Voigts-Rhetz, Prince Putbus, and the Bavarian Count Berghem were the Chancellor’s guests at dinner. The Bavarian brought the pleasant news that the Versailles treaties were carried in the second chamber at Munich by two votes over the necessary two-thirds majority. The German Empire was, therefore, complete in every respect. Thereupon the Chief invited the company to drink the health of the King of Bavaria, “who, after all, has really helped us through to a successful conclusion.” “I always thought that it would be carried,” he added, “if only by one vote—but I had not hoped for two. The last good news from the seat of war will doubtless have contributed to the result.”
It was then mentioned that in the engagement the day before yesterday the French brought a much larger force against us than was thought at first, probably over 80,000 men. The Montretout redoubt was actually in their hands for some hours, and also a portion of Garches and Saint Cloud. The French had lost enormously in storming the position—it was said 1,200 dead and 4,000 wounded. The Chancellor observed: “The capitulation must follow soon. I imagine it may be even next week. After the capitulation we shall supply them with provisions as a matter of course. But before they deliver up 700,000 rifles and 4,000 guns they shall not get a single mouthful of bread—and then no one shall be allowed to leave. We shall occupy the forts and the walls and keep them on short commons until they accommodate themselves to a peace satisfactory to us. After all there are still many persons of intelligence and consideration in Paris with whom it must be possible to come to some arrangement.”
Then followed a learned discussion on the difference between the titles “German Emperor” and “Emperor of Germany,” and that of “Emperor of the Germans” was also mooted. After this had gone on for a while the Chief, who had taken no part in it, asked: “Does any one know the Latin word for sausage (Wurscht)?” Abeken answered “Farcimentum,” and I said “Farcimen.” The Chief, smiling: “Farcimentum or farcimen, it is all the same to me. Nescio quid mihi magis farcimentum esset.” (“Es ist mir Wurst” is student’s slang, and means “It is a matter of the utmost indifference to me.”)
Sunday, January 22nd.—In the forenoon I wrote two paragraphs for the German newspapers, and one for the Moniteur, in connection with which I was twice called to see the Chief.
Von Könneritz, a Saxon, General von Stosch, and Löper joined us at dinner. There was nothing worth noting in the conversation except that the Minister again insisted that it would be only fair to invest the wounded with the Iron Cross. “The Coburger,” he went on, “said to me the other day, ‘It would really be a satisfaction if the soldiers also got the Cross now.’ I replied, ‘Yes, but it is less satisfactory that we two should have received it.’”
Monday, January 23rd.—I telegraph that the bombardment on the north side has made good progress, that the fort at Saint Denis has been silenced, and that an outbreak of fire has been observed in Saint Denis itself as well as in Paris. All our batteries are firing vigorously, although one cannot hear them. So we are told by Lieutenant von Uslar, of the Hussars, who brings a letter to the Chief from Favre. What can he want?
Shortly after 7 P.M. Favre arrived, and the Chancellor had an interview with him, which lasted about two and a half hours. In the meantime Hatzfeldt and Bismarck-Bohlen conversed down stairs in the drawing-room with the gentleman who accompanied Favre, and who is understood to be his son-in-law, del Rio. He is a portrait painter by profession, but came with his father-in-law in the capacity of secretary. Both were treated to a hastily improvised meal, consisting of cutlets, scrambled eggs, ham, &c., which will doubtless have been welcome to these poor martyrs to their own obstinacy. Shortly after 10 o’clock they drove off, accompanied by Hatzfeldt, to the lodgings assigned to them in a house on the Boulevard du Roi, where Stieber and the military police also happen to have their quarters. Hatzfeldt accompanied the gentlemen there. Favre looked very depressed.
The Chief drove off to see the King at 10.30 P.M., returning in about three-quarters of an hour. He looks exceedingly pleased as he enters the room where we are sitting at tea. He first asks me to pour him out a cup of tea, and he eats a few mouthfuls of bread with it. After a while he says to his cousin, “Do you know this?” and then whistled a short tune, the signal of the hunter that he has brought down the deer. Bohlen replies, “Yes, in at the death.” The Chief: “No, this way,” and he whistled again. “A hallali,” he adds. “I think the thing is finished.” Bohlen remarked that Favre looked “awfully shabby.” The Chief said: “I find he has grown much greyer than when I saw him at Ferrières—also stouter, probably on horseflesh. Otherwise he looks like one who has been through a great deal of trouble and excitement lately, and to whom everything is now indifferent. Moreover, he was very frank, and confessed that things are not going on well in Paris. I also ascertained from him that Trochu has been superseded. Vinoy is now in command of the city.” Bohlen then related that Martinez del Rio was exceedingly reserved. They, for their part, had not tried to pump him; but they once inquired how things were going on at the Villa Rothschild in the Bois de Boulogne, where Thiers said the General Staff of the Paris army was quartered. Del Rio answered curtly that he did not know. For the rest, they had talked solely about high-class restaurants in Paris, which, they acknowledged, was an unmannerly thing to do. Hatzfeldt on his return, after conducting the two Parisians to their lodgings, reported that Favre was glad to have arrived after dark, and that he does not wish to go out in the daytime in order not to create a sensation, and to avoid being pestered by the Versailles people.
Tuesday, January 24th.—The Chief gets up before 9 o’clock and works with Abeken. Shortly before 10 he drives off to see the King, or, let us now say, the Emperor. It is nearly 1 o’clock when he returns. We are still at lunch, and he sits down and takes some roast ham and a glass of Tivoli beer. After a while he heaves a sigh and says: “Until now I always thought that Parliamentary negotiations were the slowest of all, but I no longer think so. There was at least one way of escape there—to move ‘that the question should be now put.’ But here everybody says whatever occurs to him, and when one imagines the matter is finally settled, somebody brings forward an argument that has already been disposed of, and so the whole thing has to be gone over again, which is quite hopeless. That is stewing thought to rags—mere flatulence which people ought really to be able to restrain. Well, it’s all the same to me! I even prefer that nothing should have been yet decided or shall be decided till to-morrow. It is merely the waste of time in having to listen to them, but of course such people do not think of that.” The Chief then said that he expected Favre to call upon him again, and that he had advised him to leave at 3 o’clock (Favre wishes to return to Paris) “on account of the soldiers who would challenge him after dark, and to whom he could not reply.”
Favre arrived at 1.30 P.M. and spent nearly two hours in negotiation with the Chancellor. He afterwards drove off towards Paris, being accompanied by Bismarck-Bohlen as far as the bridge at Sèvres.