Chapter VII: Letters From Paris During the Siege

Paris was already invested when I succeeded in leaving it with the help of a diplomatic passport, and it was in Vienna that I read in the papers the news of the useless interview that took place between Prince, at that time still Count, Bismarck, with M. Jules Favre at Férrières. I never understood how the German Chancellor, who at that time had not the slightest intention to conclude peace, consented to receive the representative of a government which he had not acknowledged. I was told later on, that it was at the request of the King of Prussia he had given his assent to Favre’s arrival at the German headquarters.

The results of this hopeless attempt are well known. Jules Favre talked as only an advocate can talk. But he pleaded sentimental reasons where hard facts only had to be considered. When he returned to Paris, it was with the conviction that as the government of the Défense Nationale was neither strong enough nor respected enough to compel the country to accept a shameful peace, the only thing was to allow matters to drift.

A good many of my friends, and of my colleagues, had elected to remain in the capital, and there await the end of the war, and I must own that I regretted later on that I had not been given the same opportunity. That period was most interesting, and I have always felt that to understand the genesis of the events which happened later on, one ought to have experienced those months of anxiety, when the great capital was abandoned to her fate, with the Prussian guns levelled against her.

I was not, however, left entirely without news, and as regularly as was possible received letters from besieged Paris, sent either by balloon or by carrier pigeons. I have kept them all, and from their pages now give extracts which will give an idea of the feelings of the Parisians during the trial they had to undergo.

_September 25th, 1870._

“MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--You will be wondering what is happening to
us, and I do not want to let pass the present opportunity to send
you some news concerning us. We are now quite resigned to the
prospect of a siege, and the only question that is agitating the
public mind is how long it will last. The most contradictory
rumours are spread, and some of them even attribute to Jules Favre
the intention of trying to restore the Empire, after having assured
himself that he would remain its Prime Minister. Of course this is
nothing but humbug, and I only mention it to you to show you to
what extent public imagination can cajole itself. What is not
humbug, however, is the difficulty the government finds in
attempting anything in the way of peace negotiations. It begins to
see the great mistake which was made when a small minority
overthrew the Empire so unexpectedly. Had it been left standing,
all the onus of the disastrous peace, which, whether France likes
it or not, will have to be concluded, would have fallen upon its
shoulders, whilst at the present moment, it is the Défense
Nationale which will bear the brunt of anger at the dismemberment
of our France. This may sound the death knell of the Republic, and
those who are at its head know it but too well. I think that the
unlucky phrase of Jules Favre, when he said that he would never
give up ‘un pouce de notre territoire, ni une pierre de nos
forteresses,’ was more a calculated pronouncement than the result
of an enthusiasm too strong to think of the consequences its
imprudent words might have. He wanted to ward off the evil moment
when he would be called upon to do that which the Empire he had
helped to overthrow would have done had it been left in power; and
feeling this to be inevitable, had tried to keep the knowledge of
this bitter fact from the public. One begins to realise the mistake
one has made, I repeat it, but unfortunately one does not see what
ought to be done to mend it. The public feeling in the city is very
different from that which was prevailing on the 4th of this month.
The Parisians begin to realise the seriousness of the situation,
but there is no talk of a surrender, and the confidence that
victory will return to France is very dominant among the lower
classes, whilst it is recognised among the higher ones that the
deal has been irrevocably lost, and that peace ought to be
concluded, else serious disturbances may occur among the Garde
Nationale and the numerous militia.

“The government does nothing, and when I have said this, I say
everything. They say that they can do nothing and that it is to the
Tours delegation they must look for an attempt to stop the progress
of the Prussian army. So long as Gambetta was here there was some
activity in ministerial offices; now he has gone there is absolute
stagnation. All these ministers, suddenly called upon to exercise
functions for which they were totally unprepared, seem lost, and
Jules Favre looks at the political situation with the same eye he
would look at some big criminal or civil law case--from the outlook
of an advocate, not from that of a statesman. They say he actually
cried during his conversation with Bismarck. The question arises
whether these tears were genuine ones of grief, or simply a
rhetorical incident. How much more dignity there was in the conduct
of General Wimpffen and his colleagues, when they discussed with
the German Minister and the German General Staff the conditions of
the capitulation of Sedan! No one likes Jules Favre, whom even his
partisans consider to be a demagogue of talent, but nothing more.
And certainly France does not need demagogues at the present time.

“There are comical notes in the gravity of the situation. People
talk about never surrendering, about dying for their country,
whilst running about buying hams and butter, and as many provisions
as they can, in view of the siege. Vegetables are at a premium,
meat will soon become a luxury, bread is already looked upon in the
same light that cakes were formerly, and frivolous women are
getting excited at the thought of the many privations which they
expect they will be called upon to endure. Yet comparatively few
people have left the capital, where, after all, perhaps, one is
safer than in the provinces. News leaks out sometimes from the
outside, mostly false; for instance, it was related the other day,
that the Prince Imperial had reached Metz, and put himself under
the protection of Marshal Bazaine. All the partisans of the Empire
believed it, but serious people did not attach any faith to this
rumour. The Legitimists are full of hope that out of the present
complications a monarchical restoration may ensue; the Radicals, on
their part, are sure that, sooner or later, the government will
fall into their hands. The principal question that is agitating the
public mind, is as to who would eventually have the right to
conclude peace with Prussia. No one, to begin with the members of
the present administration (for one can hardly call it a
government), believes that the King of Prussia would consent to
treat with them. Therefore the calling together of a National
Assembly is imperative, but would this Assembly be the expression
of the will of the nation, when the elections would have to be held
under the muzzles of the enemy’s guns? In a word, we live in a
state of uncertainty such as France has never yet experienced, no
one knows what the morrow holds in reserve, and though there is a
government of the National Defence, yet there is no one to defend
the country.”

I have reproduced this letter in its entirety, because it seems to me that it explains very well the state of opinion in besieged Paris. Later on, I was to receive another communication from the same correspondent, written immediately after the insurrection of the 18th of October. This one is more alarming even than the first.

“We have had the other day,” he writes on November 4th, “the first
taste of that revolution which we shall not escape. It began by an
_échauffourée_ of the National Guard, and ended by an invasion of
the Hotel de Ville by the mob. It was repulsed, but for how long?
This is the question, and the population of the faubourgs is
getting so excited that at the first opportunity it will most
certainly again take the offensive, and this time with greater
chances of success. Don’t forget that, after all, we have no
regular army in Paris worthy of that name, that arms have been
distributed not only to the National Guard, but to a great part of
the population; that, consequently, it is the latter, and not the
pseudo-government, that in reality holds the power to impose its
will upon the capital. One talks a lot about patriotism, believe me
there is very little of patriotism about; all the politicians who
have tried to persuade themselves that they have the qualifications
of real statesmen, only think of their future, and of the
possibility of their own greatness rising out of the ruins of their
fatherland. They do nothing else but talk; I wish they would
work--it would be more to the point.

“I must tell you something that will surprise you. Rumours have
been going about that the Prussian government had started some
negotiations with the Empress in England. She is still Regent in
name if not in fact, and her intervention, especially if it was
strengthened by a demonstration of the army of Metz in her favour,
might decide the King of Prussia to conclude an honourable peace,
or at least one which would be termed honourable by every
reasonable person. Well, will you believe me that a Bonapartist,
quite _au courant_ with what goes on, and who knows, moreover, the
character of the Empress, told me that in his opinion she would
always hesitate to take measures which might afterwards be
attributed to her as proceeding from a desire to save the dynasty?
She persists in that attitude which she has adopted from the
outset, of putting France before everything, and of appearing to be
careless of the interests of her family. She will not see that, at
a time of such crisis, the interests of the dynasty are inseparable
from those of the country, and that if by means of an intervention
of the army of Metz in its favour she can conclude peace under more
favourable conditions than those which Prussia would impose on a
Republican government, it is her clear duty to do all that she can
to achieve that result, no matter what reproaches might be hurled
at her in the future. The Empire still has many partisans in
France, especially among the working classes; they would most
certainly have rallied around the Regent if it had been properly
explained to them that she had saved the army of Metz from the fate
that had overtaken that of Sedan, and, in consideration of this
service, one would have forgiven her many things. Of course what I
am telling you here reposes on hearsay, and you most probably know
more about it than we can here, separated as we are from the
outside world; but I repeat it, strong rumours have been going
about, that Eugénie has been approached by Prussia, who, it seems,
is even more eager for peace than we are, and that it has been
hinted to her that every facility would be granted to her to appeal
to France, to help her out of the terrible situation in which both
find themselves at present. Among a certain circle strong hopes
were indulged at one time that these rumours would turn out to be
true, consequently the news of the capitulation of Metz, which the
Prussians took good care should reach us, came as a thunderbolt to
the Bonapartists, who openly declared that it had been brought
about through the refusal of the Empress, from mistaken dynastic
reasons, to assume the responsibility of a peace, the conditions of
which, including, as they necessarily must have done, a concession
of territory, would have excited indignation throughout France.

“All that I am telling you is, of course, the result of my private
observations, but these may interest you, in view of your Imperial
sympathies.

“And now you shall ask me what I am doing personally in our poor
besieged Paris. Well, I happened to be near the Hotel de Ville on
that memorable 18th of October, and I was much interested in the
motley crowd that assembled in front of it. What struck me
extremely was the large contingent of women, who were trying either
to help or to excite their husbands or friends. I did not think
that Parisian females were so revolutionary, nor that they counted
in their midst such a number of old hags worthy to rival the
witches of _Macbeth_ in appearance. I am afraid that if we see a
real revolution--which God forbid, though I am inclined to think
its advent is inevitable--the women will show themselves ten times
more ferocious than the men, and that the days of the
_tricoteuses_, who dictated to the Convention in 1793, are not by
any means over yet.

“The remnant of society left in the capital has bravely made up its
mind not to eat, drink and be merry, but to go through all the
hardships of the siege with good humour and resignation. People
still see each other, and indeed social life has not changed,
although the menus of the dinners to which one is invited are
anything but luxurious. For instance, yesterday I was asked to
lunch by my old friend Countess Stéphanie Tascher de la Pagerre,
together with two other people, and this is what we were offered: a
potage Liebig with macaroni, roasted horseflesh, fresh beans, and
chocolate cream without cream, but made with tinned milk. With the
most charitable feelings in the world, it would be impossible to
say that it was good, or that anyone liked it.

“Clubs, too, are just as formerly, though they present the unusual
sight of members dressed in uniform, who often come to lunch direct
from the front, and who leave a rifle instead of a stick to the
care of the hall porter, whilst they snatch a hasty and nasty meal.
The theatres play just as usual; an ambulance has been organised in
the foyer of the Comédie Française, and Mlle. Sarah Bernhardt is
just as bewitching under the white cap and apron of a nurse as she
was in her most gorgeous stage dresses. In short, the _comédie
humaine_ has become the _comédie parisienne_, notwithstanding the
tragedy of Paris and of France.”

This letter, penned by an American who had elected to remain in Paris during the siege, gives pretty well the idea of the spirit that prevailed among the Bonapartists, and the one which animated the _grand monde_, or at least those who had not fled abroad. To complete the picture, I must give another letter, one from an old lady whose name I have already mentioned in these pages--Madame Lacroix, who had returned from St. Germain after the 4th of September, and, notwithstanding her great age, had remained in Paris, where her _salon_ was the rendezvous of her numerous friends, and just as animated as it had been formerly.

“Our situation is always the same, just as lamentable and just as
sad. Nothing seems to change around us, save the fact that
provisions are getting scarcer and scarcer, that butter is not to
be had for love or money, and that dogs, rats, and cats appear on
the best tables in place of beef and mutton. Gas also is a thing of
the past, and one has to exercise strict economy in oil and
paraffin. I have now only one lamp burning in my drawing-room,
which we take along with us when we go to the dining-room. The
population begins to get exasperated at this heavy inaction that
weighs upon it; the absence of all reliable news also tells on the
hearts and minds. On the 29th of November we were awakened by the
sound of the cannon, and one heard that at last the government had
decided to make an effort to attack the enemy, in the endeavour to
effect a junction with the army of the Loire, which, as it seems,
was quite near to us; at least this is what our government choose
to tell us. Trochu has published another proclamation, addressed to
the population, just as devoid of common sense as all his previous
ones have been. For about three days we were left absolutely
without news, though it was rumoured that the Prussians had been
defeated by Ducrot, but at last it leaked out that the plans of
Trochu had failed, and that the effort made by the garrison of
Paris had been unsuccessful.

“On the 5th of December we were startled by the news of the defeat
of the army of Chanzy near Orleans, and I must confess to you that
now the most sanguine hopes have been shattered, and the only
feeling left is the desire to see this nightmare under which we are
living come to an end.”

This letter was written just before the end of that sad year 1870,
which had begun so brilliantly with a reception at the Tuileries,
now standing deserted and abandoned by its former masters. In the
first fortnight of January a curious incident occurred, which, I
believe, has not been widely known among the public, but yet, in
view of the events that happened later on, offers a certain
interest. I will relate it in the words of the friend who informed
me of it, the American whose letter I have already given:

“I am going to tell you something which will probably appear to you
rather like a scene taken out of a comic opera, but which I am
assured really took place the other day. A friend of the Orleans
princes asked General Trochu to grant him an interview, and tried
to win his support to a proposition to ask the Duke of Aumale to
accept, if only for an intermediary period, the post of President
of the National Defence. Trochu, after having indulged in the usual
rhetoric of which he is so fond, at last pathetically replied that
he had sworn fidelity to the Republic, and that as a soldier he
could not break his oath; to this his visitor retorted that
probably that oath was sworn on something he respected more than
the one he had made to the Empress Eugénie when he told her she
could rely on his honour as a soldier, a Catholic, and a Breton.
Trochu was silent for a few minutes, and then said: ‘J’ai fait
passer la patrie avant tout lorsque----’ ‘Lorsque il s’est agi
pour vous de vous mettre à la tête du gouvernement vous-même’ (‘I
put my country first when----’ ‘When it was a question of placing
yourself at the head of its government’) interrupted the other.

“I cannot, of course, vouch for the truth of the anecdote, but it
was told to me by a person who is generally well informed. But what
I do know, is that very few people have been or are despised to the
extent of General Trochu, for whom no one finds a good word to say,
and everyone is hoping that his colleagues will oblige him either
to sign the capitulation of Paris, which cannot be delayed much
longer, especially now that the bombardment has commenced [this
letter was written on the 25th of January], or else to resign his
functions altogether. His dispatch of the 20th only confirmed the
opinion one had as to his military ability, and certainly nothing
could be more lamentable than the sight of the troops returning
into the town after the battles of the 19th and 20th, weary,
hungry, worn out, and exasperated against their leaders. That
exasperation has again brought down from the faubourgs the
agitators that have ever since the 4th of September kept Paris in a
state of turmoil, and on the 22nd of January in the night they
invaded the prison of Mazas, and delivered several political men
detained there, among others Flourens. They also made an attempt to
occupy the mairie of the 20th arrondissement. A battle has taken
place opposite the Hôtel de Ville, and the government is entirely
discredited; even among the former most determined partisans of war
being continued at any price, the feeling prevails that peace, no
matter on what conditions, would be better than the present state
of things, which is only favourable to promoters of disorder, of
which there are but too many.”

As is known, the capitulation of Paris took place on the 28th of January, and I prepared myself at once to return. After a journey devoid of serious incidents, but long and fatiguing, I reached Versailles on the 31st of that month, having taken four days to do so. I had started from Berlin, where I had been waiting for the first opportunity to return to my post in Paris. At Versailles I found M. Thiers, who was already busy negotiating the conditions of a peace that most certainly the Empress Regent, had she only taken the responsibility of its conclusion, would have been able to sign under more favourable clauses than those to which France had to submit. It is possible, if not probable, that the Imperial eagles would not have witnessed the entry of the German troops into Paris, a humiliation which old King William did not see the necessity to spare a Republic for which it was impossible to feel the least respect.

Before closing this chapter I must mention one letter among the many which reached me at Versailles during those days from friends who were in Paris, giving me some details concerning this crowning episode to the many sad and disgraceful ones that will make the war of 1870 for ever memorable.

_March 4th_, 1871.

“We were all waiting with anxiety for that 1st of March that was to
see the German troops enter the capital. Grave apprehensions were
entertained on the subject by many people, who declared that very
probably the excited Parisians would indulge in demonstrations of
hostility against the Prussians, which would assuredly have
terrible consequences. On the 27th of February I called at
Rothschild’s bank in the Rue Lafitte, hoping to hear some news
there, where they were generally better informed than anywhere
else. One of the principal employees, whom I knew well, told me
with tears in his eyes that no efforts of Jules Favre had availed,
and that the German army would occupy Paris on the 1st, but that,
as a last concession, that occupation would be limited to a certain
zone, and not extend itself to the whole city. Great preparations
had been made, and the shopkeepers in the streets through which the
troops of the enemy were to pass had declared that they would close
their doors and shutters ‘pour ne pas assister à cette honte,’ as
one of them told me himself; it was also tacitly understood that
private houses would pull down their blinds. Curious to see how
things would go on, and feeling convinced that, in spite of the
apprehensions entertained in certain quarters, no disturbances of
any kind would occur, Frenchmen being always cowed down whenever
they see real strength before them, I was up very early, and,
rejoicing at the splendid weather which had suddenly set in after
very dark and gloomy days, as if to welcome the triumph of Prussia,
I went down the Champs Elysées, and was present when the first
German detachments made their appearance. The sight was imposing,
and could only suggest many philosophical thoughts. The greatest
discipline prevailed, and this discipline seemed to make a great
impression on the numerous throngs that lined the streets to see
the unusual spectacle. A few women were weeping with a certain
affectation, but there were also some girls smiling and welcoming
with glances full of coquetry the Prussian officers riding in front
of their regiments. At about four o’clock everything was over, and
the soldiers settled in the cantonments which had been allotted to
them for the night. The next day the sight was stranger still. The
population of Paris, notwithstanding what may have been told to you
to the contrary, had fraternised with the enemy, and one saw the
usual _camelots_ that appear in the streets of Paris whenever there
is something new to see, offer to the Prussian soldiers cigarettes,
matches, and newspapers, whilst girls timidly extended some flowers
to them--not, however, before looking carefully around them to see
whether anyone watched them doing so. When, on the 3rd of March,
the German troops retired, I heard that typical remark, from a
woman who had been watching their going away with eager eyes:
‘Après tout, ce sont de beaux soldats que ceux-là!’ she cried.

“It seems that a solemn moment occurred during the review held by
the new Emperor on the Hippodrome de Longchamps, before the troops
started to enter Paris. I have been told the sight was most
imposing, and must have roused a world of remembrances in the heart
of its principal hero. What must have been his thoughts at a moment
when the history, as it were, of a whole century was suddenly
recapitulated before his eyes? His fate had made him witness the
present triumph, after the humiliations of Jena and that first
occupation of the French capital by the allied troops in 1815, when
another Napoleon had seen fortune retire from him! It seems that
after the review was over, the Emperor looked wistfully for a
considerable time at the long line of troops filing along on their
triumphal journey, and before dismounting from his horse he turned
towards the Crown Prince with the simple remark, ‘I hope that you,
too, have thanked God to-day!’”