At dinner, the Chief, speaking of Beaufort, said he had behaved like a man without any breeding. “He blustered and shouted and swore like a trooper, and with his ‘moi, général de l’armée française,’ he was almost unendurable. Favre, who is not very well bred either, said to me: ‘J’en suis humilié!’ Besides, he was not so very drunk; it was, rather, his vulgar manners. At the General Staff they were of opinion that a man of that sort had been chosen in order that no arrangement should be come to. I said that, on the contrary, they had selected him because it did not matter for such a person to lose credit with the public by signing the capitulation.”
The Chief then continued: “I said to Favre during our last interview: ‘Vous avez été trahi—par la fortune.’ He saw the point clearly, but only said: ‘A qui le dites-vous! Dans trois fois vingt quatre heures je serai aussi compté au nombre des traîtres.’ He added that his position in Paris was very critical. I proposed to him: ‘Provoquez donc une émeute pendant que vous avez encore une armée pour l’etouffer.’ He looked at me quite terror-stricken, as if he wished to say, How bloodthirsty you are. I explained to him, however, that that was the only right way to manage the mob.” “Then, again, he has no idea of how things are with us. He mentioned several times that France was the land of liberty, while Germany was governed by a despotism. I told him, for instance, that we wanted money and that Paris must supply some. He suggested that we should raise a loan. I replied that that could not be done without the approval of the Diet. ‘Ah’ he said, ‘you can surely get five hundred million francs without the Chamber.’ I answered: ‘No, not five francs.’ But he would not believe it. I told him that I had been at loggerheads with the popular representatives for four whole years, but that the raising of a loan without the Diet was the limit to which I went, and which it never occurred to me to overstep. That seemed to disconcert him somewhat, but he only said that in France ‘on ne se gênerait pas.’ And yet he returned afterwards to the immense freedom which they enjoy in France. It is really funny to hear a Frenchman talk in that way, and particularly Favre, who has always been a member of the Opposition. But that’s their way. You can give a Frenchman twenty-five lashes, and if you only make a fine speech to him about the freedom and dignity of man of which those lashes are the expression, and at the same time strike a fitting attitude, he will persuade himself that he is not being thrashed.”
“Ah, Keudell,” said the Chief suddenly, “it just occurs to me. I must have my full powers drawn up for to-morrow, of course in German. The German Emperor must only write German. The Minister can be guided by circumstances. Official communications must be written in the language of the country, not in a foreign tongue. Bernstorff was the first to try to introduce that system in our case, but he went too far with it. He wrote to all the diplomatists in German, and they replied, of course by agreement, each in his own language, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and what not, so that he had to have a whole army of translators in the office. That was how I found matters when I came into power. Budberg (the Russian Ambassador in Berlin) sent me a note in Russian. That was too much for me. If they wanted to have their revenge Gortschakoff should have written in Russian to our Ambassador in St. Petersburg. That would have been the right way. It is only fair to ask that the representatives of foreign countries should understand and speak the language of the State to which they are accredited. But it was unfair to send me in Berlin a reply in Russian to a note in German. I decided that all communications received in other languages than German, French, English and Italian should be left unnoticed and put away in the archives. Budberg then wrote screed after screed, always in Russian. No answer was returned and the documents were all laid by with the State papers. At last he came himself and asked why he had received no reply. ‘Reply!’ I exclaimed. ‘To what?’ Why, he had written a month ago and had afterwards sent me several reminders. ‘Ah, quite so!’ I said. ‘There is a great pile of documents in Russian down stairs, and yours are probably amongst them. But we have no one who understands Russian, and I have given instructions for all documents written in a language we do not understand to be put away in the archives.’” It was then arranged that Budberg should write in French, and the Foreign Office also when it suited them.
The Chief then talked about the French negotiators and said: “M. Dürrbach introduced himself as ‘membre de l’administration du Chemin de fer de l’Est; j’y suis beaucoup intéressé.’—If he only knew what we intend.” (Probably the cession of the Eastern Railway.) Hatzfeldt: “He threw up his hands in dismay when the General Staff pointed out to him on the map the tunnels, bridges, &c., destroyed by the French themselves. ‘I have always been against that’ he said, ‘and I pointed out to them that a bridge could be repaired in three hours—but they would not listen to me.’” The Chief: “Repaired after a fashion, certainly, but not a railway bridge capable of carrying a train. They will find it hard now to bring up provisions to Paris, particularly if they have committed the same stupid destruction in the west. I think they rely upon drawing supplies from Brittany and Normandy, where there are large flocks of sheep, and from the ports. To my knowledge there are plenty of bridges and tunnels in those parts too, and if they have destroyed them they will find themselves in great straits. I hope, moreover, that people in London will only send them hams and not bread!”
Saturday, January 28th.—At 11 o’clock the French negotiators again arrived—Favre, Dürrbach and two others, who are understood to be also leading railway officials; and two officers, another general, and an aide-de-camp, both men with a good presence. They take lunch with us. Then follows a lengthy negotiation at Moltke’s lodgings. The Chief afterwards dictates to the Secretaries Willisch and Saint Blanquart the treaties of capitulation and armistice, which are drawn up in duplicate. They are afterwards signed and sealed by Bismarck and Favre, at twenty minutes past seven, in the green room next to the Minister’s study up stairs.
The Frenchmen dined with us. The general (Valden is his name) ate little and hardly spoke at all. Favre was also dejected and taciturn. The aide-de-camp, M. d’Hérisson, did not appear to be so much affected, and the railway officials, after their long privations, devoted themselves with considerable gusto to the pleasures of the table. According to what I can gather from the latter they have, as a matter of fact, been on very short commons in Paris for some time past, and the death rate last week amounted to about five thousand. The mortality was especially heavy amongst children up to two years of age, and coffins for these tiny French citizens were to be seen in all directions. Delbrück declared afterwards that “Favre and the General looked like two condemned prisoners who were going to the gallows next morning. I pitied them.”
Keudell expects that peace will soon be concluded and that we shall be back in Berlin within a month. Shortly before 10 o’clock a bearded gentleman apparently about forty-five, who gave his name as Duparc, called and was immediately conducted to the Chief, with whom he spent about two hours. He is understood to be the former French Minister Duvernois, coming from Wilhelmshöhe with proposals for peace. The capitulation and armistice do not yet mean the end of the war with France.
Sunday, January 29th.—Our troops moved forward to occupy the forts. In the morning read despatches respecting the London Conference, and other subjects, as well as the treaties for the armistice and capitulation signed yesterday. Bernstorff reported that Musurus became very violent at one of the sittings of the Conference. He could not conceive why the stipulation closing the Dardanelles against Russian men-of-war should not be worded in an indirect and therefore less offensive form for Russia, and at the same time quite as acceptable to the Porte. From another of Bernstorff’s despatches the Chief appears to have hinted that Napoleon should not miss the right moment. It is also stated that Palikao, who was of the same opinion, thought it would be dangerous to agree in the capitulation to leave the National Guard under arms. Vinoy and Roncière, being in favour of the Emperor, would doubtless be the right men to assume command of the troops in the city.
Our copy of the capitulation fills ten folio pages, and is stitched together with silk in the French colours, on the end of which Favre has impressed his seal.
We were joined at lunch by Count Henckel, who has been appointed Prefect at Metz. He maintained that in about five years the elections in his department would be favourable to the Government; indeed, he was confident even now of being able to bring about that result. In Alsace, however, the prospect was not so good, as Germans are not so docile to authority as the French. He also mentioned that his department had really suffered severely. At the commencement of the war it had some thirty-two to thirty-five thousand horses, and now he believed there were not more than five thousand left.