Napoléon.
“Keep Changarnier well disposed.”
General Changarnier weakened daily in view of the solicitations of which he was the object at Brussels, and yet another letter to Fleury from the Emperor at Wilhelmshöhe showed how necessary for the success of their plans did the Bonapartist party regard the General’s intervention and adhesion:
[Wilhelmshöhe],
December 23, 1870.
I thank you for the good relations that you maintain with General Changarnier. It is necessary to keep him well disposed by telling him that, when the moment comes, I shall have recourse to his advice. According to what they tell me in letters, Claremont [British Military Attaché] said Paris cannot hold out more than three weeks. But what will happen then? The attitude of certain French officers in Germany is very bad; but they are “worked” by emissaries of several colours.
Napoléon.
“Everybody desires Peace.”
All endeavours to secure the active assistance of General Changarnier failed. On January 4, 1871, the Emperor wrote from Wilhelmshöhe:
Unfortunately, you are not better informed at Brussels than we are here respecting future events. One does not know what to believe owing to the diversity of the opinions on the subject of the probable resistance of Paris. Everybody desires peace, but nobody knows how it can be brought about.
Napoléon.