To foreign governments! To firmly insist upon the fact that the
Imperial Government is the _actual_ government, as it is the government
by right. To the fleet! That just as the Emperor remained to the last
in the midst of his army, sharing the chances of war, so also does the
Regent, the only executive power legally existing, come with gladness
to trust her political fortune to the Imperial fleet.
There followed a voluminous screed of irrelevant dissertation.
Regnier confessedly made no way with the Empress. He saw, indeed,
Madame Le Breton on the 14th, but only to be told, in language worthy
of a patriot sovereign, that "Her Majesty's feeling was that the
interests of France should take precedence of those of the dynasty;
that she would rather do nothing than incur the suspicion of having
acted from an undue regard for dynastic interests, and that she has the
greatest horror of any step likely to bring about a civil war." Those
high-souled expressions ought to have given definite pause to Regnier's
importunity; but that busybody was indefatigable. A second letter to
Madame Le Breton for the Empress simply elicited from the gentlemen of
her suite the information that Her Majesty, having read his
communications, had expressed the greatest horror of anything
approaching a civil war. A final letter from him, containing the
following significant passage:--
I myself, or some other person, ought already to have been secretly and
confidentially in communication with M. de Bismarck; our conditions for
peace must be more acceptable than those to which the _soi-disant_
Republican Government may have agreed; every action of theirs ought to
be turned to our advantage--we ourselves must _act_,
evoked the ultimatum that "the Empress would not stir in the matter."
Regnier then said that as he found no encouragement at Hastings he
would probably go to Wilhelmshöhe, where he would perhaps be better
understood; and he produced a photographic view of Hastings on which he
begged that the Prince Imperial would write a line to his father. On
the following morning the Prince's equerry returned him the
photographic view at the foot of which were the simple and affectionate
words: "Mon cher Papa, je vous envoie ces vues d'Hastings; j'espère
qu'elles vous plairont. Louis-Napoléon." I am personally familiar with
the late Prince Imperial's handwriting and readily recognise it in this
brief sentence. Regnier averred that it was with Her Majesty's consent
that this paper was given him; but admitted that he was told she added:
"Tell M. Regnier that there must be great danger in carrying out his
project, and that I beg him not to attempt its execution." In other
words, the Empress was willing that he should visit the Emperor at
Cassel, authenticating him thus far by the Prince Imperial's little
note; but she put her veto on his undertaking intrigues detrimental to
the interests of France.
Regnier by no means took the road for Wilhelmshöhe. At 7 P.M. of Sunday
the 18th he read in the special _Observer_ that Jules Favre was next
day to have an interview with Bismarck at Meaux. Eager to anticipate
the Republican Foreign Minister he promptly took the night train for
Paris. No trains were running beyond Amiens and he did not reach Meaux
until midnight of the 19th, to learn that Bismarck and the headquarters
had that day gone to Ferrières. At 10 A.M. of the 20th he reached that
château and appealed to Count Hatzfeld, now German Ambassador in
London, for an immediate interview with Bismarck, stating that he had
come direct from Hastings. He was informed that the Chancellor had an
appointment with Jules Favre at eleven and that it was improbable he
could be received in advance. But Bismarck having been apprised of his
arrival the fortunate Regnier was immediately ushered into his
presence. Regnier congratulates himself on having anticipated the
French Minister, ignorant of the circumstance that on the previous day
the latter had two interviews with Bismarck and that their then
impending interview was simply for the purpose of communicating to
Favre the German King's final answer to the French proposals.
Regnier says that he drew from his portfolio the photograph of Hastings
with the Prince Imperial's little note to his father at its foot and
handed the paper in silence to Bismarck; and that after the latter had
looked at it for some moments, Regnier said, "I come, Count, to ask you
to grant me a pass which will permit me to go to Wilhelmshöhe and give
this autograph into the Emperor's hands." Why he should have applied to
Bismarck for this is not apparent, since he might have gone direct from
Hastings to Wilhelmshöhe without any necessity for invoking the
Chancellor's offices. It seems extremely probable that the request for
a pass was a mere pretext to gain an interview, and the more so since
Bismarck made no allusion to the subject, but after a few moments,
according to Regnier, addressed that person as follows:--
Sir, our position is before you; what can you offer us? with whom can
we treat? Our determination is fixed so to profit by our present
position as to render impossible for the future any war against us on
the part of France. To effect this object, an alteration of the French
frontier is indispensable. In the presence of two governments--the one
_de facto_, the other _de jure_--it is difficult, if not impossible, to
treat with either. The Empress-Regent has quitted French territory, and
since then has given no sign. The Provisional Government in Paris
refuses to accept this condition of diminution of territory, but
proposes an armistice in order to consult the French nation on the
subject. We can afford to wait. When we find ourselves face to face
with a government _de facto_ and _de jure_, able to treat on the basis
we require, then we will treat.
Regnier suggested that Bazaine in Metz and Uhrich in Strasburg, if they
should capitulate, might do so in the name of the Imperial Government.
Bismarck replied that Jules Favre was assured that the garrisons of
those fortresses were staunchly Republican; but that his own belief was
that Bazaine's army of the Rhine was probably Imperialist. Then Regnier
offered to go at once to Metz. "If you had come a week earlier," said
Bismarck, "it was yet time; now, I fear, it is too late." Upon this the
Chancellor went away to meet Jules Favre with the parting words to
Regnier, "Be so good as to present my respectful homage to his Imperial
Majesty when you reach Wilhelmshöhe." At a subsequent meeting the same
evening Regnier repeated his anxiety to go at once to Metz and
Strasburg and make an agreement that these places should be surrendered
only in the Emperor's name. Bismarck was clearly not sanguine, but he
said, "Do what you can to bring us some one with power to treat with
us, and you will have rendered great service to your country. I will
give orders for a 'general safe-conduct' to be given you. A telegram
shall precede you to Metz, which will facilitate your entrance there.
You should have come sooner." So these two parted; Régnier received his
"safe-conduct" and started from Ferrières early on the morning of the
21st. But this indefatigable letter-writer could not depart without a
farewell letter:--
I shall leave (he wrote to Bismarck) your advanced posts near Metz,
giving orders for the carriage to await my return. I shall wrap myself
in a shawl, which will hide a portion of my face. In the event of
Marshal Bazaine acceding to my conditions, either Marshal Canrobert or
General Bourbaki, acquainted with all that will be requisite for the
success of my plans, may go out with my papers, dressed in my clothes,
wrapped in my shawl, and depart for Hastings, after giving me his word
of honour that for every one, except the Empress, he was to be simply
Mons. Regnier. If everything succeeded according to my anticipation, he
might then establish his identity, and place himself at the head of the
army, with orders to defend the Chamber assembled, if possible, at a
seaport town, where a loyal portion of the fleet should also be
present. If the project should miscarry, the Marshal or the General
would return and resume his post.
Bismarck must have smiled grimly as he read this strange farrago; yet,
whatever may have been his motives, he furthered the errand on which
Regnier was going to Metz.
That person reached the headquarters of Prince Frederick Charles at
Corny, outside of Metz, on the afternoon of 23rd September and was
promptly presented to the Prince, who said that Count Bismarck had
informed him of his wish to enter Metz and had left it to him to decide
as to the expediency of complying with it. This, said the Prince, he
was prepared to do and he gave Regnier the requisite pass. The same
evening that active individual presented himself at the French forepost
line, and having stated that he had a mission to Marshal Bazaine and
desired to see him immediately, he was driven to Ban-Saint-Martin where
the Marshal was residing. Bazaine at once received him in his study. At
the outset a discrepancy manifests itself in the subsequent testimony
of the interlocutors. The Marshal states that Regnier said he came on
the part of the Empress with the consent of Bismarck; while Regnier
declares that he did not state to the Marshal that he had any mission
from the Empress. On other points, with one important exception, the
versions given of the interview by the two participants fairly agree,
and Bazaine's account of it may be summarised. After Regnier had stated
that his commission was purely verbal he went on to observe that it was
to be regretted that a treaty of peace had not put an end to the war
after Sedan; that the maintenance of the German armies on French
territory was ruinous to the country; and that it would be doing France
a great service to obtain an armistice preparatory to the conclusion of
peace. That as regarded this, the French army under the walls of
Metz--the only army remaining organised--would be in a position to give
guarantees to the Germans if it were allowed its liberty of action; but
that without doubt they would exact as a pledge the surrender of the
fortress of Metz.
I replied (says Bazaine) that certainly if we--the "Army of the
Rhine"--could extricate ourselves from the _impasse_ in which we now
were, with the honours of war--that is to say, with arms and
baggage--in a word completely constituted as an army, we would be in a
position to maintain order in the interior, and would cause the
provisions of the convention to be respected; but a difficulty would
occur as to the fortress of Metz, the governor of which, appointed by
the Emperor, could not be relieved except by His Majesty himself.
One of Regnier's stated objects, continues the Marshal, was to bring it
about that either Marshal Canrobert or General Bourbaki should go to
England, inform the Empress of the situation at Metz, and place himself
at her disposition. The departure of whichever of the two high officers
should undertake this duty was to be surreptitious; and for this
Regnier had provided with Prussian assistance. Seven Luxembourg
surgeons who had been in Metz ever since the battle of Gravelotte had
written to Marshal Bazaine for leave to go home through the Prussian
lines. This letter, sent to the Prussian headquarters, was replied to
in a letter carried into Metz by Regnier and by him given to Bazaine,
to the effect that the _nine_ surgeons were free to depart. As there
were but seven surgeons, the implication is obvious that the
safe-conduct was expanded to cover the incognito exit, along with the
surgeons, of Regnier and the French officer bound for Hastings.
Regnier gave me (writes Bazaine) so many details of his _soi-disant_
relations with the Empress and her _entourage_ that, notwithstanding
the strangeness of the apparition, I put faith in his mission, and
believed that I ought not, in the general interest, to neglect the
opportunity opened to me of putting myself in communication with the
outside world. I consequently told him that he would be duly brought
into relations with Marshal Canrobert and General Bourbaki, whom I
would inform in regard to his proposals, and whom I would place at
liberty to act as each might choose in the matter.
Finally Regnier produced the photograph of Hastings with the Prince
Imperial's signature at the foot, and begged the Marshal to add his,
which he did "as a souvenir of the interview" explained Regnier,
according to the Marshal; according to Regnier, that he could exhibit
the signature to Bismarck in proof that he had the Marshal's assent to
his proposals. Diplomacy conducted by chance signatures on casual
photographs has a certain innocent simplicity, but is not in accordance
with modern methods. Perhaps, however, the strangest thing in
connection with this strange interview is Bazaine's final comment:--
All this which I have narrated was only a simple conversation to which
I attached a merely secondary importance, since M. Regnier had no
written authority from the Empress nor from M. de Bismarck.... This
personage, therefore, appeared to act without the knowledge of the
German military authorities, and it was not until considerably later
that I became convinced of their cognisance, and of their mutual
understanding as regards M. Regnier's visit to Metz.
And this in the face of General Stiehle's letter to him in his hand,
brought in by Regnier, sanctioning the exit of the _nine_ surgeons; and
the Marshal's promise to Régnier that he and the officer who should
accept the mission to Hastings should quit the camp incognito along
with the Luxembourg surgeons.
Reference has been made to a discordance between the testimony of
Marshal Bazaine and of Regnier on a very important point in regard to
this interview. In his notes taken at the time the latter writes:--
The Marshal tells me of his excellent position, of the long period for
which he can hold out; that he considers himself as the Palladium of
the Empire. He speaks of the very healthy condition of the troops; and,
if I may judge by his own rosy face, he is quite right. He tells of all
the successful sallies he had made, and of the facility with which he
can break through the besieging lines whenever he chooses to do so.
Later, he contradicts all this, explaining that finding himself in the
Prussian lines and his papers liable to be read, he had written just
the reverse of what he was told by the Marshal. He says that what
Bazaine actually informed him was that the bread ration had been
already diminished and would be necessarily further reduced in a few
days; that the horses lacked forage and had to be used for food; and
that in such conditions and taking into account the necessity of
carrying four or five days' rations for the army and keeping a certain
number of horses in condition to drag the guns and supplies, there
would be great difficulty in holding out until the 18th of October.
Bazaine, for his part, vehemently denied having given Regnier any such
information, and it seems utterly improbable that he should have done
so. It is nevertheless the fact that the 18th of October was the last
day on which rations were issued to the army outside Metz. Regnier must
have been a wizard; or Bazaine must have leaked atrociously; or there
must have been lying on the Marshal's table during the interview with
Regnier, the most recent state furnished by the French intendance, that
of the 21st of September which specified the 18th of October as the
precise date of the final exhaustion of the army's supplies.
At midnight of the 23rd Regnier went to the outposts and next morning
to Corny, where he found a telegram from Bismarck authorising the
departure for Hastings of a general from the army of Metz. He was back
again at Ban-Saint-Martin on the afternoon of the 24th, when Marshal
Canrobert and General Bourbaki were summoned to headquarters to meet
him and the Luxembourg surgeons were assembled. Canrobert declined the
proposed mission on the plea of ill-health. Bourbaki had to be searched
for and was ultimately found at St. Julien with Marshal Lebceuf. As he
dismounted at the headquarters he asked Colonel Boyer--they had both
been of the intimate circle of the Empire--whether he knew the person
walking in the garden with the Marshal?
"No," replied Boyer.
"What?" rejoined Bourbaki; "have you never seen him at the Tuileries?"
"No," said Boyer. "I forget names, but not faces--I never saw this
fellow. He is neither a familiar of the Tuileries nor an employé."
Whereupon the two aristocrats despised the bourgeois Regnier. But
Bourbaki, nevertheless, had to endure the presentation to him of the
"fellow," who promptly entered on a political discourse to the effect
that the German Government was reluctant to treat with the Paris
Government, which it did not consider so lawful as that of the Empress,
and that if it treated with her the conditions would be less
burdensome; that the intervention of the army of Metz was
indispensable; that it was all-important that one of its chiefs should
repair to the side of the Empress to represent the army with her; and
that he, Bourbaki, was the fittest person to occupy that position on
the declinature of Marshal Canrobert. Bourbaki turned from the man of
verbiage to Bazaine and asked, "Marshal, what do you wish me to do?"
The Marshal answered that he desired him to repair to the Empress.
"I am ready," answered Bourbaki, "but on certain conditions: you will
have the goodness to give me a written order; to announce my departure
in army orders; not to place a substitute in my command; and to promise
that, pending my return, you will not engage the Guard." His terms were
accepted; he was told that he was to leave immediately and he went to
his quarters to make his preparations.
It was understood that the general's departure was to be by way of
being incognito, so that it should not get wind. He had no civilian
clothes and Bazaine fitted him out in his; Regnier had obtained from
one of the Luxembourger surgeons a cap with the Geneva Cross which
completed the costume. At the Prussian headquarters General Stiehle,
Prince Frederick Charles's chief of staff, desired to pay his respects
to a man whose brilliant courage he admired. Bourbaki's bitter answer
to Regnier who communicated to him Stiehle's wish, was that he would
see "none of them, nor even eat a morsel of their bread," which, he
said, would choke him. He presently started with the surgeons,
travelling in Regnier's name and on Regnier's passport, on an
enterprise which was to lead to the wreck of a fine career. At the same
time Regnier quitted Corny on his return to Ferrières to report to
Bismarck, having promised Bazaine that he would return to Metz within
six days. His bolt was about shot. But he had not realised this fact.
He maintains in his curious pamphlet that, to quote his own words, "the
Minister had given me to understand that if I were backed by Bazaine
and his army he would treat with me as if I were the representative of
the Emperor or the Regent. I had obtained from the Marshal a
capitulation with the honours of war, which the Minister--for the
furtherance of our political ends--had consented to accord to him." He
hurried expectant to Ferrières; there to be summarily disillusioned.
Bismarck gave him an interview on the 28th, and crushed him in a few
trenchant sentences:--
I am surprised and sorry (said the Chancellor) that you, who appeared
to be a practical man, after having been permitted to enter Metz with
the certainty of being able to leave it, a favour never before
accorded, should have left it without some more formal recognition of
your right to treat than merely a photograph with the Marshal's
signature on it. But I, Sir, am a diplomatist of many years' standing,
and this is not enough for me. I regret it; but I find myself compelled
to relinquish all further communication with you till your powers are
better defined.
Regnier expressed his regret at having been so cruelly deceived but
thanked Bismarck for his kindness, whereupon the latter offered to give
him a last chance. "I would certainly," he said, "have treated with you
as to peace conditions, had you been able to treat in the name of a
Marshal at the head of 80,000 men; as it is, I will send this telegram
to the Marshal: 'Does Marshal Bazaine authorise M. Regnier to treat for
the surrender of the army before Metz in accordance with the conditions
agreed upon with the last-named?'" On the 29th came Bazaine's somewhat
diffuse reply:--
I cannot reply definitely in the affirmative to the question. Regnier
announced himself the emissary of the Empress without written
credentials. He asked the conditions on which I could enter into
negotiations with Prince Frederick Charles. My answer was that I could
only accept a convention with the honours of war, not to include the
fortress of Metz. These are the only conditions which military honour
permits me to accept.
Regnier bombarded the Chancellor with letters until the 30th, when
Count Hatzfeld informed him that the Minister would listen to nothing
more until Regnier could show full powers without evasion; that the
matter must imperatively be conducted openly and above board; and that
his Excellency hoped Regnier would be able to get clear of it with
honour, and that soon.
So Regnier quitted Ferrières in great dejection. He gives vent ruefully
to the belief that Bismarck regarded him as an unaccredited agent of
the Empress, while, curiously enough, the partisans of the Empress took
him for an emissary of Bismarck. Reaching Hastings on the 3rd of
October he found that the Empress was now at Chislehurst. He had
telegraphed in advance to "M. Regnier," the name which he had
instructed General Bourbaki to pass under until the true Regnier should
reach England. But Bourbaki had cast away the false name at the
instigation of a brother officer while passing through Belgium. On
arriving at Chislehurst he learned from the Empress that he had been
made the victim of a mystification on the part of Regnier, and that she
had never expressed the desire to have with her either Marshal
Canrobert or himself. This intelligence, of which the newspapers had
given him a presentiment, struck him to the heart. Although covered by
his chief's order he found himself in a false position; and he wrote to
the late Lord Granville, then Foreign Secretary, begging his good
offices to obtain for him an authorisation to return to his post. An
assurance was given that this would be accorded, and he hurried to
Luxembourg there to await intimation of permission to re-enter Metz.
Some delay occurred in the transmission of the Royal order to this
effect and although Bourbaki was assured that the decision would
shortly reach him, he became impatient, went into France, and placed
himself at the disposition of the Provisional Government. But
thenceforth he was a soured and dispirited man. The _ci-devant_
aide-de-camp of an Emperor writhed under the harrow of Gambetta and
Freycinet.
As for Regnier, on his return to England he seems to have haunted
Chislehurst. Once, so he frankly writes, after waiting a full hour in
expectation of an audience of the Empress Madame Le Breton came to tell
him that Her Majesty was sorry to have kept him waiting so long, but
that she had now definitely resolved not to receive him. Yet he hung
on, and the same evening he tells that he was called somewhat abruptly
into a room in which stood several gentlemen, when a lady suddenly rose
from a couch and addressed him standing. At last he was face to face
with the Empress. "Sir," said Her Majesty, "you have been persistent in
wishing to speak with me personally; here I am; what have you to say?"
Then Regnier, by his own account, harangued that august and unfortunate
lady in a manner which in print seems extremely trenchant and
dictatorial. It was all in vain, he confesses; he could not alter the
convictions of the Empress. He says that "she feared that posterity, if
she yielded, would only see in the act a proof of dynastic selfishness;
and that dishonour would be attached to the name of whoever should sign
a treaty based on a cession of territory." Probably Her Majesty spoke
from a more lofty standpoint than Regnier was able to comprehend or
appreciate.
Regnier's subsequent career during that troublous period was both
curious and dubious. General Boyer states that on the 28th of October
he found Regnier _tête-à-tête_ with Prince Napoleon (Plon-Plon). Later
he went to Cassel, where he busied himself in trying to implicate in
political machinations sundry French officers who were prisoners there.
Presently we find him at Versailles, figuring among the conductors of
the _Moniteur Prussien_, Bismarck's organ during the German occupation
of that city, in which journal he published a series of articles under
the title of _Jean Bonhomme_. During the armistice after the surrender
of Paris he betook himself to Brussels, where he told General Boyer
that he had gone to Versailles to attempt a renewal of negotiations
tending towards an Imperial restoration. He showed the general the
original safe-conduct which Bismarck had given him at Ferrières, and a
letter of Count Hatzfeld authorising him to visit Versailles. The last
item during this period recorded of this strange personage--and that
item one so significant as to justify Mrs. Crawford's shrewd suspicion
"that Regnier played a double game, and that Prince Bismarck, if he
chose, could clear up the mystery which hangs over Regnier's curious
negotiations"--is found in a page of the _Procès Bazaine_. This is the
gem: "On the 18th of February 1871 he was in Versailles, where he met a
person of his acquaintance, to whom he uttered the characteristic
words--'I do not know whether M. de Bismarck will allow me to leave him
this evening.'" He is said to have later been connected with the Paris
police under the late M. Lagrange. Whether Regnier was more knave or
fool--enthusiast, impostor, or "crank"--will probably be never known.