Prince Pless praises the Würtemberg troops. They make an excellent impression and come next to our own in the matter of military bearing. The Chancellor agrees but thinks the Bavarians also deserve commendation. He appears to be particularly pleased at the summary way in which they shoot down the “franc-voleurs.” “Our North German soldiers follow orders too literally. When one of those footpads fires at a Holstein dragoon he gets off his horse, runs after the fellow with his heavy sword and catches him. He then brings him to his lieutenant, who either lets him go or hands him over to his superior officer—which comes to the same thing, as he is then set free. The Bavarian acts differently. He knows that war is war, and keeps up the good old customs. He does not wait until he is shot at from behind, but shoots first himself.”
In the evening I prepared Bernstorff’s despatch respecting the capture of a German ship in English waters by the French frigate Desaix for our press; also the letter to Lundy on the export of arms from England to France; and finally arranged that our papers should no longer defend Bazaine against the charge of treason, “as it does him harm.”
Wednesday, November 23rd.—This morning I asked Bucher how the Bavarian Treaties were getting on and whether they would not be finally settled this evening. “Yes,” was the reply, “if nothing happens in the meantime—and it need not be anything very important. Could you imagine what it was that recently nearly wrecked the negotiations? The question of collars or epaulettes! The King of Bavaria wanted to retain the Bavarian collar, while his Majesty wished to have it replaced by ours. The Chief, however, finally brought him round by saying: ‘But, your Majesty, if the Treaty is not concluded now, and in ten years’ time perhaps the Bavarians are arrayed against us in battle, what will history say when it becomes known that the negotiations miscarried owing to these collars?’ Moreover, the King is not the worst—but rather the Minister of War.” As I was then called away I could not for the moment unriddle this mystery. I afterwards learned that the question was whether the Bavarian officers should in future wear the badge of their rank on their collars as hitherto, or on their shoulder straps like the North German troops. Bucher having alluded to the strong Republican sympathies which Alten had yesterday displayed, Pless also observed: “Really if we had known what sort of people these Princes were at the time we were discussing the Criminal Code in the Diet we should not have helped to make the provisions respecting lèse-majesté so severe.” The Chief remarked, with a laugh: “Every one of us has already deserved ten years’ penal servitude if all our jibbing at princes during the campaign were proved against us.”
We were joined at dinner by Count Frankenberg and Prince Putbus. Both wore the Iron Cross. The guests mentioned that people were very anxious in Berlin for the bombardment to begin and grumbled a great deal at its postponement. The rumour as to the influence of certain great ladies being one of the causes of the delay appears to be very widespread. “I have often told the King so,” said the Chief, “but it cannot be done; they will not have it.” “The Queen?” suggested some one. “Several queens,” corrected the Chancellor, “and princesses. I believe also that Masonic influences and scruples have helped.” He then again declared that he regarded the investment of Paris as a blunder. “I have never been in favour of it. If they had left it alone we should have made more progress, or at least we should have had a better position before Europe. We have certainly not added to our prestige by spending eight weeks outside Paris. We ought to have left Paris alone and sought the French in the open country. But otherwise the bombardment ought to have begun at once. If a thing has to be done, do it!”
The conversation then turned upon the treatment of the French rural population, and Putbus related that a Bavarian officer had ordered a whole village to be burned to the ground and the wine in the cellars to be poured out into the gutter because the inhabitants of the place had acted treacherously. Some one else observed that the soldiers at some other place had given a fearful dressing to a curé who had been caught in an act of treachery. The Minister again praised the energy of the Bavarians, but said with regard to the second case: “One ought either to treat people as considerately as possible or to put it out of their power to do mischief—one or the other.” After reflecting for a moment, he added: “Be civil to the very last step of the gallows, but hang all the same. One should only be rude to a friend when one feels sure that he will not take it amiss. How rude one is to his wife, for instance! That reminds me, by the way, Herr von Keudell, will you please telegraph to Reinfeld, ‘If a letter comes from Count Bismarck hold it back, and forward it to the Poste Restante or to Berlin’? I have written various things to my wife which are not overflowing with loyal reverence. My father-in-law is an old gentleman of eighty-one, and as the Countess has now left Reinfeld, where she was on a visit to him, he would open and read the letter and show it to the pastor, who would tell his gossips about it, and presently it would get into the newspapers.”
Bleibtreu’s sketch representing General Reille as he came up the hill at Sedan to deliver Napoleon’s letter to the King was then mentioned, and some one remarked that from the way in which the general was taking off his cap, he looked as if he were going to shout Hurrah! The Chief said: “His demeanour was thoroughly dignified and correct. I spoke to him alone while the King was writing his reply. He urged that hard conditions should not be imposed upon a great army which had fought so bravely. I shrugged my shoulders. He then said rather than submit they would blow up the fortress. I said, ‘Well, do so—faites sauter!’ I asked him then if the Emperor could still depend upon the army and the officers. He said yes. And whether his instructions and orders still held good in Metz? Reille answered this question also in the affirmative, and, as we saw, he was right at the time.... If Napoleon had only made peace then I believe he would still be a respected ruler. But he is a silly fool! I said so sixteen years ago when no one would believe me. Stupid and sentimental. The King also thought for the moment that it would be peace, and wanted me to say what conditions we should propose. But I said to him ‘Your Majesty, we can hardly have got as far as that yet.’ Their Highnesses and Serene Highnesses then pressed so close to us that I had twice to beg the King to move further off. I should have preferred to tell them plainly, ‘Gentlemen, leave us alone; you have nothing to do here.’ The one thing which prevented me from being rude to them was that the brother of our Most Gracious was the ringleader and chief offender of the whole prying mob.”
About 10 o’clock I went down to tea, and found Bismarck-Bohlen and Hatzfeldt still there. The Chief was in the salon with the three Bavarian Plenipotentiaries. In about a quarter of an hour he opened one side of the door, bent his head forward with his friendliest look, and came in with a glass in his hand and took a seat at the table.
“Well,” he said, his voice and looks betraying his emotion, “the Bavarian Treaty is made and signed. German unity is secure, and the German Emperor too.” We were all silent for a moment. I then begged to be allowed to bring away the pen with which he had signed it. “In God’s name, bring all three,” he said; “but the gold one is not amongst them.” I went and took the three pens that lay near the document. Two of them were still wet. Two empty champagne bottles stood close by. “Bring us another bottle,” said the Chief to the servant. “It is an event.” Then, after reflecting for a while, he observed: “The newspapers will not be satisfied, and he who writes history in the usual way may criticise our agreement. He may possibly say, ‘The stupid fellow should have asked for more; he would have got it, as they would have been compelled to yield.’ And he may be right so far as the ‘compelled’ is concerned. But what I attached more importance to was that they should be thoroughly pleased with the thing. What are treaties when people are compelled to enter into them! And I know that they went away pleased.... I did not want to squeeze them or to make capital out of the situation. The Treaty has its deficiencies, but it is for that reason all the more durable. The future can supply those deficiencies.... The King also was not satisfied. He was of opinion that such a Treaty was not worth much. My opinion is quite different. I consider it one of the most important results which we have attained during recent years. I finally succeeded in carrying it through by exciting apprehensions of English intervention unless the matter were speedily settled.... As to the question of the Emperor, I made that proposal palatable to them in the course of the negotiations by representing that it must be easier and more satisfactory for their sovereign to concede certain rights to the German Emperor than to the neighbouring King of Prussia.”
On the Minister then speaking somewhat slightingly of the King of Bavaria, he was like a boy, did not know his own mind, lived in “dreams,” and so on—Abeken (who had entered in the meantime, and was naturally aggrieved at these remarks) said: “But surely the young King is a very nice man!” “So are all of us here,” said the Chief, as he looked round at the whole company one after another. Loud laughter from the Centre and the Left. Over a second bottle of champagne which he drank with us, the Chief came (I forget how the subject was introduced) to speak of his own death. He asserted that he should die in his 71st year, a conclusion which he arrived at from some combination of figures which I could not understand. I said: “Excellency must not do that. It would be too early. One must drive away the Angel of Death!”
“No,” he replied. “In 1886—still fifteen years. I know it. It is a mystic number.”