Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/629

 Unification of Germany and Italy 591 inarck de- scribes the surrender of Napoleon III at Sedan. the rest of the French army (which we have been pursuing 490. Bis- all the way from Bar-le-Duc) into the fortress, where they must surrender themselves along with the emperor. Yester- day at five o'clock in the morning, after I had been dis- cussing until one o'clock in the morning with Moltke and the French generals the terms of the capitulation, General Reille, whom I know, awoke me to tell me that Napoleon wished to speak with me. I rode, without washing and with no breakfast, towards Sedan, and found the emperor in an open carriage with three officers of high rank and three others on horseback on the highroad near Sedan. I dismounted, greeted him as politely as if we were in the Tuileries, and asked what were his Majesty's commands. He wished to see the king. I told him, as was the truth, that his Majesty had his quarters three miles from there, at the place where I am now writing. On Napoleon's asking w r hither he should go, I offered him, since I was unfamiliar with the region, my quarters at Don- chery, a little place in the neighborhood close to Sedan. He accepted my invitation, and, accompanied by his six Frenchmen, myself, and Karl, 1 who had in the meantime followed me, drove, in the silence of the morning, toward our forces. Before we reached the place he began to be apprehensive lest he might encounter a number of people, and he asked me whether he could not get out at a lonely laborer's cot- tage on the road. I had the place inspected by Karl, who reported that it was miserable and dirty. " N'importe" said Napoleon ; and I ascended with him a narrow, rickety stair- way. In a room ten feet square, with a deal table and two rush-bottomed chairs, we sat an hour, while the others re- mained below, — a singular contrast to our last interview in '67 in the Tuileries. Our negotiations were difficult, unless I consented to touch upon matters which could not but be painful to one who had been so cast down by God's mighty hand. I had summoned 1 Bismarck's son.