it looked as if a collision would take place. 
 I stationed myself close to the bridge, but took the 
 precaution of making the cabman turn his horse round, 
 so that if the troops on the other side of the Seine and 
 on the bridge opened fire we might execute a hasty 
 retreat. Drums began to beat, and the people cheered 
 the National Guards lustily as they marched up boldly 
 to the foot of the bridge. Here a halt was made, and 
 two or three officers advanced alone and began to 
 parley with the Gendarmerie. I must say that I felt 
 much relieved when I saw the officers of the two forces 
 fraternizing and swords sheathed. The Gendarmerie 
 retired, the bridge was left free, the National Guards 
 crossed over, the deputies waved their hats, the people 
 applauded, and there was more fraternizing, and one 
 could see gendarmes on horseback embracing citizens
 
 180 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 on foot. Here was a revolution accomplished without 
 loss of blood, and I don't remember any one being hurt 
 with the exception of President Schneider, who on his 
 way to the Chamber received a blow on the head, and 
 was with difficulty rescued from the mob by his escort. 
 
 The Chamber was won, but the flag waving over the 
 Tuileries hard by betrayed the presence of the Empress, 
 and there was a line of Voltigeurs of the Guard drawn 
 tip in front of the palace. The sovereign people having 
 proclaimed the Republic, determined, as had been done 
 more than once before, to take possession of the 
 Tuileries. The bronze eagles which adorned the gates 
 of the garden were torn down, one citizen being 
 grievously wounded in the head during the operation, 
 and the gates themselves were burst open. Again it 
 looked like bloodshed ; there was a deal of enthusiasm 
 on one side; and bayonets, which glistened in the sun, 
 on the other. Fortunately Victorien Sardou and 
 Armand Gouzien were among the invaders, and they 
 addressed the people, begging, them not to advance, and 
 offering to go and ask the officer in command of the 
 troops to permit the National Guards to replace the 
 Voltigeurs. 
 
 I viewed this scene from the distance, and was glad 
 to perceive matters again peacefully settled. The fact 
 is that at this critical moment General Mellinet, who 
 was in command of the troops, received a message from 
 the Empress saying that she was about to leave the
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 181 
 
 Tuileries, and consequently there was no need of 
 employing force. 
 
 Armand Gouzien, who is now an inspector of 
 Fine Arts, wrote an interesting letter at the time 
 describing what passed. I give it in an abbreviated 
 form " I have just witnessed a play that one does not 
 see every day, the fall of an Empire. Prologue : the 
 defeat (Sedan) ; 1st scene : the Chamber ; 2nd scene : 
 the Tuileries ... I went like every one to the Place 
 de la Concorde to learn the news, but could not get 
 past the gate of the Tuileries. It was said that the 
 Republic had been proclaimed. The dejection of the 
 day before had vanished ; hope seemed to have been 
 born again ; there was joy on every face. I saw gend- 
 armes and citizens fraternizing and embracing each 
 other. There were ill-favoured men who pointed to 
 the flag still flying over the Tuileries, indicating the 
 presence of the Empress, and to the line of Voltigeurs 
 of the Guard in front of the palace." 
 
 While the eagles were being pulled down Armand 
 Gouzien turned and beheld Victorien Sardou, who, 
 after an exchange of a few words, begged him to 
 address the people. This he consented to do, with 
 what success I have already mentioned. The pair set 
 out on their mission to General Mellinet, with which 
 officer Armand Gouzien had the good fortune to be 
 acquainted. He continues thus 
 
 " I thought I saw some very alarming movements on
 
 182 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 the part of the Voltigeurs which reminded me of the 
 mot, ' The chassepots did marvels.' The first discharge 
 would be for us. Perhaps we might receive another 
 from behind. I felt a very vague and uneasy sensation 
 in the region of the dpigastre. This is easily explained 
 by one not accustomed to take the Tuileries between 
 meals. Sardou said that soldiers did not fire on a flag 
 of truce, and hoisted his handkerchief on the top of 
 his stick." 
 
 After reaching the reserved garden where the troops 
 were drawn up, the ambassadors asked to see General 
 Meliinet, who came forward and said that the Empress 
 had just left the palace. 
 
 " ' Then, General,' said we, ' there can be no objection 
 to lowering the flag and allowing the National Guard 
 to replace the Imperial Guard. In this way great 
 misfortunes may be avoided.' 
 
 "The people came running from all sides, and ap- 
 peared to be dropping from the trees. Sardou asked 
 the General to speak to them, saying, ' They all respect 
 and admire you.' 
 
 "The General got up on a chair. In his chopped 
 voice for he has left a portion of his jaw-bones on the 
 field of battle he said that the Empress was no longer 
 at the Tuileries, but that he had the guard of the 
 palace, and he hoped that they would respect his 
 orders. 
 
 " The glorious old soldier of the Crimea and Italy
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 183 
 
 was applauded. The flag was removed ; the National 
 Guards relieved the Voltigeurs, and there was an 
 immense cry of Vive la Mfyublique." 
 
 And so with tact and good temper an awkward 
 moment was safely tided over, and Paris for a while was 
 spared the horrors of civil strife. 
 
 Not very long ago General Mellinet was asked for 
 his version of the affair, and I made a note of his reply. 
 He said that when tlie crowd forced in the gates of the 
 gardens of the Tuileries 
 
 " It was about one p.m. ; I was inspecting the Grenadiers 
 (? Voltigeurs) on guard at the palace. The gates at the 
 Place de la Concorde were closed. For some hours 
 numerous groups had been crossing the Place de la 
 Concorde on their way to the Corps Legislatif (just 
 over the bridge). The Empress had received a despatch 
 from Pietri, Prefect of Police, announcing the hostile 
 sentiments of the National Guard, and stating that 
 cries of Vive la RtpuUique ! had been raised at a great 
 many points. On receiving this despatch the sove- 
 reign, in a moment of annoyance, stuck her penknife 
 through it. Suddenly cries of ' To the Tuileries ! To 
 the Tuileries ! ' were heard ; the crowd rushed in a 
 body towards the gardens, and the gates gave way 
 leaving a free passage for the shouting multitude. 
 
 " The soldiers, who up to that time had been stand- 
 ing quietly behind their piled arms, seized their rifles 
 and lowered their bayonets. Sardou, who was there
 
 ,184 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 accompanied by Gouzien, called to the crowd ' Do not 
 advance, they raay fire ! ' At this moment Admiral 
 Jurien de la Graviere came to me from the Empress, 
 to tell me not to use my arms against the people. I 
 replied that I would show the greatest longanimity, but 
 that I could not answer for my men when our patience 
 was worn out. At two o'clock Jurien returned with 
 the same recommendation, adding that her Majesty 
 was about to retire. The departure of the sovereign 
 accomplished, I withdrew my men, who were replaced 
 by the National Guard. . . . The crowd spread through 
 the apartments, but no scandalous scenes took place. 
 There were a few cries of Vive la RdpuUique ! and that 
 was all. After the crowd had le.ft, the following in- 
 scriptions were found written on the walls 'Liberty, 
 Equality, Fraternity ! ' ' Death to thieves ! ' ' Let us 
 save France ! ' ' Respect property ! ' ' Apartments to 
 let ! ' You see that there was nothing very terrible." 
 
 As I left the Place de la Concorde, I walked down the 
 Rue de Rivoli, which was crowded with what one might 
 well have believed to be holiday-makers; men, women, 
 and children. On every face there was an expression, 
 if not of joy, of relief; a great battle had been lost 
 which jeopardized the safety of the capital, but then 
 a despotism had been overthrown. I could not help 
 reflecting that if the tyrant had not wished to give his 
 country liberal institutions to " crown the edifice," as 
 he called it and had been allowed to remain quietly
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 185 
 
 on the throne, France would have been spared the most 
 terrible of wars, in which she was destined to lose 
 blood, treasure, territory, and prestige. As I passed 
 along, I now saw Voltigeurs lying down under the trees 
 in front of the Tuileries, calling to citizens through the 
 railing, and a little further on a Voltigeur and a citizen 
 in mufti doing sentry duty together before one of the 
 gates of the Louvre. 
 
 As for the feeling of "joy or relief" felt by the people 
 on the fall of the Empire, I could understand it in a 
 great measure. 
 
 The Empress, I see by my notes, did not hear of the 
 disaster of Sedan until five p.m. on Saturday, September 
 3. She shut herself up until midnight, and then asked 
 for Persigny. At six a.m. on the 4th there was a Cabinet 
 council, at which she announced her intention of laying 
 down the Regency and of leaving the country, so as to 
 avoid any useless effusion of blood. Would there have 
 been any effusion of blood ? Long before the Empress 
 took her departure the rats had left -the sinking vessel. 
 The palace of the Tuileries was deserted ; courtiers 
 and servants alike had fled ; it resembled Versailles on 
 the day that Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette were 
 dragged back to Paris. The age of chivalry had fled. 
 All the doors were open, disorder reigned everywhere ; 
 here and there were empty boxes ; frames with the 
 pictures cut out ; every symptom of a hasty departure. 
 Such was the account given by a person who at the
 
 188 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 last moment wandered through the galleries in search 
 of her Majesty to warn her of her danger. 
 
 What a picture, this deserted Empress, and how it 
 reminds one of Byron's description of Parisina in 
 disgrace ! 
 
 " How changed since last her speaking eye 
 Glanced gladness round the glittering room, 
 Where high-born men were proud to wait 
 Where Beauty watch'd to imitate 
 Her gentle voice her lovely mien 
 And gather from her air and gait 
 The graces of its Queen ! 
 Then had her eye in sorrow wept, 
 A thousand warriors forth had leapt, 
 A thousand swords had sheathless shone, 
 And made her quarrel all their own." l 
 
 The Empress herself afterwards complained bitterly 
 in a letter (November 20, 1870, Camden Place, Chisle- 
 hurst) of her desertion by one person, whose proud 
 boast it was to be a Catholic, a Breton, and a soldier. 
 This is how her Majesty wrote of General Trochu, who 
 had recently been appointed Military Governor of Paris 
 " As for the affair of September 4, I shall merely 
 reply that General Trochu abandoned me, if not worse. 
 
 1 I remember how, during the palmy days of the Empire, a 
 French officer called out and I believe killed a colonist in Algeria 
 who had spoken disrespectfully of the Empress. There was an 
 amusing side to this incident. M. de Villemessant, editor of the 
 Figaro, drew particular attention to this act of gallantry, pointing 
 out how the officer in question had risked his life on the borders 
 of the Sahara, hundreds of leagues from the Boulevards, and 
 consequently where there was no gallery.
 
 BELLA, HORRID A BELLA ! 187 
 
 He never appeared at the Tuileries after the Chamber 
 had been invaded, nor did any of the other ministers, 
 with the exception of three who insisted on my 
 departure." 
 
 It is true that at this moment the mob, who shouted 
 for Trochu to show himself, was informed that the 
 General was ill. But he was quite well the next day, 
 and adhered to the new order of things. 
 
 O 
 
 From all I learned at the time and from all I have 
 gathered since, the Empress behaved with admirable 
 courage during this terrible crisis, and never lost her 
 head. She behaved with a coolness like Marie 
 Antoinette, who tried to persuade Louis X\ r l. to 
 defend his throne ; like the Duchesse de Berri, who 
 endeavoured to reconquer that throne for her son the 
 Comte de Chambord ; like the Duchesse d'Orleans, 
 who took her children to the Chamber when Louis 
 Philippe had fled, in the hopes of being named Regent 
 until the Comte de Paris was of age. Another royal 
 la'ly also behaved with intrepidity in 1870 the 
 Princess Clothilde. On the morning of Sept. 4, she 
 received telegrams from Florence begging her to return 
 at once to Italy. Her reply was that she intended 
 remaining in her palace as long as the Empress re- 
 mained in hers, and that she would be the last to 
 leave. She kept her word, and did not quit the Palais 
 Royal until several hours after the Empress had left 
 the Tuileries, and what was strange, the crowd un-
 
 188 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 covered as she stepped into her carriage. Just before 
 driving off she received another telegram a despatch 
 from her father saying, " I thank you, my daughter, for 
 the honour you have just done our House" and her 
 husband was at that moment in Florence endeavouring 
 
 O 
 
 to persuade Victor Emanuel to give France a helping 
 hand. In fact, if we are to believe M. George Thie- 
 baud, one of Prince Napoleon's intimate friends, the 
 King of Italy was on the point of casting in his lot 
 with France. The Prince said to him one day " My 
 father-in-law is very kind and very generous. I could 
 say anything to him. Ah ! it was not my fault if 
 100,000 did not reinforce us during the war. I had 
 succeeded in the mission with which the Emperor had 
 entrusted me a few days before Sedan. I had hurried 
 to Victor Emanuel, who at my request had decided to 
 interfere. It was all settled. Then, at the news of the 
 disaster of Sedan, the King, greatly troubled, mshed 
 to me, and clasping me in his arms said 'Well, I 
 have had a fine escape ! What a folly I was about 
 to commit, my dear Napoleon, through affection for 
 you.'" 
 
 The story of how the Empress, with the aid of the 
 Austrian and Italian ambassadors, Prince Metternich 
 and the Chevalier Nigra, and the American dentist, Mr. 
 Evans, who accompanied her to Deauville, managed to 
 get away from the Tuileries, and how she was conveyed 
 across the Channel in an English yacht, the Gazelle,
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 189 
 
 belonging to Sir J. Burgoyne, are matters of history. 1 
 Every one but the scum of the city was glad that her 
 Majesty had effected her escape in safety, in spite of 
 her unpopularity. She was regarded as the chief 
 culprit in the matter of Sedan. It was she who had 
 insisted on the march to Metz, and had raised her voice 
 against the return of the Emperor to Paris. Suppose 
 that no attempt had been made to relieve Bazaine, 
 what would have been said ? Napoleon III. afterwards, 
 in a celebrated letter to Field-Marshal Sir John Bur~ 
 goyne, characterized it as a dynastic march, but it was 
 also a popular march here, for Paris was perfectly 
 certain that on the approach of the army of Chalons, 
 Bazaine would cut his way out of Metz, form his 
 junction with MacMahon, and drive the Germans back 
 across the Rhine. As late as August 23, a French 
 military correspondent of considerable standing in- 
 formed the Parisians that " Prince Frederick Charles 
 and General von Moltke had wasted their force in vain 
 efforts against Marshal Bazaine ; and MacMahon, 
 preceded by his Chasseurs d'Afrique, will soon sweep 
 away the remainder of these arrogant conquerors who 
 have had the audacity to declare Alsace and Lorraine 
 German territory." 
 
 The declaration of the Republic created so much 
 enthusiasm that for the moment the Prussians appeared 
 to have been forgotten, and the people set to work to 
 1 Vide the Log-book of the Gazelle.
 
 190 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 wreak their vengeance on inanimate objects. Most of 
 the emblems of the Empire quickly disappeared. The 
 eagles suffered severely. The birds, which were too 
 solid to be easily dislodged, like those which adorned 
 the southern entrance to the Opera, intended for the 
 personal use of the Emperor, were covered over with 
 green baize. The names of many of the thorough- 
 fares too were changed. The Avenue de 1'Empereur 
 became the Avenue Victor Noir, and the Rue Dix 
 Decembre became the Rue Quatre Septembre, and so 
 on. 1 Nicknames too were freely bestowed on the 
 members of the fallen regime. The ex-Emperor, for 
 example, was called Invasion III., and the following 
 quatrain made its appearance 
 
 " Des deux Napoleon les gloires sont egales, 
 Quoique ayant pris des chemins inegaux ; 
 Le premier a 1'Europe a pris ses capitales, 
 Le second au pays a pris ses capitaux." 
 
 However, the form of government was changed 
 without effusion of blood, though I verily believe that 
 had the sovereign people laid hands on the ex-Prefect 
 of Police he would have been run up to a lamp-post. 
 But M. Pietri made good his escape. M. Emile 
 Olivier too might have fared ill had he been caught, 
 for not only had he gone to war with a light heart, but 
 
 1 Victor Noir was the bully who was shot by Prince Pierre 
 Bonaparte, and Dix Decembre was the day upon which Prince 
 Louis Napoleon was elected President of the Republic.
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 191 
 
 he was suspected of being in league with the enemy. 
 In my notes I find that a gentleman who laughed at 
 the idea of Marshal Le Boeuf having betrayed the army, 
 and of M. Emile Olivier having sent 17,000,000 francs 
 in gold to Prussia, was threatened with summary in- 
 justice, and on the advice of M. le Maire fled the country. 
 Departments in no way menaced by the enemy were 
 being pillaged by bands of peasants, who believed that 
 the owners of castles had sent money to Prussia 
 secretly. 1 
 
 I remember when I read of these things in so serious 
 a paper as the Ddbats, considering that France was on 
 the verge of another Jacquerie. Nor was this appre- 
 hension allayed when we learned that an amiable 
 young gentleman, suspected of being a spy, had been 
 burned to death over a fire of green faggots in the 
 Dordogne. 2 
 
 Numbers of persons now came pouring into Paris 
 from the surrounding country, bringing with them 
 their movables, and farmers their live stock. As I saw 
 them crowding through the Porte Maillot I was minded 
 of the description given by Macaulay in his Lays of 
 
 1 It is a very curious fact that in the days of the First Revo- 
 lution the peasants who set fire to the castles of the nobility thought 
 that they were obeying the orders of the King. In Auvergne, says 
 Taine, the peasants showed great repugnance to thus ill-treat such 
 good masters ! 
 
 2 The murderers were tried, condemned, and executed after 
 the war.
 
 192 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 Ancient Home, of the rush made into Rome on the 
 approach of Lars Porsena 
 
 " A mile around the city 
 The throng stopped up the ways ; 
 A fearful sight it was to see 
 Through two long nights and days." 
 
 As I stood looking at the scene, a French friend of 
 mine said bitterly that the enemy would plunder the 
 whole country. I tried to reassure him by observing 
 that the discipline in the German army was exceedingly 
 strict, and that pillaging would not be tolerated, that 
 an army which pillaged was an army disorganized ; and 
 when the war was over, an English friend told me of 
 two remarkable facts which came under his notice. 
 One relating to the punishment of some German 
 soldiers who had pillaged and burned a farm, and the 
 other to the punishment of the inhabitants of a town 
 who had falsely accused the invaders of having 
 plundered them. In the first case the detachment 
 accused of having committed the outrage was 
 marched to the spot, and the farmer was asked to 
 point out the culprits. This he did, and he afterwards 
 expressed his deep regret that he had complied, for to 
 his horror they were immediately shot. In the other 
 case some inhabitants of Dieppe and the civil authorities 
 of that town accused the German soldiers quartered 
 there of having indulged in loot. Now the occupying 
 force had been ordered to obtain receipts for all the
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 193 
 
 articles purchased. Upon the accusation being made, 
 the troops were ordered to parade in heavy marching 
 order, and then to depose their knapsacks, which were 
 opened and examined in presence of M. le Maire and 
 the Town Council, and the result was that receipts were 
 found for all the ivory trinkets, &c., for which Dieppe is 
 famous, found in their possession. The accusation 
 having been proved to be false, a heavy fine was levied 
 on the town. My friend Edward Blount (not the 
 banker, but a member of the same family), who told 
 me the above anecdotes, said that he had been 
 much surprised at the friendly relations which, during 
 the war, were established between the German soldiers 
 and the townsfolk, and how he had often seen men in 
 the uniform of the invading army driving market-carts, 
 and otherwise aiding, especially women, in their daily 
 work. One of his anecdotes greatly amused me. 
 When the Empire collapsed it was fondly hoped the 
 run of ill-luck would change ; on meeting his shoemaker 
 the day after the news arrived, that worthy disciple of 
 St. Crispin rushed up to him and embraced him. On 
 asking him the reason of this demonstration the reply 
 was " What, have you not heard the news ? The Re- 
 public has been proclaimed, and we shall now slay all 
 our enemies or drive them back headlong across the 
 Rhine." Not long afterwards he again met the shoe- 
 maker, who endeavoured to avoid him he was taking 
 home a pair of boots ordered by a German officer ! 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 194 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 To return to Paris. After the invasion of the 
 Chamber on September 14, the Hotel de Ville 
 became the great centre of attraction, and thither 
 the Liberal deputies repaired in order to form a 
 Government. In the midst of the wildest tumult 
 it was decided that this Government should be com- 
 posed of members for Paris. This determination had 
 hardly been arrived at when General Trochu made his 
 appearance, and consented to take office on receiving 
 the promise that God, the family, and property should 
 be respected. Suddenly there arose an immense clamour. 
 This was the crowd applauding Henri Rochefort, who 
 had just been released from Ste. Pelagie, where he had 
 been undergoing a term of imprisonment for certain 
 articles written in the Marseillaise. His evident popu- 
 larity was rather embarrassing for the new Government 
 owing to his extreme views, but it being considered 
 safer to have this firebrand with them than against 
 them, the Government accepted him as a colleague. 
 "Was he not one of the members for Paris, and had he 
 not aided in bringing the Empire into hatred and 
 contempt ? 
 
 While the deputies of Paris were thus taking over 
 affairs at the Hotel de Ville, there came news which 
 created some little commotion. The other deputies, 
 two hundred in number, though turned out of the 
 Chamber itself, had met in the dining-room of the 
 President, whose official residence adjoins the Corps
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 195 
 
 Legislatif, and matters looked gloomy for the moment. 
 Just then I saw M. Grevy arrive. He and two or 
 three of his friends had been sent on a mission to see 
 if it would not be possible to establish some common 
 action. In fact the provincial deputies wished to have 
 their share of the cake. M. Jules Favre, in his usual 
 paternal way, informed the deputation that a Govern- 
 ment already existed, but promised to send a definite 
 answer in the course of the evening. The provincial 
 deputies re-assembled at eight p.m., M. Thiers taking 
 the chair. M. Jules Favre and M. Jules Simon were 
 introduced, and said that in presence of an accomplished 
 fact nothing could be changed ; that if the Corps 
 Legislatif would accord its approbation the new Govern- 
 ment would be grateful, but if it would not their liberty 
 of action would in no way be hampered. M. Thiers 
 told the delegates that they had undertaken an immense 
 responsibility, and added, "It is our duty to offer up 
 the most ardent prayers that you may succeed in defend- 
 ing Paris, because your success will be that of the 
 country." Discussing matters after the departure of 
 M. Jules Favre and M. Jules Simon, he said " To 
 offer any opposition to-day would be an ti -patriotic ; 
 those gentlemen should meet with the support of all 
 citizens in presence of the enemy. Let us wish them 
 well." M. Buffet wanted to enter a protest, but to 
 this M. Thiers strongly objected. The next day one 
 hundred and twenty deputies, who were in favour of
 
 196 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 protesting, met and appointed a committee of four to 
 frame a protest, but the Prefect of Police, with the aid 
 of a detachment of francs-tirturs, prevented this com- 
 mittee from meeting, and no more was' heard of the 
 Corps Legislatif. 
 
 Strange to say, on September 14 senators were 
 entirely forgotten. Passing by the Luxembourg in the 
 evening, I saw that there were no sentries on duty, and 
 was told that the National Guards charged with the 
 protection of the palaces had joined the people and 
 gone home. There was no invasion of the Upper 
 House, which was abolished a few days later after 
 shouting Vive I'JEJmpereur ! 
 
 The Government of National Defence was formed on 
 the evening of September 14. M. Jules Favre was to 
 have been President, and Paris was rather amused to 
 learn the next morning that it was General Trochu 
 who was President. It had been supposed that the 
 General would have been satisfied with the post of 
 Minister of War, but at the last moment he declared 
 that in order to defend Paris properly it was necessary 
 that he should occupy a preponderating position. And 
 the lawyer gave way to the soldier. A Ministry was at 
 once formed. M. Jules Favre took the Foreign Office, 
 and General Le Flo the War Office. There was said 
 to have been a rush for some of the Ministries, and that 
 M! Ernest Picard set out to take possession of the 
 Ministry of the Interior, but, on arriving, found M.
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA!. 197 
 
 Gambetta already installed in the Place Beauveau and 
 in telegraphic communication with several Prefects. 
 Poor M. Picard, who was extremely podgy, having 
 been outstripped by his younger and less corpulent 
 colleague, fell back on the Ministry of Finance. I saw 
 him there a couple of days afterwards looking very 
 radiant. It was a beautiful summer day, and I found 
 him with a friend on the balcony which overlooked the 
 gardens of the Tuileries. 
 
 The new Government was mostly composed of lawyers, 
 who soon found that General Trochu could out-talk 
 any of them. Strange to say, two prominent men, 
 destined one to be the first, the other the third 
 President of the Republic, M. Thiers and M. Grevy, 
 both refused to join the new Government. The next 
 morning we read on the walls of Paris a proclamation 
 stating that as the Chamber (which had been turned 
 out of doors) hesitated, the people had taken the 
 initiative, and demanded the Republic in order to save 
 the country. The people had placed their representatives 
 at the post, not of power but of danger (none of them 
 received a scratch). 
 
 Then came the following paragraphs which might 
 have been signed by Bombastes Furioso " The Republic 
 saved the country from the invasion of 1792; the 
 Republic is proclaimed. The revolution is accomplished 
 in the name of public safety. Citizens, watch over the 
 city which is confided to you : to-morrow you will be
 
 108 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 the avengers of the country." And General Trochu 
 signed this clap-trap ! 
 
 The first Kepublic had been declared under more 
 glorious circumstances after the battle of Valmy, when 
 Dumouriez and Kellermann stopped the Duke of 
 Brunswick and his Prussians in the passes of the 
 Argonne, ever since known as the French Thermopylae. 
 The day after the news of this victory arrived, the 
 Convention met and proclaimed the Republic. After 
 French troops had imitated the Spartans on the frontier, 
 French legislators proceeded to imitate the Roman 
 Senate in the days of Brennus, and in reply to 
 Brunswick, who wished to negotiate, said " The French 
 Republic can listen to no proposition until the Prussian 
 troops have entirely evacuated the French territory." 
 By the way, the despatch announcing the victory of 
 Valmy was brought to Paris by the Due de Chartres, 
 afterwards King Louis Philippe. 
 
 The first act of the new Administration was to turn 
 all the Imperialists out of office and to install Republi- 
 cans in their place. The general opinion among the 
 latter was that this change would soon bring the 
 invaders to their senses ; that they would remember 
 what had happened in 1792, and would retrace their 
 steps. A short time afterwards I followed M. Jules 
 Ferry round the ramparts, and heard him harangue 
 knots of National Guards, and speak to them as if 
 Republican breasts were impervious to Prussian bullets,
 
 BELLA, HORRID A BELLA! 199 
 
 in proof of which he thumped his own. People tried 
 to lash themselves into the belief that the armies which 
 had beaten the well-trained hosts of the Empire would 
 be scattered like chaff before the raw levies of the 
 Republic. 
 
 Many devices were proposed for the destruction of 
 the invaders, and as the Prussians had suffered severely 
 in the bowels in 1792 from eating unripe fruit, the 
 good people of Paris called upon the owners of vine- 
 yards to leave their grapes for the enemy, in the fond 
 hope that history would repeat itself. Another device 
 which obtained much favour resembled putting salt on 
 a bird's tail ; it was to sprinkle the Prussians with 
 petroleum, and when they were well soaked, to set 
 them alight. 1 Any number of inventors too came 
 forward with Greek fire and other terrible means of 
 destruction. In the meantime the Prussians continued 
 their march on Paris without meeting with any resist- 
 ance. Their near approach to the capital was soon 
 heralded by fresh swarms of persons flocking in from 
 the country round, and seeking safety within the walls. 
 There was also a considerable and hurried exodus 
 
 1 This reminds one of Sydney Smith accusing Mr. Percival of 
 wishing to bring the French to reason by depriving them of 
 rhubarb and neutral salts. " What a sublime thought," he wrote 
 in Letter x. to Peter Plymly, " that no purge can now be taken 
 between the Weser and the Garonne, that the bustling pestle is 
 still, the mortar mute, and the bowels of mankind locked up for 
 fourteen degrees of latitude. . . ."
 
 200 EECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 of the old and infirm, and also of foreigners. Two of 
 my intimate friends were fortunate enough to catch 
 the last train that left Paris, which was carried by 
 storm. 
 
 I shall naturally never forget September 18, 1870, 
 the day upon which the investment of Paris was com- 
 pleted. It was a lovely morning, and as I stood on my 
 balcony and looked at the thickly-wooded hills stretch- 
 ing along from Argenteuil to St. Cloud, I could hardly 
 imagine that those autumnal leaves glistening in the 
 sun concealed thousands of armed men. I had no 
 desire to leave Paris, and yet the feeling of being 
 invested was a painful one. Large as the prison was, 
 I was still a prisoner with a good many friends of the 
 pen to share my captivity, Charles Austin of the Times, 
 Frank Lawley of the Daily Telegraph, Henry Labouchere 
 of the Daily News, Thomas Gibson Bowles of the 
 Morning Post, J. Augustus O'Shea of the Standard. 
 Then there was Mr. Dallas, who wrote both for the 
 Times and the Daily News, and Lewis Wingfield, who 
 was a sort of free lance, and who told me that he had 
 remained in Paris in the interest of Art. He was 
 engaged on a piece of sculpture, and wished to obtain 
 a good model of "agony." He thought that a sortie 
 would probably furnish him with what he required. 
 I may add that he at once joined the ambulance corps, 
 and was most devoted in his attention to the sick and 
 wounded.
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA? 201 
 
 As Bismarck was amiable enough to express it, we 
 were about to stew in our own gravy. I went into 
 town, and found National Guards exhibiting much 
 enthusiasm round the colossal statue of Strasbourg, 
 which stands, with the statues of several other French 
 cities, in the Place de la Concorde. It was covered 
 with flowers and flags. I heard one officer make a very 
 patriotic speech, but the effect of it was sadly marred, 
 as he was in constant danger of falling off the rickety 
 table on which he was balancing himself. However, 
 he seemed confident that Paris would be able to defend 
 itself. 
 
 From what I could learn, the opinion of the Governor 
 was that the capital would be able to hold out for six 
 weeks, and as Governments here always exaggerate, 
 I thought that the siege would certainly not last over 
 a month, and I paid dearly for my mistake. Had not 
 Alphonse Karr declared that Paris would capitulate 
 if left one whole day without strawberries ? 1 How 
 then believe that the Parisians would prove as obstinate 
 as they did? It is true that the strawberry season 
 had passed. I laid in a very small store of provisions. 
 On inquiring into our means of defence, I learned that 
 they consisted in sixteen detached forts, several re- 
 doubts, gun-boats on the Seine ; 360,000 National 
 
 1 At the very beginning of the siege, a very reticent American, 
 endowed with more perspicacity than myself, said to Labonchere 
 " They will squat, sir ; mark my words, they will squat."
 
 202 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 Guards, not all armed ; 96yOOO Moblots ; 62,000 regulars, 
 8000 sailors; 5000 francs-tireurs ; and about 10,000 
 nondescripts, say 500,000 men and 1500 guns. 
 
 Of the value of this force not much can be said. 
 The regulars, consisting of two corps, are in a great 
 measure demoralized, the 13th corps having, in order 
 to escape destruction, fallen back hurriedly on Paris 
 after the battle of Sedan. The 14th corps is of recent 
 formation. The National Guards and the Moblots are 
 untrained. As regards their colonels I made the 
 following notes at the time : Not one knows how to 
 handle a battalion. Most of them have been elected 
 on political grounds ; one man because he is an ardent 
 socialist; another because he was transported under 
 the Empire ; a third because he shot a sergent-de-ville, 
 and so on. The socialist is a lean, hungry, sickly, short- 
 sighted, spectacled individual; the returned convict is 
 a decrepit old man past seventy years of age, and the 
 assassin is an enthusiastic blockhead. 
 
 On September 6, M. Jules Favre, in his capacity of 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs, wrote a circular, in which 
 he asked if the King of Prussia intended to carry on 
 this impious war, and concluded by declaring that 
 France would not yield an inch of her territory nor a 
 stone of her fortresses. This was considered very fine 
 language, though not quite original ; it was approved of 
 by all his colleagues, with the exception of M. Ernest 
 Picard, and by the public ; but was it politic ? As an
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 203 
 
 English diplomate said to me, it cuts the ground from 
 under the feet of friendly Powers inclined to mediate. 
 How negotiate after such a hard-and-fast declaration ? 
 Having written his circular and nailed his colours to 
 the mast, M. Jules Favre tried to obtain an armed 
 intervention on the part of the great Powers. He soon 
 found out that there was no chance of this. After 
 appealing in vain to Italy, Austria, and Russia, and 
 getting M. Thiers to go over to London to see what 
 could be done, M. Jules Favre, when the enemy was at 
 the gate, determined to appeal to Count Bismarck, and 
 with the aid of Lord Gran vi lie and Lord Lyons, an 
 interview was arranged, Mr. Malet, attache, being de- 
 spatched to German head-quarters to prepare the way. 
 I saw Mr. Malet on his return (September 17), and he 
 told me of the difficulties he had experienced in reach- 
 ing his destination, Meaux, and in what a friendly spirit 
 he had been received by Count Bismarck, who had 
 known him at Frankfort in the days of the Diet, when 
 Sir Alexander Malet was our representative at the Diet. 
 The exact nature of his mission he of course would not 
 reveal, but it soon transpired, as it was communicated 
 to the Diplomatic Body. An arrangement seemed 
 almost impossible. M. Jules Favre started for Meaux on 
 the 18th, the day that Paris was invested, met Count 
 Bismarck on the road, had an interview with him in a 
 deserted farmhouse, and was told that Prussia wanted 
 Alsace and Lorraine as the price of peace. Count
 
 204 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 Bismarck had told Mr. Malet this, so M. Jules Favre 
 could not have been greatly surprised. This was a sad 
 blow for the author of the circular of September 6, who 
 protested against such hard conditions, and spoke of 
 the desperate defence which Paris and the provinces 
 would offer, and the sacrifices which Germany would 
 have to make before completing the conquest of the 
 country. Also he spoke of a feeling of hatred and 
 vengeance which would breed another war. Count 
 Bismarck was not to be moved. Toul and Strasbourg 
 would have to surrender in a few days. Bazaine was 
 eating his horses in Metz, and Paris would soon be 
 subdued by famine. As it was getting dark a second 
 interview was agreed to, which was to take place in the 
 evening at Ferrieres, the seat of Baron Rothschild, 
 where the King of Prussia and Field-Marshal Moltke 
 had taken up their quarters. M. Jules Favre could 
 obtain no concessions, and unable to restrain his tears, 
 he bid Count Bismarck farewell and returned to Paris. 
 
 It appears that while the two statesmen were discuss- 
 ing matters, Field-Marshal Moltke, who is a silent man, 
 sat in the corner of the room relaxing his military 
 mind by the perusal of Little Dorrit. 1 
 
 1 I have since read the following in the Reminiscences of Lord 
 Augustus Loftus, who thus describes Moltke 
 
 " He was the most simple, unassuming, and kind-hearted man 
 I ever met, even when he was at the summit of his glorious 
 career. His calmness and composure never forsook him, and his 
 powers of observation were marvellous. He was never put out,
 
 BELLA, HORRID A BELLA! 205 
 
 M. Jules Favre went on his bootless mission without 
 consulting his colleagues, who afterwards, however, 
 approved of the step he had taken, and his rejection of 
 the terms that Prussia wished to impose. Paris also 
 
 never uttered a hasty word. When Prussia was on the brink of 
 war with Austria, and his aide-de-camp came to announce some 
 important intelligence, he found General Moltke reading an 
 English novel." 
 
 This letter, dated September 21, 1870, may be found in the 
 works of Field- Marshal von Moltke 
 
 " Ferrieres is a castle three leagues to the east of Paris, fur- 
 nished with royal pomp. It is the creation of the fifth great 
 Power in Europe the apotheosis of Mammon. It was here that 
 Rothschild received the Emperor Louis Napoleon, as formerly 
 Count Mole (sic) received Louis XIV. In our days it was the 
 pan-enu of power who paid a visit to the parvenu of money. The 
 semi-official journals on that occasion spoke of the Emperor, 
 seated in a chair, as having shot some rare birds, and notably a 
 parrot, which in falling cried Vive VEmpereur ! Now the watch- 
 word is no longer the same ; the nation shouts A bas VEmpereur ! 
 And Ferrieres has the head-quarters of unscrupulous enemies, 
 who take the astonishing liberty of folding it in their iron arms 
 as they have done with Metz and Strasbourg, and even the ' holy 
 city ' of Victor Hugo. 
 
 " Since yesterday Paris is entirely invested. We shall see how 
 the 100,000 Mobile Guards spoken of in the papers will set to 
 work to break the circle. The only intact corps in the French 
 army, the 14th, tried to stop our advance on the south front. It 
 was driven back with loss behind the forts. . . . With all that 
 France has always big words at her service ; she is plus forte que 
 jamais; she does not possess an army fit to take the field, but 
 she has the good fortune to possess M. Rochefort, professor of 
 barricades and invincible patriotic hearts. . . . This did not 
 prevent the Republic herself, in the person of M. Jules Favre, 
 coming yesterday to the head-quarters of the enemy."
 
 206 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 approved, and was very proud of the magniloquent 
 phrase "pas un pouce de notre territoire, pas une 
 pierre de nos fortresses." However, we know that if 
 brag is a good dog, hold-fast is a better. Be this as it 
 may, the besieged were thrown into the most violent 
 paroxysm of rage when they learned the demands of 
 Count Bismarck Alsace-Lorraine to be lost, and 
 Strasbourg to be surrendered. 
 
 On the second morning of the siege, I was roused 
 from my slumbers by a noise in the street, and this 
 it was. At an early hour General Ducrot, who com- 
 manded the 14th corps, and was encamped to the south 
 of Paris, seeing some Prussian troops marching on 
 Versailles, attacked them with two divisions of infantry, 
 one of cavalry, and sixty-eight pieces of artillery. A 
 few shells sufficed to put a regiment of Zouaves to 
 flight, and the remainder of the force was soon thrown 
 into disorder, and ran. General Ducrot made a short 
 stand at Chatillon, but that redoubt was unfinished, 
 and he was forced to abandon it to the enemy. 
 
 The noise in the street was caused by a crowd of 
 excited citizens, who were anxiously questioning some 
 of the fugitive Zouaves, who had just arrived hot from 
 the scene of action without firing a shot ; others had 
 dispersed themselves through the neighbouring villages, 
 which they began to plunder. This was a serious 
 matter. Here were troops of the line who in the first 
 brush with the enemy had behaved badly; it is true
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA ! 207 
 
 that they were little more than raw recruits. We 
 thought that a severe example would have been made, 
 but such was not the case. All that was done in the 
 way of punishment was to march a number of the 
 fugitives through the streets with their tunics turned 
 inside out, with flour on their faces, and wearing round 
 their necks a placard with " coward " written on it ; and 
 a strange sight it was to see a runaway Zouave being 
 marched along between a couple of captors in blouses. 
 The good people of Paris, so badaud by nature, seemed 
 amused at this spectacle, and the runaways appeared 
 by no means abashed, and smiled at the crowd through 
 their flour. 
 
 The loss of Chatillon, taken while M. Jules Favre 
 was negotiating at Ferrieres, was a serious affair, for 
 that unfinished and unarmed redoubt stands on some 
 heights commanding the forts of Issy, Vanves, and 
 Montrouge. Concerning this redoubt, and indeed the 
 fortifications of Paris generally, some interesting anec- 
 dotes are told. For, instance when the Due de Chartres 
 came to Paris with the Valmy despatches in 1793, 
 he had an interview with the terrible Danton, then 
 Minister of Justice. Danton told the Duke to take 
 care of himself, and that he would one day be king, 
 and at the end of a long conversation said " You, who 
 have gone through the glorious campaign of '92, will 
 comprehend where the weak point in our geographical 
 position lies. Remember that Paris is the heart of
 
 208 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 France, and do what we have not been able to do 
 fortify it." And the Duke, when he ascended the 
 throne as Louis Philippe, probably remembered Danton's 
 advice, for it was during his reign that the enceinte and 
 the sixteen detached forts were constructed. He would 
 have built a fort at Chatillon, but he could procure no 
 more money. When the Due d'Aumale came here in 
 September 1870 to offer his services to the Third 
 Republic, the first question he asked was if Chatillon 
 had been fortified. A redoubt had been commenced 
 there, and a contractor was busy terminating it, but 
 just before the Prussians arrived the workmen struck 
 for higher wages, and it fell into the hands of the 
 enemy, as already stated, in an unfinished condition. 
 
 " National Property " has been scribbled up on all 
 the public buildings, and the Champs Elysees and many 
 of the chief boulevards have been turned as if by magic 
 into encampments. The artillery has taken possession 
 of the gardens of the Tuileries, to the discomfiture of 
 nurses and babes, and several of the roofed-in markets 
 have been appropriated for the manufacture of 
 cartridges. 
 
 September 22, 1870, which corresponds to the first 
 Vendemiaire, LXXIX. of the Republican Calendar, and 
 is consequently the Republican New Year's Day, was 
 celebrated by a manifestation which fortunately ter- 
 minated without bloodshed, as Louis Blanc and Victor 
 Hugo objected to physical force being employed. They
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 209 
 
 wanted seats in the Cabinet, but not to fight for them. 
 Two other ringleaders of this manifestation gave a 
 more serious complexion to it. One was Blanqui, a 
 hoary conspirator who has passed about forty years of 
 his life in prison. The other, Gustave Flourens, a man 
 of action, who fought against the Turks in Crete, met 
 the well-known duellist, Paul de Cassagnac, in single 
 combat, and was wounded ; he afterwards took part in 
 the Victor Noir riots, fired a pistol in the air, declared 
 the Republic established, and made his escape to 
 England, to return here with the fall of the Empire, 
 and play mischief. However, in spite of Blanqui and 
 Flourens, the manifestation passed off quietly. 
 
 On New Year's evening the Parisians learned that 
 " our Fritz," as they delight to call the Crown Prince, 
 had taken up his quarters at the chateau of Meudon, 
 from which a splendid view of Paris is obtained. The 
 outgoing tenant is Prince Napoleon. By the way, the 
 Curd de Meudon, as Rabelais is often termed, wrote, 
 four hundred years ago, a chapter, the perusal of which 
 may have comforted some Parisians during the siege. 
 It is headed "How Gaster invented art and means 
 not to be touched or wounded by cannon-balls." 
 
 The Parisians were inflicted with several manias at 
 the beginning of the siege ; there was the spy mania, 
 then the signal mania, the gun mania, and so on. As 
 regards the spy mania, it was so strong that some over- 
 zealous National Guards arrested General Trochu, and 
 
 VOL. I P
 
 210 EECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 were on the point of shooting him. The Queen's 
 Messenger, Johnson, who arrived in Paris on the 19th, 
 narrowly escaped being torn in pieces by an infuriated 
 mob in spite of, or rather on account of, his uniform, 
 for he was mistaken for a Prussian officer. Just as if 
 Prussian officers would have chosen such a moment to 
 drive about Paris! It was with the greatest difficulty 
 that the Queen's Messenger, Johnson, reached the 
 Embassy, and a few days afterwards, when sent with 
 despatches to Versailles, he met with so much obstruc- 
 tion, in spite of passes, that he had to appeal to the 
 Minister of War before he could get beyond the gates. 
 I am afraid that there was too much swagger about our 
 Queen's Messenger to please the French, who are easily 
 conciliated with a soft speech. I had many occasions 
 to test this. One paper, whose circulation is not largo, 
 proposed to shoot all Englishmen, but this extreme 
 measure met with no support. 1 
 
 One arrest much amused me. It was that of an 
 
 1 I was much amused one day on reading in the Figaro the 
 following reflections on the subject of spies " The Prussians are 
 better informed than we are ; their spies keep them well informed 
 as to everything that is said and done in Paris, whilst we do not 
 even know whether they are at Versailles, or on the road to 
 Orleans. Without speaking of that absurd spirit of chivalry 
 which makes us reject as unworthy and cowardly such means 
 of information, we must inquire into the real cause of this 
 inferiority." The writer then explains this to be that whereas 
 the Germans pay well for their information, there is no special 
 fund for spies in France. French chivalry, therefore, means 
 want of secret service money.
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 211 
 
 American pastor. This divine, intent only on things 
 above, was imprudent enough to take out his note- 
 book in the Champs Elysees, and to jot down the heads 
 of a sermon on the mysterious ways of Providence. He 
 was pounced upon by some National Guards, and 
 knowing nothing of French, had to pass the night 
 in durance vile. Of course his Minister procured 
 his release early next morning, for Mr. Washburne 
 remained in Paris, refusing to imitate the other 
 ambassadors who took their departure before the 
 investment was completed. This, because the new 
 Government here had been recognized at Washington. 
 It was rather fortunate that Mr. Washburne did 
 stay, as he was allowed to communicate with Versailles 
 and under certain conditions to receive letters and 
 newspapers. The newspapers were not to be com- 
 municated to a second person, and consequently after 
 Mr. Washburne had perused the Times, he hid it under 
 his mattress. As we were always sneaking about after 
 news from England, this secret soon leaked out, thanks 
 to the venality of the chambermaid, whose duty it was 
 to make his Excellency's bed. The abigail betrayed 
 the unsuspecting diplomatist for a small consideration, 
 and showed us his Times now and then. And it was 
 a great relief to learn what was really going on across 
 the Channel, for the papers here published the wildest 
 statements monster meetings in Hyde Park; threats 
 to dethrone the Queen, and drive Mr. Gladstone from
 
 212 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 office, unless they declared war with Prussia, and many 
 more falsehoods called patriotic, and tending to keep 
 up the courage of the besieged. This system was 
 carried to such an extent that the Government inter- 
 fered on one occasion, and knocked an offending editor 
 sharply over the knuckles. The Figaro, in fact, pub- 
 lished an apocryphal correspondence from Orleans, and 
 the next day the Official Journal contained a note 
 saying that it was all " a lie like those which the Figaro 
 invents every clay." But the people much preferred 
 pleasant lies to disagreeable truths calculated to interfere 
 with sleep and digestion. 
 
 By the way, the Figaro informs us can this also be 
 a lie ? that there are several ladies of high position 
 in the pay of Prussia that when that profligate states- 
 man, the Due de Moray, died, they found themselves 
 suddenly deprived of their resources, and were driven 
 to sell State secrets to Count Bismarck, on whose gold 
 they still subsist. If this be the case, I have not heard 
 of any of these ladies being arrested. 
 
 Another mania is the signal mania. Numbers of 
 persons have been accused of communicating with the 
 enemy by means of flags and lights, and on this subject 
 I heard an amusing story. An elderly National Guard 
 had a young and handsome wife, who naturally had a 
 lover, who used to visit her when her husband was on 
 duty. "When there was a light in the window, that 
 meant that the National Guard was at home, and the
 
 BELLA, HOKRIDA BELLA.' 213 
 
 lover had to go home disconsolate. One night a patrol 
 remarked this beacon, considered it to be a signal to 
 the enemy, rushed into the house, seized on the un- 
 fortunate husband, pulled him out of bed, and led him 
 away captive. This untoward incident had hardly 
 occurred when the lover appeared on the scene, and as 
 there was no light in the window went up-stairs, and 
 doubtless had little difficulty in consoling the lady for 
 the temporary loss of her lord and master, who spent 
 the rest of the night in the guard-room. I cannot say 
 if he ever learned his misfortune, but it was the talk 
 of the quarter, and caused no little amusement to others. 
 
 It was very painful to learn day after day of the 
 Prussians occupying this and that place round the 
 capital ; but the Parisians, still light-hearted, were able 
 to get up a laugh when they heard that the invaders 
 had occupied Bondy. Now, Bondy is a forest which 
 bears the same reputation Blackheath did of old. It 
 is still supposed to be the local habitation of robbers, 
 and when the Prussians took up their quarters under 
 its boughs, the Parisians grinned and said, " They must 
 feel quite at home there." 
 
 On September 23, Victorien Sardou, the successful 
 dramatist, came in from Marly, being the last person to 
 leave that village, of which he was maire. 
 
 St. Cloud, too, is in the grip of the enemy, and that 
 town is very close to the south-west corner of Paris, 
 known as the Point de Jour.
 
 214 RECOLLECTIONS OF PAEIS 
 
 The other day the Prussians, who are accused of 
 firing on flags of truce, and committing other irregu- 
 larities, or rather enormities, were reported to have 
 massacred the chief medical practitioner of the town. 
 Naturally the Parisians, whose credulity is unexampled 
 in matters detrimental to other people, swallowed the 
 rumour without the slightest proof to wash it down. 
 A few days later a resident of St. Cloud wrote to the 
 papers showing that the unfortunate doctor had fallen 
 by the hand of his own countrymen. " The inhabitants," 
 he said, " find themselves placed in a very cruel position. 
 Several of them have already been shot, not by the 
 Prussians but by the francs-tireurs, who imagine the 
 town to be occupied by the enemy, and fire on it day 
 and night. The Prussians occupied the chateau only, 
 which is not exposed to their bullets. Yesterday Dr. 
 Pigache died of his wounds, and to-day it is impossible 
 to venture out to pick up a man shot near the entrance 
 of the park. This morning the white flag was hoisted, 
 but the firing continued, and we were obliged to get 
 under shelter." So there is recrimination, only it is 
 the French who accuse the Prussians of firing on the 
 flags of truce, whereas the French themselves are accused 
 of a similar malpractice by their own countrymen. 
 
 The town of St. Cloud was a good deal damaged by 
 shot and shell, but the beautiful and historical palace 
 was utterly destroyed. The Prussians were afterwards 
 accused of having burned it down, and this notice was
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 215 
 
 posted up on its ruined walls "Palais de St. Cloud, 
 incendit par les Prussiens." And the Prussians have 
 ever since been accused of this barbarous act, whereas 
 the palace was really set on fire by a shell from Mont 
 Valerien, and burned by the French. I did not see it 
 struck, but I saw the smoke going up from its ruined 
 walls. 1 
 
 We all thought that Meudon had been plundered, 
 when lo ! two inhabitants of that village, who managed 
 to cross the Prussian lines and get into Paris, informed 
 us that this was not the case. Meudon, they say, has 
 
 1 Colonel Keith Fraser and W. H. Russell, correspondent of 
 the Times, were just riding to the palace, when, as the latter 
 wrote, an enormous shell was seen coming like a descending 
 balloon on the palace, through the roof of which it fell with a 
 tremendous crash, and burst, shattering windows and walls and 
 doors, and setting the building on fire almost instantly. That 
 shell came from Valerien, which could not be seen from the 
 palace. Naturally the gunners at Valerien could not see St. 
 Cloud. But the French had an observatory at La Muette, whence 
 they could see both Valerien and St. Cloud, and could direct the 
 fire of the fortress by signal. It was known that the Prussians 
 were in St. Cloud, and their battery at the Tower of Demosthenes 
 could be both seen and felt by the French at La Muette. On the 
 day in question it was arranged that a trial should be made of a 
 big gun at Valerien against St. Cloud and the Prussian works, 
 and an artillery officer was sent to La Muette observatory to 
 watch the fire and signal the results. The first shot fell two or 
 three hundred yards below the palace a signal was made to that 
 effect by the look-out man. The next shell fell on the chateau 
 itself, with the result just described. The naval officer, M. Houze 
 de 1'Aulnoit, was at the observatory at the time, and he quotes 
 the day and the hour of the incident, with all the authority of an 
 eye-witness, from the journal he kept.
 
 216 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 not been sacked, thanks to the officers, most of them 
 Poles, who energetically protested. The doors of a few 
 publicans and provision-dealers, who had left the place, 
 were alone broken open. . . . The guns of Issy have 
 destroyed some stables and covered workshops which 
 were used as barracks by the Prussians. The roof of 
 the left wing of the chateau has been carried away ; the 
 facade has been damaged and the outhouses knocked 
 down. This was all the harm done. 
 
 At the end of September the engineers demolished a 
 low wine-shop at Issy to which an historical souvenir 
 was attached. The King of Prussia, when Prince Royal, 
 was present when Paris fell into the hands of the allies 
 in 1814, and put up at this inn. On returning from a 
 drive one day a shell fired from a battery established 
 close to the spot where the fort of Issy now stands 
 buried itself in the wall just above the door, and there 
 it remained visible until September 26, 1870 ; and a 
 sign-board drew attention to its presence. The cabaret 
 was demolished because it interfered with the fire of 
 the fort. I wonder if the King of Prussia will revisit 
 the spot. 
 
 The following incident, which took place on Septem- 
 ber 28, revealed a curious state of affairs. A lieutenant 
 of the National Guard, who is a grocer by trade, was 
 mobbed for having had the audacity to ask half a franc 
 for a red herring. A number of privates belonging to 
 his regiment took part in this small riot, which ended
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 217 
 
 in the lieutenant being obliged to close bis shop and to 
 nail the corpus delicti to his shutters. This looks bad 
 both as far as food and the discipline of the civic force 
 are concerned. 
 
 It may have been this little affair which shortly 
 afterwards induced the Government to establish a bread 
 and meat maximum. Whatever other tradesmen may 
 do, neither butcher nor baker can follow the example of 
 the lieutenant. By the way, the Government in calcu- 
 lating the meat supply does not appear to have taken 
 horses, dogs, cats, &c. into account, and there are 
 90,000 of the former. Concerning cats and dogs I may 
 relate the following anecdote. 
 
 During the First Revolution, when all Europe was 
 marching on Paris, when a siege was apprehended and 
 famine dreaded, the famous General Sansterre proposed 
 that all cats and dogs in the capital should be slaugh- 
 tered as " useless mouths." The General made out that 
 they consumed as much food as 1500 human beings, 
 and represented a loss of ten sacks of flour per diem. 
 This proposal raised a great outcry, both the public and 
 the Press strongly protesting against an act which would 
 entail domiciliary visits and the pursuit of felines over 
 the tiles. The various services rendered by cat and 
 dog were eloquently pleaded, and it was also urged that 
 in case of necessity citizens might be glad to eat them. 
 
 On September 30, General Vinoy marched out at the 
 head of 10,000 men, and had a sharp brush with the
 
 218 KECOLLECTTONS OF PARIS 
 
 enemy at Villejuif. After taking some of the German 
 positions he was, however, driven back by a superior 
 force. The French fought well, and there was no run- 
 ning away as at Chatillon. 
 
 At a public meeting held last night a fusil d'honneur 
 (?) was offered to any one who will shoot the King of 
 Prussia. But no one has come forward to " bell the cat." 
 
 October opened badly. On the 2nd, M. Gambetta was 
 obliged to make the painful announcement that both 
 Toul and Strasbourg had fallen. Intense interest had 
 been taken in the defence of the latter place. General 
 Uhrich, the commandant, had been extolled as one of the 
 finest soldiers ever born, and his name had been given 
 to the Avenue de I'lmperatrice. Strasbourg had been 
 declared to be impregnable. The statue in the Place 
 de la Concorde, crowned with flowers, had been the 
 scene of daily manifestations, during which ardent 
 patriots swore that the old Alsatian city should never 
 be handed over to Germany. And now, how are the 
 mighty fallen ? Gambetta said that in falling the two 
 strong places threw a glance at Paris, which glance 
 appears to have meant that the Republic was one and 
 indivisible, and must deliver them and revenge them. 
 On its side the Government decreed that Strasbourg, 
 instead of a statue of stone should have a statue of 
 bronze in the Place de la Concorde. 1 
 
 1 This decree has not yet been carried into execution. Stras- 
 bourg remains in stone, and is always covered with wreaths.
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 219 
 
 On October 2nd, too, General Burnside came into 
 Paris to talk matters over with Mr. Washburne. His 
 arrival created quite a flutter. It was naturally sup- 
 posed that he was the bearer of some proposals for 
 bringing the war to a termination, and the feeling was 
 that if Bismarck wished to negotiate the Germans had 
 had enough of it, and wanted to go home. The attitude 
 of the capital had astonished them; the levy of troops 
 in the provinces filled them with apprehension, and the 
 Army of the Loire was preparing to strike a blow which 
 would effectually settle matters, and repair the loss of 
 Toul and Strasbourg. Alas ! all these surmises were 
 vain. General Burnside did not come in to talk war or 
 politics, although he informed General Trochu unoffi- 
 cially that Count Bismarck's views had not changed 
 since the meeting at Ferrieres ; he came in to arrange 
 for the exodus of some 250 American citizens, who, 
 having seen enough of the siege, and beginning to feel 
 its inconveniences, wished to leave the beleaguered city. 
 As for the Parisians, they are still full of confidence, and 
 swear to stand by the declaration of M. Jules Favre. 
 
 By the way, I see that a new coin has been struck off 
 which bears this device " God protects France." It 
 would surely have been more prudent for the Mint to 
 have waited until the invaders had disappeared than to 
 
 As for General Uhrich, he was afterwards censured for his feeble 
 defence of the city, and the Avenue Uhrich was changed to the 
 Avenue de Bois de Boulogne.
 
 220 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 venture to predict the intentions of the Almighty, and 
 to fix them even in gold. 
 
 The censorship of the theatre has been abolished ; not 
 that this matters much, as all the theatres are closed, 
 the actors having shouldered muskets, and all the 
 actresses having taken to the ambulances. Paris, in 
 fact, is getting very dull ; the cafe's are closed early lest 
 we should run short of gas ; food of every description is 
 rising in price with a rapidity that makes one shudder 
 for the future. All our pleasant promenades are closed ; 
 horse, foot, and artillery having invaded them, and what 
 with their guns, tents, chargers, and camp-fires the 
 previous tenants are clean driven out. 
 
 I was very unlucky at this time with the letters 
 I addressed to the Pall Mall Gazette. I sent one out by 
 General Burnside when he left us. It never reached its 
 intended destination. I entrusted another to a young 
 friend of mine, Quested Lynch, who thought he could 
 get through the German lines, but he was not allowed to 
 pass. I confided a third to the Columbian Minister, but 
 he too had to return ; a fourth to our naval attache, 
 Captain Hore, but there was something wrong with his 
 passport, and he had to come back. On October 14, 
 Colonel Lloyd Lindsay was allowed to come into Paris 
 with 20,000 in aid of the ambulance. I sent a letter 
 out by his courier, but fear that it fell into the hands 
 of the enemy. A few days later, when the Americans 
 left, I asked a certain General, who went by the name
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 221 
 
 of the " strategist," to try and smuggle a couple of 
 letters through to England. I had had them carefully 
 concealed in the linings of a pair of new Wellington 
 boots, one letter in each boot ; and as the said strategist 
 was badly off at the time for shoe-leather, I asked him 
 to accept the boots as a slight token of my gratitude. 
 The General accepted the Wellingtons, which fitted 
 him well, and left Paris Avith them, but what became of 
 my letters I never heard. The "strategist" was 
 probably too old a soldier to rip his new acquisition up 
 in order to get them out. As for the letters despatched 
 by balloon, but little confidence was felt in their safe 
 arrival, and yet it appeared afterwards that most of 
 them did in time reach their destination. A letter I 
 addressed to the Scotsman was picked up in the Baltic 
 and sent on to Edinburgh. The balloon had fallen into 
 the sea, the unfortunate aeronaut had been drowned, 
 but the mails had been recovered. 
 
 We have just had another case of too much zeal. 
 Madame de Beaulieu, like many other women of rank 
 and title, joined the Mobiles of her native province in 
 the capacity of vivandi&re, and came up here with her 
 regiment, a small barrel of cognac slung over one 
 shoulder, and a small case of surgical instruments over 
 the other. As she was tripping along this morning to 
 join her battalion she was arrested by a National 
 Guard, who, seeing the whiteness of her hands and the 
 elegance of her costume, took her for a Prussian spy.
 
 222 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 She was immediately thrown into prison, and in spite 
 of all efforts remained there for four days, and probably 
 came out with hands of less suspicious colour than 
 when she went in. However, it seems that there are 
 spies in petticoats abroad. An influential paper 
 declares that many of them pass through the French 
 lines and spend the night in the camp of the enemy, 
 which is not patriotic. The night before last an aide- 
 de-camp of General Ducrot caused one of these women 
 to be arrested. She turned out to be the wife of an 
 officer made prisoner at Sedan ! 
 
 The Germans were also supposed to obtain newspapers, 
 &c. from poor French women who go out ostensibly to 
 root in the fields for potatoes, but in reality to convey 
 information to the enemy, for which they are well 
 remunerated. On October 7, Uhlans were seen, close 
 to Paris, conversing with the people, and an officer told 
 me that at St. Denis friendly relations had been 
 established between the French and German outposts, 
 who were in the habit of exchanging tobacco and 
 bacon. Paris was well supplied with the former 
 article, whereas the invaders had little difficulty in 
 procuring pork. 
 
 In the month of October there were two or three 
 insignificant insurrections, and we really thought that, 
 as the terrible Bismarck anticipated, Paris was about to 
 stew in its own juice, and become an easy prey to the 
 invader. On the 6th there was a fearful demonstration,
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA ! 223 
 
 10,000 men from Belleville, under the orders of Citizen 
 Flourens, marching on the Hotel de Ville. Strange to 
 say, there was no damage done, nor a drop of blood spilt, 
 during the advance or the retreat of the 10,000. Arrived 
 at their destination, they demanded that the National 
 Guards should be armed with chassepots ; that the 
 Imperial system of opposing one Frenchman to three 
 Prussians should be abandoned, and an entire change 
 made in the military system ; that a levfo en masse should 
 be ordered ; that Garibaldi should be called to the aid of 
 the Republic ; that there should be municipal elections, 
 and that all suspicious persons should be dismissed from 
 the administration. The Government refused to grant 
 these requests presented at the point of the bayonet ; 
 the 10,000 marched back to Belleville, and Citizen 
 Flourens resigned a command to which no one ever 
 appointed him. As for the Government, it issued orders 
 that no more bodies of armed men were to be marched 
 through the streets without its permission. 
 
 Three days later, in spite of the orders of the Govern- 
 ment, there was another and more noisy demonstration, 
 at which the ominous cry of Vive la Commune ! was 
 heard. There was a great display of force round the 
 Hotel de Ville, much marching and counter-marching, 
 and General Trochu came forth and rode along the 
 lines with his staff. At the moment my opinion was 
 that the "red" battalions which had descended from 
 their " sacred hill " considered the citizen battalions too
 
 224 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 many for them, and therefore declined battle. But when 
 the whole affair was over, I learned that none of the 
 muskets were loaded, and consequently I had a good 
 deal of emotion for nothing. 
 
 Sappia, the commandant of the. 146th battalion of 
 the National Guard, and the leading spirit of the 
 demonstration of the 9th, was tried by court-martial 
 and acquitted. Fortunately, Henri Rochefort, Blanqui, 
 Louis Blanc, and Victor Hugo, all belonging to the 
 extreme party, were opposed to physical force, and it 
 was all in vain that, on the 16th, FJourens caused tlje 
 rappel to be beaten once more at Belleville. 
 
 Great hopes were centred in Gambetta, who left in 
 a balloon on the 5th, with the mission of rousing the 
 provinces. I saw him just before he started, and he 
 appeared confident of success, and if that description of 
 eloquence which fires a people could have succeeded, 
 Gambetta would have saved France, but enthusiasm 
 could not prevail against trained troops. 
 
 Not many days afterwards there arrived a pigeon 
 from Montdidier with a despatch under its wing, in 
 which Gambetta announced that everywhere the people 
 were rising, and that the Government of the National 
 Defence was universally acclaimed a despatch which 
 sent a thrill of joy through the length and breadth of 
 beleaguered Paris, and filled the souls of patriots with 
 confidence in the star of the Republic. And the 
 Gambetta despatch was quickly followed by another
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 225 
 
 which a pigeon brought us from Tours, declaring that 
 " The defence of Paris elicits the admiration of the 
 whole world. The Prussians are demoralized." l 
 
 And the turbulent Flourens demanded that victory 
 should be decreed after the manner of the First Revo- 
 lution, that generals should be furnished with the 
 means of fighting, and decapitated if unsuccessful. 
 There was much talk of a sortie in force which was to 
 be headed by General Trochu, having Henri Rochefort 
 on one side of him and Jules Ferry on the other, both 
 in uniform. And the General did issue orders to the 
 effect that the National Guard were to march out in 
 case of need ! To ensure success Felix Pyat demanded 
 that the clubs should be consulted on all military 
 movements. 
 
 It was some consolation to know that the Govern- 
 ment had ordered thirty-eight guns of large calibre, 
 fifty bronze field-pieces, and seventy-five mitrailleurs. 
 The attorneys and other corporations have offered guns, 
 and there are offices in the streets for the reception of 
 national offerings for the purchase of artillery. It 
 appears that 1500 more guns are required for our 
 defence. In fact we are full of fight, nor are the 
 women behindhand. Battalions of Amazons have been 
 
 
 
 1 In the letters of Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann may 
 be found one written on the eve of Dettingen, 1743, in which 
 the following passage occurs " They say Lord Stair has in his 
 pocket, from the records of the Tower, the original patent 
 empowering us always to conquer." 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 organized by members of the sterner sex, Felix Belly 
 and Jules Allix, who are supposed to be prophets, 
 and the Amazones de la Seine have demanded to man 
 the ramparts. 
 
 The other night Jules Allix presided over a meeting 
 of Amazons, being supported in the chair by several 
 female warriors. Reports from various districts, not of 
 a very encouraging description, were being read out 
 when an Amazon taxed the Ursulines of her quarter 
 with certain malpractices. Upon this an indignant 
 National Guard jumped upon the platform, denied the 
 soft impeachment, upset the Committee table, and all 
 was turmoil and uproar. The prophet sprang at the 
 throat of the National Guard, and a terrible scuffle 
 ensued, which would certainly have ended to the dis- 
 advantage of the former had he not received the 
 assistance of some members of his battalion. When he 
 reappeared on the platform his garments were much 
 disordered, his locks were dishevelled, his face was pale, 
 and he had the air of one who had seen a ghost and 
 didn't like it. Seeing that his antagonist had vanished, 
 he glared fiercely round him as if anxious to renew the 
 combat, and soon recovered his composure. Now, the 
 National Guard who had thus disturbed the harmony 
 of the evening by defending the honour of the Ursu- 
 lines was none other than the Duke of Fitz-James. a 
 descendant of the Duke of Berwick, the son of Arabella 
 Churchill and James II.
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 227 
 
 Every now and then amateur proposals to attempt a 
 sortie were made to the Government. In December, 
 M. Quesnay de Beaurepaire asked permission to raise a 
 corps of Tirailleurs de la RdpuUique 12,000 determined 
 men who were to force the Prussian lines. But this 
 affair fell through. After having been accepted in 
 principle, General Trochu, who placed but limited faith 
 in the valour and performances of irregulars, exacted 
 that each member of this corps should furnish a certifi- 
 cate of morality; and the certificates sent in, the General 
 refused to sanction the organization of the legion in 
 question ! But surely it was not with a very choice 
 material that Rome was founded, or that Clive per- 
 formed some of his brilliant exploits in India. 1 
 
 This decision of the Commander-in-Chief of Paris, 
 who always considered himself, not as other men, but a 
 Breton, a Catholic, and a soldier, reminded Charles 
 Austin of the Times of the way in which Sydney Smith 
 wrote about the objections we had at one time to 
 
 1 Macaulay says in his Essay on Lord Clive " The forts of 
 Covelong and Chingleput were occupied by French garrisons. It 
 was determined to send a force against them. But the only 
 available force consisted of 500 newly-levied sepoys and 200 
 recruits who had just landed from England, and who were the 
 worst and lowest wretches that the Company's crimps could pick 
 up in the Hash-houses of London. Clive, ill and exhausted as he 
 was, undertook to make an army of this undisciplined rabble, and 
 marched with them to Covelong. . . . He at length succeeded in 
 forming a respectable force out of his unpromising materials." 
 And in a very short time both Covelong and Chingleput 
 fell.
 
 228 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 employ Roman Catholics, and to conciliate Ireland at a 
 moment when we were engaged in a desperate struggle 
 with Napoleon, and he recited the whole passage 
 taken from the letters of Peter to Abraham Plymly 
 (Letter iii.). 1 
 
 By the way, the Quesnay de Beaurepaire who offered 
 to raise this force of 12,000 immoral men, afterwards 
 became Procurator-General of the Republic. He was 
 the grandson of the General Beaurepaire who made 
 himself famous under the first Revolution by blowing 
 out his brains sooner than surrender Verdun to the 
 Prussians in obedience to the orders of the Municipal 
 
 1 " Here is a frigate attacked by a corsair of immense strength 
 and size, rigging cut, masts in danger of coming by the board, 
 four foot of water in the hold, men dropping off fast ; in this 
 dreadful situation how do you think the captain acts ? He calls 
 all hands upon deck ; talks to them of king, country, glory, 
 sweethearts, gin, French prison, wooden shoes, Old England and 
 hearts of oak : they give three cheers, rush to their guns, and 
 after a tremendous conflict succeed in beating off the enemy. Not 
 a syllable of all this : this is not the way in which the honourable 
 Commander goes to work ; the first thing he does is to secure twenty 
 or thirty of his prime sailors who happen to be Catholics, to clap 
 them in irons, and set over them a guard of as many Protestants ; 
 having taken this admirable method of defending himself against 
 his infidel opponents, he goes upon deck, reminds the sailors in a 
 very bitter harangue that they are of different religions ; exhorts 
 the Episcopal gunner not to trust to the Presbyterian quarter- 
 master ; issues positive orders that the Catholics should be fired 
 at on the first appearance of discontent ; rushes through blood 
 and brains examining his men in the Catechism and Thirty-nine 
 Articles, and positively forbids any one to sponge or ram who 
 has not taken the Sacrament according to the Church of England. ;>
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 
 
 Council. For this he was buried in the Pantheon ; had 
 for epitaph " He chose death rather than yield to 
 despots " ; and a pension was bestowed on his widow. 
 
 By the way, another General, who played a promi- 
 nent part in the First Revolution, Lafayette, appears, 
 at least on one occasion, to have been troubled with 
 scruples of the same nature as those which influenced 
 General Trochu. Gouverneur l Morris, who was. Ameri- 
 can Minister to the Court of Versailles in 1789, wrote 
 thus in one of his excellent despatches " llth Oct. I 
 told Lafayette that he must have coadjutors in whom 
 he can confide. That as to the objections he has made 
 on the score of morals in some, he must consider that 
 men do not go into an Administration as the direct road 
 to Heaven." 
 
 By the middle of October the Government had done 
 much in the way of placing the city in a proper state of 
 defence. The sixteen detached forts, which had neither 
 casemates, platforms', bombproofs, nor magazines when 
 the siege commenced, have now been got into fighting 
 order. It is the same with the enceinte, upon which 
 11,000 workmen have been employed. All the sixty- 
 nine gates round Paris have been closed, and the ditch 
 made continuous. To get in and out of the gates now 
 it is necessary to pass through a narrow gateway and 
 cross a drawbridge. This proved a serious inconveni- 
 ence afterwards, for when a sortie took place much 
 1 Gouverneur was the baptismal name of Mr. Morris.
 
 230 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 valuable time was lost in getting the troops beyond the 
 walls. Several new batteries have been erected, and 
 2,000,000 sacks of earth placed along the parapets. 
 The artillery now musters 13,000 strong, including 
 7000 blue-jackets, who man six of the forts. No less 
 than 2140 guns have been mounted, and over 6,000,000 
 pounds of powder manufactured, together with round 
 shot, shells, cartridges, &c. 
 
 Even should the Prussians break through the line of 
 detached forts, which will be no child's play, and scale 
 the enceinte, they will still have an interior line of 
 defence to conquer in the shape of barricades, the erec- 
 tion of which has been entrusted to Citizen Henri 
 Rochefort. Both the National Guards and the Moblots 
 have picked up their drill in a marvellous way, but 
 discipline, which, Carlyle says, " is at all times a kind of 
 miracle and works by faith," is lax. The other day the 
 men of the 117th battalion of the National Guard 
 cashiered their Colonel for his political opinions, and it 
 is feared in some quarters that the fact of allowing, or 
 having allowed, the auxiliary troops to elect their own 
 officers will prove detrimental to the service. 
 
 Here is an instance of the working of this system. A 
 man called Sappia was elected to command a battalion 
 of the National Guard. For having tried to induce his 
 men to march on the Hotel de Ville with loaded arms 
 he was arrested, tried by court-martial, and, in spite of 
 the clearest evidence of guilt, acquitted. During the
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 231 
 
 trial it was shown that this red-hot Republican had 
 formerly been an Imperialist, that he had been dis- 
 missed from the army in Mexico, and that altogether he 
 was a man of the most ignominious character. What 
 can General Trochu think of this ? 
 
 On the evening of October 24, Paris was much startled 
 by the sudden appearance of the most magnificent 
 aurora borealis, which illuminated the whole sky with 
 an exquisite claret tint. This phenomenon was set 
 down at first to some device on the part of the enemy ; 
 it was supposed that ,all the forests round the city had 
 been set fire to simultaneously in the hope of roasting 
 or smoking us out. As soon as the aurora borealis 
 passed away the sky cleared up, the clouds disappeared, 
 and as Astronomer Fonvielle wrote next day "the 
 stars then shone out with a brilliancy comparable to 
 that which is reserved for the star of France when it 
 shall have disengaged itself from the hideous Prussian 
 fog." 
 
 It is recorded in history that during the Reign of Terror 
 twenty-three theatres played nightly to crowded houses. 
 Why not play now ? The Theatre Franqais replied to 
 this question by giving a morning performance in aid of 
 the wounded on October 25. The actors and actresses, 
 however, compounded with the present doleful state of 
 affairs by not appearing in costume, and the Horatii 
 and Curiatii fought in presence of Rome and Alba in 
 swallow-tailed coats, black unmentionables, and white
 
 232 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 ties. Nor had Alceste and Celimene the heart to 
 appear in slashed doublet and dress of the period. It 
 may be mentioned that the green-room had been turned 
 into an ambulance where several actresses nursed the 
 wounded, and that there were three dead soldiers lying 
 there during the performance. 
 
 The Moblots, brought up from the country, have 
 been complaining of late that they have all the fighting 
 to do, furnishing outposts and taking part in sorties, 
 while the National Guards, all Parisians, remain snugly 
 behind the ramparts. National Guards protest on their 
 part that they are full of fight and eager for the fray. 
 Well, they are to have a chance of displaying their 
 metal, for General Trochu has asked for 40,000 able- 
 bodied volunteers wherewith to form serviceable regi- 
 
 o 
 
 ments, the battalions of the National Guard containing 
 
 ' O 
 
 many men unfit for active service. 
 
 A Sergeant Hoff has been making a terrible name for 
 himself. Hardly a night passes but he performs some 
 daring exploit within the Prussian lines ; he is said to 
 have already slain some twenty sentries along the banks 
 of the Marne. 
 
 On October 28, that very radical print, the Combat, was 
 publicly burned because the editor, Felix Pyat, inserted 
 a paragraph, with a deep black border, to the effect 
 that Marshal Bazaine had sent to treat with the King 
 of Prussia, in the name of Napoleon III. Indignant 
 National Guards seized the paper in the kiosks, it being
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 233 
 
 considered high treason to suppose that Metz could fall. 
 In the evening the city was thrown into raptures by 
 the news that the Prussians had been surprised in a 
 small village called le Bourget by the francs-tireurs of 
 the Press and Moblots of the Seine, and driven from 
 that advanced position with heavy loss. And this coup 
 was executed by Parisians ! What joy ! What paeans ! 
 The report made by General de Bellemare on the 
 capture of le Bourget was curious in its way, and ran 
 thus "Wishing to utilize the francs-tireurs of the 
 Press, who had nothing to do at Coureneuve owing to 
 the inundations, I ordered a night attack on le Bourget 
 
 * o o 
 
 . . . the enemy was surprised, driven from house to 
 house, and finally fled "... some in their shirt-tails, 
 it was said. The Prussian artillery opened fire on the 
 village, and a desperate attempt was made the next 
 morning to eject the Parisians, but without success. 
 
 The French, however, were not to hold le Bourget 
 long. Intoxicated with victory and wine found in 
 the cellars, the conquerors went to sleep on their 
 laurels, and on the 30th allowed themselves to be 
 surprised by the Prussians as they had surprised the 
 Prussians two days before. At dawn the village was 
 surrounded by 20,000 men, and out of the 3000 
 Frenchmen who held it, not a dozen escaped being 
 killed, wounded, or captured. The Prussians, especially 
 a portion of the Guard, fought with great animosity, 
 having the disgrace of the 28th to wipe out. A friend
 
 234 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 of mine who had a narrow escape he was knocked 
 down by a bullet which struck the collar of his tunic 
 without piercing it, and when prone several Prussians 
 in hot pursuit, thinking him dead, jumped over him 
 told me that the men of Queen Augusta's regiment 
 worked away with their bayonets with terrible energy, 
 grinding their teeth and plying their weapons with a 
 yer ! yer ! 
 
 My friend Louis Ravenez breakfasted with me the 
 next morning off a mule steak, and seemed none the 
 worse for his adventure ; as soon as " the rush of war 
 was past " he had managed to make good his retreat. 
 His family lived next door to us a widow with two 
 sons and two daughters ; the two sons in the army, one 
 quartered in the most exposed position on the north 
 side of Paris ; the other in a cavalry regiment in the 
 provinces; the two daughters, both charming artists, 
 ill. By this time we were living on rations which 
 nearly always consisted of horseflesh ; and horseflesh 
 poor Marie Eavenez, the eldest daughter, could not 
 touch. She was literally starving when the following 
 device was resorted to. She was told that I had laid 
 in a large stock of beef, and that as I liked horseflesh 
 just as well, I would give her beef in exchange for her 
 daily ration. The ruse answered, and Marie R. ate 
 my horseflesh and I ate hers until the end came. So 
 much for imagination. 
 
 The recapture of le Bourget filled Paris with grief
 
 BELLA, IIORRIDA BELLA ! 235 
 
 and consternation ; the francs-tireurs of the Press and 
 the Moblots of the Seine had been massacred almost to 
 a man. Those who escaped declared that they had 
 been on severe duty for fifty hours fortifying their 
 position, and had been left for thirty hours without 
 food, when they were attacked. The Duke d'Alenc,on 
 tiunted us with being able to fight only on a full 
 stomach. He said of us 
 
 " They want their porridge and their fat bull-beeves : 
 Either they must be dieted like mules, 
 And have their provender tied to their mouths, 
 Or piteous they will look, like drowned mice." l 
 
 But it seems that even the light-hearted Gaul requires 
 propping up. 
 
 Ernest Baroche, a son of one of the ex-Emperor's 
 Ministers, who was in command of the Moblots, 
 behaved well at le Bourget. When he saw that 
 further resistance was useless, he ordered his men to 
 retire, and advancing alone fired half-a-dozen shots 
 from his revolver into a Prussian column, and then fell 
 riddled with bullets.* 
 
 It was on the afternoon of the disastrous le Bourget 
 affair that M. Thiers returned to Paris after having 
 visited one European court after another in the hope 
 of obtaining an intervention of some kind. It was 
 through the kind offices of the Emperor of Russia that 
 he was allowed to re-enter this beleaguered city and to 
 
 1 King Henry VI. Part I. Act I. Scene ii.
 
 236 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 discuss matters with the Provisional Government. Ens:- 
 
 O 
 
 land, Italy, Austria, Russia had all been visited by the 
 indefatigable little statesman and historian. I marvelled 
 if, while he was being whirled through Europe at a 
 high velocity, he remembered how years before, when 
 Minister of Public Works, he crossed the Channel to see 
 our railways, and reported dead against them, saying 
 that they would be fit only to amuse the Parisians. 
 He did not even approve of our macadamized roads. 
 
 October 31, another day of grief, mourning, and 
 consternation. Only a couple of days ago the Combat 
 was treated to an auto da fe for announcing the fall of 
 Metz, and now the capitulation of Bazaine and his 
 army is confirmed. The Government had kept the news 
 back for a couple of days. What an overwhelming 
 misfortune ! M. Jules Favre goes out to treat with 
 Bismarck, and in his absence the Chatillon disaster 
 occurs, and now while M. Thiers is here talking over 
 terms of peace, comes the le Bourget affair and the 
 news of the terrible catastrophe at Metz, which will of 
 course render the Prussians more exacting than ever. 
 
 Paris, so recently assured that Metz was impregnable, 
 and was provisioned for months to come, was quite 
 unprepared for this collapse, and immediately rose ; the 
 assembly was sounded in various quarters of the city, 
 the disaffected battalions of the National Guard mus- 
 tered with surprising alacrity, determined to overthrow 
 the Government, as if that would mend matters. An
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 237 
 
 excited mob, in spite of a pelting rain, gathered in front 
 of the Hotel de Ville clamouring for the Commune, and 
 shouting, "Down with Trochu!" "Down with the 
 renegade Thiers!" "Long live the Republic!" "No 
 armistice ! " The Mayor Arago and General Trochu 
 tried to harangue the multitude, but their voices were 
 drowned in the tumult. Close to the scene of action I 
 met my schoolmaster, and asked him like Mamllus 
 
 " Where is thy leather apron and thy rule ? 
 What dost thou with thy best apparel on ? " 
 
 He told me that he was going to vote for the 
 Commune. 
 
 Just as I reached the Hotel de Ville, where the 
 Government sat, the doors were forced in by the 
 sovereign people, who inundated the apartments, dis- 
 played a red flag at the window, and proceeded to elect 
 a new government. General Trochu and his colleagues 
 were made prisoners, confined in their council chamber, 
 grossly insulted, and called upon to resign. Fortun- 
 ately during the tumult Ernest Picard, the wittiest and 
 most unwieldy member of the Administration, eighteen 
 stone of common sense leavened with any amount of 
 Gallic salt, managed to slip through the fingers of the 
 captors and to reach the Treasury, more than a mile 
 away, where he at once put himself in communication 
 with the civil and military authorities and the com- 
 manders of the well- affected battalions of the National 
 Guard.
 
 233 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 While the stout M. Picard was engaged in organizing 
 his forces for the delivery of his colleagues, the invaders 
 of the Hotel de Ville were busy electing a Committee of 
 Public Safety, and lists were being freely handed about. 
 Henry Labouchere handed in to the clerk at the table 
 the " reddest list of the lot." 
 
 The mob of course behaved more Francorum in those 
 gilded saloons where Prefect Haussmann had not long 
 ago received 'nearly all the crowned heads of Europe, 
 Queen of England, Czar, Emperor of Austria, King of 
 Prussia, and Sultan glass and china were broken, 
 chairs smashed, sofas contaminated, painted walls and 
 rich wainscots defiled. At one moment there were no 
 less than three rival Governments issuing manifestoes 
 and trying to carry on the business of Paris, the Pro- 
 visional Government the while remaining in durance. 
 The venerable Gamier Pages, whose voluminous shirt- 
 collars are as famous in France as those of Mr. Gladstone 
 in England, fainted away, but was still kept prisoner. 
 This state of affairs, shameful with the enemy at the 
 gate, lasted for several hours, but just before the shades 
 of evening gathered over the scene, help arrived in the 
 shape of the 106th battalion of the National Guard, and 
 the rioters quietly laid down their arms, and amid roars 
 of laughter from the 106th as they passed under the 
 Caudine forks, sneaked back to Belleville. A strong 
 force of regulars had by this time reached the Hotel de 
 Ville, General Trochu and his colleagues were once
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 239 
 
 more free, and half-an-hour afterwards not the vestige of 
 a rioter was to be seen, and the crowd which lined the 
 Rue de Rivoli to see how things were going on heartily 
 cheered the Governor of Paris as he rode past. And to 
 think that during all this disorder not a drop of blood 
 was shed, and yet none of the elements for a massacre 
 were wanting arms, liquor, and a mob of the vilest 
 description ripe for mischief. M. Thiers left Paris at an 
 early hour, just before the insurrection broke out. So 
 ended the month of October. 
 
 Instead of punishing the rioters as they deserved, the 
 humane Jules Simon has persuaded his colleagues to 
 go, not to the country, which would be impossible, but 
 to Paris, and to be duly elected. In fact the Provisional 
 Government at present holds office by virtue of mob 
 law only, having usurped authority when the Chambers 
 were invaded on September 4. 
 
 M. Thiers had a narrow escape yesterday on leaving 
 Paris. The authorities forgot to send notice of his 
 passage to Mont Valerien, and the consequence was, 
 when passing within range of that fort he was fired at, 
 and a cannon-ball very nearly put a period to his 
 existence. 
 
 On November 3, the elections took place quietly 
 enough, and moderate people greatly rejoiced in the 
 result. General Trochu and his colleagues obtained 
 557,996 votes, while only 62,688 votes were recorded 
 in favour of the Commune. So order reigns in Paris,
 
 240 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 and no more riots are to be tolerated, and about a 
 dozen of the most violent Colonels of the National 
 Guard have been cashiered. 
 
 Term commenced to-day at the Palais de Justice, 
 but there were many vacancies on the bench, and our 
 Minister of Justice, Arago, prohibited red mass, or the 
 " Mass of the Holy Ghost," being performed as accord- 
 ing to custom. I have not heard of General Trochu, 
 whose platform is " God, Family, and Property," re- 
 monstrating. 
 
 There is an Anglo-American ambulance established 
 in what until the other day was called the Avenue de 
 1'Imperatrice, leading into the Bois de Boulogne. It 
 consists of a couple of large tents, in which the sufferers 
 have plenty of air, and are admirably treated. I often 
 visited this ambulance. On the first occasion I was 
 rather startled on seeing a pretty young woman run 
 out of a small supplementary tent with a scream. On 
 inquiry it appeared that she had bravely volunteered 
 to act as a nurse ; but on an artilleryman arriving, 
 fumbling in his pockets, and then depositing a finger 
 which had just been shot off, on the table, she had 
 uttered a cry of horror and fled. I often met two 
 Zouaves there, who had passed through all the big 
 battles round Metz unscathed, and had both been 
 wounded in a sortie in the direction of Malmaison. 
 The two comrades had both been wounded exactly in 
 the same place; each had received a bullet in the calf
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 241 
 
 of the right leg. They had wonderful tales to tell, and 
 they were cheery enough as they smoked their cigarettes 
 in the sunny air, and hobbled about on their crutches. 
 They had never been under so heavy a fire, they said, 
 as at Malmaison, where they lost a comrade who had 
 been through Gravelotte and other battles with them ; 
 it was as if handfuls of peas were being flung at them 
 so they expressed it. 
 
 The appeal made by General Trochu for 40,000 
 volunteers, wherewith to form fighting regiments, has 
 not met with much success, although each volunteer 
 as he stepped up to a kind of altar erected in front of 
 the Pantheon to inscribe his name in a book of glory, 
 was treated to a roll of the drum and given a decoration 
 to wear in his buttonhole. Instead of the 40,000 volun- 
 teers required, only 12,000 have presented themselves. 
 
 Paris, which gave such an overwhelming majority 
 to the Government the other day, and showed itself so 
 reasonable, has to a certain extent reversed its decision. 
 The twenty wards into which the city is divided, called 
 upon to elect their municipal officers, have returned 
 five mayors of the very reddest political dye, and this 
 bids fair to breed trouble. 
 
 Another rather serious matter is that the Government 
 now find it difficult to obtain the services of skilled 
 workmen for the manufacture of rifles. All the artisans 
 are in the National Guard, draw thirty sous a day, 
 and amuse themselves by playing pitch-and-toss and 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 2^2 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 suchlike games on the ramparts. It is already asked 
 what these men will do when the siege comes to a 
 termination. We know that Satan finds some mischief 
 still for idle hands to do, and after having acquired 
 habits of idleness, the Parisians will find it difficult to 
 set to work again. 
 
 On November 6, Paris learned that the negotiations 
 with Bismarck had fallen through, the terms on 
 which the Chancellor would consent to an armistice 
 being quite unacceptable. But for the revolt of 
 October 31, it is supposed that some understanding 
 might have been arrived at ; but when Count Bismarck 
 learned that Paris was in a state of revolt, and running 
 short of food, he raised his demands, and M. Thiers has 
 pleaded with the great Powers all in vain. 
 
 As we must continue to fight, the forces in and round 
 Paris have been divided into three armies. The first 
 army, composed of two hundred and sixty-six battalions 
 of the National Guard, with a poor show of cavalry and 
 artillery, is to be commanded by General Clement 
 Thomas. The command of the second army, all regulars, 
 has been given to General Ducrot. General Trochu, 
 while remaining Commander-in-Chief, was to have the 
 third army under his special orders, but for various 
 reasons the command has been handed over to General 
 Vinoy. This last army is to be divided into seven 
 divisions, two of which will be commanded by Admirals. 
 
 In the midst of all these warlike preparations the
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 243 
 
 Government has found time to order the removal of 
 the marble statue of the Empress Josephine, erected 
 not long ago in the Avenue named after her, and on 
 the site where a charitable institution which she had 
 founded originally stood. Could anything be more 
 spiteful and childish? Naturally the name of the 
 Avenue has also been changed. It is now the Avenue 
 Marceau. I presume that this iconoclastic act was 
 ordered because the "bonne Josephine," as the poor 
 called her, was grandmother to Napoleon III. Will 
 the Government set up the statue of one of Felix 
 Belly's Amazons on the denuded pedestal ? If so, let 
 it be done in brass. 
 
 To-day M. Edrnond About, who was the first man to 
 cross the frontier when war was declared, writes in 
 favour of peace, and blames the Government for having 
 broken off negotiations. But Paris, partly encouraged 
 by false news from the provinces, though we have had 
 no pigeons now for ten days, seems determined to hold 
 out. However, we are beginning to suffer both for 
 want of food and fuel, and the Minister of Agriculture 
 (fancy having such a Minister at present) has just 
 ordered all persons having cattle, sheep, or goats to 
 make a declaration to that effect under penalty of 
 having them confiscated. One poor animal which had 
 to be delivered up, to be eventually served out in 
 rations, was much lamented in my quarter. This was 
 a donkey belonging to a man who used to come round
 
 244 , RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 with a cart collecting old bottles and broken glass. 
 Every now and again lie made a halt, and said to his 
 ass, which was almost as clever as that of Baalam, " Now, 
 Adrienne, bray for the ladies' -maids ! " And upon this 
 Adrienne would lift up her voice and bray. Then 
 would come the order, "Now, Adrienne, bray for the 
 cooks!" And again would Adrienne bray, but there 
 was a very marked difference between the keys of the 
 first and the second bray. And to think that poor 
 Adrienne should have been eaten ! 
 
 Alas ! many other donkeys suffered the same fate. 
 I myself breakfasted one morning on the ears of a 
 donkey, and I remember shortly afterwards passing by 
 a butcher's shop, and seeing exposed for sale the snouts 
 of half-a-dozen of those animals, and that was all. A 
 painful sight also was it to see slaughtered dogs hang- 
 ing up in the butchers' shops, skinned and ready for 
 cooking greyhounds and bull-dogs and curs of low 
 degree. People who had food to dispose of were now 
 obtaining high prices. One day, strolling down the 
 Rue de Rivoli, I looked into a jeweller's shop, and 
 saw a piece of cheese for sale; while, in another 
 direction, a maker of stays offered her customers 
 puddings which looked anything but inviting. 
 
 On November 7, a patriotic editor thus wrote 
 "Should the provinces decline to carry on the war, 
 they will establish for ever the supremacy of Paris over 
 the rest of France. How can the provinces dare to
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 245 
 
 speak of peace while Paris resists with so much heroism ? 
 Horseflesh is rare, and the meat of mules and asses is 
 a delicacy. Penetrate to the heroic faubourgs, the 
 laxity of whose ideas are blamed, and you will find 
 what Count Bismarck calls ' the populace/ eating horses' 
 lights, and food which even dogs recently disdained." 
 
 A large number of English residents left us to-day ; 
 and as Mr. Woodhouse has gone with them, we find our- 
 selves placed under the protection of Colonel Claremont, 
 the military, and Captain Hore, the naval, attaches. 
 
 On November 10, winter fell upon us, and it snowed 
 hard all day, and it is difficult to find coal or wood. 
 The authorities are having all the trees which lined 
 our pleasant promenades on either side cut down ; but 
 this will not help us much, and we have no more gas. 
 A very dismal place is Paris now of an evening. The 
 cafes, instead of being brilliantly lighted, merely make 
 darkness visible by means of a poor show of oil-lamps. 
 The only thing we have plenty of is wine, which may 
 not prove an unmixed blessing. 
 
 A few days ago I saw a sportsman in the Champs 
 Elysees shooting sparrows, looking up into the trees in 
 quest of game. Now these trees are to disappear, for 
 firing is wanted for the hospitals and public buildings. 
 It was a curious sight to see them felled. Bound the 
 first which I saw cut down a large crowd had gathered, 
 intent upon every blow dealt by the woodmen with 
 their gleaming axes. But then, as Rabelais long ago
 
 216 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 told us, the Parisian is essentially badaud ; he will in fact 
 stand for hours watching the laying down of a gaspipe. 
 How much more interesting the falling of a stately 
 elm ! But the tree had no sooner come crashing down 
 than the badauds, great and small, male and female, 
 fell upon it, and before the woodmen could interfere, 
 had picked it to the bone, or rather stripped it to the 
 trunk ; boys and girls broke off the twigs, and men and 
 women the branches, and away they scampered with 
 their plunder, rejoicing at having secured the where- 
 withal to make the pot boil. The whole scene passed 
 with such rapidity, so eager was the scramble and so 
 complete the devastation, that I laughed heartily as 
 the band dispersed like a flock of vultures driven 
 from a carcase, leaving the woodcutters mute with 
 amazement. 
 
 Some historic trees, which is a pity, were afterwards 
 sacrificed, and among them a row of splendid elms 
 which shaded the Boulevard d'Enfer, and which had 
 been planted in the reign of the Grand Monarque. 
 Most of the old trees, too, in the Cour la Reine, on the 
 river-side just opposite the Invalides, were forced to 
 bow their stately heads to the axe laid at their roots. 
 The story goes that these trees were planted in the 
 year 1724 by the Duke d' An tin, Intendant of the 
 buildings of his well-beloved Majesty Louis XV. The 
 Duke caused four long rows of holes to be made, and 
 by each hole stood a soldier of the Swiss Guard,
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 247 
 
 sapling in Land, which was planted to a roll of the 
 drum. 
 
 An older tree than any of the above-mentioned is 
 reported to have been sacrificed, to wit, a cedar said to 
 have been planted by Sully in the days of Henri IV. 
 in the Jardin des Plantes. 
 
 Nov. 11, the Prussians, having got some of their siege- 
 guns into position, began to show their teeth quite 
 in earnest, unmasking batteries at Meudon, Nogent, 
 and Choisy le Hoi, and commencing their attack on the 
 detached forts. On the same day the postmen who 
 were out of work received a military organization. 
 There were certainly no foreign or provincial mails for 
 them to distribute. Even our pigeons, some of which 
 birds are sent out with every balloon, have been failing 
 us of late, and there is a painful impression that the 
 Germans have imported falcons from Saxony with the 
 view of intercepting our feathered couriers, or that so 
 many birds of prey have been attracted by the slaughter 
 round Paris that our pigeons find it difficult to return 
 to us. 
 
 Much abuse is daily lavished on the Prussians for 
 employing spies, and certainly they appear to be well 
 informed about all that occurs in Paris. Did not 
 Frederick the Great laugh at Soubise after Rossbach 
 for having twenty cooks and only one spy, whereas he, 
 the Prussian monarch, had twenty spies and but one 
 cook. That there be traitors in the French camp seems
 
 248 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 very certain from what happened yesterday. A small 
 detachment of cavalry approaching a French outpost by 
 night, was duly challenged, and on the corporal crying, 
 " Qui vive?" 
 
 " France I " was the reply. 
 
 " What regiment ? " 
 
 " 2nd Hussars." 
 
 The corporal, not liking the accent, called on the 
 officer to advance and give the watchword. 
 
 " Verdoon ! " was the answer. 
 
 The watchword was correct Verdun ; but the accent 
 was so Teutonic that the French corporal ordered his 
 men to fire, and three saddles were emptied, and the 
 rest of the detachment galloped off. 
 
 As for spies, of course the French employ them. 
 Lamartine tells us that towards the end of the last 
 century M. de Segur was sent on a mission to Berlin 
 with these two words for his instructions Seduce 
 Corrupt. He was to bribe the favourites, the mistresses, 
 and the pet aide-de-camp of his Prussian Majesty, 
 Unfortunately for M. de Se'gur, two hours before he 
 arrived at Berlin a copy of his secret instructions 
 reached the Prussian Foreign Office. M. de Segur's 
 negotiations broke down, and he was so disgusted with 
 his failure that he attempted to commit suicide. This 
 was diamond cut diamond. 
 
 By the way, Mirabeau, who paid Frederick the Great 
 a visit a short time before his death, had no very
 
 BELLA, HOREIDA BELLA! 249 
 
 high opinion of Prussian incorruptibility, for he wrote 
 as follows in 1716 "There can be no secrets at Berlin 
 for a French Ambassador unless he has neither money 
 nor talent ; that country is covetous and poor, and any 
 State secret may be purchased for 3000 louis." 
 
 I may here relate a little anecdote. Some short 
 time after the war, an English officer was sent to Berlin 
 to try and find out something about a new rifle. He 
 failed in his mission. On his way home he looked in 
 at the War Office here to see an old friend, who asked 
 him where he had been. On being informed, the 
 French officer said "Why didn't you come here in- 
 stead of going to Berlin ? we could have told you all 
 about it." And the information which the British 
 soldier failed to obtain at Berlin he obtained in Paris. 
 
 A great many suggestions are made in the hope of 
 solving the problem of how to navigate balloons. One 
 ingenious gentleman recommends that four eagles be 
 harnessed to a balloon, maintaining that they may be 
 guided by means of raw meat attached to a pole and 
 held in the direction which the aeronaut wishes to go. 
 All kinds of absurd things are pressed on the notice 
 of the Government. This is nothing new. When 
 Bonaparte was at Boulogne, and threatened to invade 
 England, the lively Duchesse d'Arbantes (ci-devant 
 Madame Junot) relates in her Memoirs how a General, 
 who afterwards became Marshal, strongly advised the 
 First Consul to mount a strong body of men on por-
 
 250 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 poises, and thus to cross the Channel and destroy 
 perfidious Albion. 
 
 On Nov. 10, the Patrie, contemplating the continu- 
 ation of the siege with feelings of awe, wrote " Berlin 
 blockaded and separated from the rest of the world 
 would only be so much ennui and pedantry the less, 
 but Paris invested Paris captive is intelligence on 
 strike. It is the life of the world which ceases; its 
 heart which no longer beats." And the writer, in a 
 strain worthy of Victor Hugo, goes on to say that it is 
 hard to imagine such a calamity as Europe menaced 
 with passing a winter without Paris, and that emperors 
 and kings will certainly interfere to avert so great an 
 evil. 
 
 There be eighteen clubs here, where much spouting 
 goes on, and many wild theories are aired, but as yet 
 no orator has sufficiently distinguished himself to make 
 his mark. The Government does well to tolerate these 
 clubs, in spite of their mad ravings, for they act as 
 so many safety-valves. Thank goodness, they do not 
 resemble the Jacobin and Cordelier clubs of the First 
 Revolution, and we have no Marats, Dantons, or Robes- 
 pierres, or at least they have not yet shown themselves. 
 The twaddle indulged in is of an innocent description. 
 Take this as a sample. A citizen proposed last night 
 a simple method for capturing the King of Prussia, 
 adding of course " we shall deal generously and 
 humanely by him, and let his countrymen have him
 
 BELLA, HORRID A BELLA! 251 
 
 back if they like for 40,000,000." Rather a good 
 price to pay pour le roi de Prusse ! 
 
 During a snowstorm to-day a number of men suffered 
 military degradation in front of the Ecole Militaire. 
 One man called Andre Desqueres had been found 
 guilty of assassinating a corporal, and had been con- 
 demned to death by a court-martial, but the Govern- 
 ment commuted the sentence. The other culprits had 
 been convicted for desertion, theft, &c. What can such 
 scamps care for having the buttons and epaulettes cut 
 off their uniforms? During the proceedings a band 
 discoursed a selection of airs from La Grrande Duchesse 
 de Gerolstein, which lent a comic tinge to the affair, 
 and was strangely out of season. 
 
 On the 12th there was some sharp fighting in the 
 direction of Choisy le Roi, during which a good-looking 
 young Irishman, whose acquaintance I had casually 
 made, fell well to the front. He had thrown up his 
 commission in her Majesty's service to cast in his lot 
 with the francs-tireurs. He was an excellent type of 
 his gallant and daring countrymen, and his nationality 
 was unmistakable, reminding me of the lines 
 
 " So frank and bold his bearing, boy, 
 Should you meet him onward faring, boy, 
 Through Chili's glow, or Iceland's snow, 
 You'd say ' What news from Erin, boy 1 ' " 
 
 He appears to have been induced by his religious 
 convictions to throw himself into the French ranks and
 
 252 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 fight against Protestant Prussia. And the poor fellow 
 met his death from a Bavarian bullet. 
 
 Sergeant Hoff has again been distinguishing himself, 
 and has been mentioned in an order of the day for " an 
 act of the greatest vigour. He got within twenty paces 
 of a Prussian sentry and killed him; he also shot a 
 comrade who came to the assistance of the sentry. 
 Sergeant Hoff has already killed about thirty Prussians, 
 and has received the Cross of the Legion of Honour." 
 The above was signed by the Chief of the Staff, General 
 Schmitz, who is familiarly called P. 0. Schmitz, because 
 his numerous bulletins are signed Schmitz, P. O. or par 
 ordre. 1 
 
 It appears that it is revenge which nerves the arm of 
 the redoubtable Hoff. His father is said to have been 
 murdered by the enemy, and his brother, a franc-tireur, 
 captured and shot. 
 
 I believe that most of the francs-tireiirs who fell into 
 the clutches of the Prussians were summarily executed, 
 
 1 Edmond de Goncourt writes in his Journal, Ch. XXI., Jan- 
 uary 2, 1872 " Dinner of the Spartans. . . . General Schmitz, a 
 military man who has something to do with literature, sat by me. 
 He is an intelligent man, and has always something to say worth 
 hearing. On some one mentioning Alsace and Lorraine, the 
 General remarked ' I was in Italy in 1866, and an Austrian, 
 Count Douski, said to me, " You are making blunders much as we 
 have done, and are unconsciously preparing a war with Germany 
 which will cost you Alsace and Lorraine." When I protested, he 
 added, " You will lose Alsace and Lorraine for ever, because the 
 small States are dying out." ' . . ."
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 253 
 
 as enjoying no military organization, being subject to 
 no military authority, and being soldiers one day and 
 civilians another as it suited their purposes. After the 
 war was over Mr. Holt White, who had followed the 
 operations of the Prussian army for the Pall Mall Gazette, 
 told me that as he was one day, during the siege of 
 Paris, passing in front of Prince Bismarck's windows, 
 at Versailles, the Chancellor called him in and began to 
 talk over the subject of the francs-tireurs, maintaining 
 the necessity of shooting them when captured. Mr. 
 Holt White having taken a different view, Princa 
 Bismarck produced a copy of the Pall Mall Gazette 
 from his portfolio, and said, " Read that article on the 
 regulations, objects, &c., &c., of the francs-tireurs" 
 Now this article kept by the Prince in his portfolio 
 was one which I had written when the war first broke 
 out, and in which I suggested that if the francs- 
 tireurs carried out their programme, the war would 
 resemble that waged by Red Indians, and that it would 
 lead to reprisals. 
 
 November 13. Provisions running short and very 
 dear. The following are some of the prices asked 
 
 A turkey, 2 4>s. 
 
 1 Ib. of fresh butter, 2 16s. 
 
 A goose, 1. 
 
 A carp, 16s. 
 
 A rabbit, 14s. 
 Henri Rochefort, having first resigned his position as
 
 254 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 a member of the Provisional Government and then that 
 of Inspector-General of Barricades, has enlisted as a 
 private in the Artillery of the National Guard. As 
 Citizen Henri Rochefort is as blind as a bat, he is not 
 likely to do the enemy much damage. 
 
 November 15. Paris was thrown into raptures this 
 morning, it having been officially announced that 
 General d'Aurelle de Paladines has gained a great 
 victory at Orleans. The papers teem with allusions to 
 Joan of Arc, and hope has once more been rekindled in 
 the Parisian mind. 
 
 November 17. Very difficult to obtain fresh meat at 
 any price. The prospect of starving has operated a 
 wonderful effect on people with delicate appetites. A 
 dainty artist friend now frets like a spoiled child for 
 that beef and mutton at which she formerly turned up 
 her nose even after bitters. Courage, Mademoiselle ; a 
 large cattle-dealer, who has passed a contract with the 
 Government for the supply of 30,000 oxen, left this 
 beleaguered city last night in a balloon to commence 
 operations. How he is to get his beeves through the 
 Prussian lines, over which he must have passed by this 
 time at a considerable elevation, is matter for specula- 
 tion. Hardly anything but pigeons reach us, and 
 though by an ingenious method of photographic reduc- 
 tion one of those birds can now carry under its wing as 
 many words as are contained in the New Testament, it 
 could hardly bring us even a single ox reduced by Liebig.
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 255 
 
 By the way, there was a rumour yesterday that a 
 man had managed to get through the Prussian lines cb 
 la nage swimming down the Seine, and the Parisians, 
 being of a gay turn even under difficulties, at once cried, 
 " It's Musard ! it's Musard ! " I must explain that a 
 man who is supposed to connive at the infidelities of 
 his wife is called a maquereau, and this accusation was 
 very generally laid to the charge of Musard. 
 
 That the mackerel does not frequent fresh water was 
 a mere matter of detail. Ichthyology is not perhaps the 
 strong point of the Parisian. Did not the renowned 
 Jules Janin once describe the lobster as the " Cardinal 
 of the sea," never having seen any but boiled specimens 
 of that crustacean ? And did not Timothy Trim tell 
 his million readers in Le Petit Journal that oysters were 
 fed with oatmeal by means of a straw inserted between 
 the shells ? 
 
 November 18. I find that a good sewer rat may be 
 had after some haggling for three francs, there being no 
 Government tariff on these rodents. The street boys 
 angle for them down the sink-holes, and appear to enjoy 
 the sport, which at times is lucrative, though they don't 
 yet obtain Derry prices. I fancy that the rats them- 
 selves are having a hard time of it, for this is what my 
 wife saw in the Place des Victoires. She dreads rats, 
 and, to her horror, one ventured out of the sewers in 
 broad daylight, and made a rush at an egg-shell close to 
 her, and hoping to find something inside plunged his
 
 256 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 head into it. A couple of gamins who saw this endeav- 
 oured to catch the unfortunate animal, who was unable 
 to withdraw his head from the egg-shell, and thus 
 speedily fell a victim to his voracity, being unable to 
 see where he was going. 
 
 Some parts of Paris were, and probably still are, 
 infested with these useful scavengers. A friend of mine 
 dining at a restaurant in the Passage de 1'Opera, was 
 surprised to see a rat under his table, and on mention- 
 ing the fact to the landlord was told that it was impos- 
 sible to keep the vermin out ; it was useless to stop the 
 holes up, as fresh ones were gnawed through in a night. 
 "Every Saturday," he added, "we have a hunt; trap-doors 
 are placed over each hole, and on cutting a string they 
 all fall, and the rats being shut in we have a massacre. 
 Come on Saturday, arm yourself with a stick, and bring 
 a dog if you have one." My friend accepted the invita- 
 tion, and I accompanied him. The string was duly cut, 
 and about a dozen of us, armed with cudgels and rein- 
 forced by several terriers, entered the restaurant. In 
 about half-an-hour a clean sweep was made, and the 
 dead bodies of the victims, 175 by the tale, were laid 
 in rows and counted ; the muzzles of the dogs were 
 washed, and mine host offered us a glass of wine all 
 round. A similar massacre took place every week. 
 The restaurant was situated just over the main drain. 
 
 Belleville, which is to Paris of to-day what the 
 Faubourg St. Antoine was to Paris of the First Revolu-
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 257 
 
 tion, became very unruly at this period. Its battalions 
 of National Guards refuse to go out against the 
 Prussians, suspecting that once outside the fortifications 
 the Government will have the gates closed, and will 
 leave them to their fate. The well-affected battalions 
 on their side fear that while they are engaged in a 
 sortie the Bellevillois intend to plunder the city. By 
 the way, all the volunteers which General Trochu 
 obtained when he asked for 40,000 were furnished by 
 the battalions of the aristocratic quarters. The battalion 
 of the Madeleine, 2800 strong, furnished 1000. 
 
 The Bellevillois, be it observed, are always crying 
 out against the clergy, and demanding the incorporation 
 of ecclesiastics in the army. By law they are exempted 
 from military service. It appears that there are at 
 present 1015 priests in Paris, and of these 612 are 
 over forty-five years of age, and consequently have 
 exceeded the age at which laymen are liberated from 
 the duties of the soldier. It is said that the heroes of 
 Belleville would like to place the priests in the fore- 
 front of the battle, which would certainly be a good 
 method for protecting their own worthless carcases. 
 : The newspapers constantly publish the most out- 
 rageous articles against the Prussian monarch, who is 
 reported now to have taken up his residence at the 
 Little Trianon, which recalls to the Parisians pleasant 
 memories of poor Marie Antoinette, whose head they 
 cut off. " It is here," says one writer, " that. Father Gui- 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 Gui, 1 or, if you like it better, the drunken king, retires 
 to digest his breakfast, smoking his Augusta, his holiday 
 pipe, following with tipsy look the gyrations of his 
 requisitioned tobacco. He is happy, this trooper; he 
 enjoys all kinds of intoxications wine, tobacco, blood. 
 He is present in imagination at the performance of the 
 Marriage of Figaro, in which Marie Antoinette played 
 the part of the Countess ; the Count d'Artois, the King's 
 youngest brother, afterwards Charles X., was Figaro; 
 the Chevalier de Vaudreuil, Almaviva; the Duke de 
 Guiche, Bartholo ; the Duke de Crussol, Bazile ; while 
 the part of the Page was filled by the Prince de Polignac, 
 who, as Prime Minister of Charles X., signed the fatal 
 ordinances." Yes, the fatal ordinances which sealed 
 the fate of the Bourbon dynasty, the King flying to 
 England, and the Prince also seeking safety in the dis- 
 guise of a footman. And to think that the comedy of 
 Beaumarchais is supposed to have been one of the 
 factors which set that Revolution rolling which so 
 rudely dispersed actors and audience of the Trianon 
 Theatre ! 
 
 The Government has now laid hands on all potatoes 
 still for sale ; they are to be served out with our meat 
 rations, now so absurdly small that many persons refuse 
 to go for them. Can one imagine having to wait for 
 four or five hours every third day at the door of the 
 butcher for a quarter of a pound, per inhabitant, of 
 1 Short for Guillaume, or William.
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 259 
 
 doubtful beef? It is some consolation that my cook 
 does not object to this, in spite of the bitter weather, 
 because she and the other cooks have time to discuss 
 the news of the day, and keep their tongues from growing 
 rusty. 
 
 November 23. Here are the kind of reports which 
 help to keep us alive, and which buoy up our courage 
 " Some francs-tireurs recently stopped a train containing 
 120 Prussians, who were at once shot, as the Prussians 
 never spare the francs-tireurs, and had just before 
 executed ten prisoners." " There was fighting at 
 Pierrefit yesterday. An old National Guard of St. 
 Denis greatly distinguished himself, taking his stand in 
 front of the line and inflicting on the enemy losses 
 relatively very sensible." Which is rather vague. 
 Then " A naval gunner quartered in the fort of Bicetre 
 can lodge a cannon-ball in a hat at the distance of 5000 
 yards. Yesterday he allowed the Prussians to arm an 
 earthwork, and then with three shells blew all their 
 guns to pieces. He has been decorated, as has a 
 similar expert at the fort of Double Couronne." And 
 concerning Prussian atrocities "A peasant has just 
 been shot at Meudon for burying bread and wine 
 in his garden ; while a poor stableman, whose only 
 crime was wearing the Imperial livery, was summarily 
 executed." And all these things slip down the capacious 
 Parisian gullet like melted butter. 
 
 November 24. Another batch of documents found
 
 260 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 in the Tuileries was published to-day, some of which 
 are instructive. One is a telegram to the Emperor 
 from the Duke de Persigny congratulating him on 
 declaring war, and saying that the war was hailed with 
 enthusiasm throughout the country. From another 
 document we learn that his Majesty was so irritated 
 at the way in which he had been treated by the Parisian 
 Mobiles at the camp of Chalons I have mentioned 
 how they plundered the Imperial baggage, and put the 
 Imperial shirts up to auction that he ordered the 
 corps to be broken up and dispersed among the frontier 
 forts Thionville, Belfort, Verdun, Toul, Sedan, &c., 
 all of them, with the exception of Belfort, destined to 
 fall into the hands of the enemy. I have also already 
 mentioned how the firemen were brought up from the 
 provinces to aid in the defence of Paris, and the queer 
 figure they cut and the laughter they excited with 
 their Roman helmets and quaint modern uniforms 
 sadly in want of repair; most of them old men, un- 
 trained, and quite unfit for service of any description. 
 There are three despatches published concerning these 
 antiquated heroes, .whose patriotism in coming hither 
 was so loudly extolled by the Parisian press, who were 
 thanked for the gallant way in which they had quitted 
 their native villages, which might be burned to the 
 ground in their absence, to protect the capital. But the 
 despatches ! On August 16, the Minister of the Iritericf 
 received the following from the Prefect at La Rochelle
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA; 261 
 
 " Order to send firemen to Paris creates great emotion. 
 Most of them refuse to go. Population uneasy." 
 Another despatch reached the Minister on the same 
 date from Tours " The firemen hesitate. Will manage 
 to set matters right. The measure found admirable 
 by reflecting people," not by pompiers, as they are 
 called, who do reflect, and don't wish to go. 
 
 The day following the Minister in his turn wrote a 
 circular, which commenced thus "The dan of the 
 firemen is such that to avoid being encumbered it will 
 be well to suspend further remittances (sic). Explain 
 to these devoted men the reason for this temporary 
 adjournment ! " 
 
 The poor firemen who were hustled up to Paris did 
 not remain many days, and must have returned home 
 both sadder and wiser men. The difference between 
 the official language in the above documents and 
 the reality is considered rather striking. But 
 when lies are told here no one has a right to throw 
 stones. 
 
 November 27. All the gates are closed to the public, 
 which is as much as to tell the enemy, who are observant 
 creatures, that a storm is brewing. 
 
 Paris learned to-day that a Vice- Admiral has been 
 given the command of an army corps. Perhaps he 
 will turn out a second Peterborough, who, we all 
 know, was equally at home ashore or afloat when 
 fighting was to be done.
 
 202 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 Paris has also learned with some astonishment that a 
 number of fugitives from Chatillon, who were supposed 
 to have been executed long ago, have had their sen- 
 tence commuted to ten years' imprisonment pour 
 encourager les autres. Further, that large quantities of 
 hams and bacon have been discovered, and sent to the 
 Central Markets to be there sold at a reasonable price. 
 One " holder," in whose cellars 1700 hams were found, 
 has committed suicide for fear of being strung up to a 
 lamp-post, thus imitating the famous Gribouille, who 
 drowned himself during a shower of rain for fear of 
 getting wet. 
 
 A great outcry is raised against the rich, who, now 
 that there are no more hay and oats, are feeding their 
 horses on bread. A horse, they say, consumes 20 Ibs. of 
 bread per diem, and as there are 10,000 of them, 150,000 
 human beings are daily sacrificed in their favour as far 
 as the staff of life is concerned. It may be useful to 
 keep horses as a stock of fresh meat, but a horse will 
 eat 2000 Ibs. of bread in a month, and 300 Ibs. of his 
 flesh will feed only 500 persons for one day. Two 
 butchers' shops have just been opened for the sale of 
 small domestic animals. Over one shop can be read 
 the following sign " Btsistance a outrance ! Grande 
 louclierie, canine et fdline" I witnessed a touching- 
 spectacle the other day. The manager of a strolling 
 company of players found that he must part with the 
 old horse Pompone, who had dragged him through all
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA ! 263 
 
 France and Navarre. It was some time before the 
 poor manager could make up his mind to part with 
 his beast at the door of the shambles where the faithful 
 drudge was about to close his career ; he flung himself 
 several times on Pompone's neck, embraced him, 
 pocketed the blood-money, and then strode away in 
 despair. The whole scene reminded me painfully of 
 Theophile Gautier's Capitaine Fracasse. 
 
 Shades of Parmentier ! We have had potato riots, 
 and the stalls of several dealers have been overturned in 
 consequence of the exorbitant prices demanded. Be it 
 remembered, that the introduction of the potato here, 
 towards the close of the reign of Louis XVI., met with 
 considerable resistance, and it was not until Parmentier 
 planted a field near Versailles and had it carefully 
 guarded all day by gendarmes that the people took to 
 them. When the shades of night fell, and the gen- 
 darmes were withdrawn, the field was plundered, and 
 the old proverb of stolen fruit found to be true. The 
 sly Parmentier, for having thus overcome the prejudices 
 of his countrymen, was made a Count of by the King, 
 took for armes parlantes a potato-flower, and was 
 actually embraced by the Queen Marie Antoinette. I 
 had the pleasure of often meeting his grandson. An 
 anecdote. When at Rugby the master of my form 
 asked a youth where potatoes came from, and who 
 introduced them ? The reply was that they were 
 imported from Ireland by Oliver Cromwell 1
 
 264 KECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 November 28. Our walls are placarded to-day with 
 an extract taken from an account of the occupation of 
 Paris by the Allies in 1815, informing us that when 
 Denon complained to Marshal Blucher that works of 
 art were being removed from the Louvre, that rough 
 veteran told him to "hold his jaw." Seeing the 
 fabulous number of works of art plundered by the 
 French armies in Italy, Spain, and other countries, and 
 how Napoleon when at Berlin seized on the sword of 
 Frederick the Great, one can excuse the bluntness of 
 the old Field-Marshal. Why, Napoleon took away even 
 the pastoral ring and the tiara from the Pope. 
 
 There was a performance at the Opera last night in 
 favour of the wounded. Why should it be necessary 
 to sing and fiddle money out of the pockets of patriots 
 at such a time as this ? By way of an epilogue extracts 
 from the Chdtiments of Victor Hugo were read 
 portions abusing Napoleon III., not those concerning 
 the flight from Waterloo. Finally, a collection was 
 made in Prussian helmets. One's faith in those 
 trophies of war has been very limited since the dis- 
 covery of a shop for their manufacture. The way in 
 which new helmets were made to look as if they had 
 seen service was rather amusing. The manufacturer 
 employed a number of citizens to walk about in them 
 for a certain number of hours in a room heated like an 
 oven. They were then battered about and exposed for 
 sale. This was like adulterating glory.
 
 BELLA, HOERIDA BELLA! 265 
 
 Towards evening strong bodies of troops were seen in 
 motion, and a cannonade was opened which lasted all 
 night long, and proved the beginning of strife. 
 
 November 29. A proclamation was issued by the 
 Government this morning, declaring that the supreme 
 hour has arrived, and citizens were early thronging to 
 the eastern gates for news, and thither I repaired. No 
 civilians were allowed to pass, and we had to content 
 ourselves with reports of the battle being waged in 
 sight of the fortifications. The rapid discharges of 
 artillery made all Paris tremble, and it may be readily 
 imagined how sickening suspense was as we stood hour 
 after hour shivering in the cold. For seven consecutive 
 hours two hundred rounds a minute had been directed 
 against the enemy's works, and when morning broke 
 General Ducrot, who had declared that he would return 
 to Paris dead or a conqueror, set his troops in motion 
 and began to pass the Marne. At the same time 
 General de Maud'huy attacked 1'Hay, while Admiral 
 Pothuan, with his naval brigade and war companies of 
 the National Guard, made a dash at the Gare aux 
 Bceufs. The French had very hard luck. The Marne 
 suddenly rose, swept away a number of General Ducrot's 
 pontoons, and prevented him from passing the river. 
 De Maud'huy was making a gallant fight of it at 1'Hay, 
 and the Admiral had captured Gare aux Bceufs, when 
 they learned the disaster to Ducrot's pontoons, and had 
 to fall back. The grand operation had to be postponed.
 
 266 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 On the 30th, before daylight, Paris was once more 
 aroused by incessant discharges of artillery, and another 
 anxious day had to be passed. By the way, the offices 
 of the Libertt were mobbed yesterday evening because 
 that paper gave a true account of the failure of Ducrot's 
 attempt to cross the Marne, and there was some talk 
 of lynching editor Vrignault and his staff. 
 
 To-day Ducrot got safely over the Marne at ten a.m., 
 without being molested, the heavy artillery fire having 
 cleared the ground in front of him. For a time he and 
 his lieutenants operating with him met little opposition, 
 and all went well until they neared some rising ground 
 to the rear of the town of Villiers, which the Prussians 
 had studded with redoubts. Here the French columns 
 encountered a terrific fire, which caused them to waver. 
 The officers at this juncture, and indeed throughout 
 the whole battle, exhibited the utmost gallantry. A 
 regular artillery duel ensued between the Prussian 
 redoubts and thirty French batteries, whose guns were 
 of course more exposed than those of the enemy. This 
 struggle was continued for over two hours. The fight 
 was carried on with great obstinacy on both sides, the 
 army of Paris never having shown to such advantage, 
 and it was not until the sun went down, after shining 
 brightly all day, that firing ceased. The Prussians 
 still held the redoubts beyond Villiers, while the French 
 encamped on the ground which they had gained in the 
 morning. The carnage was very great on both sides,
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 267 
 
 and the battle may be said to have ended in a draw. 
 With evening came the usual crop of fallacious reports 
 " Trochu, at the head of 80,000 men, had pierced the 
 Prussian lines, and was marching on Orleans to form 
 his junction with the army of the Loire. The invest- 
 ment was a thing of the past. The question now to 
 be^ settled was how to prevent King William and his 
 men from effecting their retreat across the Rhine." 
 The Libert^, which got into such a scrape yesterday 
 for telling unpleasant truths, apologizes this evening 
 in the most abject manner, editor and staff signing 
 a solemn declaration to the effect that yesterday was 
 a grand day for France, and to-day a still grander 
 one. 
 
 December 1. Many comments are made on yester- 
 day's operations, and although the troops as a rule 
 behaved well under trying circumstances, some of the 
 Moblots bolted, and a hundred are said to have been 
 cut down by the Gendarmerie. The Bretons, who had 
 helped to put down the insurrection when General 
 Trochu and his colleagues were made prisoners, declared 
 at the time that they were not going to fight for the 
 Parisians, and they seem to have kept their word. 
 This is not very astonishing, seeing the deep religious 
 feeling with which the Bretons are animated, and 
 with what an eye they regard the frivolous popula- 
 tion of the capital, in defence of which they have 
 been forced to leave their much-loved home. Be it
 
 268 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 mentioned that the Bretons retain their old customs, 
 costumes, their flowing hair, and manner of living with 
 greater tenacity than in any other part of France. If 
 Voltaire's Martin, who insisted that people do not 
 change, could see the Bretons of to-day, he would hardly 
 alter his opinion. What does one find in Candide ? " Do 
 you think," asked Candide, " that men always massacred 
 each other as they do to-day ? That they have always 
 been liars, rogues, perfidious, ungrateful, brigands, weak, 
 fickle, cowards, envious, gluttons, drunkards, avaricious, 
 ambitious, sanguinary calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, 
 hypocrites, and fools ? " 
 
 " Do you believe," replied Martin, " that the sparrow- 
 hawks have always eaten pigeons when they found 
 them ? " 
 
 " Yes, without doubt," answered Candide. 
 
 " Well ! " said Martin, " if the hawks have always 
 had the same nature, why do you suppose that men 
 have changed theirs ? " 
 
 December 2. To-day many a patriotic fist is shaken 
 in the direction of Wilhelrnshohe, where the " Man of 
 December" (coup d'ttat of '51), now "Man of Sedan," 
 lies captive. Most of his accomplices are dead and 
 gone : De Morny, St. Arnaud, Fould, Troplong, Billaut, 
 &c. On the morning of December 2, nineteen years 
 ago, five Generals were arrested in their beds and sent 
 to Mazas Cavaignac, Bedeau, Lamoriciere, Changarnier, 
 and Le Flo, also M. Thiers and other representatives
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 269 
 
 of the people. Changarnier was taken prisoner at 
 Metz ; Le Flo is our War Minister ; M. Thiers is doing 
 what he can for us in a diplomatic way. He never 
 forgave Napoleon III., not for having him arrested and 
 sent into exile, but for having him escorted to the 
 frontier by a couple of gendarmes instead of a strong 
 military escort. 
 
 However, while the Parisians were engaged in shaking 
 their fists to the east, the Prussians made a desperate 
 onslaught on the French position, hoping to tumble 
 Ducrot and his men into the Marne, and they very 
 nearly succeeded. The attack was so sudden that 
 several officers of the staff were wounded before they 
 could get into their saddles, and the main body was 
 driven back on Champigny, where it found shelter and 
 was able to check the advance of the enemy. At Brie, 
 on the left, there was very severe fighting, and the 
 French experienced heavy losses, which would have 
 been heavier still but for a redoubt thrown up by 
 General Favre, ex-aide-de-camp to the " Man of Sedan," 
 and the fort of Nogent, within range of whose guns 
 the Prussians had ventured. By nine a.m. the French 
 had lost all the positions so painfully won only three days 
 before ; but thanks to hard fighting and General Favre's 
 redoubt, which had escaped the vigilant eyes of the 
 enemy and saved Ducrot, they were recovered before 
 the end of the day, and the troops lustily cheered 
 General Troclm as he rode along their lines and
 
 270 EECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 complimented them on their valour. The losses are 
 very heavy on both sides. 
 
 December 3. It was like a bucket of cold water that 
 the following bulletin fell upon the Parisians this 
 morning " The army of General Ducrot will bivouac 
 to-night in the wood of Vincennes. It has repassed the 
 Marne, and been concentrated at this point with a view 
 to ulterior operations. About four hundred Prussian 
 prisoners, among which a group of officers, have been 
 brought into Paris to-day." Signed, GENERAL SCHMITZ, 
 P.O. 
 
 No wonder that Paris, whose hopes had been so high, 
 should feel amazed and discouraged. The only ad- 
 vantage they have reaped during four days' almost 
 incessant fighting is in possession of the plateau of 
 Avron. 
 
 Among the officers who fell on the French side 
 during these operations was General Regnault, Avho 
 was very highly thought of. I dined in his company 
 not long ago, and was much struck by his remarkable 
 resemblance to Napoleon I., or rather to the portraits 
 of Bonaparte when he was a lieutenant. There was a 
 great charm about his manner. 
 
 Franchetti, too, who commanded a corps of irregular 
 cavalry raised by himself, and who had distinguished 
 himself during several sorties, had his leg smashed by 
 a shell. A couple of days later I looked in at the 
 Grand Hotel, to see Henry Labouchere, the sole
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 271 
 
 occupant of that vast caravanserai, and he told me that 
 poor Franchetti was lying in the room next to his, and 
 had just had his leg amputated. He did not survive 
 the operation many days. 
 
 As for Labouchere, who amused us all immensely 
 with his quaint observations and inimitable stories, 
 he thought it prudent shortly afterwards to shift his 
 quarters. The fact is that some of his letters addressed 
 to London appear to have given great offence here, and 
 there has been some talk of lynching their author. I 
 recommended him to a nice, quiet, out-of-the-way hotel, 
 where he would find himself extremely comfortable, 
 and thither he repaired and remained in security. 
 
 In the evening I found the Boulevards in a great 
 state of excitement, and newspapers being eagerly 
 snatched up. It turned out that a report had got 
 abroad of Bourbaki having captured Versailles. Also 
 we learned that Vernon, which lies on the line between 
 Paris and Rouen, has offered a most heroic resistance 
 to the Prussians. Vernon has seen many changes of 
 fortune. It appears to have been taken by Henry 
 I., who built a castle there, one tower of which still 
 remains. In 1154 it was recaptured by Louis VII., 
 but shortly afterwards fell once more into our hands. 
 Philip Augustus took it and lost it twice, first in 1190, 
 and then in 1195. Vernon was then twice burned, 
 first by Edward III. in 1346, and then ten years later 
 by the Duke of Lancaster. Retaken by the Normans,
 
 272 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 it once more fell into the hands of the English in 1419, 
 and remained in our possession for thirty years. Then 
 it was carried by assault by the celebrated Dunois, and 
 annexed to France. 
 
 December 4. Ducrot's retreat has been very well 
 borne, and seems to have enhanced his military reputa- 
 tion. His retrograde movement was effected during a 
 fog, and he has explained in the most satisfactory manner 
 why he made it. There has been some fun poked at 
 him for declaring that he would return to Paris dead 
 or a conqueror. On inquiry it appears that General 
 Ducrot, who is a most gallant officer, never uttered this 
 bit of bombast, which was put into his mouth by Jules 
 Favre, an adept in clap-trap. 
 
 General Ducrot, be it noticed, has just been white- 
 washed by Field-Marshal von Moltke. The General, 
 who was taken prisoner at Sedan, had been accused of 
 having violated his parole. This he denied, and for- 
 warded an explanation of his escape to the Field- 
 Marshal, who considers it satisfactory. Unfortunately 
 a good many French officers have been guilty of the 
 crime wrongfully imputed to General Ducrot. Their 
 excuse seems to be that they were not bound to keep 
 faith with the Prussians, who had not kept faith with 
 them, and were carrying on a war against France which 
 they had declared to have been waged against the 
 Empire. One French officer who violated his parole 
 was General Thibaudin, who rejoined the army and
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 273 
 
 fought under an assumed name. This led to some 
 unpleasantness when some years later the said General 
 became War Minister. It was thought at the time 
 that objections would have been raised at Berlin to 
 this appointment. But Berlin merely shrugged its 
 shoulders. 
 
 In my diary I find that Henry Labouchere, Frank 
 Lawley, Lewis Wingfield, and Quested Lynch dined 
 with me, and that we partook of moufflon, a kind of 
 wild sheep which inhabits Corsica. 
 
 December 5. The Members of the Provisional Govern- 
 ment publish the following astounding letter, addressed 
 to General Trochu at Vincennes ! 
 
 "GENERAL, AND DEARLY BELOVED PRESIDENT, 
 
 " For the last three days we have been with you 
 in spirit upon that glorious field of battle where the 
 destinies of the country are being decided. We should 
 like to share your danger, leaving you all that glory 
 which you have so well prepared, thus assuring by your 
 noble devotion the success of our gallant army. No 
 one can have a better right to be proud of it than you ; 
 no one can more worthily speak its praises ; you forget 
 yourself only, but you cannot hide yourself from the 
 acclamations of your companions in arms [not even 
 when riding along in front of their lines], electrified by 
 your example. It would have pleased us to have joined 
 our voices to theirs ; permit us nevertheless to express 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 all the gratitude and affection which we feel for you 
 in our hearts. Tell the brave General Ducrot, your 
 devoted officers, and your valiant soldiers how we 
 admire them. Republican France recognizes in them 
 that pure and noble heroism which has already saved 
 her. She knows that she can place her hope of sal- 
 vation in you and in them. We, your colleagues, 
 acquainted with your thoughts, hail with joy these 
 great and glorious days during which you entirely 
 revealed yourself, and which, we are profoundly con- 
 vinced, are the commencement of our deliverance. 
 
 " Accept, &c., &c., 
 " JULES FAVRE. GARNIER PAGES. 
 
 JULES SIMON. E. PELLETAN. 
 
 E. ARAGO. JULES FERRY. 
 
 ERNEST PICARD." 
 
 It would be difficult to find anything more burlesque 
 than the above twaddle, published when the " General, 
 and dearly beloved President " had again sought refuge 
 within the walls. It ought properly to have been 
 addressed to General Bourn of Gerolstein. 
 
 We heard a great deal at this time of General 
 Trochu's plan a plan which for some inscrutable 
 reason he has deposited with his notary, who keeps it 
 under lock and key. As time went on, the General 
 began to be chaffed about his plan. 
 
 The Journal Officiel complains of the Prussians
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 275 
 
 shooting armed peasants, and reminds them of what 
 Prussian peasants did when their country was invaded 
 by the French during the First Empire. The Journal 
 Officiel omits to say that the trees on the other side of 
 the Rhine in those days were black with the bodies of 
 peasants strung up by the French. 
 
 Of course the summary executions complained of are 
 very hard in the case of peasants whose villages are 
 suddenly attacked, and who merely defend their homes. 
 But it is another thing when a village has been spared 
 the horrors of war, and the inhabitants, when they 
 think that they may do so with impunity, take up arms 
 and use them. Such was the case at Chatou, which 
 lies half-way between Paris and St. Germain ; the in- 
 habitants, who had not been molested by the enemy, 
 during a sortie, and when they thought that it was 
 succeeding, joined in the fray, and I fear had to pay 
 the consequences. 
 
 There is no probability of any further attack being 
 made on the positions of the enemy for some time, as 
 several divisions have been so severely handled that 
 they will require a thorough re-organization. Then 
 dissension is said to reign among the chiefs. The 
 Government, which appears to be in want of funds, has 
 laid hands on a portion of the funds recently voted for 
 carrying on the works commenced by our dismissed 
 Prefect Haussmann. Be it observed that the poor are 
 better off now than in ordinary times, for they draw
 
 276 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 rations like other folk, and large numbers are clothed 
 and paid as National Guards. 
 
 December 6. Another misfortune seems to have 
 fallen on the French arms. This morning General 
 Trochu received a polite note from Field-Marshal von 
 Moltke, informing him that the army of the Loire had 
 been defeated, and Orleans recaptured. If General 
 Trochu doubted this, he might send a couple of officers 
 to verify the fact. General Trochu has refused, we are 
 told, in simple and dignified terms, and according to 
 the Temps his reply "meets with general approbation, 
 and excites an amount of enthusiasm which deadens 
 the impression caused by the check of our army at 
 Orleans. Our resolution to defend ourselves remains 
 unanimous." What a pity that General Trochu cannot 
 handle his sword as well as he does his pen ! 
 
 Then adds the writer, a naval officer "sign of the 
 times" " General Noel (in command of Mont Valerien), 
 seeing the scandalous disorders committed by the 
 Mobiles, has established a court-martial, of which 
 measure General Trochu must approve." And a woe- 
 ful picture is drawn of the indiscipline which prevails, 
 the complaints of subalterns, nine times out of ten, 
 being unheeded, as the Generals, not feeling themselves 
 supported, are afraid to punish the culprits. "There 
 is little or no drill, and it will hardly be believed that 
 after three months of siege there are Mobiles who have 
 not fired a shot even at a target. This is the case with
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 277 
 
 two battalions encamped in front of us. - The soldiers 
 spend their leisure in ransacking the houses, and 
 getting drunk with the wine they find in the cellars, 
 and in destroying for the sole pleasure of destroying. 
 The cleverest sell what they find, often under the eyes 
 of their officers, who, when they are not their accom- 
 plices, connive." . . . And December 7. The 
 officer who commands at Creteil has demanded the 
 recall of the Belleville tirailleurs to Paris, in the midst 
 of which corps Flourens (long ago dismissed) has re- 
 appeared. These heroes of October 31 (insiirrection) 
 have deserted their posts in the trenches, pretending 
 that they are betrayed, and refuse to return. Their 
 cowardice is only equalled by their insubordination 
 and debauchery. 
 
 December 7. We heard to-day of the fall of Thion- 
 ville. In the days of the first Republic that town 
 gallantly resisted the Prussians, displaying a wooden 
 horse on the ramparts with a bag of hay slung round 
 its neck, and the garrison swore that until the horse 
 ate the hay the place would not surrender. Poor 
 Thionville ! 
 
 December 8. Citizen Sans has been abusing the 
 noble Faubourg St. Germain of many crimes, and pro- 
 posing, in the clubs, a visit to that aristocratic quarter 
 and its abandoned residences. Now many of these, 
 like the Hotels de Luynes, de Galliera, and Duchatel, 
 have been turned into ambulances; that of la Roche-
 
 278 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 foucauld is a canteen. Several noble ladies are actincr 
 
 O 
 
 as nurses. Several nobles who have passed the age 
 limit have taken active service. The other day, at 
 Champigny, the Marquis de Podenas and the Barons 
 de Grancy and de Dampierre fell on the field of battle. 
 It is told how de Grancy, who was a great sportsman, 
 finding his preserves poached in spite of his keepers, 
 went out himself, and after watching for several nights 
 at last collared a man and took him to his chateau. 
 His guilt was palpable, for his pockets were stuffed 
 with pheasants. What was the Baron's surprise to 
 find when the culprit had unmuffled himself that the 
 poacher was de Dampierre " A nice joke to kill my 
 game," he said ; " but you shall pay a fine of 500 fr. and 
 remain here a month as my prisoner." The Duke 
 de Broglie has one son who is in the hands of the 
 Prussians ; another in the army ; and a third, who after 
 serving in the navy took holy orders, is doing duty as 
 military chaplain, and lectures at Creteil to the soldiers. 
 A certain centurion who went to hear him the other 
 evening told me that he was much amused at the way 
 in which the abltf opened his meeting. He called for 
 two volunteers to sing Halleluiah. 
 
 It appears that Victor Hugo was anxious to go out 
 and fight during the recent engagements, but was 
 prevented by the men of his battalion, who have no 
 idea of the poet risking his life like an ordinary mortal. 
 But have not many poets and men of letters seen
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 279 
 
 service between the days when Horace took to flight 
 at Philippi and Byron drew his sword for Greece ? 
 
 That firebrand Flourens has been arrested and 
 ought to be sent to Charenton, where there are cells 
 and strait-waistcoats, and to spare. How very severe 
 the remark of Montesquieu, that his compatriots built 
 lunatic asylums to induce the guileless foreigner to 
 believe that all Frenchmen who were at large were in 
 their right minds. The number of madmen at present 
 perorating at the clubs and elsewhere in this be- 
 leaguered city would certainly destroy that belief now 
 if it ever existed. 
 
 One French patriot declares to-day that the odour 
 of Prussian uniforms is more obnoxious than that of 
 French corpses. The smell of an enemy's corpse we 
 know was accounted sweet by Vitellius, but this 
 evidently does not include his tunic and overalls. 
 Another patriot informs his readers that if the 
 Spaniards were beaten in the pitched battles of 
 Sommo-Sierra and Ocana, they took their revenge at 
 Vittoria, when they indulged in a national war. And 
 to think that our military historians have represented 
 Vittoria, a battle in which the fate of the Peninsula 
 was decided, as an English victory ; the force under 
 Wellington, 80,000 strong, utterly routing King Joseph 
 and his army, hampered with the accumulated plunder 
 of five years, capturing his Majesty's carriage, Marshal 
 Jourdan's Idton, and a prodigious amount of dollars, and
 
 280 BECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 all the enemy's artillery. Of Spaniards only 18,000 
 men were engaged. And for this Wellington received 
 from Spain the title of Duke of Vittoria. This hardly 
 resembled Mina and partisan warfare. 
 
 December 9. My faithful cook, after an absence of 
 a couple of hours, has just returned with rations for 
 three days, which consist of one herring apiece. She 
 does wonders, though not quite equal to the cook thus 
 spoken of by Sir Walter Scott in The Fortunes of Nigel. 
 And one hears that the soldiers are complaining, and yet 
 they receive six ounces of meat besides bacon and biscuit. 
 
 " During the long and severe blockade of Le petit Leyth 
 the Maitre de Cuisine to the Marshal Strozzi maintained 
 his master's table with twelve covers every day, although 
 he had nothing better to place on it than the quarter of 
 a carrion horse now and then, and the grass and weeds 
 that grew on the ramparts. Des par dieux cetait un 
 homme superbe ! With one thistlehead and a nettle or 
 two he could make a roti des plus exeellents ; but his 
 coup de maitre was when the surrender took place ; and 
 then, dieu me damme, he made out of the hind-quarters 
 of one salted horse, forty-five covers ; that the English 
 and Scottish officers and nobility, who had the honour 
 to dine with Monseigneur, could not tell what the devil 
 any one of them were made upon at all." 
 
 Four Prussian officers, prisoners on parole, were in- 
 sulted to-day on the Boulevards. Fortunately they 
 suffered no bodily harm.
 
 BELLA, HOREIDA BELLA ! 281 
 
 Large numbers of mitrailleuses are being turned out, 
 and we are informed that these weapons date back 
 from Henri III. At least in the year 1587, a man 
 named Chantepie was broken on the wheel for having 
 sent to the Seigneur d'Allegre a box in which thirty- 
 six pistol-barrels were arranged in such a way that on 
 removing the lid a general discharge ensued. The 
 servant who opened the box was killed, but his master 
 was only slightly wounded. Chantepie underwent his 
 punishment in the Rue de 1'Arbre Sec, which still 
 exists. 
 
 There has been no military report for nine days from 
 P. O. Schmitz, who is supposed to have gone to sleep. 
 
 December 10. To-day General Trochn, in a letter 
 to P. O. S., expresses his sorrow that the four Prussian 
 officers whom he sent to Paris should have been made 
 the object of a hostile demonstration, as they were 
 under the protection of the national honour. He says 
 that he will at once arrange for the exchange of the 
 officers, who " will be able to convey to the Prussian 
 army but one impression, which is, that the moral 
 condition of Paris, sustained by a spirit of devotion and 
 self-sacrifice, was never more solid, and that we are all 
 preparing for the combat." 
 
 This letter was countersigned by M. Jules Favre. 
 
 The celebrated Sergeant Hoff has disappeared. He 
 is supposed to have fallen on December 2, after having 
 slain about one hundred Prussians.
 
 282 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 In the bill of fare of a dinner given on this the 80th 
 day of the siege, were among others the following 
 dishes 
 
 Potage Parmentier (potato soup). 
 Hors d'ceuvres : saucisson de cheval. 
 Anguilles de Seine en matelote. 
 Dos d'anon en releve, sauce chasseur. 
 Croquettes de rats k la Duchesse. 
 
 And after the above, rabbit, hashed beef, salade, cheese, dessert. 
 
 December 11. The violent ultramontane editor of 
 the Univers, who delights in calling the King of Prussia 
 Sennacherib, cannot comprehend how the Government 
 does not order public prayers in these evil days, and a 
 pilgrimage to the shrine of Ste. Genevieve, the patron 
 saint of the city. He is highly indignant with General 
 Trochu for not having delivered battle against the 
 heretics on the 8th, which was the feast day of the 
 Immaculate Conception, when the Lord would certainly 
 have been on their side. I cannot find any great 
 French victory recorded on that date. Does M. Louis 
 Veuillot attribute the triumph of Austerlitz to St. 
 Francis Xavier, on whose fete day that battle was 
 fought ? Must Napoleon share the credit of Jena with 
 St. Eusebius, and that of Marengo with Bonaventura ? 
 A great many devout people do flock to tiie Pantheon, 
 or church of St. Genevieve, to pray before the tomb of 
 the saint; but it appears that the tomb is empty 
 only a cenotaph, the bones of the holy woman being
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 283 
 
 preserved in a golden case, and exhibited only now and 
 then to the faithful. 
 
 Great excitement to-day in consequence of a number 
 of bakers' shops remaining closed. Belleville thinks 
 that it is to be starved. On inquiry it seems that 
 there was no flour, but steam-mills have been set to 
 work to repair the evil with all the speed possible. 
 
 December 12. The papers relate how "La mere 
 Crimee," the oldest cantini&re in the service, and who 
 is decorated with the military medal for service rendered 
 in the campaigns of Africa, Italy, and the Crimea, has 
 just distinguished herself. She went out with a bat- 
 talion on Wednesday, which came to a halt one hundred 
 yards from the Prussian sentries, and was distributing 
 petits verres all round, when one of the enemy peered 
 out of a hole and was about to take a shot at her. 
 " Wait a bit, Bismarck ! " she cried, and snatching a 
 musket from a corporal, fired and brought down her 
 man. " Braw la mdre ! " shouted the whole company 
 and the old lady was borne off in triumph. And it is 
 with stories like this that Paris consoles itself. 
 
 What is more serious, is the fact that the Government 
 has now laid hands on all the wood, coal, and coke 
 which remains, and that no more fancy bread is to be 
 made. 
 
 December 14. Paris cannot understand why no 
 foreign Powers come to its aid, but did not Voltaire 
 once say " Little Frenchmen, love one another, for if
 
 284 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 you don't, who the devil will ? " " It is disgraceful," 
 writes one editor, " seeing how we have aided every 
 one aided America against England, Greece against 
 Turkey, Turkey against Russia, Italy against Austria, 
 Rome against Italy ; aided the Pole and the Fenian ! " 
 
 And only to think of England, Austria, Russia, Italy, 
 and Turkey now standing aloof ! The other day a syndic, 
 who had been intimate with Cobden, asked me if the 
 French had not rescued the English army at Inkermann 
 when they had such a fine opportunity of revenging 
 Waterloo ! " France," he added, " could forgive any- 
 thing but injustice," and as an example he singled out 
 the case of Pelissier, who " had never been pardoned 
 for the gross outrage he committed in Algeria." I 
 ventured to observe that if Pelissier did smoke some 
 natives out of a cave, he afterwards was raised to the 
 dignities of Marshal, Grand Cross of the Legion of 
 Honour, Senator, Duke, Commander-in-Chief of the 
 French army in the field, sent to London as am- 
 bassador, and that he finally died Governor-General 
 of the very colony in which he had so gravely outraged 
 public opinion. " Ah, yes," replied the syndic, " but that 
 waS',under the Empire ! " 
 
 December 15. Went to dine at Voisin's, and met 
 an Englishman who had long served in the French 
 army as surgeon. He had seen a good deal of fighting 
 in Algeria under Pere Bugeaud. He told me that he 
 had in his possession a letter from General Trochu,
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 285 
 
 written some years before, in which he foretold the 
 defeat of the French army, and the siege of Paris. I 
 regret that I did not see the letter, and can only say 
 that Dr. Shrimpton was not given to romancing. 
 
 We have had no pigeons for some time, but this is 
 explained by the fact that in winter those birds naturally 
 go south, and that the pigeon released at Tours has to 
 fight against his instinct in making his way to Paris. 
 
 There are many rumours current respecting the 
 armies in the provinces. The Figaro opines that if 
 the results are not satisfactory, the details are. If the 
 army of the Loire has been cut in two, France has 
 one army the more ! 
 
 Baron Gaillard, who died the day before yesterday 
 from a wound received during an attack on Epinay, 
 was buried to-day, several members of the Government, 
 though he had long served the Empire, attending his 
 funeral. He had been nominated to the Legion of 
 Honour, but the decoration arrived only in time to be 
 placed on his coffin. 
 
 December 16. General Clement Thomas reprimands 
 the 214th battalion of the National Guard to-day, for 
 having fled in a panic from Creteil, where it was on 
 outpost duty. Another order of the day disbands the 
 147th Volunteers, which objected to going to Rosny, 
 because the wives of the married men had not been 
 paid their seventy-five centimes. 
 
 December 17. Two pigeons, in spite of their natural
 
 286 EECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 instinct to fly south, arrived from Tours to-day with 
 despatches from Gambetta, which are not very re- 
 assuring. Every retreat is represented as a splendid 
 retrograde movement, and the Ddbats happily accuses 
 Gambetta of having invented la fuite en avant. But 
 was not this invented by Shakespeare ? Cloten, the 
 son of Cymbeline, fights and complains 
 
 " The villain would not stand me. 
 
 2 Lord. No ; but he fled forward still, toward your face." 
 
 Cymbeline, Act I. Scene iii. 
 
 December 18. To-day General Clement Thomas 
 demands the dismissal of Commandant Leblois of the 
 200th National Guards, that officer and half of his 
 battalion having reached the outposts in a state of 
 intoxication. 
 
 It is feared that Paris will be bombarded, and 
 patriotic editors are protesting against such an iniquity, 
 reminding us of the obloquy under which England has 
 laboured ever since Copenhagen was bombarded in 
 1808, and Washington in 1814, also of " the odious 
 pillage of the Summer Palace at Pekin." The French, 
 we are told, always behaved with generosity and 
 humanity. But did not Napoleon I. bombard Vienna 
 when the Princess he afterwards married was lying ill 
 in her palace ? Washington was not a capital when 
 a few shells were fired into it after Bladensburg, and 
 as for the Summer Palace, surely the French looted 
 that before the English arrived ? Did not General
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA ! 287 
 
 Montauban pick up a splendid necklace there, which he 
 presented to the Empress, who refused it ? 
 
 December 19. The rations are miserable, and prices 
 are decidedly high. Cheese is quoted at 18 francs per 
 pound. An egg, 1| francs ; a box of sardines, 10 francs ; 
 a rabbit, 30 francs ; a chicken, 25 francs ; a goose, 70 
 francs ; a peacock, 110 francs. One can still dine 
 moderately at a good restaurant for a louis. 
 
 An officer tells me that the Prussians pick up all the 
 stray dogs they can find, feed them well, and train them 
 to do duty as sentinels. 
 
 Another despatch from Gambetta this afternoon. He 
 speaks in the highest terms of the military talent dis- 
 played by General Chanzy. The optimists are delighted 
 to learn that Manteuffel and his men could get no 
 further than Honfleur. Probably they had no wish to 
 perish like Pharaoh and his host. 
 
 The mortality is increasing at an alarming rate ; it 
 rose from 2455 deaths the week before the last to 
 2728 last week. 
 
 December 20. Orders have again been given for 
 closing the gates, public opinion being strongly in 
 favour of another sortie in force. The idea of Paris, 
 which contains 600,000 fighting men, being invested by 
 150,000 Prussians, is repugnant to the feelings of 
 patriots. To-day the Prussians fired their first shell 
 into the city ; it passed over the detached forts, and fell 
 into Montrouge on the south-west side of Paris. We
 
 288 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 are assured that the battery which committed the 
 daring sacrilege was immediately silenced. 
 
 General Clement Thomas now complains of the men 
 of the 201st battalion, who reached the outposts at Issy 
 in a state of intoxication ; broke into the church, pro- 
 faned the altar and the sacred vessels, clothed them- 
 selves in the sacerdotal robes, and parodied the religious 
 ceremonies. The consecrated bread and wine were 
 handed round with revolting jokes, reminding one of 
 the Fete, de Vane and other fetes which used to be per- 
 formed here in the Middle Ages in the churches, and 
 with the sanction of the Church. 
 
 The clubs continue to rant. General Trochu was 
 accused last night of having received 30,000,000 francs 
 for betraying Paris, which proves that this city is worth 
 more than a mass the price at which Henri IV. 
 purchased it. The other members of the Provisional 
 Government are represented as " drawing immense 
 salaries, being, as an orator at Belleville cried, very 
 uulike the honest men of '93. who deposited their 
 savings on the altars of the country, wrapped up in the 
 corner of their pocket-handkerchiefs." 
 
 At Durand's a young gentleman who complained 
 that his bif-tcck de clieval was very dark, was blandly 
 informed by the waiter that this arose from the animal 
 from which it was cut having been purchased from an 
 undertaker. 
 
 December 21. There was some very heavy fighting
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 289 
 
 at that old bone of contention, le Bourget, this morning, 
 with a prelude by the neighbouring forts and some gun- 
 boats which had crept down the Seine to join in the 
 fray. At two p.m. placards signed by P. O. Scbmitz were 
 posted up all over Paris, saying that the fight was going 
 on with every chance of success, and that 100 prisoners 
 had been made. " The Governor is at the head of the 
 troops." For a time the French carried all before them, 
 and the men of the Naval Brigade fighting with their 
 hatchets greatly distinguished themselves, but in the 
 end were repulsed, losing 279 men out of 600 who 
 went into action. It was found necessary to evacuate 
 le Bourget. An attack to the right made by General 
 Vinoy met with more success, and resulted in the 
 capture of an important position. 
 
 Paris is in despair over the death of so many sailors, 
 and Paris does well to bewail their loss, for the Naval 
 Brigade is a splendid body of men, whose appearance, 
 good conduct, and discipline deserve the highest eulogy. 
 Several of the detached forts are manned entirely by 
 blue-jackets, who regard .their fort as their ship, and 
 I believe that not a man has been punished since 
 the siege commenced, which is saying a great deal, 
 as Jack often obtains leave to take a cruise into 
 Paris. 
 
 The French must be always gay. Last night there 
 was a jovial party at Vachette's. This was the bill of 
 fare 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 Consomme de chien Bismarck. 
 Saucisson de 1'ane k 1'Allemande Queues de rats a- la Guillaume, 
 
 avec cornichons Bavarois. 
 Langue de chien a la sauce de Moltke Oreilles d'ane avec bou- 
 
 lettes k la Saxonne. 
 
 Gigot de chien k la Prussienne Cotelettes d'ane panees k la faon 
 de notre Fritz 
 
 the dinner winding up with croutcs Impdriaks, or 
 Imperial blunders. 
 
 December 22. On the body of a Bavarian recently 
 slain a curious love-letter signed " Mary" is said to have 
 been found, forwarding two dollars subscribed by the 
 mayor and municipal authorities of her village, to 
 encourage her intended to smite hard on the " red- 
 breeches." 
 
 December 23. The men of the 23rd battalion who 
 behaved deplorably the other day on the Marne have 
 been so badly received by the women of Paris that they 
 have asked to be allowed an opportunity for retrieving 
 their character. The Colonel has been placed under 
 arrest, but the officers and men have been sent on out- 
 post duty, which is no joke just now with the glass 
 many degrees below freezing-point. 
 
 A large supply of codfish is reported to have been 
 discovered quite accidentally by a sailor. It appears 
 that when M. Thiers had the forts round Paris con- 
 structed, he ordered them to be provisioned with 
 50,000 barrels of salt fish, which were quite forgotten. 
 It was thought that these barrels contained cement,
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 291 
 
 until a man belonging to the Naval Brigade broke one 
 open the other day. As they have been there ever 
 since 1840, the fish will no doubt be rather dry eating. 
 
 Christmas Day. No church-going to-day, for want 
 of pastors; no roast beef; no turkey; no plum-pudding. 
 Would not Voltaire, who makes Madame de Kerkabon 
 in L'Ingtnu say, " Those cursed English, they think 
 more of one of Shakespeare's plays, a plum-pudding, or 
 a bottle of rum than of the Pentateuch," pity us? 
 Labouchere and Lynch dined with me, and I managed 
 to procure a chicken and a ham for the repast. The 
 chicken I purchased, and the ham I found in the apart- 
 ment of a friend, which I forced open. 
 
 My butcher, who displays the arms of England over 
 his door, and goes by the name of the English butcher, 
 has purchased a number of animals from the Jardin 
 d'Acclimatation, and offered, among other luxuries, Polar 
 bear and dromedary for sale. Also plum-puddings, 
 which were mistaken by the Parisians for Prussian 
 cannon-balls, and certainly they looked quite as deadly. 
 
 There is much ranting in the papers over Christmas, 
 and several incoherent individuals have been let loose 
 on the Press. " Nations like men," writes one of these, 
 " have been nailed to the cross. Has not Poland been 
 called ' the Christ nation ' ? To-day it is France, that is 
 to say the expansion of liberty and progress, whose long 
 agony astonishes the world, which looks on without 
 moving, for she has gone through the defeats and hurnili-
 
 292 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 ation of Pilate, who is England, and Caiaphas, who is 
 Russia. Judas is at Wilhelmshoe." Then the King of 
 Prussia is compared to Attila, who drags a horde of 
 barbarians in his train. " But the resurrection of 
 Republican France is at hand, and God will put the 
 victory into her sabots the glorious wooden shoes 
 of '93." l 
 
 December 26. The cold is intense, and many people 
 prefer remaining in bed to facing the weather outside, 
 or sitting up in a fireless room. The suffering in the 
 trenches is very great, and I hear of ore unfortunate 
 soldier being found frozen to death with his gun up to 
 his shoulder. We have a report of the trial of Lieu- 
 tenant Muriel this morning, on the charge of breaking 
 into a house and killing the proprietor a charge fully 
 proved. It came out at the court-martial that this 
 officer had been sentenced to six months' imprison- 
 ment for theft ; on another occasion to two years, 
 and on a third to three years ; and when he was 
 elected a lieutenant he was an escaped convict. Lieu- 
 tenant Muriel has been let off with five years' hard 
 labour. 
 
 There was some sharp fighting at Villa Evrard to- 
 day, when the French were surprised, and many officers 
 
 1 It is the custom of French children to put their shoes on the 
 hearth on Christmas eve to see what the infant Jesus will give 
 them, and they naturally find all sorts of presents in them the 
 next morning.
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 293 
 
 and men fled, spreading alarm up to the walls of Paris. 
 These fugitives are to be tried. 
 
 All Belleville, 60,000 strong, threatens to descend on 
 the Hotel de Ville to demand the release of Flourens, 
 that Blanqui and Felix Pyat be allowed to show them- 
 selves, and that Garibaldi be proclaimed chief of the 
 New Universal Republic. 
 
 With the Seine frozen over, one is not astonished at 
 hoardings being broken down, and scaffoldings, palings, 
 and even trucks and carts being seized upon for fuel. 
 Wine, too, is running short. Last night at Blanqui's 
 club a citizen denounced his landlord, who had prose- 
 cuted him for burning the door of his apartment. A 
 citoyenne declared that orders had been issued to pick up 
 none but wounded officers on the battlefield, there being 
 too many privates in hospital. She also stated that in 
 her quarter the Sisters of Charity were in the habit of 
 carrying the men who were dangerously wounded out 
 into the night air so that they might die of cold (ex- 
 plosion of indignation). She had been seized, she said, 
 by eighty Breton Mobiles and almost strangled, and in 
 passing before an ambulance a pistol-shot had been 
 fired at her (expressions of horror). And this is the 
 kind of raving that goes on. 
 
 A curious old man died here yesterday, ninety-seven 
 years of age, of the name of Lambert. He had acted 
 as tipstaff during the Reign of Terror to Fouquier 
 Tinville, whose very name sends a shudder through
 
 294 HECOLLECTIOXS OF PARIS 
 
 one's veins. When the reaction came, Lambert fled to 
 England, where he obtained a place in a brewery. In 
 1815 he returned to Paris with the Bourbons, and was 
 allowed to live here in peace. His chief pleasure was 
 the cultivation of flowers. The atrocities he witnessed 
 in '93 continually troubled him, and he could seldom 
 be induced to speak of them. We are told that his 
 last words were " Que Dieu sauve la France ! " Only 
 three persons followed his remains to the grave. 
 
 December 29. Alas ! P. O. Schmitz is obliged to 
 announce another disaster this morning. The plateau 
 of Avron, won a month ago and fortified with heavy 
 naval guns, has been swept clear by the Krupp 
 cannons. The French suffered severely before and 
 during the retreat, and lost several guns. This retro- 
 grade movement conducted by General Trochu is highly 
 commended by P. O. Schmitz. The Governor, he says, 
 withdrew his seventy-four guns almost intact. 
 
 Some of the detached forts are being bombarded in 
 a way which will put their powers of resistance to a 
 severe test. 
 
 In ordinary times Paris gives relief to 105,000 poor 
 people; that number has now increased to 471,000, 
 and it was only the other day that the Municipality 
 voted 20,000 for the establishment of extra national 
 cantines, or cheap kitchens, which the Government, 
 which has bought up large stores of food and fuel, 
 keeps going. Paris, in addition to its own poor, has to
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 295 
 
 support a large number of families driven in from the 
 surrounding villages occupied by the invaders, which 
 families are lodged in sumptuous palaces which they 
 treat like pigsties. About 500,000 Ibs. of bread, 800 
 in money, and 80 worth of wood are distributed daily. 
 In addition to this, ther3 is a great deal of private 
 charity. Sir Richard Wallace, for example, relieves 
 not only English but French misery in the most muni- 
 ficent manner, devoting much time to his good works. 
 The National Guards each draw 30 sous a day, and 
 their wives 75 centimes, which is handsome pay, con- 
 sidering that a good dinner can be procured at the 
 cantines on the ramparts for 4td. 
 
 M. Jules Favre states, not very positively, that both 
 Prince Frederick Charles and General van der Tann 
 have suffered defeat, and that the armies of the Loire 
 are within twelve leagues of Paris. I don't think that 
 this statement meets with general credence, to judge 
 by the prevailing gloom which hangs over the city. 
 
 January 1. We were promised a good ration of beef 
 for to-day, but instead of that we have received only a 
 poor one of horseflesh. It is not always more blessed 
 to give than to receive ; I had my Ravenez friends to 
 dine, and we regaled ourselves on elephant. I must 
 say that I found it oily, and did not like it. Our 
 butcher, Dubooz, bought Castor and Pollux, the two 
 el(3phants upon whose backs I have seen so many 
 laughing children ride in the Jardin d'Acclimatation.
 
 296 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 He calculated that they would give 3000 Ibs. of flesh 
 apiece, but they yielded only 2000. However, he must 
 have made money by his bargain, as he charges 20 fr. a 
 pound. 
 
 The Prussian fire is very heavy, but Paris consoles 
 itself with the rumour that Chanzy, Bourbaki, and 
 Faidherbe are close at hand, and that the enemy is 
 bombarding to prevent us from hearing the sound of 
 their guns, and marching out to form a junction with 
 their advancing columns. According to P. 0. Schmitz, 
 the detached forts, which are being very roughly 
 handled, have suffered little or nothing from the 
 Prussian batteries. 
 
 The Parisians who have remained here when they 
 might have fled into the provinces are so proud of 
 themselves that they propose striking a medal in their 
 honour, representing Paris repulsing the foreigner. 
 
 A Breton soldier died a couple of days ago in a god- 
 less ambulance, and his fellow Bretons wished to give 
 
 * O 
 
 him Christian burial, but to this the ambulance men 
 objected, and so they hurried the corpse away and 
 buried it without any religious ceremony. How 
 deplorable ! 
 
 Edgar Quinet informs us that forty years ago the 
 illustrious Creutzer told him that he could only under- 
 stand German philosophy when explained to him by 
 a Frenchman, upon which Edgar politely replied 
 " That does not astonish me. You require a lantern
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 297 
 
 when you go down into the cellar." He adds that the 
 Prussians wish to extinguish France because she is the 
 light of the world. 
 
 January 2. Just a year to-day since poor Emile 
 Olivier took office, promising France the blessings of 
 peace, a stable government, and liberal measures. And 
 to think that the Emperor would have nominated the 
 Ministry on the first, but objected to sign the decrees 
 on a Friday for fear of ill luck ! 
 
 During the last week of the old year the deaths 
 among the civil population amounted to 3280. 
 
 January 3. The firing has been very heavy, although 
 the papers assure us that no sooner is a Prussian 
 battery unmasked than it is silenced. How such lies 
 can be written and swallowed passes all understanding. 
 
 P. O. Schmitz tells us to-day that a man caught in 
 the act of deserting has been tried and shot. This is 
 the first soldier executed under the third Republic. It 
 is rather late in the day to begin making examples. 
 
 An officer having asked for leave to visit his dying 
 mother, the General granted it, slyly remarking when 
 he had retired "Thou shalt honour thy father and 
 thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land." 
 It is said that Judge Bushe, the well-known Irish wit, 
 being informed one day while on the bench that two 
 lawyers had refused to "go out," one on the ground 
 that his wife, the other because his daughter, was sick, 
 wrote on a slip of paper
 
 298 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 " Two heroes of Erin, abhorrent of slaughter, 
 
 Improved the old Jewish command ; 
 One honoured his wife, the other his daughter, 
 That their days might be long in the land." 
 
 This was quite half a century ago. 
 
 January 4. Great hopes are entertained that Chanzy 
 is about to deliver us. We are told that he has fought 
 nineteen battles, won six, and drawn six. 
 
 The sum of 3200 is asked for the hippopotamus, 
 but no purchaser has been found. 
 
 P. O. Schmitz tells us to-day that "the fort of 
 Nogent received 1200 shells, which have not produced 
 any more effect than those of the preceding days." 
 
 January 5. The dies irce has come. A violent fire 
 was opened this morning on the forts of Montrouge, 
 Vanves, and Issy, and later in the day a number of 
 shells were thrown into the south side of Paris, creating 
 great consternation. 
 
 The Government calls on the people to show them- 
 selves "worthy of the army of the Loire, which has 
 defeated the enemy, and of the army of the North, 
 which is marching to our assistance." 
 
 P. 0. Schmitz says that a few shells have reached 
 the quarter of St. Jacques, but without causing any 
 alarm to the population. 
 
 An infamous proclamation has been issued by the 
 " reds," signed by delegates of the twenty wards, who 
 demand the Commune, and attack the Government for
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 290 
 
 allowing 500,000 gallant Frenchmen to be cooped up by 
 200,000 Prussians. Better perhaps attack the Prussians. 
 "Are the people who destroyed Bastilles and over- 
 turned thrones to wait in mute despair until cold 
 and famine have chilled their hearts ? " asks the 
 proclamation. 
 
 General Trochu has replied to the "reds," and de- 
 clared that he will never capitulate. 
 
 January 7. The cold very severe. Twenty thousand 
 trees have already been felled. The hard weather, so 
 spies tell us, is killing 1200 Prussians a day. 
 
 January 8. Paul de St. Victor, and indeed all Paris, 
 are highly indignant, and this is the cause : Johann 
 Deitrich of the 88th Regiment, German, was slain the 
 other day, and in his pocket was found a letter from 
 Margaret Schneider, asking him to loot her a pair of 
 earrings in Paris. This letter quite upset the city for 
 twelve hours, and furnished Paul de St. Victor with the 
 occasion for penning a patriotic article four columns in 
 length. " Kill France ! " he cries. " Why, France is 
 immortal. And Prussia thinks she can annihilate a 
 great country in six months. France is a light, and a 
 light cannot be killed. Only barbarians suppose that 
 an eclipse devours the sun. Germany, having wished 
 to kill France, can say, like Macbeth after the murder 
 of Banquo, ' I have killed sleep.' The Rhine is no 
 longer a river of water, but a river of blood and tears." 
 
 The members of the Diplomatic Corps are sending
 
 300 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 a note to Count Bismarck, protesting against the 
 bombardment of Paris. Mr. Washburne, the American 
 Minister, wished this document, which is mild in form, 
 to be much more comminatory; but some of the 
 secretaries of legation insisted upon a modification of 
 the original draft. It is observed that the Prussians 
 ought to have given due notice of their intention to 
 shell the city. One projectile is said to have fallen 
 between two girls who were sleeping together, and to 
 have hurt neither of them. A large number fell into 
 the Faubourg St. Germain, and one on the left bank 
 of the Seine just opposite to the Tuileries. The 
 Prussians, in fact, are firing over the southern forts with 
 a view of intimidating the besieged and forcing on a 
 capitulation. One shell struck that most beautiful of 
 parish churches, St. Etienne du Mont, but fortunately 
 without doing much damage. Another struck St. 
 Sulpice, and shattered the chapel of the Virgin to 
 pieces. A third, the hospital of La Pitie", killing a 
 woman. The school of St. Nicolas was also hit, one 
 shell killing four little boys and wounding five others. 
 P. 0. Schmitz accuses the Prussians of firing purposely 
 at the hospitals. 
 
 January 9. The bombardment continues, and we 
 have more casualties to deplore. Two shells have struck 
 the Luxembourg Palace, which contains so many master- 
 pieces of modern art. All this is very sad. However, 
 H. Jules Richard, an able French war correspondent,
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 301 
 
 assures us that "We have good news and true, and 
 if the guns of Messieurs the Prussians treat us with a 
 concert, the army of Faidherbe is playing an accompani- 
 ment in the distance. March, march, brave army ; make 
 forced marches; Paris awaits thee." And much more 
 in the same lyric strain. In the meantime the " reds " 
 bitterly complain of the way in which military affairs 
 have been misconducted. Some unforeseen incident 
 always happens to the French arms, while the Prussians 
 are never surprised, and a long catalogue of French 
 blunders is given. 
 
 January 11. General Trochu astonished Paris this 
 morning by announcing that two officers of the Mobiles, 
 a lieutenant of the National Guard, a corporal, and 
 three men have deserted to the enemy. Their names 
 are held up to public reprobation. General Trochu 
 thinks that they will be severely punished when they 
 learn the successes of the armies of the Loire and the 
 North. 
 
 In order to protect the military hospital of Val de 
 Grace several times struck General Trochu has 
 directed some wounded Prussians to be conveyed 
 there, and has notified this fact to Field-Marshal von 
 Moltke. The hospice of Salpetriere, which contains 
 3000 aged or infirm women, 1500 mad women and 
 other patients, is reported to have been struck on 
 Sunday night by no less than fifteen shells, and the 
 hospital of La Charite eight times. No mention is
 
 302 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 made of the number of victims. At the latter place it 
 is reported, however, that a projectile burst in the room 
 of a medical student, who was fortunately not at home, 
 and smashed everything therein with the exception of 
 a German pipe ! 
 
 The number of deaths among civilians last week 
 shows an increase of four hundred over those of the 
 week before, and the undertakers are obliged to bury 
 the dead by torchlight as well as by day. 
 
 January 12. General Trochu announces the dis- 
 covery of some horrible plot, and there is a report of 
 traitors having been discovered among officers holding 
 high command. A sortie had been planned to take 
 place yesterday, when it was found that the Prussians 
 over-night had massed large bodies of troops at the 
 point about to be attacked. The Si&cle, writing about 
 this piece of treachery, says that only four Generals 
 were aware of the plan Trochu, Ducrot, Vinoy, and 
 Schmitz. A Polish spy arrested to-day, and questioned 
 about his accomplices, is said to have replied " If you 
 want to discover the spies, you must search for them in 
 the headquarters staff." How pleasant ! 
 
 People are flying from the left bank of the Seine, 
 and among the fugitives one notes that Victor Hugo 
 has deemed it prudent to shift his quarters. As far 
 as I can see with a good glass, the southern forts have 
 suffered terribly from the fire of the enemy's batteries. 
 
 January 13. We learn that our Foreign Minister
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA ! 303 
 
 has been invited to go to London, to take part in the 
 Conference on Eastern affairs ; but it is very unlikely 
 that M. Jules Favre will leave Paris at such a critical 
 moment as the present. And with what authority 
 could he act ? 
 
 Distressing anecdotes are current of persons who 
 have been reduced to eat their own pets. My wife's 
 nurse arrived this morning with a basket, and said to 
 me in a most piteous tone " You can eat him, sir ; but 
 I cannot." On raising the lid of the basket, I found 
 the contents to be a torn cat, which was declined with 
 thanks. Punch and Judy continue to beat each other 
 about the head, but poor Toby has disappeared. 
 
 January 15. We are evidently getting to the end of 
 our provisions, for the Government has just ordered the 
 slaughter of all the horses in Paris, with the exception 
 of 2000, which are considered absolutely necessary for 
 carrying meal and drawing hearses. The bread is 
 something fearful, bran and chopped straw being mixed 
 with the flour, and even a little sand to make it weigh. 
 I put a piece this morning into a tumbler of water, 
 and it went to the bottom like a stone. No wonder 
 mortality is on the increase. 
 
 General Vinoy made a sortie this morning, but as 
 the Prussians were on the gui vive, it was not persevered 
 with. Several wounded Prussians were captured, and 
 an officer who, having mislaid his spectacles, walked 
 into the French lines unintentionally.
 
 304 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 January 15. Another shell has fallen into St. Sulpice, 
 and destroyed a picture of the Last Judgment. This 
 morning during service the whistling of shells was so 
 incessant that the good curd dismissed his flock, but 
 remained at his post himself, walking up and down the 
 aisle like a captain on his quarter-deck. 
 
 Citizen Gagne, a well-known lunatic, proposes the 
 slaughter of all persons over sixty years of age, and 
 invites the venerable members of the Government to 
 set an example by immolating themselves on the altar 
 of a starving country. 
 
 January 17. The Prussians continue to unmask new 
 batteries, and the forts of Issy, Vanves, and Montrouge, 
 which I can see from the Trocadero, appear little but a 
 heap of ruins. One hears of people on the left bank 
 of the Seine issuing invitations to dine, with on lombar- 
 dera on the card, or on recevra dans la cave. But these 
 jokes are current only on the right bank, which has not 
 been bombarded. The bombarded portion of Paris 
 now resembles a pest-stricken city, and we shall soon 
 have grass growing in the streets. All public vehicles 
 have long ceased running there. Casualties, however, 
 are numerous. One shell killed three washerwomen, 
 and carried off the arm of the husband of one of the 
 victims. Three shells fell almost in the centre of 
 Paris. One fell into the study of M. Littre, in his 
 absence, and demolished a bust of Sainte Beuve, and a 
 portrait of Auguste Comte on his death-bed.
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA ! 305 
 
 January 18. What dire humiliation ! This evening 
 we learned that King William of Prussia was td-day 
 crowned Emperor of Germany, in the palace of that 
 haughty Louis XIV. who is said to have offered to 
 make the Grand Elector, Frederick William, a king; 
 but who declined for the present. And now here is a 
 King William crowned Emperor at Versailles, on the 
 anniversary of the day on which in 1701 Frederick I. 
 put the kingly crown on his own head, and then 
 crowned his spouse. All is, no doubt, feasting and 
 joy at Versailles, but here in Paris reign doubt and 
 gloom, and it is rumoured that the colleagues of Trochu 
 have at length lost faith in the military capacity 
 of their dearly loved Governor and General, and have 
 asked him to resign. It is evident the end is approach- 
 ing, and that many-headed monster, the public, requires 
 a scapegoat. 
 
 Now when people dine out they are respectfully 
 asked to bring their own bread, as in the early days of 
 the First Revolution. The clubs in the meantime are 
 becoming more and more rabid, and suggesting all sorts 
 of outlandish schemes for annihilating the enemy. One 
 may say of their frothy orators as the clown in Antony 
 and Cleopatra said of women " He that will believe 
 all that they say, shall never be saved by half that they 
 do." At one club it was proposed that the military 
 dictatorship should be abolished and the command of 
 the army divided among several Generals, behind each 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 306 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 of whom should be placed a Commissioner of the 
 Republic charged to blow out his brains in case he 
 proved a traitor. In another club the people were told 
 that the contractors, having realized enormous sums by 
 the sale of the elephants and other animals in the 
 Jardin des Plantes, and of potatoes, now proposed a 
 shameful capitulation. One citizen accused the clerks 
 of the Bank of eating two cows and a calf while there 
 was no fresh meat for the ambulance opposite. And so 
 on ad infinitum. 
 
 The Rfoeil having yesterday criticized the conduct of 
 General de Bellemare very sharply, that officer paid a 
 visit to the editor and converted him, using the argu- 
 mentum baculinum. This morning appeared an article 
 in the same paper eulogizing the General rather beyond 
 his merits. 
 
 To-day a shell fell into the study of the savant 
 Daubree, who for some years past has been studying 
 the constitution and effects of bolides, and was far from 
 expecting the visit of the spurious article manufactured 
 by Krupp, which, fortunately for him, did not explode, 
 but rolled harmlessly under his table. Another shell 
 burst in the library of the scientific Abbe Moigno, who 
 yesterday wrote a violent article against the bombard- 
 ment. The reply was more violent still, for it pulverized 
 a bookcase and fearfully lacerated 500 volumes. The 
 Abbe himself escaped Avith a slight wound in the head, 
 and said he would gladly . shed more blood for the
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 307 
 
 salvation of France. He recently explained the miracle 
 of Joshua, saying that it was the earth, not the sun, 
 which stood still, but if the prophet had told our planet 
 to cease revolving on its axis no one would have under- 
 stood him. Did Joshua know it ? Pythagoras knew 
 that the earth went round the sun, not the sun round 
 the earth, but that was about a thousand years after 
 Joshua's time. 
 
 January 19. This morning there was a sortie in 
 force, 100,000 men marching out against the enemy 
 without beat of dram, and rather taking the Prussians 
 by surprise, and capturing the important position of 
 Montretout, which had been lost on the second day of 
 the siege. General Vinoy commanded the left, General 
 de Bellemare the centre, and General Ducrot the right, 
 under the eye of General Trochu. Unfortunately for 
 the French, Ducrot, who had been obliged to march ten 
 miles in the dark, and found his road blocked by a 
 column of artillery which had lost its way, was unable 
 to reach the post assigned to him in time; the Germans 
 bringing up strong reserves the day ended in a repulse. 
 The fighting was very severe, and the French losses 
 amounted to 5000 killed and wounded. 
 
 The Government had little faith in the success of 
 this sortie, but in deference to public opinion considered 
 it necessary to make one last effort before throwing up 
 the sponge. A great many of the National Guards 
 engaged were under fire for the first time, and, to judge
 
 308 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 by the number of stragglers who came flocking through 
 the gates early in the afternoon, did not appreciate their 
 baptism. I met numbers of disbanded men in the 
 Avenue de la Grande Armee going home, having had, 
 as they said, quite enough of it. 
 
 ' January 20. On top of the repulse of yesterday 
 conies the news that Chanzy has been defeated, with 
 the loss of 10 ; 000 men. Paris is in a ferment, and the 
 "reds" once more threaten to give trouble. There is 
 hardly any food left. We have devoured 40,000 horses 
 and many other animals, and even our poor substitute 
 for the staff of life cannot last a week longer. 
 
 Among the slain of yesterday France has to bewail 
 the loss of the young artist, Henri Regnault, who in 
 May last won the prize for painting at the Salon. 
 Sevestre, too, of the .Theatre Franqais, has fallen, with 
 Genaro Perelli, a composer; the aged Marquis de 
 Coriolis, an ex-officer of Zouaves, and many others. 
 
 The bombardment of St. Denis was commenced to- 
 day, after due notice had been given. 
 
 January 22. General Trochu, having sworn that he 
 would never capitulate, has handed over the command 
 of the army to General Vinoy, who has appointed 
 General de Valdon to succeed P. 0. Schmitz l as chief 
 of the staff. 
 
 1 In de Goncourt I find December 11. General Schmitz told 
 the following anecdote about Inkerman. He was with Canro- 
 bert, Lord Raglan, and an English General, whose name I have
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 309 
 
 At noon an attack was made on the Hotel de Ville 
 by the " reds," to the cry of " Vive la Commune ! " but 
 they were warmly received by the Breton and other 
 Mobiles, and fled leaving behind them their leader, 
 Sapia, and twenty rank-and-file. Lord Palrnerston is 
 reputed to have said, that when a Frenchman is in a 
 minority he goes into a garret and makes cartridges. 
 And this is what the " reds " have been doing all 
 through the siege. Hazas was also broken into, and 
 Flourens and other prisoners liberated. 
 
 These events threw Paris into such a state of excite- 
 ment that an evening paper remarked that the death of 
 the new Emperor William, due to an attack of apoplexy, 
 passed almost unperceived. 
 
 January 23. The Government has ordered the clubs 
 to be closed, and several arrests have been made. Trop 
 tard. The bombardment of Paris and St. Denis con- 
 tinues. Strange that a shell which struck the old 
 
 forgotten, but who spoke French indifferently ; he called Canro- 
 bert's attention to the movements of the Russian army. " Are 
 you not of opinion, General, that this would be a propitious 
 moment to pursue the Russians? I believe that they could be 
 destroyed." On hearing these words Canrobert turned to Lord 
 Raglan, saying " Is this your opinion also, my lord ? " To which 
 Lord Raglan replied " Perhaps, perhaps ; but it will be more 
 prudent to wait until to-morrow morning." In the night the 
 Russian army effected a retreat, and thus escaped extermination. 
 Canrobert said very frankly before the Staff-major of both armies 
 " There is only one man among us, gentlemen, who saw clearly 
 what was to be done." And he quoted the name of the English 
 General. Name forgotten by Edrnond de Goncourt.
 
 310 EECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 church in which the bodies of so many French kings 
 reposed till torn from their graves during the First 
 Revolution, should have decapitated the statue of St. 
 Denis. That holy man is supposed to have walked 
 about with his head under his arm, a legend to be 
 traced to the custom of burying Christian martyrs with 
 their heads in their hands, ready to offer them to the 
 Virgin on entering Paradise. Fortunately no shell fell 
 into the vaults, which had been turned into a powder 
 magazine. 
 
 January 24. The end is at hand. This morning, 
 famine staring us in the face, and a council of war 
 having decided against another sortie, M. Jules Favre 
 sent a note to Count Bismarck asking for an interview. 
 A favourable answer having been returned, our Foreign 
 Minister started for Versailles in the evening. 
 
 While negotiations were going on the bombardment 
 continued, and it was not until ten o'clock on the 29th 
 that the firing suddenly ceased, and the stillness of 
 death seemed to reign over the French capital. After 
 so much tumult the silence at first felt oppressive. One 
 hears that a large portion of the National Guard is 
 indignant with the Government for not continuing the 
 struggle ; these are the heroes who have never been 
 beyond the walls. The line, the Mobiles, and the 
 Naval Brigade, who fought and lost some 50,000 men 
 between them, submit to their sad fate without an 
 audible murmur, like brave men who have done their
 
 BELLA, HORRIDA BELLA! 311 
 
 duty, although detestably handled and thwarted by 
 faction. 
 
 Some idea may be formed of the rough work which 
 the Naval Brigade had to perform from the fact that 
 three captains, one after the other, who commanded at 
 the fort of Issy, were killed, and a fourth, sooner than 
 strike his flag, blew out his brains. 
 
 When the question of how this city with its detached 
 forts, enceinte, and garrison of 500,000 men was driven 
 to capitulate, much blame will no doubt be thrown 
 upon General Trochu for not having made better use of 
 the materials at his disposal, which he might have done 
 had he acted with vigour. Some people think that a 
 Republican form of government is incompatible with 
 discipline, but during the First Revolution the most 
 rigid discipline was maintained in the army ; not 
 only were civil commissioners sent to accompany the 
 Generals-in-chief with a portable guillotine, but the 
 military code was exceedingly severe for the private 
 soldier. Under the Jacobin War Ministers a man who 
 strayed fifteen paces from his column or stole a chicken 
 was shot. Had similar severity been practised during 
 the siege, it is hard to believe that the Germans round 
 Paris would have been able to hold their own. Then 
 the civil commissioners displayed great bravery, and 
 exposed their persons in a manner which the colleagues 
 of General Trochu never thought fit to imitate. Not 
 being given to fighting themselves, they tolerated
 
 312 RECOLLECTIONS OF PARIS 
 
 cowardice in others. Then men, who ran away at 
 Chatillon (and afterwards) without firing a shot, and 
 were condemned to death by court-martial, instead of 
 being executed, received the same amount of punish- 
 ment as is generally inflicted on a man who picks a 
 pocket. Mutiny, too, was left unpunished, and this 
 under a state of siege. 
 
 January 26th. I find in my diary " siege over." 
 
 END OF VOLUME I. 
 
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