The dinner lasted very long this evening, from 5.30 till after 7. Favre was expected back from Paris every moment. He came at length at 7.30, again accompanied by his son-in-law with the Spanish name. It is understood that neither hesitated this time, as they did on the former occasion, to take the food that was offered to them, but, like sensible people, did justice to the good things that were laid before them. It is doubtless to be inferred from this that they have also listened to reason in the main point, or will do so. That will soon appear, as Favre is again conferring with the Chancellor.
After dinner read drafts. Instructions have been sent to Rosenberg-Grudcinski at Reims respecting the collection of taxes. The Municipalities are to be called upon to pay five per cent. extra for each day of arrears. Flying columns with artillery are to be sent to districts where payment is obstinately refused. They are to summon the inhabitants to pay up the taxes and if this is not done immediately to shell the place and set it on fire. Three examples would render a fourth unnecessary. It is not our business to win over the French by considerate treatment or to take their welfare into account. On the contrary, in view of their character, it is desirable to inspire them with a greater fear of us than of their own Government, which, of course, also enforces compulsory measures against them. According to a report by the Minister of the Netherlands to his Government, the Red Republicans in Paris attempted a rising the night before last, released some of their leaders, and then provoked a riot outside the Hôtel de Ville. The National Guard fired upon the Mobiles, and there were some dead and wounded, but ultimately order was restored.
About 10 o’clock, while Favre was still here, there was heavy firing from big guns which continued for perhaps an hour. I went to tea at 10.30 P.M., and found Hatzfeldt and Bismarck-Bohlen in conversation with Del Rio in the dining-room. He is a man of medium height, dark beard, slightly bald, and wears a pince-nez. Shortly after I came down, he left for his quarters at Stieber’s house, accompanied by Mantey, and he was followed a quarter of an hour later by Favre. Del Rio spoke of Paris as being the “centre du monde,” so that the bombardment is a kind of target practice at the centre of the world. He mentioned that Favre has a villa at Reuil and a large cellar in Paris with all sorts of wine, and that he himself has an estate in Mexico of six square German miles in extent. After Favre’s departure the Chief came out to us, ate some cold partridge, asked for some ham, and drank a bottle of beer. After a while he sighed, and sitting up straight in his chair, he exclaimed: “If one could only decide and order these things one’s self! But to bring others to do it!” He paused for a minute and then continued: “What surprises me is that they have not sent out any general. And it is difficult to make Favre understand military matters.” He then mentioned a couple of French technical terms of which Favre did not know the meaning. “Well, it is to be hoped that he had a proper meal to-day,” said Bohlen. The Chief replied in the affirmative, and then Bohlen said he had heard it rumoured that this time Favre had not despised the champagne. The Chief: “Yes, the day before yesterday he refused to take any, but to-day he had several glasses. The first time he had some scruples of conscience about eating, but I persuaded him, and his hunger doubtless supported me, for he ate like one who had had a long fast.”
Hatzfeldt reported that the Mayor, Rameau, had called about an hour before and asked if M. Favre was here. He wanted to speak to him and to place himself at his disposal. Might he do so? He, Hatzfeldt, had replied that of course he did not know. The Chief: “For a man to come in the night to a person who is returning to Paris is sufficient of itself to bring him before a court-martial. The audacious fellow!” Bohlen: “Mantey has doubtless already told Stieber. Probably this M. Rameau is anxious to return to his cell.” (Rameau was obliged some time since to study the interior of one of the cells in the prison in the Rue Saint Pierre for a few days in company with some other members of the corporation—if I am not mistaken, on account of some refusal or some insolent reply about supplying provisions for Versailles.)
The Minister then related some particulars of his interview with Favre. “I like him better now than at Ferrières,” he said. “He spoke a good deal and in long, well-rounded periods. It was often not necessary to pay attention or to answer. They were anecdotes of former times. He is a very good raconteur.” “He was not at all offended at my recent letter to him. On the contrary, he felt indebted to me for calling his attention to what he owed to himself.” “He also spoke of having a villa near Paris, which was, however, wrecked and pillaged. I had it on the tip of my tongue to say, ‘But not by us!’ but he himself immediately added that it had doubtless been done by the Mobiles.” “He then complained that Saint Cloud had been burning for the last three days, and wanted to persuade me that we had set the palace there on fire.” “In speaking of the franctireurs and their misdeeds, he wished to call my attention to our guerillas in 1813—they indeed had been much worse. I said to him: ‘I don’t want to deny that, but you are also aware that the French shot them whenever they caught them. And they did not shoot them all in one place, but one batch on the spot where the act was committed, another batch at the next halt, and so on, in order to serve as a deterrent.’” “He maintained that in the last engagement, on the 19th, the National Guard, recruited from the well-to-do classes, fought best, while the battalions raised from the lower classes were worthless.”
The Chief paused for a while and seemed to be reflecting. He then continued: “If the Parisians first received a supply of provisions and were then again put on half rations and once more obliged to starve, that ought, I think, to work. It is like flogging. When it is administered continuously it is not felt so much. But when it is suspended for a time and then another dose inflicted, it hurts! I know that from the criminal court where I was employed. Flogging was still in use there.”
The subject of flogging in general was then discussed, and Bohlen, who favours its retention, observed that the English had re-introduced it. “Yes,” said Bucher, “but first for personal insult to the Queen, on the occasion of an outrage against the Royal person, and afterwards for garrotting.” The Chief then related that in 1863, when the garrotters appeared in London, he was often obliged to go after twelve o’clock at night through a solitary lane, containing only stables and full of heaps of horse-dung, which led from Regent Street to his lodgings in Park Street. To his terror, he read in the papers that a number of these attacks had taken place on that very spot.
Then, after a pause, the Minister said: “This is really an unheard-of proceeding on the part of the English. They want to send a gunboat up the Seine” (Odo Russell put forward this demand, which the Chancellor absolutely refused) “in order, they say, to remove the English families there. They merely want to ascertain if we have laid down torpedoes and then to let the French ships follow them. What swine! They are full of vexation and envy because we have fought great battles here—and won them. They cannot bear to think that shabby little Prussia should prosper so. The Prussians are a people who should merely exist in order to carry on war for them in their pay. This is the view taken by all the upper classes in England. They have never been well disposed towards us, and have always done their utmost to injure us.” “The Crown Princess herself is an incarnation of this way of thinking. She is full of her own great condescension in marrying into our country. I remember her once telling me that two or three merchant families in Liverpool had more silver-plate than the entire Prussian nobility. ‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘that is possibly true, your Royal Highness, but we value ourselves for other things besides silver.’”
The Minister remained silent for a while. Then he said: “I have often thought over what would have happened if we had gone to war about Luxemburg—should I now be in Paris or would the French be in Berlin? I think I did well to prevent war at that time. We should not have been nearly so strong as we are to-day. At that time the Hanoverians would not have made trustworthy soldiers. I will say nothing about the Hessians—they would have done well. The Schleswig-Holstein men have now fought like lions, but there was no army there then. Saxony was also useless. The army had been disbanded and had to be recruited over again. And there was little confidence to be placed in the South Germans. The Würtembergers, what excellent fellows they are now, quite first rate! But in 1866 they would have been laughed at by every soldier as they marched into Frankfurt like so many militiamen. The Baden troops were also not up to the mark. Beyer, and indeed the Grand Duke, has since then done a great deal for them.” “It is true that public opinion throughout Germany would have been on our side had we wished to fight for Luxemburg. But that was not enough to compensate for such deficiencies. Moreover, we had not right on our side. I have never confessed it publicly, but I can say it here: after the dissolution of the Confederation the Grand Duke had become the sovereign of Luxemburg and could have done what he liked with the country. It would have been mean of him to part with it for money, but it was open to him to cede it to France. Our right of occupation was also not well founded. Properly speaking, after the dissolution of the Confederation we ought no longer to have occupied even Rastatt and Mainz. I said that in the Council—I had at that time yet another idea, namely, to hand over Luxemburg to Belgium. In that case we should have united it to a country on behalf of whose neutrality, as people then thought, England would intervene. That would also have strengthened the German element there against the French speaking inhabitants, and at the same time have secured a good frontier. My proposal was not received with any favour, and it is just as well as it has turned out.”
Bismarck-Bohlen drew attention to a capital cartoon in Kladderadatsch: Napoleon waiting on the platform of the railway station and saying “They have already given the signal to start.” He has put on an ermine cloak for his journey to Paris, and is carrying his portmanteau in his hand. The Chief, however, observed: “Doubtless he thinks so, and he may be right. But I fear he will miss the train. Yet, after all, there may be no other way left. He would be easier to convince than Favre. But he would always require half the army to maintain him on the throne.”