"My feelings were wounded when I read the proclamation of the three cardinals in which no mention was made of France or of the sufferings of her brave soldiers. Any insult to our flag or to our Union cuts me to the heart. Advise the General to make the fact clear that, though France does not sell her services, she demands some sense of gratitude for her sacrifices and her intervention.
"When our armies traversed the whole of Europe, their passage was everywhere marked by the destruction of feudal abuse and the sowing of the seeds of liberty. It shall not be said that in 1849 a French army could act with any other object or produce any other result.
"Ask the General to thank the army for its noble conduct in my name. I am sorry to learn that as regards the necessaries of life, it did not receive the treatment it deserved. I hope that he will be able to bring this state of affairs to an end forthwith. No pain should be spared to secure the comfort of our troops.
"Believe me, my dear Ney,
Faithfully yours,
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte.
We reproduce this letter from the text given by the Journal des Débats of September 7, 1849. M. Edgar Ney was orderly officer to the Prince President who had sent him on a mission to the Papal Government. Marshal Bugeaud was then in command of the French troops at Rome, but as he was suddenly carried off by cholera, his place was taken by General Oudinot who conducted all the military operations.
[203] The reserve militia of Hungary.
[204] On November 12, M. Barrot, Minister of the Interior, announced to the National Assembly at Paris that the President, in virtue of the rights conferred upon him by the decree of June 18, 1848, had ordered the liberation of the majority of the insurgents detained at Belle-Isle.
[205] General Changarnier was then in command of the troops at Paris.
[206] The King of Prussia refused to give T. Elssler the name of Fischbach, but gave her the title of Baroness of Barnim.
[207] Waldeck was arrested and imprisoned in May as an accomplice in the great revolutionary conspiracy. After a long trial he was acquitted on December 5 by a court which was not regarded at Berlin as entirely impartial.