Bucher told me the Crown Prince recently said to the Chancellor that too little had been secured by the Bavarian Treaty. After such great successes we ought to have asked for more. “Yes; but how were we to get it?” asked the Chief. “Why, we ought to force them,” was the Crown Prince’s reply. “Then,” said the Chancellor, “I can only recommend your Royal Highness to begin by disarming the Bavarian Army Corps here,” a remark which, of course, was intended ironically.
Sunday, November 27th.—We were joined at dinner by Count Lehndorff and Count Holnstein. The latter is Master of the Horse to King Lewis, and one of his confidential advisers.
The Chief spoke at first of the Russian question. He said: “Vienna, Florence, and Constantinople have not yet expressed their views; but St. Petersburg and London have done so, and those are the most important factors. There, however, the matter is satisfactory.”
Subsequently affairs at Munich were discussed. Holnstein observing, amongst other things, that the French Legation had greatly deceived themselves before the outbreak of the war as to the attitude of Bavaria. They judged by two or three ardently Catholic and anti-Prussian salons, and even thought that Prince Luitpold would become King. The Chief replied: “I never doubted that Bavaria would join us, but I had not hoped that she would decide so speedily to do so.”
Holnstein told us that a shoemaker in Munich had made a good deal of money by letting his windows, from which a good view could be had of the captured Turcos as they marched by, and presented seventy-nine florins to the fund for the wounded soldiers. People had come even from Vienna to see that procession. This led the conversation to the shooting of these treacherous Africans, on which the Chief said: “There should have been no question of making prisoners of these blacks.” Holnstein: “I believe they do not do so any longer.” The Chief: “If I had my way every soldier who made a black man prisoner should be placed under arrest. They are beasts of prey, and ought to be shot down. The fox has the excuse that Nature has made him so, but these fellows—they are abominably unnatural. They have tortured our soldiers to death in the most shameful way.”
CHAPTER XIII
REMOVAL OF THE ANXIETY RESPECTING THE BAVARIAN TREATY IN THE REICHSTAG—THE BOMBARDMENT FURTHER POSTPONED.
Monday, November 28th.—Prince Pless and Count Maltzahn dined with us. At first the Minister spoke about Hume, the American spiritualist, a doubtful character, who had been at Versailles, and who was to be arrested if he showed himself here again. The Chief then said: “The fellow managed to sneak into the Crown Prince’s. But that is explained by the fact that whoever can speak even broken English is welcome there. The next thing will be for them to appoint Colonel Walker my successor as Chancellor of the Confederation.”[14] Bohlen exclaimed, “I suppose you know that Garibaldi has been thrashed.” Some one observed that if he were taken prisoner he ought to be shot for having meddled in the war without authority. “They ought to be first put into a cage like beasts in a menagerie,” said Bohlen. “No,” said the Minister; “I have another idea. They should be taken to Berlin, and marched through the town with these words on a placard suspended round their necks, ‘Italians, House of Correction, Ingratitude,’ and be then marched through the town.” “And afterwards to Spandau,” suggested Bohlen. The Chief added, “Or one might inscribe merely the words, ‘Italians, Venice, Spandau.’”
The Bavarian question and the situation at Munich was then discussed. The Chief said: “The King is undecided. It is obvious that he would rather not. He accordingly pretends to be ill, has toothache, keeps to his bed, where the Ministers cannot reach him. Or he retires to a distant hunting-box in the mountains to which there is no telegraph line, nor even a proper road.”
Some one having remarked that in the present circumstances he is, after all, the best Bavarian ruler for our purposes, the Chief said: “Yes; if he were to die he would be succeeded by little Otto, whom we have had here. A poor creature, with very little intelligence. He would be entirely in the hands of the Austrians and Ultramontanes. He has ruined himself; that is, if he was ever worth anything.”