Our uhlans are now at Château Thierry; in two days they may reach Paris. It is now certain, however, that we shall remain another week at Reims. Count Bohlen reported to the Chief the result of his inquiries respecting the café from which our cavalry were fired at. Yielding to the entreaties of the proprietor, who is believed to be innocent, the house has not been destroyed. Moreover, the treacherous shot failed of its effect. The proprietor has been let off with a fine of two hundred or two hundred and fifty bottles of champagne, to be presented to the squadron; and this he gladly paid.
At tea somebody (I now forget who it was) referred to the exceptional position accorded to the Saxons in the North German Confederation as regards military arrangements. The Chancellor did not consider the matter of much importance. “Moreover, that arrangement was not made on my initiative,” he observed; “Savigny concluded the treaty, as I was seriously ill at the time. I am disposed to regard even less narrowly the arrangements respecting the foreign relations of the smaller States. Many people lay too much stress on this point, and apprehend danger from the retention of their diplomatic representatives besides those of the Confederation. If such States were in other respects powerful, they could, even without official representatives, exchange letters with foreign Courts and intrigue by word of mouth against our policy. That could be managed by a dentist or any other personage of that description. Moreover, the Diets will soon refuse to grant the sums required for all such luxuries.”
Thursday, September 8th.—The Chancellor gives a great dinner, the guests including the Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Herr Stephan the Chief Director of the Post Office, and the three Americans. Amongst other matters mentioned at table were the various reports as to the affair at Bazeilles. The Minister said that peasants could not be permitted to take part in the defence of a position. Not being in uniform they could not be recognised as combatants—they were able to throw away their arms unnoticed. The chances must be equal for both sides. Abeken considered that Bazeilles was hardly treated, and thought the war ought to be conducted in a more humane manner. Sheridan, to whom MacLean has translated these remarks, is of a different opinion. He considers that in war it is expedient, even from the political point of view, to treat the population with the utmost rigour also. He expressed himself roughly as follows: “The proper strategy consists in the first place in inflicting as telling blows as possible upon the enemy’s army, and then in causing the inhabitants so much suffering that they must long for peace, and force their Government to demand it. The people must be left nothing but their eyes to weep with over the war.” Somewhat heartless it seems to me, but perhaps worthy of consideration.
Friday, September 9th.—Engaged all the forenoon and until 3 o’clock in writing various articles, amongst others one on the inconceivable attachment of the Alsacians to France, their voluntary helotry, and the blindness which will not permit them to see and feel that the Gauls only regard them as a kind of second-rate Frenchmen, and in many respects treat them accordingly. News has arrived that Paris is not to be defended against us nor regarded as a fortress. This is very questionable, as, according to other reports, the French have still some regular troops at their disposal, although not many.
Saturday, September 10th.—The Chief dined with the King to-day, but also joined us at table for half an hour. Bohlen, who had visited the Imperial château at Mourmelon, near Châlons, told us how the people had wrecked the whole place, breaking the furniture, mirrors, &c. After dinner the Chancellor had a long talk alone with Boyen and Delbrück, who were amongst the guests. I was afterwards summoned to the Minister to receive instructions respecting a communiqué to the two French newspapers published here, namely the Courier de la Champagne and the Indépendant Rémois. It was to the following effect: “If the Reims press were to declare itself in favour of the proclamation of a French Republic, and recognise the new Government by publishing its decrees, it might be inferred that as the town is occupied by German troops the organs in question were acting in harmony with the views of the German Government. This is not the case. The German Government respects the liberty of the press here as at home. It has however up to the present recognised no Government in France except that of the Emperor Napoleon. Therefore until further notice it can only recognise the Imperial Government as authorised to enter upon international negotiations.”
I give the following from my diary merely to show the genuine kindness and simple good-heartedness of our Chief. After giving me my instructions he remarked that I had not been looking well; and when I told him I had been rather unwell for the last few days, he inquired minutely into the details, and asked me whether I had consulted any doctor. I said I had not much faith in physicians.
“Well,” he replied, “they certainly are not of much use as a rule, and often only make us worse. But this is no laughing matter. Send to Lauer—he is really a good man. I cannot tell you how much my health owes to him during this campaign. Go to bed for a couple of days and you will be all right again. Otherwise you will have a relapse and may not be able to stir for three weeks. I often suffer in the same way, and then I take thirty to thirty-five drops from that little bottle on the chimney-piece. Take it with you, but bring it back again. And when I send for you tell me if you are not able to come and I will go to you. You can perhaps write in bed.”
Sunday, September 11th.—The Chief’s bottle has had an excellent effect. I was again able to rise early and work with ease. The contents of the communiqué were forwarded to the newspaper at Nancy as well as to the German press. It was pointed out, in correction of the remarks of the Kieler Zeitung and the Berlin Volkszeitung, that Prussia did not conclude the Peace of Prague with France, but with Austria, and that, consequently, the French have as little to do with paragraph 5 as with any other paragraph of that treaty.
In the course of the day one M. Werle called upon the Chief. He was a tall, haggard man, with the red ribbon in his button-hole which appears to be indispensable to every well-dressed Frenchman. He is understood to be a member of the Legislative Chamber, and a partner in the firm of Veuve Clicquot. He wished to speak to the Chief as to measures for mitigating the distress which prevailed in the town, and for providing against popular riots. It was feared that the working classes here, being in a state of ferment, would declare in favour of a Red Republic. As Reims was an industrial centre, with ten or twelve thousand ouvriers within its walls, there might be general ground for apprehension on the withdrawal of our troops. That also was a thing one could have hardly dreamed of a month ago—German soldiers protecting the French from Communism!
After dinner I was summoned several times to the Chief to receive instructions. In Belgium and Luxemburg our wounded were received in an unfriendly manner, and it is suspected, probably not without reason, that ultramontane influence is at the bottom of this conduct. Favre, “who does not exist for us,” as the Chief declared to-day, has asked, indirectly through London, whether we are disposed to grant an armistice and to enter into negotiations. Favre seems to consider this question as very pressing. The Chancellor, however, does not.