_followed_ him for fifteen years! He had followed him in any case during
the negotiations of the spring which brought about the treaty between
Prussia and Italy; he had then contemplated the magnificent tilt between
the _viper_ and the _charlatan_, and himself very judiciously judged a
situation in which the plenipotentiaries of the two countries had
surpassed one another in miracles of the true Punic faith. "M. de
Bismarck and General Govone distrusted and still distrust one another,"
M. Benedetti wrote in his dispatch of the 27th of March, 1866. "It is
feared at Florence that, finding itself in possession of _an act which
places Italy in a certain degree at its discretion_, Prussia will make
known the stipulations of it at Vienna and will persuade the Austrian
cabinet, by intimidation, to peacefully make the coveted concessions. At
Berlin, they fear that Italy, if they promised to negotiate on these
bases, will directly inform Austria before concluding any treaty, and
will thus try to obtain from it the abandonment of Venice." After a
similar experience _in anima vili_, how could M. Benedetti have left on
the table of the president of the council of Berlin his compromising
autograph on the subject of Belgium, _an act which in a certain degree
placed France at the mercy of Prussia_? How could he be astonished at
seeing his interlocutor "open to certain suspicion," and did he not on
the contrary make the same calculations for his own account and profit?
It was, however, very foolish to suppose that M. de Bismarck had the
will to do unto others that which he declared he did not wish others to
do unto him! And the ambassador of France would have scarcely been wrong
in crediting this charitable thought to his interlocutor, however
unevangelical, for the amusing or rather the sad part of the
affair,--the true humor of all this imbroglio, as the Bardolph of
Shakspere would say,--is that the cavalier of the Mark had already
executed precisely the manoeuvre, indifferently chivalric surely, of
which he pretended to suspect Napoleon III., and that the thing was done
at the moment when he demanded if they had nothing in their hands and
pockets. They had left in his hands two very secret and dangerous
documents, the two plans of the treaties on the Rhine and Belgium,[96]
and he took care not to avail himself of them immediately at the expense
of the interested parties, whom he had every interest to attach to
himself.
The preliminaries of Nikolsburg, the reader will remember, had
stipulated that the States of the South should remain outside of the new
confederation directed by Prussia, and that they should form among
themselves a restricted union. That was the great success obtained by
the French mediation, the salutary combination of the _three fragments_,
much more favorable to the interests of France, according to its
opinion, than that of the former _Bund_, the ill-omened creation of
1815. It is true that among the persons initiated in the secret of
Benedetti's mission, "this group of confederates" was only regarded as
"a matter of business for a reasonable profit;" in waiting, however,
they "saved" the South, and M. Drouyn de Lhuys honestly exerted himself,
in this month of August, 1866, to aid the unhappy plenipotentiaries of
Bavaria, of Wuertemberg, of Hesse, etc., who had gone to seek a definite
peace at Berlin. M. de Bismarck had first frightened them by his fiscal
and territorial demands; they had invoked and obtained the support of
the emperor, and in the Tuileries they flattered themselves with having
in truth persuaded the minister of William I. to more equitable
sentiments. Still, on the 24th August, M. Drouyn de Lhuys wrote to his
agent in Bavaria: "I am happy to think that our last step has not been
without influence on the result of a negotiation which is ending in a
more satisfactory manner than the cabinet of Munich had at first thought
possible;" and it was not only M. Benedetti who took to himself in this
matter the credit of playing the fine _role_ of moderator.[97] The truth
is, that if M. de Bismarck ended by becoming more moderate and even
amicable towards the Southern States, he had very different motives than
the desire of being agreeable to the cabinet of the Tuileries. He had
simply shown to "the group of confederates" the project of the treaty of
the 5th August; he had made them see that the French government, at the
same time when it seemed to protect, sought to extend itself together
with Prussia at their expense, and demanded portions of the Palatinate
and of Hesse. In place of demanding from them the sacrifices which they
feared, the minister of William I. offered to defend them against the
"hereditary enemy." There was no hesitation: the States of the South
surrendered, and Prussia concluded with them (from the 17th to the 23d
August) _secret_ treaties of offensive and defensive alliance. The
contracting parties guaranteed reciprocally the integrity of their
respective territories, and the States of the South engaged to place, in
case of war, all their military forces at the disposal of the King of
Prussia. The "matter of business," on which M. Rouher had counted, was
henceforward out of the market; the line of the Main found itself free
before it had been traced on the official map of Europe, and from the
month of August, 1866, M. de Bismarck could count on the armed
cooperation of all Germany.[98]
The military conventions with the States of the South were kept
rigorously secret for a long time, and it was not till the spring of the
following year that M. de Bismarck found it convenient to give them a
crafty publicity in reply to the speech of the minister of state on the
_three fragments_. Up to that time M. Benedetti had been ignorant of
them, like other mortals, but he had shown himself more clear-sighted as
regards another very grave event, contemporary with these conventions
concluded with the South, and he recognized from the beginning the
ominous bearing of the mission of General Manteuffel to St. Petersburg
in the month of August, 1866. It must not be forgotten that at the
bottom of the "new policy" which during this month they were flattering
themselves with having inaugurated at the Tuileries by a cordial
understanding with the court of Berlin, a Russian problem was agitating.
Would the monarchy of Brandenburg, "rendered sufficiently independent
and sufficiently compact to loosen itself from its traditions, free
henceforward from all solidarity," decide to break its secular and
hitherto unrelaxed ties with the empire of the czars? That was the true
and vital question of the future. "Prussia must have an alliance with a
great Power," the minister of William I. did not cease to reiterate at
this epoch; but, as Austria was destroyed, and England had long since
condemned itself to widowhood, only France and Russia remained, between
whom the lucky conqueror of Sadowa had then the position of the Don Juan
of Mozart, between Dona Anna and Dona Elvira. Surprised in the darkness,
imposed upon in a moment of deplorable misunderstanding, the proud and
passionate Dona Anna occasionally cast glances of defiance and
_venganza_, oftener, alas! looks still ardent from the last embrace, and
betraying the secret flame, which even said very plainly, that she
would go still farther, provided there was reparation, provided that a
marriage followed, if it was only a clandestine marriage. Russia was
Dona Elvira, the former, the _legitimate_ ally a little vexed at recent
neglect, even very gravely injured in family interests, but always
loving, always fascinated, and only waiting for a kind word to forget
all and to throw herself into the arms of the fickle one. We only speak
briefly of Zerline, of Italy, a cunning and lively soubrette, intruding
herself everywhere, in love, she also, the poor little thing, with the
irresistible seducer, and often treated very cavalierly, happy,
nevertheless, to be pinched privately, and to say that she also was
"protected by a great lord."
Such being the situation in this decisive month, the ambassador of
France to the court of Berlin experienced a violent shock in learning
one day of the sudden departure for St. Petersburg of General
Manteuffel, the general-diplomat, more diplomat than general, the
confidant, _par excellence_, of King William, and always the man for
private missions. "I have asked M. de Bismarck," M. Benedetti hastened
to write to Paris, "what I should think of this mission, confided to a
general commanding troops in the campaign. After having pretended that
he thought he had informed me of it, M. de Bismarck assured me that he
had told M. de Goltz, in order that he might instruct you." Strictly
speaking, one finds it natural that the king wished to plead before his
imperial nephew the extenuating circumstances of a painful situation,
which forced him to take the goods and the crowns of several very near
relations of the House of Romanoff; but the French ambassador was above
all struck by the circumstance that the journey of M. de Manteuffel had
been decided the day after he had delivered his project of the treaty.
"I asked the president of the council," he continues in the same
dispatch, "if this general officer had been informed of our overture; he
answered that he had had no occasion to make him a party to it, but that
he could not guarantee to me that the king had not told him the
substance. I should add, as I have told you by telegraph, that I gave a
copy of our project to M. de Bismarck on Sunday morning, and that
General Manteuffel, who had scarcely removed his head-quarters to
Frankfort, was called to Berlin in the following night." Towards the end
of the month of August, when M. de Bismarck for the first time showed
his hesitation in signing the secret act concerning Belgium, M.
Benedetti wrote, in a letter to M. Rouher, concerning the mission that
M. de Manteuffel continued to fill at St. Petersburg. "They have
elsewhere obtained assurances which dispense with our aid," said he; "if
they decline our alliance, it is because they are already provided, or
on the eve of being."[99]
General Manteuffel remained several weeks at St. Petersburg; he stayed
there long enough to dissipate a certain sadness caused by the recent
misfortunes of the Houses of Hanover, Cassel, Nassau, etc., all allied
by blood to the imperial family of Russia, also long enough to
communicate such projects and show autographs by which they had
treacherously endeavored to turn the Hohenzollern from his loyal,
unalterable affection for his relative of the North. Thanks to all these
proceedings, and all these attentions, the good harmony between the two
courts became greater than ever; they easily explained the past, and
arranged for the future, and the ambassador of France at the court of
Berlin was not deceived in designating, from this moment, the "bear,"
whose skin the general-diplomat had gone to sell on the banks of the
Neva. To speak in the words of the Marquis La Marmora, it was a bear of
the Balkans, which had not been well for a long time, and which the
Emperor Nicholas had declared _sick_ twenty years before. One will see
in the sequel that Alexander Mikhailovitch did not the less miss the
deer at the general hunt in 1870, that he scarcely succeeded in getting
for himself a handful of hair well fitted to adorn his helmet; that
takes nothing from the merit of the perspicacity which the unfortunate
negotiator of the _secret_ act concerning Belgium had given proof of on
this occasion. M. Benedetti early foresaw the desolating truth, which,
for M. Thiers, was not visible until very late, at the bottom of this
_Russian box_ which M. de Bismarck allowed him one evening, at
Versailles, to rummage with a liberality which was certainly not free
from malice.
In endeavoring, after the great disaster of the campaign of Bohemia, to
obtain from Prussia compensations first on the Rhine, then on the Meuse,
the Emperor Napoleon III., in those months of July and August, 1866, had
only facilitated for M. de Bismarck the two great political
combinations which were since, in 1870, of such prodigious use: the
armed cooperation of the Southern States, and the moral aid of Russia in
case of a war with France. The chief fault, however, of the Napoleonic
policy the day after Sadowa, was to have so well served Prussia in its
desire to escape from all control on the part of Europe, and to have
given its sanction from the very first to such an immense derangement of
the equilibrium of the world, without the cause being brought before the
areopagus of nations. This forgetfulness of the duties towards the great
Christian family of states was only too quickly and too cruelly avenged,
alas! and Prince Gortchakof, in 1870, only followed a recent and
lamentable example in allowing France and Germany to decide their
quarrel in the lists, in hindering all common action of the Powers, all
European concert. "I see no Europe!" cried M. de Beust, in 1870, in a
celebrated dispatch, and no one thought of disputing this dolorous
affirmation. A few only observed with sadness that the eclipse had
already lasted several years, that it dated from the preliminaries of
Nikolsburg and from the treaty of Prague.
FOOTNOTES:
[76] This detail, as well as those which follow, are taken from the
narration made by M. Thiers himself, some days later, to the diocese of
Orleans, and gathered together by M. A. Boucher in his interesting
_Story of the Invasion_ (Orleans, 1871), pp. 318-325.
[77] "He (M. de Bismarck) only goes out accompanied, and agents of
French police will come as far as the frontier to follow him during the
whole journey," announced M. de Barral from Berlin, the 1st June, 1866,
three days after the assault by Blind. M. Jules Favre (_History of the
Government of the National Defense_, vol. i. p. 163-164) speaks of the
uneasiness manifested by the minister of William I. at the interview at
the castle of _Haute-Maison_, at Montry: "We are very badly off here;
your _Franc-tireurs_ can take aim at me through the windows." One can
also recall the language of the German chancellor in the Prussian
chambers concerning the assault by Kulmann.
[78] According to the analysis of Lord Lyons, to whom M. de Chaudordy
communicated this telegram.--Dispatch of Lord Lyons, of the 6th October,
1870. It is curious to compare with this singular telegram of M. Thiers
the opinion expressed by Prince Gortchakof before the English
ambassador, "that the conditions indicated in the circular of M. de
Bismarck of the 16th September could only be modified by military
events, and that nothing authorized such a conjecture."--Dispatch of Sir
A. Buchanan of the 17th October. Now the conditions indicated in the
Prussian circular of the 16th September were already _Alsace and Metz_.
[79] Confidential note of M. Magne for the emperor.--_Papers and
Correspondence of the Imperial Family_, vol. i. p. 240.
[80] The letter addressed to the minister of France at the Hague and
placed under the eyes of the emperor, was re-found at the Tuileries
after the 4th September.--_Papers and Correspondence of the Imperial
Family_, vol. i. p. 14.
[81] This, however, was only a short desire on the part of Prince
Gortchakof, a design without consequence, and of which we find the only
authentic trace in an obscure phrase of a dispatch of the French
ambassador at Berlin. Vide Benedetti, _My Mission in Prussia_, p. 226.
[82] Dispatch in cipher intercepted by the Austrians and published in
connection with the war of 1866 by the Austrian staff.
[83] _Papers and Correspondence of the Imperial Family_, vol. ii. pp.
225, 228. The editors pretend that this letter was addressed to M. de
Moustier, which is entirely erroneous, M. de Moustier being then at
Constantinople. We are inclined to believe that the receiver was M.
Conti, who had accompanied the emperor to Vichy. It will be remembered
that Napoleon III., very unwell and suffering during this whole epoch,
had gone the 27th July to Vichy, where M. Drouyn de Lhuys went to see
him for a short time; the chief of the state could not, however, prolong
his sojourn in the watering-place, and returned to Paris on the 8th
August.
[84] "For some time it has been too often said that France _is not
ready_."--Confidential note of M. Magne of the 20th July (_Papers and
Correspondence of the Imperial Family_, vol. i. p. 241). M. de Goltz had
early discovered this secret, and had not ceased to recommend to M. de
Bismarck a firm attitude as regarded France.
[85] _My Mission in Prussia_, pp. 171-172. M. Drouyn de Lhuys, who had
already obtained from Austria the cession, in any case, of Venetia,
insisted at this moment more strongly than ever that they should also
take pledges in advance from Prussia, "the most formidable, the most
active of the parties." M. Benedetti did not cease to oppose such a
proceeding, fearing that Prussia would renounce in this case all idea of
war against Austria, and this dispatch of the 8th July was in reality
only a new plea in favor of the _laisser-aller_ without conditions which
should be granted to M. de Bismarck.
[86] Benedetti, _My Mission in Prussia_, pp. 177 and 178. _Moniteur
prussien_ (_Reichsanzeiger_) of the 21st October, 1871.
[87] _My Mission in Prussia_, p. 181. This assertion of M. Benedetti is
fully confirmed by the note found among the papers of the Tuileries, of
which we will speak farther on.
[88] "Prussia will disregard what justice and foresight demand, and will
give us at the same time the measure of its ingratitude, if it refuses
us the guarantees which the extension of its frontiers obliges us to
claim."--Dispatch of M. Benedetti, the 5th August, 1866, found at the
castle of Cercay among the papers of M. Rouher, and published in the
_Moniteur prussien_ of the 21st October, 1871. Towards the same epoch,
they spoke also of the ingratitude of Italy. "The unjustifiable
ingratitude of Italy irritates the calmest minds," wrote M. Magne in his
confidential note by order of the emperor, dated the 20th July. The
cabinet of Florence in truth created in France at this moment unheard of
embarrassments by susceptibilities and demands which, to say the least,
were very ill-timed. After having been beaten on land and sea, at
Custozza and at Lissa, and having received as a recompense the
magnificent gift of Venetia, the Italians made pretensions to Tyrol!
There was even an instant when the emperor thought "of renouncing the
fatal gift made him, and of declaring, by an official act, that he gave
back to Austria its parole." See the curious note of M. Rouher written
by order of the emperor, _Papers and Correspondence of the Imperial
Family_, vol. ii. pp. 229 and 23.
[89] La Marmora, _Un po piu di luce_, p. 117. Report of General Govone,
3d June, 1866. _Ibid._ p. 275.
[90] "All the efforts which he (M. de Bismarck) has without cessation
made to bring about an agreement with us prove sufficiently that, in his
opinion, it was essential to indemnify France."--_My Mission in
Prussia_, p. 192. Thus thought the ex-ambassador of France, even in
1871!
[91] _Papers and Correspondence of the Imperial Family_, vol. i. pp. 16,
17. The editors thought that they recognized in this note the
handwriting of M. Conti, chief of the emperor's cabinet.
[92] "On my departure from Paris, towards the middle of August," says M.
Benedetti, in his book, _My Mission in Prussia_, p. 194, "M. Drouyn de
Lhuys had offered his resignation, and I supposed that his successor
would be M. Moustier, who was then ambassador at Constantinople. At this
moment there was no minister of foreign affairs. In this state of
things, I thought it _proper_ to address to the minister of state, M.
Rouher, the letter in which I announced my interview with M. de
Bismarck, and which accompanied the plan of treaty relative to Belgium."
M. Drouyn de Lhuys had not tendered his resignation towards the middle
of August; right or wrong, he believed at this epoch that he was "doing
an act of honesty and disinterestedness in remaining," and his portfolio
was not taken from him till 1st September, 1866. Up to that date M.
Drouyn de Lhuys had not ceased to direct the department; the ambassador
himself quotes in his book several dispatches exchanged with him, on
grave questions, dated 21st and 25th August (pp. 204, 223), and M.
Benedetti has singular ideas on the hierarchical duties, believing that
it is _proper_ for an agent to evade the control of his immediate chief
in view of his near retirement. The conclusion of the passage quoted in
the book of M. Benedetti is not less curious: "M. Rouher," says he, "has
not laid before the ministry, having never taken the direction of it,
the correspondence which I, during several days, exchanged with him. If
I gave it here, I should not know how to refer the reader, that he might
verify the text of it, to the depot of the archives, as I am authorized
to do with all the documents which I put before his eyes." What of that?
Once decided to make revelations, M. Benedetti could have well produced
this correspondence with M. Rouher on such a disputed subject, while
conscientiously warning the reader that he could not find the originals
at the depot of the archives. (It is known that the originals were
seized by the Prussians, with a great number of other important
documents, in the castle of M. Rouher, at Cercay.) While throwing "a
little more light" on all the unnatural obscurities, let us also observe
that it is wrongfully, but with a design easy to divine, that the
celebrated circular of M. de Bismarck, of the 29th July, 1870 (at the
beginning of the war), had assigned to this plan of the secret treaty
concerning Belgium a much later date, the year 1867, the epoch after the
arrangement of the affair of Luxemburg. This allegation does not
withstand a first examination and a simple comparison of the parts
delivered to the public. The shadowy negotiation on the subject of
Belgium was held in the second half of the month of August, 1866, as M.
Benedetti says.
[93] The _Moniteur prussien_ of the 21st October, 1871, gives (from the
documents seized at Cercay) extracts from the instructions sent from
Paris the 16th August to M. Benedetti concerning the secret treaty. A
passage from these instructions contains "the designation of the persons
to whom this negotiation was to be confined."
[94] Quoted from the circular of M. de La Valette of the 16th September,
1862.
[95] These details, as well as those which follow, are taken from the
papers seized at Cercay and published in the _Moniteur prussien_ of the
21st October, 1871.
[96] The two plans of the treaties have since been published by the
Prussian journals of the 29th July and 8th August, 1870. The Prussian
government is now in possession of two French autographs of the plan
concerning Belgium; the one which M. Benedetti left with M. de Bismarck
in the month of August, 1866, the other likewise from the hand of M.
Benedetti, with marginal notes by Napoleon III. and M. Rouher; this
latter document was seized at Cercay. For the description and other
details, see the _Moniteur prussien_ of the 21st October, 1871, and the
article from the _North German Gazette_ on the subject of the affair La
Marmora.
[97] Private letter from M. Benedetti to the Duke of Gramont, dated 22d
August, 1866. _My Mission in Prussia_, p. 192.
[98] Albert Sorel, _Diplomatic History of the Franco-German War_, vol.
i. pp. 29, 30.
[99] Papers seized at Cercay, _Moniteur prussien_ of the 21st October,
1871.
V.
ORIENT AND OCCIDENT.
I.
"They have provided themselves elsewhere," the French ambassador at the
court of William I. sadly wrote, in the last days of the month of
August, 1866, on seeing Prussia so brusquely break off the _dilatory
negotiations_ concerning Belgium; and it is just to add that he has
never since ceased to clearly appreciate the situation, and to keep his
country constantly on its guard as regards the confidential harmony and
absolute agreement between the two courts of Berlin and St. Petersburg
after the mission of General Manteuffel. If he nevertheless endeavored
for some time to obtain a compensation for his country,--a very modest
one, it is true, and consonant with the new fortune of France,--if,
during the first months of the year 1867, he particularly flattered
himself with obtaining from the kindness of M. de Bismarck the
permission to buy Luxemburg from the King of Holland, if he even once
went so far, during a hasty journey to Paris, as to affirm, in a
confidential conversation, that he already had the fortress of Alzette
"in his pocket," it was not that he thought it possible to return to the
beautiful dream of the head-quarters of Bruenn, and to effect that
"necessary and fruitful alliance with Prussia" with which at a certain
moment some sanguine minds on the banks of the Seine had been deluded.
He was only persuaded that the conqueror of Sadowa would not envy France
this paltry atonement of Luxemburg, that he would even find it worth
while to "indemnify" the Emperor Napoleon III. so cheaply, so that, in
the words of the poet, "the lion would only gape before such a little
morsel." The lion roared, however, shook his mane with fury, and
signified harshly that it had done forever with any _politique de
pour-boire_. But even this only confirmed M. Benedetti in the opinion
that they had provided themselves elsewhere, and that henceforward they
were on the verge of great trouble. He thought rightly that M. de
Bismarck must be very sure of the support, in any case, of his former
colleague of Frankfort, to refuse to France even this moderate prize
(_aubaine_), and to give it on this occasion "the measure of its
ingratitude."