Belleville Demonstrates.--Radical Clubs.--Their Blasphemy and Violence.
--Unreasonable Suspicion.--Outrages.--Diplomatic Corps.--Some of them
leave Paris.--Meeting of the Corps.--Votes not to Leave.--Embassadors
and Ministers.--Right of Correspondence in a Besieged Place.
--Commencement of Siege, September 19th.--Besiegers and Besieged.
--Advantages of Besieged.
Belleville now began a series of patriotic demonstrations at the
Legation, which soon became a nuisance. When I first heard the drum
and fife coming up the Rue Chaillot, and several respectable-looking
citizens came in and inquired for Mr. Washburne, I was quite
impressed with the interest of the occasion. Washburne went out
upon the balcony and made them a speech, and thanked them for this
_démonstration patriotique_. But when they began to come daily,
and the rag, tag, and bobtail at that, and day after day Washburne
was called out to thank them for this _démonstration patriotique_,
I got very heartily sick of it. We were too busy to have our time
wasted in this way. But as the siege progressed, and we did our duty
in protecting the Germans, as we received news from the outside
when others did not, and that news was uniformly unfavorable to the
French, the _démonstrations patriotiques_ ceased; and it was only a
fear of the law, and that "divinity that doth hedge in a" diplomate,
that prevented our receiving a demonstration of a very different sort.
For the clubs were now rampant, another bane of the Defense. Had they
been suppressed at the beginning, as they were at the end, of the
siege by General Vinoy, the result might have been different. Their
orators advocated the wildest and most destructive theories amidst
the applause of a congenial audience. Blasphemy was received with
special favor. I remember once, however, the orator seasoned his
discourse too high even for that audience. He said he "would like to
scale heaven, and collar [_empoigner_] the Deity." It was the day
of balloons, and a wag in the audience called out, "Why don't you
go up in a balloon?" This turned the laugh upon the orator, and he
disappeared, for in Paris ridicule kills.
A curious and annoying feature in the Parisian character during the
war was the unreasoning and unreasonable suspicion of the population.
A gentleman from Philadelphia interested in Fairmount Park, which
was then just opened, was struck with the beauty of the gates at the
entrance to the _Bois_ on the Avenue de l'Impératrice--Avenue du Bois
de Boulogne they call it now, certainly not a change for the better,
for it was a beautiful avenue, appropriately named after a beautiful
woman. Our Philadelphia friend called his daughter's attention to the
gates, remarking that they would be appropriate at Fairmount, and
took out his note-book to sketch them. He was at once surrounded by
a mob, he and his daughter arrested, and hurried before the _Maire_
of the arrondissement. They said he was a Prussian spy, and was
sketching the fortifications. He explained who he was, and what he
was doing, and offered the drawing in proof. There were the gates to
speak for themselves, but this was no evidence to them. Mr. Justice
Shallow insisted that he must be a spy. Happily for him, the mayor's
clerk was a sensible man, and spoke a little English, and through his
instrumentality our friend was discharged.
I have seen a mob collect about a gentleman who took from his pocket
a piece of paper and a pencil to write down an address. I knew an
American friend to be arrested, mistaken for Mr. Schneider, formerly
President of the Corps Législatif. My man was dark, and Schneider
was fair; but that made no difference. During the petroleum madness,
immediately after the suppression of the Commune, an American lady
was followed to her home and very nearly maltreated because she had a
bottle of _fleur d'orange_ in her hand, which she had just bought at
the druggist's. Our vice-consul had red curtains in his sitting-room.
One evening he was disagreeably surprised by a visit of armed
National Guards. They accused him of making signals to the enemy. On
seeing the red curtains, they became satisfied. That a five-story
house on the opposite side of a narrow street must effectually
preclude his lights from being seen at a distance, was no answer to
them. Mr. Washburne called the attention of the French Government
to this outrage; but, as no harm had been done, we could not follow
the matter up. Under our consular convention with France, a consul's
house is inviolable; but a vice-consul has no official existence when
the consul is present. When he is absent, his deputy succeeds to his
privileges and immunities as consular representative of the country.
Mr. Washburne was not the man to submit to any outrage upon German
or American property. A squad of National Guards entered and
partially pillaged the house of the German school-master Hedler,
where Washburne's son and other American boys were at school.
Our Minister was in arms at once. The Government apologized, the
battalion was paraded under arms, the Chief of Police made them a
speech, the guilty men were called out and punished, and full damages
were paid to Hedler, assessed to Mr. Washburne's satisfaction.
To resume my narrative. On the 18th of September, several of the
principal members of the diplomatic corps left Paris. Their departure
gave rise to a good deal of discussion, and much has been written
and said upon the subject. The diplomatic corps, as a body, never
left Paris. A few days before the siege, Lord Lyons called upon
Jules Favre. Favre suggested that if the diplomatic corps wished to
leave Paris--and it was natural that they should--he was prepared
to accompany them. Lord Lyons replied that he saw no necessity for
departure at that time. Favre thereupon said that, in this case, he
should stay too.
On the morning of the 18th, Prince Metternich, the Austrian
Embassador, came very early to the British Embassy, and said that
he meant to go away that afternoon in company with the Turkish
Embassador and the Italian Minister, and hoped that Lord Lyons
would accompany them. Lord Lyons replied that he saw no necessity
for haste, for Bismarck would let them go at any time. Metternich
answered, "I don't want to ask any favors of Bismarck, and my
Government doesn't want me to." Lord Lyons then finding that the
Great Powers of Europe had left, or were about to leave, Paris,
consented to go too, and called again upon Favre. But Favre told him
that he had then made his arrangements to stay; but that he should
send Count Chaudordy to represent his department at Tours.
As soon as it was known that the representatives of several of the
Great Powers had left Paris, a meeting of the corps was called by
the Nuncio, at the request of several of its members. The question
was put, Shall the diplomatic corps leave Paris? and decided in the
negative.
But the members departed one by one, till but a few were left.
Another meeting was then called, and again it was decided not to
leave Paris.
It is quite generally supposed that Mr. Washburne was the only
Minister who remained during the whole siege. This is incorrect.
There were six in all--the representatives of Northern powers--Norway
and Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United
States. In their relations to the French Government, and in their
correspondence with Count Bismarck upon their right to communicate
with their respective governments during the siege, and to due notice
in case of proposed bombardment, these gentlemen acted in unison as
the diplomatic corps at Paris.
The division of diplomatic representatives into embassadors and
ministers appears to me to be a mistake. It is certainly pleasant for
the embassadors. They have the right of direct communication with
the sovereign, for they are held to represent the person of their
own sovereign, which the ministers do not. At Paris, at the court
festivities, they occupied arm-chairs by the side of the Emperor and
Empress, while the ministers were seated on benches in a _loge_.
They had precedence on the reception-days of the Minister of Foreign
Affairs. A minister might have waited two hours; an embassador
dropped in, and entered before him. Some of them, like Lord Lyons,
did not abuse this privilege. He transacted his business as quickly
as possible, and gave place to another. The Turkish Embassador, on
the other hand, used to gossip by the hour. That he kept a dozen of
his colleagues waiting seemed rather to please him. I once heard
Lord Lyons remonstrate with him for doing so, and he giggled as if
he thought it rather a good joke. In Prussia this is not permitted:
first come, first served, is the rule at Berlin, and it seems to
me to be the just one. Mr. Bancroft got this rule established, and
deserves great credit for the stout fight he made on the occasion.
Count Bismarck is stated to have said that if there had been no
embassadors, there would have been no war; for the French Government
could not have invented the story that their Embassador had been
insulted by the King. However this may be, there can be no doubt that
the system leads to the formation of cliques, and, consequently, to
separate action by a clique instead of by the whole corps. This is
bad under any circumstances, but particularly unfortunate in great
emergencies.
In regard to the right of free communication with their respective
governments claimed by the diplomatic corps at Paris, Count Bismarck
refused to accord it. He argued that if these gentlemen saw fit to
shut themselves up in a besieged place when they could go away
for the asking, and when the French Government had made provision
for this case by establishing a branch of the Government at Tours,
they must take the consequences; but as a favor he would permit
correspondence if it were left unsealed. Of course the corps declined
these terms. To Mr. Washburne he wrote (and Bismarck writes and
speaks admirable English) that his position as protector of the
North Germans in France entitled him to a different answer; that as
an evidence of his gratitude for the fidelity and energy with which
the duties of this position had been discharged, it had given him
great pleasure to obtain from the King permission for Mr. Washburne
to receive a sealed bag containing his dispatches and his private
correspondence as often as military necessities would permit.
There has been much difference of opinion expressed as to the right
of a diplomatic body voluntarily remaining in a besieged place
to receive and answer dispatches in sealed correspondence. Mr.
Washburne contended that they had such a right; and in this he was
energetically supported by Mr. Fish. I confess, however, that to my
mind the right is by no means clear. To me Bismarck's argument is
unanswerable. "You see fit to stay when the Great Powers of Europe
have gone, and when the French Government has made arrangements for
the due discharge of your duties elsewhere. By so doing you put
yourselves in the position of other inhabitants of the besieged
place, and can claim no privileges not accorded to them." In the case
of Mr. Washburne, charged with the protection of the Germans at the
request of the German Government itself, the necessity for remaining
at Paris may have existed. At all events, if he thought that it did,
it did not lie in the mouth of that Government to say that it did
not. By choosing as their agent the representative of a friendly and
independent power, they left his judgment unfettered as to the manner
of discharging his duties. The same remark applies to M. Kern, the
Minister of Switzerland, who was charged with the protection of the
Bavarians and the Badois. But as regards the other gentlemen, I can
not but agree with Count Bismarck. I was confirmed in this view,
after the siege was over, by General Sheridan. Dining at my table one
day in company with Mr. Washburne, he said to him, "If I had been in
Moltke's place, you would not have had your bag."
The siege commenced on the 19th of September. For some days
previous the streets of Paris had presented an unwonted and curious
appearance. They were thronged with the quaintest-looking old carts,
farm-wagons, Noah's arks of every kind, loaded with the furniture of
the poor inhabitants of the neighborhood flying to Paris for safety.
On the other hand, the stations were thronged with the carriages of
the better classes leaving the city. The railroads were so overworked
that they finally refused to take any baggage that could not be
carried by the passenger himself. Imagine the painful situation of
some of our fair countrywomen, Worth's admirers and patrons! To have
come to Paris amidst all the dangers of war to procure something to
wear, to have procured it, and then to be unable to carry it away!
But what will not woman's wit and energy do under such circumstances?
A clever and energetic friend of mine hired a _bateau-mouche_, one of
the little steamers that ply on the Seine from one part of Paris to
another, and, embarking with her "impedimenta," sailed triumphantly
for Havre.
It had been agreed between Mr. Washburne and myself that if the
diplomatic corps left Paris, and he accompanied them, I should remain
to take charge of the Legation, and look after American and German
property; and he so reported to Mr. Fish. I had quite a curiosity
to be a besieged. I had been a besieger at Port Hudson, and thought
that I would like to experience the other sensation. The sensation
is not an unpleasant one, especially in a city like Paris. If you
have been overworked and harassed, the relief is very great. There
is a calm, a sort of Sunday rest, about it that is quite delightful.
In my experience the life of the besieged is altogether the most
comfortable of the two. You live quietly in your own house, and with
your own servants; and with a little forethought you may be amply
provisioned. You sleep in your own room, instead of in a cold, damp,
and muddy tent; and if an _éclat d'obus_--as the French delicately
call it--strikes your house on one side, you move into the other.
There has been a great deal of fine writing about famous sieges, and
the suffering and heroism of the inhabitants. I imagine that there
was not so much suffering, after all, at Saragossa; and that the
"Maid" and her companions in arms had plenty of corn-meal and good
mule-meat to eat--not a disagreeable or unwholesome diet for a while!