Bismarck

Friday, December 16th.—In the morning I wrote several articles on M. de Chaudordy’s circular as to the barbarity with which we are alleged to conduct the war. They were to the following effect. In addition to the calumnies that have been circulated for months past by the French press with the object of exciting public opinion against us, a document has now been issued by the Provisional Government itself for the purpose of prejudicing foreign Courts and Cabinets by means of garbled and exaggerated accounts of our conduct in the present war. An official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Tours, M. de Chaudordy, impeaches us in a circular to the neutral Powers. Let us consider the main points in his statement and see how the matter stands in reality, and who can be justly charged with barbarous methods of warfare, ourselves or the French.

He asserts that we make excessive requisitions, and abuse our power in the occupied towns and districts to extort impossible contributions. We are further stated to have seized private property, and to have cruelly burnt down towns and villages, whose inhabitants have offered resistance, or have in any way assisted in the defence of their country. Our accuser says: “Commanding officers have ordered a town to be plundered and burnt down as a punishment for the acts of individual citizens whose sole crime consisted in resisting the invaders, thus misusing the inexorable discipline imposed upon their troops. Every house in which a franctireur had been concealed, or received a meal, has been burnt down. How can this be reconciled with respect for private property?” The circular states that in firing upon open towns we have introduced a procedure hitherto unexampled in war. Finally, in addition to all our other cruelties, we take hostages with us on railway journeys to secure ourselves against the removal of the rails and other injuries and dangers.

In reply to these charges we offer the following observations. If M. de Chaudordy understood anything about war, he would not complain of the sacrifices which our operations have imposed upon the French people, but would, on the contrary, be surprised at our relative moderation. Moreover, the German troops respect private property everywhere, although they can certainly not be expected, after long marches and severe fighting, and after enduring cold and hunger, to refrain from securing as comfortable quarters as possible, or from demanding, or, if the inhabitants have fled, helping themselves to absolute necessaries such as food, drink, firing, &c. Moreover, instead of seizing private property, as M. de Chaudordy asserts, our soldiers have frequently done the reverse, and at the risk of their own lives, rescued for the owners works of art and other valuables which were endangered by the fire of the French guns. We have burnt down villages, but does our accuser know nothing of our reasons for doing so? Is he not aware that in those villages franctireurs have treacherously fired upon our people, and that the inhabitants have given every possible assistance to the murderers? Has he heard nothing of the franctireurs who recently left Fontaines, and who boldly stated that the object of their march was to inspect the houses in the neighbourhood which were worth pillaging? Can he bring forward a single well-established case of outrage committed by our soldiers such as those of which the Turcos and French guerillas have been guilty? Have our troops cut off the noses or ears of their wounded or dead opponents, as the French did at Coulours on the 30th of November? On the 11th of December, when 800 German prisoners should have been brought into Lille, only 200 of them actually arrived. Many of these were severely wounded, yet instead of affording them succour, the people of the town pelted them with snowballs, and shouted to the soldiers to bayonet them. The frequency with which the French have fired at the bearers of flags of truce is something unheard of. There is good evidence for the truth of the following incident, however incredible it may appear. On the 2nd of December, a German sergeant named Steinmetz, at the express desire of an officer of the Garibaldian troops, wrote a letter to his lieutenant in Mirecourt, stating that if our side took reprisals against Vittel or other places in the neighbourhood, the ears of fourteen Prussian prisoners, who had fallen into the hands of the guerillas in a surprise attack, would be cut off.

In many instances we have not treated those volunteers as soldiers, but that was only in cases where they did not act as soldiers, but on the contrary, followed the principles recommended by the Prefect, Luce Villiard, in the address issued by him through the Maires to the peasants of the Côte d’Or department. M. Villiard said: “The country does not demand that you should collect in large masses and openly oppose the enemy. It expects that every morning three or four resolute men amongst you shall leave your villages and select some good natural position from which you can fire upon the Prussians without risk. You must above all direct your fire against the enemy’s cavalry, and bring their horses in to the chief district towns. I will distribute premiums amongst you, and your heroic deeds shall be published in all the newspapers of the Provinces as well as in the Official Journal.”

We have bombarded open cities, such as Orleans, but is M. de Chaudordy not aware that they were occupied by the enemy? And has he forgotten that the French bombarded the open towns of Saarbrücken and Kehl? Finally, as to the hostages who were obliged to accompany the railway trains, they were taken not to serve as a hindrance to French heroism, but as a precaution against treacherous crime. The railway does not convey merely soldiers, arms, ammunition and other war material, against which it may be allowable to use violent measures: it also conveys great numbers of wounded, doctors, hospital attendants and other perfectly harmless persons. Is a peasant or a franctireur to be allowed to endanger hundreds of those lives by removing a rail or laying a stone upon the line? Let the French see that the security of the railway trains is no longer threatened and the journeys made by those hostages will be merely outings, or our people may even be able to forgo such precautionary measures. We forbear to deal any further with the charges of M. de Chaudordy. The European Cabinets are aware of the humane sentiments which inspire German methods of warfare, and they will easily be able to form a just estimate of the value of these charges. War, moreover, is and remains war, and it cannot be waged with velvet gloves. We should perhaps less frequently employ the iron gloves if the Government of National Defence had not declared a people’s war, which invariably leads to greater harshness than a conflict between regular armies.

Bohlen, who is still unwell, Hatzfeldt, who is indisposed, and Keudell, who received a command to dine with the King, were absent from dinner. Count Holnstein and Prince Putbus were present as guests. The first subject to be touched upon was the Bavarian Treaty, which Holnstein expected would be approved of by the second Bavarian Chamber, in which a two-thirds majority was necessary. It was already known that there were only some forty members opposed to it. It was also practically certain that it would not be rejected by the Upper House.

“Thuengen will doubtless be in favour of it,” observed the Chief.

“I believe so,” replied Holnstein, “as he also voted in favour of joining in the war.”

“Yes,” said the Minister, “he is one of the honest Particularists; but there are some who are not honest and who have other objects in view.”

“Certainly,” added Holnstein. “Some of the patriots showed that quite clearly. They omitted the words, ‘For King and Country,’ retaining only ‘Mit Gott.’”

Putbus then referred to the approaching holidays, and said it would be a good idea to give the people in the hospital a Christmas tree. A collection had been started for that purpose, and 2,500 francs had already been received. “Pless and I put down our names,” he said. “The subscription list was then laid before the Grand Duke of Weimar, and he gave 300 francs; and the Coburger, who was then attacked, gave 200. He would certainly have been glad to get out of it. He should at least have contrived not to give more than Weimar or less than Pless.” “It must certainly have been very disagreeable to him,” said the Minister. Putbus: “But why? He is a rich man!” The Chief: “Very rich!” Putbus: “Why, certainly, he has come in for an enormous forest which is worth over a million.” The Chief: “The Crown Princess secured that for him through all sorts of stratagems, which she also tried on with me. But I have done with him. He shall never get my signature again.” Putbus: “Besides, 200 francs! He ought not to feel it so much. It is not much more than fifty thalers. But it is just like him!” Putbus then said they intended to submit the list of subscriptions to his Majesty, whereupon the Chief remarked: “Then you will also allow me to join.” Putbus afterwards added that Weimar had “not shown himself over-generous in other matters. He established an ambulance for his regiment, where a couple of officers are now being cared for. He demanded payment for their keep from the Commandant, which of course only the doctors are entitled to do.” “But surely they have not given it to him?” said the Chief. Putbus: “Oh, yes; they have though, but not without making some remarks on the subject that led to a great deal of bad language on his part.”

It was then mentioned that a French balloon had fallen down near Wetzlar and that Ducrot was said to be in it. “I suppose he will be shot then,” said Putbus. “No,” replied the Chief. “The common jail. Ten years’ penal servitude. If he is brought before a court-martial nothing will happen to him. But a Council of Honour would certainly condemn him. So I have been told by officers.”

“Any other news on military matters?” asked Putbus.

“Perhaps at the General Staff,” replied the Minister, “but we know nothing here. We only get such information as can be obtained by dint of begging, and that is little enough.”

Later on it was stated that the Government of National Defence was thinking of contracting a new loan. Turning to me, the Minister said: “It may be useful to call attention in the press to the danger investors run in lending money to this Government. It would be well to say that the loans made to the present Government might possibly not be recognised by that with which we concluded peace, and that we might even make that one of the conditions of the peace. That should be sent to the English and Belgian press in particular.”

Löwinsohn mentioned to me in the evening that a Conservative of high position, from whom he sometimes obtained information, had said to him that his friends were anxious to know what the King was going to say to the deputation from the Reichstag. It was understood that he was not pleased at their coming, as only the first Reichstag which would represent all Germany, and not the North German Reichstag, could tender him the imperial crown. (Doubtless the King is thinking less of the Reichstag, which cannot proffer him the imperial dignity independently, but only in concert with the Princes in the name of the whole people, than of the Princes themselves, all of whom will not as yet have replied to the proposal of the King of Bavaria.) Furthermore, this Conservative of high position would prefer to see the King become Emperor of Prussia. (A matter of taste.) Under the other arrangement Prussia will be lost in Germany, and that arouses scruples in his mind. Löwinsohn also reported that the Crown Prince is very indignant at certain correspondents who compared Châteaudun to Pompeii, and drew lively pictures of the devastation of the country owing to the war. I suggested to Löwinsohn that he should deal with the subject of the new French loan and that of “Chaudordy and Garibaldi’s ear-clippers” in the Indépendance Belge, with which he is connected. He promised to do this to-morrow.

An article for the Kölnische Zeitung on the new French loan was accordingly despatched in the following form:—

“Yet another loan! With wicked unconcern the gentlemen who now preside over the fortunes of France and who are plunging her deeper and deeper into moral and material ruin, are also trying to exploit foreign countries. This was to be anticipated for some time past, and we are therefore not surprised at it. We would, however, call the attention of the financial world to the very obvious dangers accompanying the advantages which will be offered to them. We will indicate there in a few words, in order to make the matter clear. High interest and a low rate of issue may be very tempting. But, on the other hand, the Government which makes this loan is recognised neither by the whole of France nor by a single European Power. Moreover, it should be remembered that we have already stated our intention that measures would be taken to prevent the repayment of certain loans which French municipalities tried to raise for the purposes of the war. We imagine that is a sufficient hint that the same principle might be applied on a larger scale. The French Government which concludes peace with Prussia and her allies (and that will presumably not be the present Government) will in all probability be bound, among other conditions of peace, not to recognise as binding the engagements for payment of interest and redemption of loans made by MM. Gambetta and Favre. The Government referred to will unquestionably have the right to do this, as those gentlemen, although it is true they speak in the name of France, have received no mission and no authority from the country. People should therefore be on their guard.”

Wollmann came up to me after 10 o’clock, and said that the deputation from the Reichstag had arrived. Their chairman, Simson, was now with the Chief, who would doubtless inform him of the King’s disinclination to receive them before all the Princes had sent letters declaring their approval. These letters would go first to the King of Bavaria, who would afterwards send them to our King. All the Princes had already telegraphed their approval—only Lippe still appeared to entertain scruples. Probably in consequence of this postponement it will be necessary for a few members of the deputation to fall ill.

Saturday, December 17th.—In the course of the forenoon I wrote a second paragraph on the new French loan.

In the afternoon wrote another article on the ever-increasing instances of French officers breaking their parole and absconding from the places where they were interned, and returning to France to take service against us again. Over fifty of these cases have occurred up to the present. They include officers of all ranks, and even three generals—namely, Ducrot, Cambriel, and Barral. After the battle of Sedan we could have rendered the army that was shut up in that fortress harmless by destroying it. Humanity, however, and faith in their pledged word induced us to forgo that measure. The capitulation was granted, and we were justified in considering that all the officers had agreed to its terms and were prepared to fulfil the conditions which it imposed. If that was not the case we ought to have been informed of the fact. We should then have treated those exceptions in an exceptional way, that is to say, not accorded to the officers in question the same treatment that was granted to the others. In other words, they would not have been allowed the liberty which they have now abused in such a disgraceful manner. It is true that the great majority of the captive officers have kept their word, and one might therefore have dismissed the matter with a shrug of the shoulders. But the affair assumes another aspect when the French Provisional Government approves this breach of their pledged word by reappointing such officers to the regiments that are opposing us in the field. Has there been a single case in which one of these deserters was refused readmission to the ranks of the French army? Or have any French officers protested against the readmission of such comrades into their corps? It is, therefore, not the Government alone, but also the officers of France, who consider this disgraceful conduct to be correct. The consequence, however, will be that the German Governments will feel bound in duty to consider whether the alleviation of their imprisonment hitherto accorded to French officers is consistent with the interests of Germany. And further, we must ask ourselves the question whether we shall be justified in placing confidence in any of the promises of the present French Government when it wants to treat with Germany, without material guarantees and pledges.

We were joined at dinner by Herr Arnim-Krochlendorff, a brother-in-law of the Chief, a gentleman of energetic aspect, and apparently a little over fifty. The Minister was in very good humour, but the conversation this time was not particularly interesting. It chiefly turned upon the bombardment, and the attitude assumed towards that question by a certain party at headquarters. Arnim related that when Grävenitz spoke to the Crown Prince on the matter, the latter exclaimed: “Impossible! nothing to be done; it would be to no purpose,” and when Grävenitz ventured to argue the point, the Prince declared: “Well, then, if you know better, do it! Bombard it yourself!” To which Grävenitz replied: “Your Royal Highness, I can only fire a feu de joie (ich kann nur Victoria schiessen).” The Chief remarked: “That sounds very equivocal.” The Crown Prince told me the same thing, viz., if I thought the bombardment would be successful, I had better take over the command. I replied that I should like to very much—for twenty-four hours, but not longer. He then added in French, doubtless on account of the servants: “For I do not understand anything about it, although I believe I know as much as he does, for he has no great knowledge of these matters.”

Sunday, December 18th.—At 2 o’clock the Chief drove off to the Prefecture for the purpose of introducing the deputation of the Reichstag to the King. The Princes residing in Versailles were in attendance upon his Majesty. After 2 o’clock the King, accompanied by the Heir Apparent and Princes Charles and Adalbert, entered the reception room where the other Princes, the Chancellor of the Confederation, and the Generals grouped themselves around him. Among those present were the Grand Dukes of Baden, Oldenburg and Weimar, the Dukes of Coburg and Meiningen, the three Hereditary Grand Dukes, Prince William of Würtemberg and a number of other princely personages. Simson delivered his address to the King, who answered very much in the sense that had been anticipated. A dinner of eighty covers, which was given at 5 o’clock, brought the ceremony to a close.

On our way back from the park Wollmann told me that the Chief had recently written to the King requesting to be permitted to take part in the councils of war. The answer, however, was that he had always been called to join in councils of a political nature, as in 1866, that a similar course would also be followed in future, and that he ought to be satisfied with that. (This story is probably not quite correct, for Wollmann is incapable of being absolutely accurate.)

Monday, December 19th.—I again wrote calling attention to the international revolution which arrays its guerilla bands and heroes of the barricades against us. The article was to the following effect. We understood at first that we were only fighting with France, and that was actually the case up to Sedan. After the 4th of September another power rose up against us, namely the universal Republic, an international association of cosmopolitan enthusiasts who dream of the United States of Europe, &c.

In the afternoon I took a walk in the park, in the course of which I twice met the Chief driving with Simson, the President of the Reichstag. The Minister was invited to dine with the Crown Prince at 7 o’clock, but first joined our table for half an hour. He spoke of his drive with Simson: “The last time he was here was after the July Revolution in 1830. I thought he would be interested in the park and the beautiful views, but he showed no sign of it. It would appear that he has no feeling for landscape beauty. There are many people of that kind. So far as I am aware, there are no Jewish landscape painters, indeed no Jewish painters at all.” Some one mentioned the names of Meyerheim and Bendemann. “Yes,” the Chief replied, “Meyerheim; but Bendemann had only Jewish grandparents. There are plenty of Jewish composers—Mendelssohn, Halevy—but painters! It is true that the Jew paints, but only when he is not obliged to earn his bread thereby.”

Abeken alluded to the sermon which Rogge preached yesterday in the palace church, and said that he had made too much of the Reichstag deputation. He then added some slighting remarks about the Reichstag in general. The Chief replied: “I am not at all of that opinion—not in the least. They have just voted us another hundred millions, and in spite of their doctrinaire views they have adopted the Versailles treaties, which must have cost many of them a hard struggle. We ought to place that, at least, to their credit.”

Abeken then talked about the events at Ems which preceded the outbreak of the war, and related that on one occasion, after a certain despatch had been sent off, the King said, “Well, he” (Bismarck) “will be satisfied with us now!” And Abeken added, “I believe you were.” “Well,” replied the Chancellor, laughing, “you may easily be mistaken. That is to say I was quite satisfied with you. But not quite as much with our Most Gracious, or rather not at all. He ought to have acted in a more dignified way—and more resolutely.” “I remember,” he continued, “how I received the news at Varzin. I had gone out, and on my return the first telegram had been delivered. As I started on my journey I had to pass our pastor’s house at Wussow. He was standing at his gate and saluted me. I said nothing, but made a thrust in the air—thus” (as if he were making a thrust with a sword). “He understood me, and I drove on.” The Minister then gave some particulars of the wavering and hesitation that went on up to a certain incident, which altered the complexion of things, and was followed by the declaration of war. “I expected to find another telegram in Berlin answering mine, but it had not arrived. In the meantime I invited Moltke and Roon to dine with me that evening, and to talk over the situation, which seemed to me to be growing more and more unsatisfactory. Whilst we were dining, another long telegram was brought in. As I read it to them—it must have been about two hundred words—they were both actually terrified, and Moltke’s whole being suddenly changed. He seemed to be quite old and infirm. It looked as if our Most Gracious might knuckle under after all. I asked him (Moltke) if, as things stood, we might hope to be victorious. On his replying in the affirmative, I said, ‘Wait a minute!’ and seating myself at a small table I boiled down those two hundred words to about twenty, but without otherwise altering or adding anything. It was Abeken’s telegram, yet something different—shorter, more determined, less dubious. I then handed it over to them, and asked, ‘Well, how does that do now?’ ‘Yes,’ they said, ‘it will do in that form.’ And Moltke immediately became quite young and fresh again. He had got his war, his trade. And the thing really succeeded. The French were fearfully angry at the condensed telegram as it appeared in the newspapers, and a couple of days later they declared war against us.”

The conversation then wandered back to Pomerania, and if I am not mistaken to Varzin, where the Chief had, he said, taken much interest in a Piedmontese who had remained behind after the great French wars. This man had raised himself to a position of consequence, and although originally a Catholic, had actually become a vestryman. The Minister mentioned other people who had settled and prospered in places where they had been accidentally left behind. There were also Italians taken as prisoners of war to a district in Further Pomerania, where they remained and founded families whose marked features still distinguish them from their neighbours.

The Minister did not return from the Crown Prince’s until past ten o’clock, and we then heard that the Crown Prince was coming to dine with us on the following evening.

Tuesday, December 20th.—On the instructions of the Chief I wrote two articles for circulation in Germany.

The first was as follows: “We have already found it necessary on several occasions to correct a misunderstanding or an intentional garbling of the words addressed by King William to the French people on the 11th of August last. We are now once more confronted with the same attempt to falsify history, and to our surprise in a publication by an otherwise respectable French historian. In a pamphlet entitled La France et la Prusse devant l’Europe, M. d’Haussonville puts forward an assertion which does little credit to his love of truth, or let us say his scientific accuracy. The whole pamphlet is shallow and superficial. It is full of exaggerations and errors, and of assertions that have no more value than mere baseless rumours. Of the gross blunders of the writer, who is obviously blinded by patriotic passion, we will only mention that, according to him, King William was on the throne during the Crimean War. But apart from this and other mistakes, we have here only to deal with his attempt to garble the proclamation issued to the French in August last, which, it may be observed, was written in French as well as in German, so that a misunderstanding would appear to be out of the question. According to M. d’Haussonville the King said: ‘I am only waging war against the Emperor and not at all against France.’ (Je ne fais la guerre qu’à l’Empereur, et nullement à la France.) As a matter of fact, however, the document in question says: ‘The German nation, which desired and still desires to live in peace with France, having been attacked at sea and on land by the Emperor Napoleon, I have taken the command of the German armies for the purpose of repelling this aggression. Owing to the course taken by the military operations, I have been led to cross the French frontier. I wage war against the soldiers and not against the citizens of France.’ (L’Empereur Napoléon ayant attaqué par terre et par mer la nation allemande, qui désirait et désire encore vivre en paix avec le peuple français, j’ai pris le commandement des armées allemandes pour repousser l’agression, et j’ai été amené par les événements militaires à passer les frontières de la France. Je fais la guerre aux soldats, et non aux citoyens français.) The next sentence excludes all possibility of mistake as to the meaning of the foregoing statement: ‘They (the French citizens) will accordingly continue to enjoy complete security of person and property so long as they themselves do not deprive me of the right to accord them my protection by acts of hostility against the German troops.’ (Ceux-ci continueront, par conséquent, à jouir d’une complète sécurité pour leur personnes et leur biens, aussi longtemps qu’ils ne me priveront eux-mêmes par des entreprises hostiles contre les troupes allemandes du droit de leur accorder ma protection.) There is, in our opinion, a very obvious difference between d’Haussonville’s quotation and the original proclamation, and no obscurity can possibly be discovered in the latter to excuse a mistake.”

The second item ran thus: “The Delegation from the Government of National Defence, which is at present in Bordeaux, has satisfied itself that further resistance to the German forces is useless, and it would, with the approval even of M. Gambetta, be prepared to conclude peace on the basis of the demands put forward by Germany. It is understood, however, that General Trochu has decided to continue the war. The Delegation entered into an engagement from Tours with General Trochu not to negotiate for peace without his consent. According to other reports General Trochu has had provisions for several months stored in the fortress of Mont Valérien, so that he may fall back upon that position after Paris has had to capitulate with a sufficient force to exercise influence upon the fate of France after the conclusion of peace. His object, it is believed, is to promote the interests of the Orleans family, of which General Trochu is understood to be an adherent.”

On my taking these paragraphs into the office to have them sent off, Keudell told me the Chief had agreed that henceforth all State papers received and despatched should be shown to me if I asked for them.

The Crown Prince and his aide-de-camp arrived shortly after six o’clock. The former had on his shoulder straps the badges of his new military rank as field-marshal. He sat at the head of the table, with the Chief on his right and Abeken on his left. After the soup the conversation first turned on the subject which I had this morning worked up for the press, namely, that according to a communication from Israel, the secretary of Laurier, who acts as agent for the Provisional Government in London, Gambetta no longer believed in the possibility of successful resistance, and was disposed to conclude peace on the basis of our demands. Trochu was the only member of the Government who wished to continue the struggle, but on his undertaking the defence of Paris, the others had bound themselves to act in concert with him in this respect.

The Chancellor observed: “He is understood to have had Mont Valérien provisioned for two months, so that he may fall back upon that position with the regular troops when it becomes necessary to surrender the city—probably in order to influence the conclusion of peace.” He then continued: “Indeed, I believe that France will break up into several pieces—the country is already split up into parties. There are great differences of opinion between the different districts. Legitimists in Brittany, Red Republicans in the south, and Moderate Republicans elsewhere, while the regular army is still for the Emperor, or at least the majority of the officers are. It is possible that each section will follow its own convictions, one being Republican, another Bourbon, and a third Orleanist, according to the party that happens to have the most adherents, and then Napoleon’s people—tetrarchies of Judea, Galilee, &c.”

The Crown Prince said it was believed that Paris must have a subterranean communication with the outer world. The Chief thought so too, and added: “But they cannot get provisions in that way, although, of course, they can receive news. I have been thinking whether it might not be possible to flood the catacombs from the Seine, and thus inundate the lower parts of the city. Of course the catacombs go under the Seine.”

The Chief then said that if Paris could be taken now it would produce a good effect upon public opinion in Bavaria, whence the reports were again unsatisfactory. Bray was not to be trusted, had not the interests of Germany at heart, inclined to the Ultramontanes, had a Neapolitan wife, felt happiest in his memories of Vienna, where he lived for a long time, and seemed disposed to tack about again. “The King is, after all, the best of them all in the upper circles,” said the Chancellor, “but he seems to be in bad health and eccentric, and nobody knows what may yet happen.” “Yes, indeed,” said the Crown Prince. “How bright and handsome he was formerly—a little too slight, but otherwise the very ideal of a young man. Now his complexion is yellow, and he looks old. I was quite shocked when I saw him.” “The last time I saw him,” said the Chancellor, “was at his mother’s at Nymphenburg, in 1863, when the Congress of Princes was being held. Even at that time he had a strange look in his eyes. I remember that, when dining, he on one occasion drank no wine, and on another took eight or ten glasses—not at intervals, but hastily, one glass after another, at one draught, so that the servant scarcely liked to keep on filling his glass.”

The conversation then turned on the Bavarian Prince Charles, who was said to be strongly anti-Prussian, but too old and feeble to be very dangerous to the cause of German unity. Some one remarked: “Nature has very little to do with him as it is.” “That reminds me of old Count Adlerberg,” said the Minister, “who was also mostly artificial—hair, teeth, calves, and one eye. When he wanted to get up in the morning all his best parts lay on chairs and tables near the bed. You remember the newly-married man in the Fliegende Blätter who watched his bride take herself to pieces, lay her hair on the toilet table, her teeth on the chimney-piece, and other fragments elsewhere, and then exclaimed, ‘But what remains for me?’” Moreover, Adlerberg, he went on to say, was a terrible bore, and it was owing to him that Countess Bismarck once fainted at a diplomatic dinner where she was seated between him and Stieglitz. “She always faints when she is exceptionally bored, and for that reason I never take her with me to diplomatic dinners.” “That is a pretty compliment for the diplomats,” observed the Crown Prince.

The Chief then related that one evening, not long ago, the sentry on guard at the Crown Prince’s quarters did not want to let him go in, and only agreed to do so on his addressing him in Polish. “A few days ago I also tried to talk Polish with the soldiers in the hospital, and they brightened up wonderfully on hearing a gentleman speak their mother tongue. It is a pity that my vocabulary was exhausted. It would, perhaps, be a good thing if their commander-in-chief could speak to them.” “There you are, Bismarck, coming back to the old story,” said the Crown Prince, smiling. “No, I don’t like Polish and I won’t learn it. I do not like the people.” “But, your Royal Highness, they are, after all, good soldiers and honest fellows when they have been taught to wash themselves and not to pilfer.” The Crown Prince: “Yes, but when they cast off the soldier’s tunic they are just what they were before, and at bottom they are and still remain hostile to us.” The Chief: “As to their hostility, that only applies to the nobles and their labourers, and all that class. A noble, who has nothing himself, feeds a crowd of people, servants of all sorts, who also belong to the minor nobility, although they act as his domestics, overseers, and clerks. These stand by him when he rises in rebellion, and also the Komorniks, or day labourers.... The independent peasantry does not join them, however, even when egged on by the priests, who are always against us. We have seen that in Posen, when the Polish regiments had to be removed merely because they were too cruel to their own fellow countrymen.... I remember at our place in Pomerania there was a market, attended, on one occasion, by a number of Kassubes (Pomeranian Poles). A quarrel broke out between one of them and a German, who refused to sell him a cow because he was a Pole. The Kassube was mortally offended, and shouted out: ‘You say I’m a Polack. No, I’m just as much a Prussack as yourself;’ and then, as other Germans and Poles joined in, it soon developed into a beautiful free fight.”

The Chief then added that the Great Elector spoke Polish as well as German, and that his successors also understood that language. Frederick the Great was the first who did not learn it, but then he also spoke better French than German. “That may be,” said the Crown Prince, “but I am not going to learn Polish. I do not like it. They must learn German.” With this remark the subject was allowed to drop.

At dessert the Crown Prince, after asking if he might smoke a pipe, pulled out a short one with a porcelain bowl, on which an eagle was painted, while the rest of us lit our cigars.

After dinner the Crown Prince and the Minister retired with the Councillors to the drawing-room, where they took coffee. Later on we were all sent for, and formally presented to the future Emperor by the Chief. We had to wait for about a quarter of an hour while the Chancellor was deep in conversation with the Crown Prince. His august guest stood in the corner near one of the windows. The Chief spoke to him in a low tone, with his eyes mostly cast down, while the Crown Prince listened with a serious and almost sullen look.

After the presentation I returned to the bureau, where I read the diplomatic reports and drafts of the last few days, amongst others the draft of the King’s reply to the Reichstag deputation. This had been prepared by Abeken, and greatly altered by the Chief. Then an instruction from the Minister to the Foreign Office to the effect that if the Provinzial-Correspondenz should again contain a commendation of Gambetta’s energy or anything of that kind, every possible means should be immediately employed to prevent the publication. Also a report from Prince Reuss to the effect that Gortschakoff had replied in a negative sense to a sentimental communication of Gabriac’s, adding that all the Russian Cabinet could do for the French at present was to act as letter-carrier in conveying their wishes to the Prussian Government.

At tea Hatzfeldt told me he had been trying to decipher a Dutch report from Van Zuylen, which had been brought out with Washburne’s mail, and had succeeded, though there were still a few doubtful points. He then showed it to me, and together we contrived to puzzle out some more of it. The despatch seems to be based throughout on good information, and to give a faithful account of the situation.

At 10.30 P.M. summoned to the Chief, who wants the Moniteur to mention Gambetta’s inclination to forgo further resistance and Trochu’s plan respecting Mont Valérien.

Wednesday, December 21st.—At dinner the Chief spoke of his great-grandfather, who, if I rightly understood him, fell at Czaslau. “The old people at our place often described him to my father. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord, and a great toper. Once in a single year he shot 154 red deer, a feat which Prince Frederick Charles will scarcely emulate, although the Duke of Dessau might. I remember being told that when he was stationed at Gollnow, the officers messed together, the Colonel presiding over the kitchen. It was the custom there for five or six dragoons to march in and fire a volley from their carbines at each toast. Altogether they had very curious customs. For instance, instead of a plank bed they had as a punishment a so-called wooden donkey with sharp edges, upon which the men who had been guilty of any breach of discipline were obliged to sit, often for a couple of hours—a very painful punishment. On the birthday of the Colonel or of other officers, the soldiers always carried this donkey to the bridge and threw it into the river. But a new one was invariably provided. The Burgomaster’s wife told my father that it must have been renewed a hundred times. I have a portrait of this great-grandfather in Berlin. I am the very image of him, that is to say, I was when I was young—when I saw myself in the looking-glass.”

The Minister then related that it was owing to a relative of his, Finanzrath Kerl, that he was sent to Göttingen University. He was consigned to Professor Hausmann, and was to study mineralogy. “They were thinking, no doubt, of Leopold von Buch, and fancied it would be fine for me to go through the world like him, hammer in hand, chipping pieces off the rocks. Things, however, turned out differently. It would have been better if I had been sent to Bonn, where I should have met countrymen of my own. At Göttingen I had no one from my own part of the country, and so I met none of my University acquaintances again until I saw a few of them in the Reichstag.”

Abeken said that after a brisk fire from the forts this morning there had been a sortie of the Paris garrison, which was principally directed against the positions occupied by the Guards. It was, however, scarcely more than an artillery engagement, as the attack was known beforehand and preparations had been made to meet it. Hatzfeldt said he should like to know how they were able to discover that a sortie was going to take place. It was suggested that in the open country movements of transport and guns could not escape detection, as large masses of troops could not be concentrated on the point of attack in one night. “That was quite true,” observed the Chief, with a laugh; “but often a hundred louis d’ors also form an important part of this military prescience.”

After dinner I read drafts and despatches, from which I ascertained, amongst other things, that as early as the 1st of September, Prussia had intimated in St. Petersburg that she would put no difficulties in the way of such action in the matter of the Black Sea as has now been taken.

Later on I arranged that Löwinsohn should deal with the Gambetta-Trochu question in the Indépendance Belge. Also informed him that Delbrück would be here again on the 28th inst.

Thursday, December 22nd.—This time there were no strangers at dinner. The Chief was in excellent spirits, but the conversation was of no special importance.

A reference was made to yesterday’s sortie, and the Chief remarked: “The French came out yesterday with three divisions, and we had only fifteen companies, not even four battalions, and yet we made nearly a thousand prisoners. The Parisians with their attacks, now here and now there, remind me of a French dancing master conducting a quadrille.

Later on the Chief remarked: “Our august master is not at all pleased at the idea of Antonelli at length deciding to come here. He is uneasy about it. I am not.” Abeken said: “The newspapers express very different opinions about Antonelli. At one time he is described as a man of great intelligence and acumen; then again as a sly intriguer, and shortly afterwards as a stupid fellow and a blockhead.” The Chief replied: “It is not in the press alone that you meet with such contradictions. It is the same with many diplomats. Goltz and our Harry (von Arnim). We will leave Goltz out of the question—that was different. But Harry—to-day this way and to-morrow that! When I used to read a number of his reports together at Varzin, I found his opinion of people change entirely a couple of times every week, according as he had met with a friendly or unfriendly reception. As a matter of fact, he sent different opinions by every post, and often by the same post.”

Afterwards read reports from Rome, London, and Constantinople, and the replies sent to them. According to Arnim’s despatch, Monsignor Franchi informed him that the Pope and Antonelli wished to send a mission to Versailles to congratulate the King on his accession to the imperial dignity, and at the same time to induce the French clergy to promote the liberation of the country from Gambetta, and the negotiation of peace with us on the basis of a cession of territory. In certain circumstances Antonelli himself would undertake the task, in which the Archbishop of Tours had failed, of securing an acceptable peace. In reply to this communication Arnim was informed that it was still uncertain whether Bavaria would agree to the scheme of Emperor and Empire. We should, nevertheless, carry it through. But, in that case, its chief support having been found in public opinion, the (mainly Ultramontane) elements of resistance would be in still more marked opposition to the new Germany. Bernstorff reports that the former Imperial Minister, Duvernois, had called upon him at Eugénie’s instance and suggested a cession of territory to us equal in extent to that acquired by the Empire in Nice and Savoy. The Empress wished to issue a proclamation. Persigny was of a different opinion, as he considered the Empress to be impossible. Bonnechose, the Archbishop of Rouen, expressed a similar opinion to Manteuffel. The reply sent to Bernstorff was that we could not negotiate with the Empress (who, moreover, does not appear to be reliable or politically capable), unless Persigny was in agreement with her, and that Duvernois’ overture was unpractical. Aali Pasha is prepared to agree to the abolition of the neutrality of the Black Sea, but demands in compensation the full sovereignty of the Porte over the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. This was telegraphed by us to St. Petersburg, and there agreed to; whereupon Brunnow (the Russian Ambassador in London) received the necessary instructions in the matter.

Friday, December 23rd.—It was mentioned at dinner that General von Voigts-Rhetz was outside Tours, the inhabitants having offered so much resistance that it was found necessary to shell the town. The Chief added, “He ought not to have stopped firing when they hoisted the white flag. I would have continued to shell them until they sent out four hundred hostages.” He again condemned the leniency of the officers towards civilians who offer resistance. Even notorious treachery was scarcely punished as it ought to be, and so the French imagined that they could do what they liked against us. “Here is, for instance, this Colonel Krohn,” he continued. “He first has a lawyer tried for aiding and abetting franctireurs, and then, when he sees him condemned, he sends in first one and then another petition for mercy, instead of letting the man be shot, and finally despatches the wife to me with a safe conduct. Yet he is generally supposed to be an energetic officer and a strict disciplinarian, but he can hardly be quite right in his head.”

From the discussion of this foolish leniency the conversation turned on General von Unger, Chief of the Staff to the 7th Army Corps, who had gone out of his mind, and had to be sent home. He is, it seems, generally moody and silent, but occasionally breaks out into loud weeping. “Yes,” sighed the Chief, “officers in that position are terribly harassed. Constantly at work, always responsible, and yet unable to get things done, and hampered by intrigue. Almost as bad as a Minister. I know that sort of crying myself. It is over-excitement of the nerves, hysterical weeping. I, too, had it at Nikolsburg, and badly. A Minister is just as badly treated—all sorts of worries—an incessant plague of midges. Other things can be borne, but one must be properly treated. I cannot endure shabby treatment. If I were not treated with courtesy, I should be inclined to throw my riband of the Black Eagle into the dustbin.”

The Versailles Moniteur having been mentioned, the Chief observed: “Last week they published a novel by Heyse, the scene of which is laid in Meran. Such sentimental twaddle is quite out of place in a paper published at the cost of the King, which after all this one is. The Versailles people do not want that either. They look for political news and military intelligence from France, from England, or, if you like, from Italy, but not such namby-pamby trash. I have also a touch of poetry in my nature, but the first few sentences of that stuff were enough for me.” Abeken, at whose instance the novel was published, stood up for the editor, and said the story had been taken from the Revue des Deux Mondes, an admittedly high-class periodical. The Chief, however, stuck to his own opinion. Somebody remarked that the Moniteur was now written in better French. “It may be,” said the Minister, “but that is a minor point. However, we are Germans, and as such we always ask ourselves, even in the most exalted regions, if we please our neighbours and if what we do is to their satisfaction. If they do not understand, let them learn German. It is a matter of indifference whether a proclamation is written in a good French style or not, so long as it is otherwise adequate and intelligible. Moreover, we cannot expect to be masters of a foreign language. A person who has only used it occasionally for some two and a half years cannot possibly express himself as well as one who has used it for fifty-four years.” Steinmetz’s proclamation then received some ironical praise, and a couple of extraordinary expressions were quoted from it. Lehndorff said: “It was not first-class French, but it was, at any rate, intelligible.” The Chief: “Yes, it is their business to understand it. If they cannot, let them find some one to translate it for them. Those people who fancy themselves merely because they speak good French are of no use to us. But that is our misfortune. Whoever cannot speak decent German is a made man, especially if he can murder English. Old —— (I understood: Meyendorff) once said to me: ‘Don’t trust any Englishman who speaks French with a correct accent.’ I have generally found that true. But I must make an exception in favour of Odo Russell.”

The name of Napoleon III. then came up. The Chief regarded him as a man of limited intelligence. “He is much more good-natured and much less acute than is usually believed.” “Why,” interrupted Lehndorff, “that is just what some one said of Napoleon I.: ‘a good honest fellow, but a fool.’” “But seriously,” continued the Chief, “whatever one may think of the coup d’état he is really good-natured, sensitive, even sentimental, while his intellect is not brilliant and his knowledge limited. He is a specially poor hand at geography, although he was educated in Germany, even going to school there,—and he entertains all sorts of visionary ideas. In July last he spent three days shilly-shallying without being able to come to a decision, and even now he does not know what he wants. People would not believe me when I told them so a long time ago. Already in 1854–55 I told the King, Napoleon has no notion of what we are. When I became Minister I had a conversation with him in Paris. He believed there would certainly be a rising in Berlin before long and a revolution all over the country, and in a plebiscite the King would have the whole people against him. I told him then that our people do not throw up barricades, and that revolutions in Prussia are only made by the Kings. If the King could only bear the strain for three or four years he would carry his point. Of course the alienation of public sympathy was unpleasant and inconvenient. But if the King did not grow tired and leave me in the lurch I should not fail. If an appeal were made to the population, and a plebiscite were taken, nine-tenths of them would vote for the King. At that time the Emperor said of me: ‘Ce n’est pas un homme sérieux.’ Of course I did not remind him of that in the weaver’s house at Donchery.”

Somebody then mentioned that letters to Favre began “Monsieur le Ministre,” whereupon the Chief said: “The next time I write to him I shall begin Hochwohlgeborner Herr!” This led to a Byzantine discussion of titles and forms of address, Excellenz, Hochwohlgeboren, and Wohlgeboren. The Chancellor entertained decidedly anti-Byzantine views. “All that should be dropped,” he said. “I do not use those expressions any longer in private letters, and officially I address councillors down to the third class as Hochwohlgeboren.”

Abeken, a Byzantine of the purest water, declared that diplomats had already resented the occasional omission of portions of their titles, and that only councillors of the second class were entitled to Hochwohlgeboren. “Well,” said the Chief, “I want to see all that kind of thing done away with as far as we are concerned. In that way we waste an ocean of ink in the course of the year, and the taxpayer has good reason to complain of extravagance. I am quite satisfied to be addressed simply as ‘Minister President Count von Bismarck.’”

Saturday, December 24.—Bucher told us at lunch he had heard from Berlin that the Queen and the Crown Princess had become very unpopular, owing to their intervention on behalf of Paris; and that the Princess, in the course of a conversation with Putbus, struck the table and exclaimed: “For all that, Paris shall not be bombarded!”

We are joined at dinner by Lieutenant-Colonel von Beckedorff, an old and intimate friend of the Chief, who said to him: “If I had been an officer—I wish I were—I should now have an army and we should not be here outside Paris.” He proceeded to give reasons for believing that it was a mistake to have waited and invested Paris. With regard to the operations of the last few weeks, he criticised the advance of the army so far to the north and south-west and the intention of advancing still further. “If it should become necessary to retire from Rouen and Tours, the French will think they have beaten us. It is an unpractical course to march on every place where a mob has been collected. We ought to remain within a certain line. It may be urged that in that case the French would be able to carry on their organisation beyond that line. But they will always be able to do that even if we advance, and we may be obliged ultimately to follow them to the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean.” “When we were still at Mainz, I thought that the best plan would be for us to take what we wanted to keep and occupy some five other departments as a pledge for the payment of the cost of the war, and then let the French try to drive us out of our positions.”

A further discussion of the conduct of the war followed, in the course of which the Chief remarked: “With us it occasionally happens that it is not so much the generals who begin and direct the course of battles as the troops themselves. Just as it was with the Greeks and Trojans. A couple of men jeer at each other and come to blows, lances are flourished, others rush in with their spears, and so it finally comes to a pitched battle. First the outposts fire without any necessity, then if all goes well others press forward after them; at the start a non-commissioned officer commands a batch of men, then a lieutenant advances with more men, after him comes the regiment, and finally the general must follow with all the troops that are left. It was in that way that the battle of Spicheren began, and also that of Gravelotte, which properly speaking should not have taken place until the 19th. It was different at Vionville. There our people had to spring at the French like bulldogs and hold them fast. At St. Privat the Guards made a foolish attack merely out of professional jealousy of the Saxons, and then when it failed threw the blame on the Saxon troops, who could not have come a minute sooner with the long march they had had to make, and who afterwards rescued them with wonderful gallantry.”

Later on I was summoned to see the Chief. Various articles are to be written on the barbarous manner in which the French are conducting the war—and not merely the franctireurs, but also the regulars, who are almost daily guilty of breaches of the Geneva Convention. The French appear only to know, and appeal to, those clauses that are advantageous to themselves. In this connection should be mentioned the firing at flags of truce, the ill-treatment and plundering of doctors and hospital bearers and attendants, the murder of wounded soldiers, the misuse of the Geneva Cross by franctireurs, the employment of explosive bullets, and the treatment of German ships and crews by French cruisers in breach of the law of nations. The conclusion to be as follows:—The present French Government is greatly to blame for all this. It has instigated a popular war and can no longer check the passions it has let loose, which disregard international law and the rules of war. They are responsible for all the severity which we are obliged to employ against our own inclinations and contrary to our nature and habits, as shown in the conduct of the Schleswig and Austrian campaigns.

At 10 P.M. the Chief received the first class of the Iron Cross.

At tea Hatzfeldt informs me that he is instructed to collect all the particulars published by the newspapers respecting the cruelties of the French, and asks whether I would not prefer to undertake that task. After I promised to do so, he continued: “Moreover, I believe the Chief only sent for me in order to tell me his opinion of the new decoration.” He said to Hatzfeldt: “I have already enough of these gewgaws, and here is the good King sending me the first class of the Iron Cross. I shall be thoroughly ridiculous with it, and look as if I had won a great battle. If I could at least send my son the second class which I no longer want!”

Sunday, December 25th.—Cardinal Bonnechose of Rouen is said to be coming here. He and Persigny want to convoke the old Legislative Assembly, and still more the Senate, which is composed of calmer and riper elements, in order to discuss the question of peace. The Chief is believed to have made representations to the King respecting the expediency, on political grounds, of greater concentration in the military operations.

We had no guests at dinner, and the conversation was, for the most part, not worth repeating. The following may, however, be noted. Abeken said he had observed that I was keeping a very complete diary, and Bohlen added in his own lively style: “Yes, he writes down: ‘At 45 minutes past 3 o’clock Count or Baron So-and-so said this or that,’ as if he were going to swear to it at some future time.” Abeken said: “That will one day be material for history. If one could only live to read it!” I replied that it would certainly furnish material for history, and very trustworthy material, but not for thirty years to come. The Chief smiled and said: “Yes, and the reference will then be: ‘Conferas Buschii, cap. 3, p. 20.’”

After dinner I read State documents and ascertained from them that an extension of the German frontier towards the west was first officially submitted to the King, at Herny, on the 14th of August. It was only on the 2nd September that the Baden Government sent in a memorial in the same sense.

Monday, December 26th.—Waldersee dined with us. The conversation was almost entirely on military subjects. With respect to the further conduct of the war, the Chief said that the wisest course would be to concentrate our forces in Alsace-Lorraine, the department of the Meuse, and another neighbouring department, which would amount to a strip of territory with about 2,600,000 inhabitants. If one took in a few other departments in addition, without Paris, it would amount to about seven millions, or with Paris to about nine million inhabitants. In any case the operations should be limited to a smaller area than that occupied by our armies at present.

People’s ability to carry liquor was then discussed, and the Chief observed: “Formerly drink did not affect me in the least. When I think of my performances in that line! The strong wines, particularly Burgundy!” The conversation afterwards turned for a while on card-playing, and the Minister remarked that he had also done a good deal in that way formerly. He had once played twenty-one rubbers of whist, for instance, one after the other—“which amounts to seven hours time.” He could only feel an interest in cards when playing for high stakes, and then it was not a proper thing for the father of a family.

This subject had been introduced by a remark of the Chief’s that somebody was a “Riemchenstecher.” He asked if we understood what the word meant, and then proceeded to explain it. “Riemchenstechen” is an old soldiers’ game, and a “Riemchenstecher” is not exactly a scamp, but rather a sly, sharp fellow. The Minister then related how he had seen a father do his own son at cards out of a sum of twelve thousand thalers. “I saw him cheat, and made a sign to the son, who understood me. He lost the game and paid, although it cost him two years’ income. But he never played again.”

After dinner wrote another article on the barbarity with which the French wage war, and cut out for the King an article from the Staatsbuergerzeitung, recommending a less considerate treatment of the enemy.