He had done no more than hint at the idea that the Empire might possibly be restored to France by the enemy, and his allusions were so slight and, I might almost say, so intangible, that when an hour afterwards I returned to my lodging and made notes of the principal passages in our conversation, I found it impossible exactly to remember the terms he had employed in speaking of it.
However, he often came back to this point. Even when he insisted that the National Defence Government would do well to call a National Assembly under any conditions whatsoever, even without an armistice, one of his arguments consisted in pointing out the possibility of an Imperial Restoration. “At the worst,” he insinuated, “Prussia might well negotiate with what remains of the Empire.”
I therefore thought it would be useful not to let this idea take root in his mind, and to make him understand that it was a pure delusion, which it would even be dangerous to entertain. I told him that I did not know up to what point competent men in England were capable of seriously regarding such an event as being possible in France, but if they believed in it for a single moment they would be strangely deceived. The restoration of the Empire was henceforward absolutely impossible. The supporters of the fallen régime had absolutely no illusions on this point.
“They themselves are perfectly aware,” I continued, “at least, those who have remained in France, that the country is no longer with them, and that the prisoner of Wilhelmshohe will never remount the throne of France, neither he nor those that are his. Sedan has for ever demolished the Napoleonic Idea, and the bloodstained and terrible ending of the Second Empire has for ever cured the nation of all dangerous legends. To-day we know too well what it costs a great country to give itself a master whose only merit is an illustrious name, and there is no temptation to again give way to that sort of madness! He who is to-day the enemy’s willing prisoner has fallen too low for a proud nation like France ever to forget the disgrace. Has the unhappy Emperor even to-day no fear of accusing, against all sense of justice, the brave country which was formerly his Empire, of having wanted and provoked the war? His return to France would be the signal for a general rising, and if Prussia wanted to attempt it she would be obliged to protect him with her armies and so perpetuate the war instead of definitely terminating it.”
Our conversation had lasted more than an hour and a half, and it was at Lord Granville’s own wish that it had done so, for he had been interrupted several times. On each occasion I rose to retire, but he had held me back every time, graciously and with the serious insistence of a man who does not wish to interrupt a subject which he does not yet consider exhausted. When at last I took my leave of him, he wrung my hand cordially and said he would be happy to obtain me a safe conduct which would allow me to go back to Paris, and that he would ask for it to-morrow morning.
In our conversation, as has been seen, I did not conceal my desire to find a means of returning to Paris. I would thus be able to describe to the National Defence Government the general situation in Europe, and the attitude of the Cabinets and the sentiments of the Courts of Vienna and London.
Lord Granville heard my wishes very affably, and was at great pains to help them. So I did not hesitate to profit from his disposition, and begged him to ask for a safe conduct for me.
Unfortunately my desire and his were not realised. Next day Lord Granville informed me that the démarche had not succeeded and that he had been refused the safe conduct which he had asked for me.