“God has given victory to me in the war that has been declared against me.”
“The war,” said Napoleon, “was not sought by me. I did not desire it. I declared it in obedience to the public sentiment of France.”
“Your Majesty,” said the king, “made the war to meet public opinion; but your ministers created that public opinion.”
“Your artillery, sire, won the battle. The Prussian artillery is the finest in the world.”
“Has your Majesty any conditions to propose?”
“None: I have no power; I am a prisoner.”
“Where is the government in France with which I can treat?”
“In Paris: the empress and the ministers. I am powerless.”
King William, as you know, marched to Paris, and at last made conditions of peace almost as hard as Napoleon I. had made with his father. The German princes in his hour of victory offered him the crown of Southern Germany, and he was crowned at Versailles, in the great hall of mirrors, Emperor of Germany.
Let me now speak of the kaiser’s