A FEW FOREIGN DIPLOMATS
During the quarter of a century that I lived in Paris I was fated to see
many changes among the Diplomatic Corps, first at the Court of Napoleon
III., and afterwards at the Elysée. I must say that in all the
diplomatic circle I seldom found unpleasant or rude colleagues, but
that, on the contrary, I have met most charming men and women whom it
was a privilege and an honour to know. It is impossible to speak of them
all, but there are a few figures which have left such a vivid
remembrance in my mind that I must mention them.
I think I have spoken of Prince and Princess Metternich; they were great
favourites with the Empress Eugénie, and another Ambassador who shared
her affections was Count Nigra, one of the ablest diplomats Italy could
ever boast. A faithful servant and pupil of the great Cavour, he watched
on his behalf everything that was going on in France, and helped the
unfortunate Empress in her flight, or rather did not help her, because
his intervention, together with that of his Austrian colleague,
consisted in advising her to run away, and perhaps even in obliging her
to do so, from a feeling that later on it would be easier to get a
revolutionary government to shut its eyes to the advance of the Italian
troops on Rome, and their conquest of the Eternal City.
Count Nigra was a charming man. It was said that one could never believe
anything he said, or rely upon anything he promised. But apart from this
he was the pleasantest colleague one could have, and contrived to
remain on good terms with all those he knew, even when in diplomacy he
had cheated them of something or other. After he left Paris, I met him
in Vienna and in St. Petersburg, and was always delighted to have those
opportunities.
Lord Lyons spent long years in Paris, and represented the government of
Queen Victoria with great dignity. He was a gentleman and also a most
able diplomat, and whilst he stayed at the Faubourg St. Honoré,
Anglo-French relations remained excellent in spite of the many attempts
made to spoil them. His successors also left excellent memories behind
them when their term of office came to an end; and Lord Lytton
especially had contrived to make for himself many friends among French
society, which at that time did not look upon foreigners with the same
enthusiasm it professes to-day. Lord Lytton was a scholar, a writer and
also a statesman, a combination one does not meet frequently in our age
of mediocrities. He was a great friend, and, I think, also a distant
relation, of Lord Salisbury, who had firm confidence in his abilities;
he enjoyed greater latitude than other Ambassadors had done or did later
on.
I will say nothing about Count Arnim. We were never intimate or even on
friendly terms with each other. He was extremely stiff, and had a
considerable amount of the _morgue prussienne_ in his ways, so that very
few people sympathised with him or with his opinions. Nevertheless, his
trial, and the long war which Prince Bismarck waged against him, aroused
an interest in his fate which would not have existed under different
circumstances. But, all the same, one was not sorry when Prince
Hohenlohe succeeded him. The Prince was received with a certain amount
of kind feeling such as could not have been expected under ordinary
conditions.
Prince Hohenlohe was one of the greatest among the grand seigneurs in
Germany. He was related to the Royal Family of Prussia and to almost all
the crowned heads in Europe. He had been President of the Bavarian
ministry, and as such had shown great devotion to the cause of German
unity. His character had always been above reproach, his tact was
exquisite, and his straightforwardness was recognised even among the
enemies of his political ideas and opinions. He was essentially a man of
duty, and he never failed in its fulfilment, no matter how painful this
might be. All those who knew him respected him, and when he was sent to
Paris as Ambassador, it was felt among the diplomatic circles of Europe
that his presence there would help to do away with many prejudices and
misunderstandings.
I was a frequent visitor at the house of Prince Clovis, as we called him
familiarly, and whenever I left him it was with admiration for his
shrewd intelligence and the logic displayed in all his reasonings and
appreciations of men and of events. He had very few illusions, but at
the same time an excessive kindness in all his judgments of other
people. Ill-nature was unknown to him, and he was always ready to find
excuses for the mistakes he could not help noticing in his neighbours.
Prince Hohenlohe was infinitely above all his contemporaries in
everything, both as a private and as a public man, and in all the high
offices which he held he won for himself the esteem and the affection of
all who had to do with him.
He made himself liked, too, in Paris in those first years which followed
upon the war, in spite of the natural prejudice which existed against
everything German. He had some relatives in the Faubourg St. Germain,
where both he and his wife were received with more cordiality than in
official circles, and he felt more or less at home among them. This
fact made him cling to his Paris mission, where it was felt at the time
that it would be difficult to replace him, and where, later on, his
appointment as Chancellor of the German Empire was received with a
certain amount of sympathy.
Princess Hohenlohe was a fitting wife for that distinguished man. She
was also a _grande dame_, highly born and highly connected, with some of
the bluest blood in Europe flowing in her veins. She admirably filled
her position as Ambassadress, and she made for herself in France, as
everywhere else, a considerable number of friends.
Prince Hohenlohe’s successor, Count Munster, as I think I have already
remarked, was in appearance more an Englishman than a German. His wife
had been English, and he affected great sympathies for everything that
was British, loving London, where he always declared he spent the
happiest time of his life, and crossing the Channel whenever he found it
possible to do so. He was in Paris at the time of the Dreyfus affair,
and contrived not to make for himself too many enemies, in spite of the
difficult position and circumstances in which he found himself during
that anxious period. Among diplomats he was liked, his advice being
always appreciated and mostly followed. I cannot say the same thing
about his successor, Prince Radolin, formerly Count Radolinski, who, in
spite of the many years he remained in Paris, did not succeed in
attaining the great position which had belonged to Prince Hohenlohe or
to Count Munster.
During the latter’s tenure of the German Embassy, the present Prince von
Bülow was one of his secretaries. Intelligent, clever in noticing what
ought to be noticed, and in not seeing the things which apparently did
not concern him, he contrived to keep himself exceedingly well _au
courant_ of all that was going on around him, and of the intentions and
designs of French diplomacy. He was a man singularly unprejudiced, for
whom the end always justified the means. He may perhaps have had too
high an opinion of his own merits, and too much confidence in his power
to do always what he liked and wanted. He could make himself very
charming when he saw a personal advantage, and he was constantly on the
look out for the things that others did not see or did not care to
notice. His admiration for Prince Bismarck was unbounded, and he fondly
nursed an ambition to replace him as Chancellor of the German Empire.
Even at the time when he was a simple secretary at the Paris Embassy, he
told a friend of his that he would probably never become an ambassador,
but might, if circumstances favoured him, come to be at the head of
Germany’s foreign policy.
Prince Bülow, who fell from his high position because he had not
understood the character of the Emperor William II., and imagined that
the latter would not notice or would forgive him for trying to keep him
in leading-strings, married one of the most distinguished women in
Europe, an Italian by birth, and the daughter of the Princesse de
Camporeale. Madame Bülow was the wife of another German diplomat, Count
Donhoff, when she made the acquaintance of the future Chancellor. No one
can doubt his love for the beautiful and intelligent woman who at
present is his wife.
The first Ambassador whom Russia sent to Paris after the signature of
peace with Germany was Prince Orloff, one of her greatest noblemen. His
exalted position and high moral character put him above any suspicion of
playing a double game between France and Prussia, and he had, moreover,
the advantage of being a personal friend of President Thiers. He
remained at his post for something like ten years, and when he was
removed to Berlin, at the express desire of Prince Bismarck, his
departure was mourned by all those who knew him.
Of his successor, Baron Mohrenheim, I shall say no more than that he had
a very complex personality. He was not liked in France nor in Russia; it
is said that he only kept his post because he enjoyed the protection of
the Empress Marie Feodorovna, the Consort of Alexander III.
It was M. Nelidoff who replaced him, and who remained in possession of
the Russian Embassy in Paris until his death. M. Nelidoff was a diplomat
of the old school, who had spent almost his whole career in the East,
and who had served under Count Ignatieff in Constantinople, accompanying
him to San Stefano, where his signature figures on the famous treaty
which was signed there, and which Europe did not consent to accept. He
was not a man who would shrink with horror when seeing something dirty
under his feet, but rather one who would try not to step into it. No one
knew better than he did how to get over a difficulty, or how to avoid a
mistake. He can certainly be considered as an able diplomat, and
certainly also he cut a better figure in Paris than his successor, M.
Izvolski, whom wicked tongues in St. Petersburg nicknamed Izvostchik,
which means a cabdriver.
Prince Orloff had had for private secretary during his stay in Paris
Count Mouravieff, whom he took with him to Berlin, and who was
ultimately to be put in possession of the Russian Foreign Office after
the unexpected death of Prince Labanoff. Count Mouravieff was one of the
most charmingly amiable men that Russian diplomacy ever possessed. His
tact was something surpassing, and his cleverness, which had no shade of
pedantry mixed with it, made him delightful. He has been accused of many
things, including that of not being either a good or a faithful friend.
I have had occasion to see that this was a most unjust and untrue
reproach, because Count Muravieff, far from deserting those who had been
his companions, when their worldly star did not shine any longer as
brightly as it had done, was, on the contrary, always eager to oblige
them in anything that he could possibly do for them, and kept up his
relations with them sometimes even at the cost of some personal
sacrifices. He was not liked by those who saw in him a possible rival,
his quick career interfering with their own, but the few who knew him
well esteemed him as much as they appreciated his intelligence and his
pleasant conversation.
I must, before ending with these few words of remembrance that I have
given of my former colleagues, say something about the Italian
Ambassador, Count Tornielli, or rather about his wife, who was a Russian
by birth, a Countess Rostopschine, the granddaughter of that Count
Rostopschine who burned Moscow rather than give it up to Napoleon. She
was an amiable woman, whose house was always open to her compatriots;
one who had kept a great attachment for the land of her birth, and whose
salon was a favourite resort for those who cared more for clever
conversation than for polo or for tennis. She had a sister, the Countess
Lydie Rostopschine, who has written several books full of interest,
among them one called “Rastaquèropolis,” which is the best description
that has ever been published of Nice society and in general of the life
and the people of the French Riviera.
L’ENVOI
When I think of all those bright, happy days I spent in Paris I regret
often that I cannot live them over again. I had hoped to be allowed to
end my days on the banks of the Seine, in the gay city which has always
proved so attractive to Russians. St. Petersburg did not interest me any
longer. Its climate is far too severe for my old lungs and my
everlasting rheumatism, and all the persons who were my friends in the
old days have either died or disappeared from the social horizon. Fate
ruled it otherwise, and my seventy-five years have not been allowed to
remain in Paris where they believed they had found a home. An Imperial
order removes me to another place where very probably I shall miss the
attractions of Paris, and the resources which it offers to a bookworm
like myself. Before going away I have read over again the reminiscences
that in my idle moments I have scribbled for the benefit of those who
care to read them when I am gone, and I have found a melancholy pleasure
in doing so. It has been such a happy time, even for a misanthrope like
myself. Each time I have left Paris it has been a joy to return, and to
look once more on the familiar haunts where I used to walk in company
with friends who, alas! have already gone. Would that I could follow
them on that journey whence no one returns, before leaving Paris for
ever; because at my age one cannot hope for anything that the morrow may
bring along with it--this wonderful Paris, where is so much of what
constituted my former pleasures, will remain buried. Russia can only
increase my melancholy, it is so different from what it was when I was
young, and when the sadness of the snow which covered its ground found
no echo in my young heart.
* * * * *
Count Vassili’s wish was realised. He died just before his intended
departure from the Paris he had loved so well.
INDEX
A
Abzac, Marquis d’, 151;
influence in Germany, 152
Adam, Edmond, 191
----, Mme. Juliette, 188, 189;
her antagonism to Bonapartism, 196;
and Boulangism, 248, 253;
and Gambetta, 192, 232
Agoult, Comtesse d’, 190
Alexander III., death of, 285
Amélie of Portugal, marriage of, 126
André, Mme. Edouard, 177, 180
Aosta, Duchess of, 46
Arnim, Count, 383
Aumale, Duc d’, banishment annulled, 139;
biography of, 133;
cause of banishment, 138;
offered the Presidency, 145;
in the Army, 137;
popularity of, 124;
and Trochu, 82
----, Duchesse d’, 141
B
Bartet, Mme., 379
Bazaine, Marshal, 64;
trial of, 129
Beaulaincourt, Comtesse de, 23, 30
Beauvoir, Marquis de, and Boulangism, 247
Bernhardt, Madame Sarah, 379
Berryer, M., 48
Biron, Vicomte de Gontaut, 161;
and Bismarck, 162
----, Comte de Gontaut, 349
Bisaccia, Duc et Duchesse de la Rochefoucauld, 169
Bismarck and Gambetta, 238;
and Jules Favre, 73;
and Vicomte de Gontaut Biron, 162
Bonaparte, Prince Pierre, private life of, 40
----, Prince Victor, shoots Victor Noir, 39
----, Princess Marie, marriage of, 41
Bonnat, Joseph Leon, 142
Bonnemains, Madame de, and Boulanger, 247, 256
Bontoux, M., and the Union Générale, 227
Boulanger, General, 244;
elected to Chamber, 247;
flight of, 255;
retirement of, 246;
returns to Paris in disguise, 247;
suicide of, 256
---- Plot, the, 244
Boulangism, the beginnings of, 246
Boulangists and the Comte de Paris, 125
Bourget, Paul, 377
Briand, Aristide, career of, 366;
political future of, 363;
and the Socialists, 368
Brisson, Barnabé, Nicholas II. visits, 289
Broglie, Duc de, 147;
an ardent Orleanist, 158;
biography of, 156;
and Feuillet, 158
----, Prince Amédée de, 159
----, Princesse de, 160
Bülow, Prince von, 385
C
Caillavet, Madame de, 332
Canrobert, Marshal, candidature for Presidency, 145
Carnot, Sadi, 245;
as President, 271;
becomes candidate for Presidency, 229;
murder of, 271
Castellane, Comte de, affairs of, 316
Castellane, Comtesse Jean de, 350
----, Marquis de, 349
Castelnau, General, and the Prince Imperial, 60
Castiglione, Comtesse de, 53
Cavaignac, M., and the Dreyfus affair, 328
Chambord, Comte de, biography of the, 112;
death of, 116;
funeral of, 122;
dispute with MacMahon, 218;
home life of, 112;
and Marshal MacMahon, 115-118;
and the Monarchical restoration, 115;
and the Republic, 88;
and Versailles, 116
Chantilly, bequeathed to the French Academy, 139;
glories of, 124, 134
Chanzy, General, defeated at Orleans, 81
Chartres, Duc de, characteristics of, 128;
marriage of, 130;
and the Franco-Prussian War, 128
Claretie, Jules, 217, 376
Clemenceau, Georges, influence of, 309;
and Baron Mohrenheim, 280;
and Comtesse d’Aunay, 310;
and Edward VII., 361;
and Fallières, 358;
and Russia, 279;
and the Commune, 92;
and the Dreyfus affair, 312, 321
Cléry, Maître, 140
Clotilde of Savoy, Princesse, 45;
and Empress Eugénie, 14
Commune, the, fight with Thiers’ troops at Père-la-Chaise, 95;
opinions on, 94;
outbreak of the, 87;
stamping out the, 97
Compiègne, life at, 9, 25
Conneau, Dr., contrives Napoleon’s escape from Ham, 21;
Napoleon’s friendship with, 20
Constant, M., and General Boulanger, 255
Conti, M., 23
D
Darboy, Archbishop, assassination of, 95
Daudet, Alphonse, 215
----, Ernest, 217
----, Leon, 216
----, Lucien, 216
----, Madame Alphonse, 335
_Débats, Journal des_, 299
Decazes, Duc, 147;
as Minister of Foreign Affairs, 160;
biography of, 156
Delahaye, Jules, denounces Panama affairs in Chamber, 263
Déroulède, Paul, and Boulangism, 248, 252
Dillon, Count, and Boulangism, 247
Donnersmarck, Count Henckel von, 238
Dorian, Madame Ménard, 332
Dreyfus affair, 318;
a family incident, 336;
the religious element, 328;
the verdict, 319;
and Faure, 295;
and Zola, 323
----, Captain, in the dock, 318;
personality of, 323
Dumas, Alex., 211
----, Colette, 213
----, Jeannine, 213
E
Empire, last days of the, 48
Esterhazy, Col., and the Dreyfus affair, 326
Eugénie, Empress, 3, 9, 26, 65;
as Regent, 63;
attitude before the Franco-Prussian War, 59;
bravery as a nurse, 11;
flight of, 71;
leaves St. Cloud, 63;
unpopularity during war, 59;
and her son, 12;
and Marshal MacMahon, 64;
and peace negotiations, 78;
and the 4th of September, 37;
and Thiers, 104.
(_See also under_ Napoleon III.)
F
Fallières, André, 365
----, Armand, at St. Petersburg, 362;
elected to the Presidency, 358;
and Clemenceau, 358;
and the Vatican, 359
----, Madame, 364
Falloux, Comte de, 214
Faure, Félix, at the Elysée, 283;
death of, 294;
early career, 276;
elected to Presidency, 276;
supposed overtures to Germany, 296;
visits Nicholas II., 294;
and Nicholas II., in Paris, 284;
and the Russian Fleet, 277
Favre, Jules, makes a false move, 90;
and Bismarck, 73;
and the Franco-Prussian War, 75
Ferry, Jules, advocates the Republic, 68;
and Esterhazy, 326
Feuillet, Octave, 28
Flaubert, Gustave, personality of, 375
Fleury, General, 23
Flourens, Pierre, and the Panama scandal, 267
Fontainebleau, life at, 25
Fortoul, M. de, 150
France, Anatole, personality of, 374
France, estimation of patriotism in, 96
Franco-Prussian War, capitulation of Paris, 83;
defeat of army of Chanzy, 81;
effect on Monarchy, 63;
first disasters in, 63;
peace negotiations at Versailles, 84;
Prince Imperial at, 62;
Prussian troops enter Paris, 84;
the Emperor’s review outside Paris, 86;
the eve of the, in Paris, 56;
troops’ return from captivity, 94
Franco-Russian misunderstanding, 313
---- entente, the, 278, 285
French court life under Napoleon, 111
Freycinet, M. de, 224, 229
G
Galliera, Duchesse de, 177
Galiffet, Marquise de, 29
Gambetta, Leon, as Prime Minister 236;
biography of, 231;
death of, 241;
forms his Cabinet, 236;
his chief ambition, 233;
his early social errors, 194;
his estimation of MacMahon, 224;
his projected marriage, 239;
in 1871, 88;
the mystery of his accident, 239;
and Bismarck, 238;
and Comte de St. Vallier, 237;
and European politics, 233;
and Germany, 233;
and Madame Juliette Adam, 192;
and the 4th of September, 65
_Gaulois_, the, 303
Gortschakoff, Prince, and the Russian canard, 164
Gonne, Miss Maud, and Boulangism, 253
Gramont, Duc de, 46;
at Vienna, 47
----, Duchesse de, 351
Granier, Jeanne, Madame, 380
Grévy, Jules, as President, 225;
resigns the Presidency, 228;
and Daniel Wilson, 227
H
Hading, Jane, Madame, 380
Hanotaux, Gabriel, as a writer, 297
Harcourt, Vicomte Emmanuel d’, 149
Henry, Colonel, and the Dreyfus affair, 327
Herz, Cornelius, and the Panama Canal 259
Hohenlohe, Prince, 383;
as Ambassador, 276
Hohenzollern, Prince Leopold of, and the Spanish throne, 52
Hugo, Georges, 334
Humbert, Madame, 355
I
Imperial, Prince, and the Franco-Prussian War, 60
J
Jacquemard, Mlle. Nelly, 180, 182
Jaurès, M., and the Socialists, 369
_Journal_, the, 299
L
Lacroix, Madame, 58, 188
Laguerre, George, and Boulangism, 248, 251
Lamartine, M. de, 48
Lambert, Madame Juliette, 190.
(_See also_ Adam, Juliette.)
_Lanterne_, the, 304
Lasteyrie, Marquis Jules de, 194
Lecomte, assassination of, 91
Legitimists, position of, under Third Republic, 168
Lemaitre, Jules, 141
Léon, Princesse de, 179
Lesseps, Ferdinand de, mental breakdown of, 264;
sentenced to imprisonment, 265;
and the Panama Canal, 258.
(_See also_ Panama scandal.)
----, Charles de, 259;
his affection for his father, 264.
(_See also_ Panama scandal.)
Loti, Pierre, personality of, 376
Loubet, Emile, achievements during Presidency, 313;
elected to the Presidency, 308;
in London, 314;
in Rome, 314;
Nicholas II. visits, 289;
refuses to visit the Pope, 315;
and the Catholic rupture, 311;
and the Dreyfus affair, 312
Luynes, Duchesse de, 169, 172
Lyons, Lord, 383
M
MacMahon, Marshal, at the Elysée, 147;
_coup d’état_ of, 159;
death of, 155;
dispute with Comte de Chambord, 218;
elements of failure as President, 221;
fall of, 218;
his letter to Jules Simon, 149;
overthrow of, 154;
Presidency of, 144;
proceeds to join Marshal Bazaine, 64;
retires from Presidency, 226;
and the Comte de Chambord, 115, 118;
and d’Harcourt, 149;
and the _coup d’état_ of May 16th, 223;
and Thiers, 110
Magenta, Duc de, 148
----, Duchesse de, 148
Maillé, Duchesse de, 186
Mathilde, Princess, 14;
and Taine, 209
_Matin_, the, 298
Maupassant, Guy de, personality of, 376
May, the 16th of, 218
Mazas, prison invaded by mob, 83
Mérimée, M., 27
Messine, Mlle. Juliette la, 190.
(_See also_ Adam, Juliette, _and_ Lambert, Juliette.)
Metternich, Prince, 382;
and Adolphe Thiers, 102
---- Princess Paul, 2, 17
Meyer, Arthur, career of, 301;
starts the Panama revelations, 262;
and Boulangism, 247;
and Charles de Lesseps, 260
Millevoye, Lucien, and Boulangism, 248, 252
Mirbeau, Octave, career of, 372
Mocquard, M., 21
Mohrenheim, Baron de, and Clemenceau, 280;
and Faure, 277
Monaco, Princesse de, 175
Monarchist restoration, chances of, in 1871, 88
Montagnini, Mgr., and the Catholic crisis, 360
Montalembert, Charles de, 49
Montebello, Comtesse Jean de, 346
Morès, Marquis de, and Russia, 279
Mouchy, Duc de, marries Princess Anna Murat, 167
Mun, Count Albert de, and Boulangism, 248, 250
Munster, Count, as Ambassador, 275, 385;
and the Dreyfus affair, 274
Murat, Princess Anna, and Empress Eugénie, 16
Muravieff, Count, 387
N
Napoleon III., at the Franco-Prussian War, 58;
end of his dynasty, 70;
in 1868, 3;
influence of, 67;
leaves St. Cloud, 60;
personal characteristics, 6;
and Italian secret societies, 6
----, Prince, and Empress Eugénie, 14
----, Prince Louis, 45
----, Prince “Plon Plon,” 43
National Assembly, first meeting of the, 225;
ratifies peace, 87
---- Guard, the disarmament trouble begins, 90
Nelidoff, M. de, 387
Nerville, Madame Aubernon de, 188
Nicholas II. at Chalons, 290;
at the Russian Embassy, 290;
visits Brisson, 289;
visits Loubet, 289;
visits Paris, 284, 287
Nigra, Count, 32, 382;
a significant prophecy, 33
Noailles, Comtesse Mathieu de, 337
Noir, Victor, shot by Prince Pierre, 39
O
Ollivier, Emile, 24, 38;
changes in Cabinet of, 46;
Ministry of, distrusted, 48;
urges Napoleon’s return to Paris, 64
Orleanism, hopes of, 220
Orleans, Duc d’, 127
---- family, 131
Orleanist cause, the, 123
Orleanists and the confiscated millions, 123;
and the Republic, 88
Orloff, Prince, 386
P
Panama Scandal, money becomes scarce, 258;
the Canal scheme, 257;
the lottery is suggested, 258;
the public trial, 265;
and the Republic, 269
Paris, Bismarck and the Peace of, 73;
capitulation of, 83;
during the siege, 73;
experiences of, during revolution, 78;
invasion of Mazas by the mob, 83;
news of Sedan reaches, 66;
on the eve of the Franco-Prussian War, 56;
population fraternises with Prussians, 85;
prepares for the siege, 71;
Prussian troops enter, 84;
September 4th in, 65;
settles down after Commune, 97;
society after the fall of the Empire, 166;
society in 1868, 1;
society of to-day, 343;
society under Loubet, 315;
the Commune, 87;
Thiers returns after the Commune, 97;
visit of Nicholas II., 284, 287;
food during siege, 80
----, Comte de, personality of, 125;
and the Boulangists, 125
Peace negotiations of Franco-Prussian War, 84
Pellieux, General de, and the Dreyfus affair, 327
Périer, Casimir, early career of, 272;
elected President, 273;
strength of character, 273;
why he resigned Presidency, 274
Père-la-Chaise, the fight at, 95
_Petit Parisien_, the, 300
Plebiscite, the, first suggested, 41
“Plon Plon,” Prince, 43
Pobedonosteff, M., and Boulangism, 254
Poilly, Baronne de, 30
Pourtalès, Comtesse Mélanie de, 17, 19, 180
Press, the French, 297
_Presse_, the, 304
Prévost, Marcel, personality of, 378
Psichari, Madame, 335
R
Radziwill family, the, 352
Reinach, Baron Jacques, and the Panama Scandal, 261
Réjane, Madame, 380
Renan, Ernest, 205
----, Henriette, 206
Republic, the Third, birth of the, 69;
disbelief in its stability, 88;
Jules Ferry incites revolt, 68;
the mistake of the, 74
Revolution, excesses during the, 77;
of 1870, start of the, 69
Rochefort-Luçay, Henri, Marquis de, as a journalist, 305;
and Boulangism, 248
Rochefoucauld, Comte de la, 174
----, Comtesse Aimery de la, 174
----, La, family of, 173
Rochette, career of, 355;
scandal, 355
Rodin and Mirbeau, 373
Rohan, Duchesse de, 179
Rostopschine, Countess Lydie, 388
Rothschild, Baron Henri de, 339
Rouher, M., 38;
character sketch of, 42;
and the Plebiscite, 42
Rouvier, Maurice, as candidate for the Presidency, 308;
characteristics of, 340;
and the Panama Scandal, 267
S
St. Vallier, Comte de, and Gambetta, 237
Sagan, Prince and Princesse de, 183
----, Princesse de, 128
Sedan, fall of, news received in Paris, 66
September 4th in Paris, 65
Siege of Paris, 73;
food during, 80
Simon, Jules, as Prime Minister, 221
Socialism in France, 368
Sorel, Cecile, 379, 380
Spain, Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern and the throne of, 52
T
Taine, Hippolyte, 209
Talleyrand, Duc de, 186
_Temps_, the, 298
Thiebaud, George, and Boulangism, 247
Thiers, Adolphe, as a historical writer, 100;
characteristics of, 99;
death of, 110;
elected head of National Assembly, 89;
explains his severity during the Commune, 108;
flight of, to Versailles, 9;
imprisonment of, 103;
M. and Madame, at the Elysée, 167;
Ministry overturned, 144;
negotiates for peace, 84;
opposes the Plebiscite, 41;
returns to Paris after Commune, 97;
his troops defeat Communards at Père-la-Chaise, 95;
and Empress Eugénie, 104;
and Marshal MacMahon, 110;
and Prince Metternich, 102;
and the Bonapartists, 109;
and the Commune, 106;
and the Empire, 104;
and the situation in 1871, 89
Thomas, Clément, assassination of, 91
Tornielli, Comtesse, 388
Tradern, Comtesse de, 350
Trochu, General, 65;
conduct during the siege of Paris, 81;
and Duc d’Aumale, 82
Tsartoryski, Prince Ladislas, 351
Tuileries, the, forced by the mob, 1870, 70;
life at, 24
U
Union-Générale collapse, 226
Uzès, Duchesse d’, and Boulangism 248, 269, 251
V
Valovska, Countess, 17
Viollet-le-Duc, M., 29
Vogué, Vicomte de, 377
W
Wilson, Daniel, and President Grévy, 227
Wimpffen, General, 76
Z
Zola, Emile, 214, 336;
burial in the Panthéon, 324;
and the Dreyfus affair, 323
----, Madame, 336
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