A reference was made to yesterday’s sortie, and the Chief remarked: “The French came out yesterday with three divisions, and we had only fifteen companies, not even four battalions, and yet we made nearly a thousand prisoners. The Parisians with their attacks, now here and now there, remind me of a French dancing master conducting a quadrille.
“Ma commère, quand je danse
Mon cotillon, va-t-il bien?
Il va de ci, il va de là,
Comme la queue de notre chat.”
Later on the Chief remarked: “Our august master is not at all pleased at the idea of Antonelli at length deciding to come here. He is uneasy about it. I am not.” Abeken said: “The newspapers express very different opinions about Antonelli. At one time he is described as a man of great intelligence and acumen; then again as a sly intriguer, and shortly afterwards as a stupid fellow and a blockhead.” The Chief replied: “It is not in the press alone that you meet with such contradictions. It is the same with many diplomats. Goltz and our Harry (von Arnim). We will leave Goltz out of the question—that was different. But Harry—to-day this way and to-morrow that! When I used to read a number of his reports together at Varzin, I found his opinion of people change entirely a couple of times every week, according as he had met with a friendly or unfriendly reception. As a matter of fact, he sent different opinions by every post, and often by the same post.”
Afterwards read reports from Rome, London, and Constantinople, and the replies sent to them. According to Arnim’s despatch, Monsignor Franchi informed him that the Pope and Antonelli wished to send a mission to Versailles to congratulate the King on his accession to the imperial dignity, and at the same time to induce the French clergy to promote the liberation of the country from Gambetta, and the negotiation of peace with us on the basis of a cession of territory. In certain circumstances Antonelli himself would undertake the task, in which the Archbishop of Tours had failed, of securing an acceptable peace. In reply to this communication Arnim was informed that it was still uncertain whether Bavaria would agree to the scheme of Emperor and Empire. We should, nevertheless, carry it through. But, in that case, its chief support having been found in public opinion, the (mainly Ultramontane) elements of resistance would be in still more marked opposition to the new Germany. Bernstorff reports that the former Imperial Minister, Duvernois, had called upon him at Eugénie’s instance and suggested a cession of territory to us equal in extent to that acquired by the Empire in Nice and Savoy. The Empress wished to issue a proclamation. Persigny was of a different opinion, as he considered the Empress to be impossible. Bonnechose, the Archbishop of Rouen, expressed a similar opinion to Manteuffel. The reply sent to Bernstorff was that we could not negotiate with the Empress (who, moreover, does not appear to be reliable or politically capable), unless Persigny was in agreement with her, and that Duvernois’ overture was unpractical. Aali Pasha is prepared to agree to the abolition of the neutrality of the Black Sea, but demands in compensation the full sovereignty of the Porte over the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. This was telegraphed by us to St. Petersburg, and there agreed to; whereupon Brunnow (the Russian Ambassador in London) received the necessary instructions in the matter.
Friday, December 23rd.—It was mentioned at dinner that General von Voigts-Rhetz was outside Tours, the inhabitants having offered so much resistance that it was found necessary to shell the town. The Chief added, “He ought not to have stopped firing when they hoisted the white flag. I would have continued to shell them until they sent out four hundred hostages.” He again condemned the leniency of the officers towards civilians who offer resistance. Even notorious treachery was scarcely punished as it ought to be, and so the French imagined that they could do what they liked against us. “Here is, for instance, this Colonel Krohn,” he continued. “He first has a lawyer tried for aiding and abetting franctireurs, and then, when he sees him condemned, he sends in first one and then another petition for mercy, instead of letting the man be shot, and finally despatches the wife to me with a safe conduct. Yet he is generally supposed to be an energetic officer and a strict disciplinarian, but he can hardly be quite right in his head.”
From the discussion of this foolish leniency the conversation turned on General von Unger, Chief of the Staff to the 7th Army Corps, who had gone out of his mind, and had to be sent home. He is, it seems, generally moody and silent, but occasionally breaks out into loud weeping. “Yes,” sighed the Chief, “officers in that position are terribly harassed. Constantly at work, always responsible, and yet unable to get things done, and hampered by intrigue. Almost as bad as a Minister. I know that sort of crying myself. It is over-excitement of the nerves, hysterical weeping. I, too, had it at Nikolsburg, and badly. A Minister is just as badly treated—all sorts of worries—an incessant plague of midges. Other things can be borne, but one must be properly treated. I cannot endure shabby treatment. If I were not treated with courtesy, I should be inclined to throw my riband of the Black Eagle into the dustbin.”
The Versailles Moniteur having been mentioned, the Chief observed: “Last week they published a novel by Heyse, the scene of which is laid in Meran. Such sentimental twaddle is quite out of place in a paper published at the cost of the King, which after all this one is. The Versailles people do not want that either. They look for political news and military intelligence from France, from England, or, if you like, from Italy, but not such namby-pamby trash. I have also a touch of poetry in my nature, but the first few sentences of that stuff were enough for me.” Abeken, at whose instance the novel was published, stood up for the editor, and said the story had been taken from the Revue des Deux Mondes, an admittedly high-class periodical. The Chief, however, stuck to his own opinion. Somebody remarked that the Moniteur was now written in better French. “It may be,” said the Minister, “but that is a minor point. However, we are Germans, and as such we always ask ourselves, even in the most exalted regions, if we please our neighbours and if what we do is to their satisfaction. If they do not understand, let them learn German. It is a matter of indifference whether a proclamation is written in a good French style or not, so long as it is otherwise adequate and intelligible. Moreover, we cannot expect to be masters of a foreign language. A person who has only used it occasionally for some two and a half years cannot possibly express himself as well as one who has used it for fifty-four years.” Steinmetz’s proclamation then received some ironical praise, and a couple of extraordinary expressions were quoted from it. Lehndorff said: “It was not first-class French, but it was, at any rate, intelligible.” The Chief: “Yes, it is their business to understand it. If they cannot, let them find some one to translate it for them. Those people who fancy themselves merely because they speak good French are of no use to us. But that is our misfortune. Whoever cannot speak decent German is a made man, especially if he can murder English. Old —— (I understood: Meyendorff) once said to me: ‘Don’t trust any Englishman who speaks French with a correct accent.’ I have generally found that true. But I must make an exception in favour of Odo Russell.”