"L. GAMBETTA.
When they met, the Ferry Ministry was in office. Sir Charles met 'General Farre, the Minister of War, who has left no name except for having abolished drums, which were shortly afterwards reintroduced, and who, so far as I could see, did not deserve to leave one,' and also Ranc, one of Gambetta's satellites, who 'was entertaining with a description of the various anarchical parties in Paris then engaged in sitting "on each other's ruins."' A story which Sir Charles tells of his crossing to Paris (in the end of August, 1881) illustrates the vehemence of prejudice against Gambetta:
'I had made the journey alone in a compartment with the young Comte de FitzJames, who was a Lieutenant in the army. He did not know me, and assured me that, it being Gambetta's custom while President of the Chamber to ask to breakfast each day the officer of the guard, if he ever happened to be on duty at the Palais Bourbon, and, consequently, were asked, and had to go, he should utter not one word.'
Gambetta, who heard the story, was greatly amused by it.
During part of September and part of October, 1881, the friends did not meet, because Gambetta was away from Paris. 'It was rumoured he had been to see Bismarck, which was untrue,' says Dilke. "But," he adds in a letter to Lord Granville on October 24th, "Gambetta visited Memel and Kiel, and saw the German fleet, of which he does not think much."
The Prince and Princess of Wales were in Paris when Sir Charles returned there to resume commercial negotiations. On October 24th he breakfasted with them at their hotel, and met them again on the 28th, when they lunched with the Austrian Ambassador:
'Beust is a man that I never saw without marvelling how he should have played so great a part in the affairs of Europe. He always reminded me of Lord Granville with the brains left out. The same little jokes, though less good, the same smile, the same courteous manner; but an affectation and a real stupidity which were all his own.'
'I went in the afternoon with the Prince and Princess of Wales to see Munkacsy's "Christ," an enormously overrated picture, in which the chief figure was that of an Austrian village idiot, not a Christ, but the half-revolutionist, half-idiot that Christ was to the Jews who crucified Him, and who formed the crowd in the picture. If that was what the man wanted to paint, he had succeeded, but that probably was not what he wanted.'
'The Prince was most anxious to meet Gambetta again; Gambetta not at all anxious to meet him. But the Prince having distinctly asked me to ask him to breakfast, and to ask Gambetta to meet him, the latter was obliged to come. The Prince, however, having asked me to invite Galliffet as one of the guests, Gambetta, who liked Galliffet personally, but was afraid of being attacked in the Press, absolutely refused to come, so Galliffet had to be knocked off the list again. Galliffet has misrepresented this in his Memoirs.'
This breakfast took place on Sunday, October 30th, and made much talk, though the Prince was officially travelling as a private gentleman, an incognito which the waiters had difficulty in remembering. Mr. Austin Lee had been invited to take the place of General Galliffet in the party of six, which was completed by Mr. Knollys and Colonel Stanley Clarke. The place was known as the Moulin Rouge Restaurant, soon to disappear in the rebuilding of the Avenue d'Antin. It is said to have been kept open for some days beyond the date originally fixed, to furnish a déjeûner worthy of these guests. In spite of the privacy observed, Rumour was busy, and Punch of November 12th appeared with an amusing "Monologue du Garçon," giving at great length the supposed conversation and the menu of the breakfast.