CHAPTER XVI.
New-Year’s Day, 1867.—The Luxembourg question.—Disputes between France and Prussia.—Arbitration.—The alarm blows over.—We visit Paris.—Plan of Napoleon III. for general disarmament.—Frederick’s efforts in the cause of peace.—“The Protocol of Peace.”—A little daughter is born to us.—Renewed happiness.—Frederick’s studies.—M. Desmoulin’s proposals.—Return to Paris, and re-entry into the gay world.—Talk of the “Revanche de Sadowa”.—Pressure of the war party on Napoleon III.—Whirl of gaiety.—We seek repose in Switzerland.—Illness of my little daughter.—Return to Paris in March, 1870.—Napoleon III. drops his plan of disarmament under the pressure of the war party.—Still peace seems assured.
THE New Year, ’67! We kept the Sylvester Night quite alone, my Frederick and I. When it struck twelve,—
“Do you recollect,” I asked with a sigh, “the speech my poor father made in proposing a toast last year at this same hour? I do not dare to wish you good fortune now. The future sometimes hides something so unexpectedly terrible in its bosom; and no wish has ever availed to turn it aside.”
“Then let us use the turn of the year, Martha, as an occasion not for thinking of what is coming, but for looking back into the year which has just flown by. What sufferings you have had to endure, my poor, brave wife! So many of your dear ones buried—and those days of horror on the battlefields in Bohemia.”
“I do not grieve that I have seen the cruel things that took place there. Now I can at least participate with all the might of my soul in your efforts.”
“We must bring up your—or rather our—Rudolf with a view of his pushing these efforts further. In his time a visible mark will perhaps arise above the horizon—hardly in ours. What a noise the people are making in the streets! they are greeting with shouts the new year in spite of the sufferings which the old one (that was greeted in the same way) brought on them. Oh, how forgetful men are!”
“Do not chide them too much for their forgetfulness, Frederick. We too are beginning to brush away from our memory the sufferings of the past, and what I feel is the bliss of the present—the bliss of having you, my own one. We were not to speak of the future I know; still I think that the future we have before us is good. United, loving, sufficient in ourselves, rich—how many exquisite enjoyments can not life still offer us! We will travel, will make acquaintance with the world, the world that is so fair! Fair so long as peace prevails; and peace may now last for many, many years! But if war is to break out again, you are no longer involved in it; and Rudolf too is not threatened, since he is not going to be a soldier.”
“But if, according to Minister To-be-sure’s information, every man should be obliged to share in the defence——”
“Oh, nonsense. So what I mean is, we will travel; we will bring up our Rudolf to be a pattern man; we will follow our noble aim—the propaganda of peace; and we—we will love each other!”