Page:Scribner's Magazine Volume 1.djvu/19

Rh the close of the hostilities; and, though sometimes threats were made, there was never any violence offered to the embassy or its guardians. The day after my return to Paris I took charge of my legation and relieved the chargé d'affaires. From this time I constantly recorded events as they occurred; and in writing my reminiscences in this complete and connected form, I have not hesitated, while weaving the whole into an unbroken story, to avail myself of the substance and in many portions the language of my despatches and letters sent to the Government at the time, and sometimes printed in congressional documents; as I have greatly preferred to trust to the vividness of the language which I then used in describing events as they passed before me, rather than to run any danger of losing the force of those immediate impressions.

It was on the 28th of July, 1870, that the Emperor left the palace of St. Cloud, to go to take command of the army in person. A gentleman belonging to the Court, who was present at the moment of departure, recounted to me that the occasion was a most solemn one, and that even then there was a prescience that the Emperor was leaving France never to return. By a decree, the Empress was made Regent during the absence of the Emperor. She remained at the palace of St. Cloud. Before the Emperor left for the army, he issued a bombastic proclamation to the French people, the first paragraph of which was as follows:

"Frenchmen–There are in the lives of peoples solemn moments, where national honor, violently excited, imposes itself as an irresistible force, dominates all interests, and takes in hand the direction of the destinies of the country. One of these decisive hours has just sounded for France."

On the 2d of August, the Emperor having reached the French headquarters, there was a skirmish at Saarbrücken, and there was shed the first blood in the stupendous contest that was to follow. The Emperor and the Prince Imperial were present at the engagement. Napoleon magnified that little affair into an episode, and sent an account back to Paris which only excited ridicule; particularly that part of it in which he stated that Louis had received "le baptème de feu." These proclamations did not disturb the Germans, and they soon put an end to those grotesque fanfaronades.

While these great events were in progress, the two nations were in full conflict, and blood was flowing like water on both sides, the people of Paris could get no reliable information from the seat of war. While in New York and London the particulars of the battle of Weissenbourg were published by the papers the next day, the people of Paris were kept in entire ignorance of them. The feeling of suspense and the excitement were something most painful and extraordinary at this time, and everybody was on the qui vive in search of news.

On Thursday, the 4th of August, occurred the battle of Weissenbourg, on the French frontier, which resulted in a practical defeat of the French army. There was no inkling in the Paris journals of the next day that there had been any fighting at all at Weissenbourg or anywhere else; and it was not until the London Times of that morning arrived that anybody in Paris had any particulars of the battle which had taken place. They had been kept in utter ignorance of it until twelve or one o'clock that day, when a very brief and unsatisfactory notice of the affair was communicated to the press by the French authorities. The suppression of the intelligence for so long a time excited a good deal of indignation among the public, and the Parisian newspapers were particularly indignant that the London Times should have published the news six or eight hours before it was given out to them. There was great uneasiness and discontent all over the city, and the people were prepared for anything.

At about noon on Saturday one of the most remarkable of those events took place which show how easily large masses of people may be imposed upon and deceived. At twelve o'clock there was assembled, as usual at that hour, a great crowd of people in front of the Bourse. It was then that a man in the uniform of a courier, or messenger, rode up in front of the Bourse where the