GROWING DESIRE FOR A DECISION IN VARIOUS DIRECTIONS
_Wednesday, November 16th._--The Chief is still unwell. One of the
causes is supposed to be his mortification at the course of the
negotiations with the South German States (which once more seem as if
they would come to a standstill) and at the conduct of the military
authorities, who have on various occasions neglected to consult him,
although the matters dealt with were not merely military questions.
Count Waldersee dines with us. The Chief complains once more that
the military authorities are proceeding too slowly for him, and do
not inform him of all matters of importance. He had only succeeded,
“after repeated requests,” in getting them to send him at least
those particulars which they telegraph to the German newspapers. It
was different in 1866. He was then present at all councils, and his
view was frequently accepted. For instance, it was due to him that a
direct attack upon Vienna was given up, and that the army marched on
to the Hungarian frontier. “And that is only as it should be. It is
necessary for my business. I must be informed of the course of military
operations, in order that I may know the proper time at which to
conclude peace.”
_Thursday, November 17th._--Alten and Prince Radziwill are the Chief’s
guests at dinner. A rumour is mentioned to the effect that Garibaldi
and 13,000 of his volunteers have been made prisoners. The Minister
observed: “That is really disheartening--to make prisoners of 13,000
franctireurs who are not even Frenchmen! Why have they not been shot?”
He then complained that the military authorities so seldom consulted
him. “This capitulation of Verdun, for instance--I should certainly
not have advised that. To undertake to return their arms after peace
had been concluded, and still more to let French officials continue
the administration as they please. The first condition might pass, as
the conditions of peace might provide that the weapons should not be
returned. But that _librement_! It ties our hands in the interval,
even should they place all kinds of obstacles in our way and act as
if there were absolutely no war. They can openly stir up a rising in
favour of the Republic, and under this agreement we can do nothing
to prevent them.” After dwelling upon this topic for some time, the
Minister concluded by saying: “At all events, such a capitulation is
unprecedented in history.”
Some one referred to the article written by a diplomat in the
_Indépendance Belge_ prophesying the restoration of Napoleon. “No
doubt,” observed the Chancellor, “Napoleon fancies something of the
kind will happen. Moreover, it is not entirely impossible. If he made
peace with us he might return with the troops he has now in Germany.
Something in the style of Klapka’s Hungarian Legion on a grand scale,
to work in co-operation with us. And then his Government is still the
legal one. Order being once restored, he would at the outside require
an army of 200,000 men for its maintenance. With the exception of
Paris, it would not be necessary to garrison the large towns with
troops. Perhaps Lyons and Marseilles. The National Guards would be
sufficient for the protection of the others. If the republicans were to
rise in rebellion they could be bombarded and shelled out.”
A telegram reporting Granville’s statement with regard to the Russian
declaration concerning the Peace of Paris was sent by the King to
the Chief, who read it over to us. It was to the effect that Russia,
in taking upon herself to denounce a portion of the Treaty of 1856,
assumed the right to set aside the whole on her own initiative, a right
which was only possessed by the signatory Powers collectively. England
could not tolerate such an arbitrary course, which threatened the
validity of all treaties. Future complications were to be apprehended.
The Minister smiled, and said: “Future complications! Parliamentary
speech-makers! They are not going to venture. The whole tone is also
in the future. That is the way in which one speaks when he does not
mean to do anything. No, there is nothing to be feared from them now,
as there was nothing to be hoped from them four months ago. If at the
beginning of the war the English had said to Napoleon, ‘There must be
no war,’ there would have been none.”
After a while the Minister continued: “Gortschakoff is not carrying
on in this matter a real Russian policy (that is, one in the true
interests of Russia), but rather a policy of violent aggression. People
still believe that Russian diplomats are particularly crafty and
clever, full of artifices and stratagems, but that is not the case.
If the people at St. Petersburg were clever they would not make any
declaration of the kind, but would quietly build men-of-war in the
Black Sea and wait until they were questioned on the subject. Then they
might reply that they knew nothing about it, but would make inquiries,
and so let the matter drag on. That might continue for a long time, and
finally people would get accustomed to it.”
Another telegram announced the election of the Duke of Aosta as King of
Spain. The Chief said: “I pity him--and them. He is, moreover, elected
by a small majority--not by the two-thirds originally intended. There
were 190 votes for him and 115 against.” Alten was pleased that the
monarchical sentiments of the Spaniards had ultimately prevailed. “Ah,
those Spaniards!” exclaimed the Chief. “They have no sense of what
is honourable or becoming! They showed that on the outbreak of this
war. If only one of those Castilians who pretend to have a monopoly of
the sense of honour had but expressed his indignation at the cause of
the present war, which was after all Napoleon’s intervention in their
previous election of a king, interfering with their free choice and
treating them as vassals!... As a matter of fact, these Spaniards are
all mere Angelo de Mirandas,--he was formerly a card sharper, and then
confidant of Prim’s and probably also of the King’s.” After the Chief
had made some further remarks, some one said that it was now all over
with the candidature of the Prince of Hohenzollern. “Yes,” replied the
Chief, “but only because he wishes it to be so. A couple of weeks ago
I told him that it was still time. But he no longer wanted to go on.”
_Saturday, November 19th._--We were joined at dinner by General von
Werder, the Prussian Military Plenipotentiary at St. Petersburg.
The Chief, who looked very pleased, said, shortly after entering
the dining-room: “Well, we shall probably be able to come to an
understanding with Bavaria.” “Yes,” exclaimed Bohlen, “something of
that kind has already been telegraphed to one of the Berlin papers.”
“I am sorry for that,” replied the Minister; “it is premature. But of
course, wherever there is a mob of princes who have nothing to do and
who feel bored, nothing can be kept secret!”
The conversation then turned on Vienna and Count Beust. The Chief said
Beust had apologised for the recent discourteous note. It was written
by Biegeleben, and not by himself. The reference to Biegeleben led
to the discussion of the Gagern family and to the once celebrated
Heinrich von Gagern (President of the Reichstag in the Paulskirche at
Frankfurt). “I remember,” the Chief said, “in 1850 or 1851, Manteuffel
was instructed to bring about an understanding between the Gagern and
the Conservative sections of the Prussian party--at least, as far as
the King was disposed to go in the cause of German unity. Manteuffel
selected Gagern and myself for this purpose, and so we were both
invited one day to a _souper à trois_ at his place. At first there was
little or no mention of politics, but Manteuffel afterwards made some
excuse for leaving us alone. When he left I immediately began to talk
politics, explaining my standpoint to Gagern in a plain, business-like
way. You should have heard Gagern! He assumed his Jove-like aspect,
lifted his eyebrows, ran his fingers through his hair, rolled his eyes
and cast them up to heaven so perpendicularly that you could hear the
joints in his neck crack, and poured out his grand phrases to me as if
I were a public meeting. Of course, that did not help him much with
me. I replied coolly, and we remained divided as before. When Jupiter
had retired, Manteuffel asked, ‘Well, what arrangement have you come to
together?’ ‘Oh,’ I replied, ‘no arrangement at all. The man is a fool.
He takes me for a public meeting! A mere watering-can of fine phrases!
Nothing can be done with him.’”
The subject of the bombardment having been introduced, the Chief said:
“I told the King again yesterday that it was time to begin, and he had
no objection to make. He replied that he had given orders to begin, but
that the generals said they could not. I know exactly how it is. It is
Stosch, Treskow, and Podbielski.”
Some one asked: “And Hindersin?”
“He is also against it,” said the Chief. “Podbielski” (so I understood
him to say) “could be brought round. But the other two are influenced
by considerations affecting their own future.”
It appeared from some further remarks of the Minister that, in his
opinion, first Queen Victoria, and then, at her instance the Crown
Princess, and, finally, the Crown Prince, persuaded by his consort,
will not have Paris bombarded; while the generals “cannot” bombard
the city out of consideration for the views of the Crown Prince, who
will, of course, be the future King, and will have the appointment of
Ministers of War, commandants of army corps, and field marshals.
The late General von Möllendorff having been mentioned, the Minister
related the following anecdote: “I remember after the March rising,
when the King and the troops were at Potsdam, I went there too. A
council was being held as to what was to be done. Möllendorff was
present, and sat not far from me. He seemed to be in pain, and could
scarcely sit down for the beating he had received. All kinds of
suggestions were made, but no one knew exactly what was to be done. I
sat near the piano and said nothing, but played a few bars” (he hummed
the opening of the infantry march for the charge). “Old Möllendorff
suddenly stood up, his face beaming with pleasure, and, hobbling over,
threw his arms round my neck, and said: ‘That’s right. I know what you
mean. March on Berlin!’ There was nothing to be done with the King,
however, and the others had not the pluck.”
After a while the Chancellor asked Werder: “How much does each visit
to the Tsar cost you?” I do not know what Werder’s answer was, but
the Chief went on: “It was always a rather costly business for
me--particularly in Zarskoje. There I had always to pay from 15 to 20
and sometimes 25 roubles, according as I drove out to see the Emperor
with or without an invitation. It was always more expensive in the
former case. I had to fee the coachman and footman who brought me, the
majordomo who received me--he wore a sword when I came on invitation,
and then the running footman who conducted me through the whole length
of the castle--it must be about a thousand yards--to the Emperor’s
apartments. Well, he really earned his five roubles. And one never
got the same coachman twice. I could never recover these expenses. We
Prussians were altogether badly paid. Twenty-five thousand thalers
salary and 8,000 thalers for rent. For that sum I certainly had a house
as large and fine as any palace in Berlin. But all the furniture was
old, shabby, and faded, and when I had paid for repairs and other odds
and ends it cost me 9,000 a year. I found, however, that I was not
obliged to spend more than my salary, and so I helped myself out of
the difficulty by not entertaining. The French Minister had 300,000
francs, and was in addition allowed to charge his Government with the
expense of any receptions which he chose to look upon as official.”
“But you had at least free firing,” said Werder, “and at St. Petersburg
that amounts to something considerable in the course of the year.”
“Excuse me, but I had not,” replied the Chief, “I was obliged to pay
for that too. Food would not have been so dear if the officials had not
made it so. I remember once seeing some very good timber in a Finnish
boat. I asked the peasants what the price was and they mentioned a
very moderate figure. But when I wanted to buy it they asked if it was
for the Treasury (he used the Russian term). I was imprudent enough
to reply that it was not for the Imperial Treasury (he again used
the Russian words) but for the Royal Prussian Legation. When I came
back to have the wood removed they had disappeared. Had I given them
the address of a tradesman, with whom I could afterwards have made
an arrangement, I might have got the wood at a third of the price I
usually paid. They evidently regarded the Prussian Minister as one of
the Tsar’s officials and thought to themselves: ‘No, when it comes to
payment he will say that we have stolen the wood, and have us locked
up until we give it to him for nothing.’” The Chief then gave some
instances of the way in which the Tschinowniks harassed and exploited
the peasantry, and afterwards returned to the subject of the poor pay
of Prussian Ministers as compared with those of other countries. “It is
just the same in Berlin,” he said. “The Prussian Minister has 10,000
thalers, but the English Ambassador has 63,000, and the Russian 44,000,
while the latter’s Government bears the cost of all entertainments,
and if the Tsar stays with him he usually receives a full year’s salary
as compensation. Of course, in such circumstances, we cannot keep pace
with them.”
_Tuesday, November 22nd._--Prince Pless, Major von Alten, and a
Count Stolberg dine with us. Mention is made of a great discovery of
first-rate wine in a cellar near Bougival, which has been confiscated
in accordance with the laws of war. Bohlen complains that none of it
has reached us. Altogether the Foreign Office is as badly provided as
possible. Care is always taken to set apart the most uncomfortable
lodgings for the Chief, and they have been invariably lucky in finding
such. “Yes,” said the Chancellor, laughing, “it is pure churlishness
on their part to treat me like that. And so ungrateful, as I have
always looked after their interests in the Diet. But they shall see me
thoroughly transformed. I started for the war devoted to the military,
but I shall go home a convinced Parliamentarian. No more military
budgets.”
Prince Pless praises the Würtemberg troops. They make an excellent
impression and come next to our own in the matter of military
bearing. The Chancellor agrees but thinks the Bavarians also deserve
commendation. He appears to be particularly pleased at the summary
way in which they shoot down the “franc-voleurs.” “Our North German
soldiers follow orders too literally. When one of those footpads fires
at a Holstein dragoon he gets off his horse, runs after the fellow with
his heavy sword and catches him. He then brings him to his lieutenant,
who either lets him go or hands him over to his superior officer--which
comes to the same thing, as he is then set free. The Bavarian acts
differently. He knows that war is war, and keeps up the good old
customs. He does not wait until he is shot at from behind, but shoots
first himself.”
In the evening I prepared Bernstorff’s despatch respecting the capture
of a German ship in English waters by the French frigate _Desaix_ for
our press; also the letter to Lundy on the export of arms from England
to France; and finally arranged that our papers should no longer defend
Bazaine against the charge of treason, “as it does him harm.”
_Wednesday, November 23rd._--This morning I asked Bucher how the
Bavarian Treaties were getting on and whether they would not be finally
settled this evening. “Yes,” was the reply, “if nothing happens in
the meantime--and it need not be anything very important. Could you
imagine what it was that recently nearly wrecked the negotiations?
The question of collars or epaulettes! The King of Bavaria wanted
to retain the Bavarian collar, while his Majesty wished to have it
replaced by ours. The Chief, however, finally brought him round by
saying: ‘But, your Majesty, if the Treaty is not concluded now, and in
ten years’ time perhaps the Bavarians are arrayed against us in battle,
what will history say when it becomes known that the negotiations
miscarried owing to these collars?’ Moreover, the King is not the
worst--but rather the Minister of War.” As I was then called away I
could not for the moment unriddle this mystery. I afterwards learned
that the question was whether the Bavarian officers should in future
wear the badge of their rank on their collars as hitherto, or on their
shoulder straps like the North German troops. Bucher having alluded to
the strong Republican sympathies which Alten had yesterday displayed,
Pless also observed: “Really if we had known what sort of people these
Princes were at the time we were discussing the Criminal Code in
the Diet we should not have helped to make the provisions respecting
_lèse-majesté_ so severe.” The Chief remarked, with a laugh: “Every
one of us has already deserved ten years’ penal servitude if all our
jibbing at princes during the campaign were proved against us.”
We were joined at dinner by Count Frankenberg and Prince Putbus. Both
wore the Iron Cross. The guests mentioned that people were very anxious
in Berlin for the bombardment to begin and grumbled a great deal at its
postponement. The rumour as to the influence of certain great ladies
being one of the causes of the delay appears to be very widespread. “I
have often told the King so,” said the Chief, “but it cannot be done;
they will not have it.” “The Queen?” suggested some one. “Several
queens,” corrected the Chancellor, “and princesses. I believe also that
Masonic influences and scruples have helped.” He then again declared
that he regarded the investment of Paris as a blunder. “I have never
been in favour of it. If they had left it alone we should have made
more progress, or at least we should have had a better position before
Europe. We have certainly not added to our prestige by spending eight
weeks outside Paris. We ought to have left Paris alone and sought the
French in the open country. But otherwise the bombardment ought to have
begun at once. If a thing has to be done, do it!”
The conversation then turned upon the treatment of the French rural
population, and Putbus related that a Bavarian officer had ordered a
whole village to be burned to the ground and the wine in the cellars
to be poured out into the gutter because the inhabitants of the place
had acted treacherously. Some one else observed that the soldiers at
some other place had given a fearful dressing to a curé who had been
caught in an act of treachery. The Minister again praised the energy
of the Bavarians, but said with regard to the second case: “One ought
either to treat people as considerately as possible or to put it out
of their power to do mischief--one or the other.” After reflecting for
a moment, he added: “Be civil to the very last step of the gallows,
but hang all the same. One should only be rude to a friend when one
feels sure that he will not take it amiss. How rude one is to his wife,
for instance! That reminds me, by the way, Herr von Keudell, will you
please telegraph to Reinfeld, ‘If a letter comes from Count Bismarck
hold it back, and forward it to the Poste Restante or to Berlin’? I
have written various things to my wife which are not overflowing with
loyal reverence. My father-in-law is an old gentleman of eighty-one,
and as the Countess has now left Reinfeld, where she was on a visit to
him, he would open and read the letter and show it to the pastor, who
would tell his gossips about it, and presently it would get into the
newspapers.”
Bleibtreu’s sketch representing General Reille as he came up the hill
at Sedan to deliver Napoleon’s letter to the King was then mentioned,
and some one remarked that from the way in which the general was taking
off his cap, he looked as if he were going to shout Hurrah! The Chief
said: “His demeanour was thoroughly dignified and correct. I spoke to
him alone while the King was writing his reply. He urged that hard
conditions should not be imposed upon a great army which had fought so
bravely. I shrugged my shoulders. He then said rather than submit they
would blow up the fortress. I said, ‘Well, do so--_faites sauter_!’ I
asked him then if the Emperor could still depend upon the army and
the officers. He said yes. And whether his instructions and orders
still held good in Metz? Reille answered this question also in the
affirmative, and, as we saw, he was right at the time.... If Napoleon
had only made peace then I believe he would still be a respected ruler.
But he is a silly fool! I said so sixteen years ago when no one would
believe me. Stupid and sentimental. The King also thought for the
moment that it would be peace, and wanted me to say what conditions we
should propose. But I said to him ‘Your Majesty, we can hardly have
got as far as that yet.’ Their Highnesses and Serene Highnesses then
pressed so close to us that I had twice to beg the King to move further
off. I should have preferred to tell them plainly, ‘Gentlemen, leave us
alone; you have nothing to do here.’ The one thing which prevented me
from being rude to them was that the brother of our Most Gracious was
the ringleader and chief offender of the whole prying mob.”
About 10 o’clock I went down to tea, and found Bismarck-Bohlen and
Hatzfeldt still there. The Chief was in the _salon_ with the three
Bavarian Plenipotentiaries. In about a quarter of an hour he opened one
side of the door, bent his head forward with his friendliest look, and
came in with a glass in his hand and took a seat at the table.
“Well,” he said, his voice and looks betraying his emotion, “the
Bavarian Treaty is made and signed. German unity is secure, and the
German Emperor too.” We were all silent for a moment. I then begged
to be allowed to bring away the pen with which he had signed it. “In
God’s name, bring all three,” he said; “but the gold one is not amongst
them.” I went and took the three pens that lay near the document.
Two of them were still wet. Two empty champagne bottles stood close
by. “Bring us another bottle,” said the Chief to the servant. “It
is an event.” Then, after reflecting for a while, he observed: “The
newspapers will not be satisfied, and he who writes history in the
usual way may criticise our agreement. He may possibly say, ‘The
stupid fellow should have asked for more; he would have got it, as
they would have been compelled to yield.’ And he may be right so far
as the ‘compelled’ is concerned. But what I attached more importance
to was that they should be thoroughly pleased with the thing. What
are treaties when people are compelled to enter into them! And I know
that they went away pleased.... I did not want to squeeze them or to
make capital out of the situation. The Treaty has its deficiencies,
but it is for that reason all the more durable. The future can supply
those deficiencies.... The King also was not satisfied. He was of
opinion that such a Treaty was not worth much. My opinion is quite
different. I consider it one of the most important results which we
have attained during recent years. I finally succeeded in carrying it
through by exciting apprehensions of English intervention unless the
matter were speedily settled.... As to the question of the Emperor, I
made that proposal palatable to them in the course of the negotiations
by representing that it must be easier and more satisfactory for their
sovereign to concede certain rights to the German Emperor than to the
neighbouring King of Prussia.”
On the Minister then speaking somewhat slightingly of the King of
Bavaria, he was like a boy, did not know his own mind, lived in
“dreams,” and so on--Abeken (who had entered in the meantime, and was
naturally aggrieved at these remarks) said: “But surely the young King
is a very nice man!” “So are all of us here,” said the Chief, as he
looked round at the whole company one after another. Loud laughter from
the Centre and the Left. Over a second bottle of champagne which he
drank with us, the Chief came (I forget how the subject was introduced)
to speak of his own death. He asserted that he should die in his 71st
year, a conclusion which he arrived at from some combination of figures
which I could not understand. I said: “Excellency must not do that. It
would be too early. One must drive away the Angel of Death!”
“No,” he replied. “In 1886--still fifteen years. I know it. It is a
mystic number.”
_Thursday, November 24th._--Busily engaged all the morning with
various articles on the Treaty with Bavaria, written in the sense of
the Chief’s utterances of last night. Wollmann told me that a Colonel
Krohn had arrested a lawyer at a place in the Ardennes for having
treacherously entered into communication with a band of franctireurs,
and the court-martial having sentenced the man to death, he had
presented a petition for pardon. The Chief had, however, written to the
Minister of War to-day that he would advise the King to let justice
take its course.
Colonel Tilly, of the General Staff, and Major Hill are the Chief’s
guests at dinner to-day. The Minister again complained that the
military authorities do not communicate sufficient information to him
and too seldom consult him. “It was just the same with the appointment
of Vogel von Falkenstein, who has now locked up Jacoby. If I have to
speak on that subject in the Reichstag, I shall wash my hands of the
matter. They could not possibly have done more to spoil the broth for
me.” “I came to the war,” he repeated, “disposed to do everything
for the military authorities, but in future I shall go over to the
advocates of Parliamentary government, and if they worry me much more,
I shall have a chair placed for myself on the extreme Left.”
The Treaty with Bavaria was then mentioned, and it was said that the
difficulties which had been encountered arose partly on the National
side, on which the Minister observed, “It is really remarkable how
many clever people there are who, nevertheless, understand nothing
about politics. For instance, the man who always sat on my right here
(Delbrück). A very clever man, but no politician.”
Suddenly changing the subject, he said: “The English are beside
themselves, and their newspapers demand war on account of a note which
is nothing more than a statement of opinion on a point of law--for that
is all that Gortschakoff’s Note amounts to.”
Later on the Minister returned once more to the postponement of
the bombardment, which he regarded as dangerous from a political
standpoint. “Here we have now collected this enormous mass of siege
artillery. The whole world is waiting for us to begin, and yet the guns
remain idle up to the present. That has certainly damaged us with the
neutral Powers. The effect of our success at Sedan is very seriously
diminished thereby, and when one thinks on what grounds.” One of the
causes of the delay brought him to speak of the Crown Princess, of whom
he said: “She is in general a very clever person, and really agreeable
in her way, but she should not interfere in politics.” He then again
related the anecdote about the glass of water which he told me near
Crehanges, only this time it was in French that the Princess spoke.
_Friday, November 25th._--In the morning I cut out for the King an
article from the _Neue Freie Presse_, in which Granville’s note is
described as timid and colourless; and arrange for the republication
by all our papers in France of the telegram of July last, in which
Napoleon stated that the whole French people approved of the
declaration of war which he had just despatched.
Whilst I was walking with Wollmann in the afternoon, he told me an
anecdote of the Chief which is very neat--although I must add that my
informant is not quite trustworthy. Wollmann said: “On the night of
the 14th to the 15th of June, 1866, Manteuffel telegraphed that he
had crossed the Elbe, and asked how he was to treat the Hanoverians.
Thereupon the Minister wrote the answer: ‘Treat them as countrymen,
if necessary to death.’ He asked me: ‘Do you understand that?’ ‘Yes,
Excellency,’ I replied. ‘All right then,’ he added, ‘but, you see, it
is for a general.’”
_Saturday, November 26th._--Wrote several articles, including one on
Trochu’s extraordinary production in the _Figaro_ of the 22nd instant,
praising those whom he considered specially deserving of commendation
in the defence of the city. The Chief read over to me some of the
passages he had marked, saying: “These heroic deeds of the defenders of
Paris are mostly of such an ordinary kind that Prussian generals would
not think them worth mentioning; while others are mere swagger and
obvious impossibilities. Trochu’s braves have made more prisoners when
they are all reckoned up than the whole French army during the entire
investment of Paris. Then here is this Captain Montbrisson, who is
commended for having marched at the head of his column to the attack,
and had himself lifted over a wall in order to reconnoitre,--that was
merely his duty. Then here this theatrical vanity, where Private Gletty
made prisoners of three Prussians, _par la fermeté de son attitude_.
The firmness of his attitude! And our Pomeranians ate humble pie
before him! That may do for a Boulevard theatre, or a circus,--but
in reality! Then this Hoff, who on several occasions slaughtered in
single combat no less than twenty-seven Prussians! He must be a Jew,
this triple nine-pounder! Probably a cousin of Malz-Hoff of the Old or
New Wilhelmstrasse--at any rate a Miles Gloriosus. And finally this
Terreaux, who captured a _fanion_, together with the _porte-fanion_.
That is a company flag for marking the line--which we do not use at
all. And the Commander-in-Chief of an army officially reports such
stuff! Really this list of commendations is just like the battle
pictures in the gallery of _toutes les gloires de la France_, where
each drummer at Sebastopol and Magenta is preserved for posterity,
simply because he beat his drum.”
At dinner the Chief complained: “I was yesterday visited by a whole
series of misfortunes, one on top of the other. First of all some one
wanted to see me on important business (Odo Russell). I send word
requesting him to wait for a few moments, as I am engaged on a pressing
matter. On my asking for him a quarter of an hour later, I find he has
gone, and possibly the peace of Europe is at stake.
“Then I go to see the King as early as 12 o’clock, and the consequence
is that I fall into the hands of the Grand Duke of Weimar, who obliges
me, as his Chancellor, to listen to a letter which he has written to
an august personage (the Emperor of Russia), and thus wastes a good
deal of my time.... I am to tell him what I think of the letter, but
I decline to do so. Have I then anything to object to it? he asked
in a piqued tone. I cannot say that either, although I would observe
that I should have written the letter differently. What do I wish
altered? I stick to my point, and say I cannot express an opinion,
because if the letter went with my corrections I should be held
responsible for its contents. ‘Well, then, I must speak to the King.’
‘Do so,’ I reply coolly, ‘and take over the office of Chancellor of the
Confederation, if you like. But if the letter goes off, I for my part
shall immediately telegraph to the place of destination that I have
had nothing to do with it.’ I thus lost an hour, so that telegrams of
great importance had to wait, and in the meantime, decisions may have
been arrived at and resolutions taken which would have very serious
consequences for all Europe, and might change the political situation.
That all came of its being a Friday. Friday negotiations, Friday
measures!”
Bucher told me the Crown Prince recently said to the Chancellor that
too little had been secured by the Bavarian Treaty. After such great
successes we ought to have asked for more. “Yes; but how were we to
get it?” asked the Chief. “Why, we ought to force them,” was the Crown
Prince’s reply. “Then,” said the Chancellor, “I can only recommend your
Royal Highness to begin by disarming the Bavarian Army Corps here,” a
remark which, of course, was intended ironically.
_Sunday, November 27th._--We were joined at dinner by Count Lehndorff
and Count Holnstein. The latter is Master of the Horse to King Lewis,
and one of his confidential advisers.
The Chief spoke at first of the Russian question. He said: “Vienna,
Florence, and Constantinople have not yet expressed their views;
but St. Petersburg and London have done so, and those are the most
important factors. There, however, the matter is satisfactory.”
Subsequently affairs at Munich were discussed. Holnstein observing,
amongst other things, that the French Legation had greatly deceived
themselves before the outbreak of the war as to the attitude
of Bavaria. They judged by two or three ardently Catholic and
anti-Prussian _salons_, and even thought that Prince Luitpold would
become King. The Chief replied: “I never doubted that Bavaria would
join us, but I had not hoped that she would decide so speedily to do
so.”
Holnstein told us that a shoemaker in Munich had made a good deal of
money by letting his windows, from which a good view could be had of
the captured Turcos as they marched by, and presented seventy-nine
florins to the fund for the wounded soldiers. People had come even
from Vienna to see that procession. This led the conversation to the
shooting of these treacherous Africans, on which the Chief said: “There
should have been no question of making prisoners of these blacks.”
Holnstein: “I believe they do not do so any longer.” The Chief: “If I
had my way every soldier who made a black man prisoner should be placed
under arrest. They are beasts of prey, and ought to be shot down. The
fox has the excuse that Nature has made him so, but these fellows--they
are abominably unnatural. They have tortured our soldiers to death in
the most shameful way.”