O'Sullivan afterward left Paris in the general exodus of Americans. He went, as they did, to Versailles; but he staid there some three weeks, talking peace to the German princes quartered at the Hôtel des Réservoirs, some of whom he had previously known. He had a plan, not at all a bad one in itself, but under the circumstances entirely impracticable. It was to neutralize a strip of territory lying between France and Germany, annex part of it to Belgium, and part to Switzerland, and put it under the protection of the Great Powers. One evening O'Sullivan dined with the Crown Prince. He sat next to Bismarck, and discoursed upon his pet neutral-strip theory. As they parted, Bismarck shook his hand, and said that he was charmed to make his acquaintance. "But, Mr. O'Sullivan, a curious thing sometimes happens to me: I make the acquaintance of a most agreeable gentleman in the afternoon, and in the evening I find myself reluctantly compelled to order him out of Versailles." O'Sullivan mentioned this to friends he was visiting in the evening, but did not see its application to himself. They did, however. He went to his hotel, and found a Prussian officer at his door with orders for him to leave Versailles that night. He remonstrated, and it was finally agreed that he should start at eight o'clock in the morning. A sentry was placed at the bedroom door, who thought that a proper discharge of his duty required him to open it every five minutes during the night, to make sure that his prisoner had not escaped. Mrs. O'Sullivan did not quite appreciate the situation.
[CHAPTER XIV.]
Belleville Demonstrates.—Radical Clubs.—Their Blasphemy and Violence.—Unreasonable Suspicion.—Outrages.—Diplomatic Corps.—Some of them leave Paris.—Meeting of the Corps.—Votes not to Leave.—Embassadors and Ministers.—Right of Correspondence in a Besieged Place.—Commencement of Siege, September 19th.—Besiegers and Besieged.—Advantages of Besieged.
Belleville now began a series of patriotic demonstrations at the Legation, which soon became a nuisance. When I first heard the drum and fife coming up the Rue Chaillot, and several respectable-looking citizens came in and inquired for Mr. Washburne, I was quite impressed with the interest of the occasion. Washburne went out upon the balcony and made them a speech, and thanked them for this démonstration patriotique. But when they began to come daily, and the rag, tag, and bobtail at that, and day after day Washburne was called out to thank them for this démonstration patriotique, I got very heartily sick of it. We were too busy to have our time wasted in this way. But as the siege progressed, and we did our duty in protecting the Germans, as we received news from the outside when others did not, and that news was uniformly unfavorable to the French, the démonstrations patriotiques ceased; and it was only a fear of the law, and that "divinity that doth hedge in a" diplomate, that prevented our receiving a demonstration of a very different sort.
For the clubs were now rampant, another bane of the Defense. Had they been suppressed at the beginning, as they were at the end, of the siege by General Vinoy, the result might have been different. Their orators advocated the wildest and most destructive theories amidst the applause of a congenial audience. Blasphemy was received with special favor. I remember once, however, the orator seasoned his discourse too high even for that audience. He said he "would like to scale heaven, and collar [empoigner] the Deity." It was the day of balloons, and a wag in the audience called out, "Why don't you go up in a balloon?" This turned the laugh upon the orator, and he disappeared, for in Paris ridicule kills.
A curious and annoying feature in the Parisian character during the war was the unreasoning and unreasonable suspicion of the population. A gentleman from Philadelphia interested in Fairmount Park, which was then just opened, was struck with the beauty of the gates at the entrance to the Bois on the Avenue de l'Impératrice—Avenue du Bois de Boulogne they call it now, certainly not a change for the better, for it was a beautiful avenue, appropriately named after a beautiful woman. Our Philadelphia friend called his daughter's attention to the gates, remarking that they would be appropriate at Fairmount, and took out his note-book to sketch them. He was at once surrounded by a mob, he and his daughter arrested, and hurried before the Maire of the arrondissement. They said he was a Prussian spy, and was sketching the fortifications. He explained who he was, and what he was doing, and offered the drawing in proof. There were the gates to speak for themselves, but this was no evidence to them. Mr. Justice Shallow insisted that he must be a spy. Happily for him, the mayor's clerk was a sensible man, and spoke a little English, and through his instrumentality our friend was discharged.
I have seen a mob collect about a gentleman who took from his pocket a piece of paper and a pencil to write down an address. I knew an American friend to be arrested, mistaken for Mr. Schneider, formerly President of the Corps Législatif. My man was dark, and Schneider was fair; but that made no difference. During the petroleum madness, immediately after the suppression of the Commune, an American lady was followed to her home and very nearly maltreated because she had a bottle of fleur d'orange in her hand, which she had just bought at the druggist's. Our vice-consul had red curtains in his sitting-room. One evening he was disagreeably surprised by a visit of armed National Guards. They accused him of making signals to the enemy. On seeing the red curtains, they became satisfied. That a five-story house on the opposite side of a narrow street must effectually preclude his lights from being seen at a distance, was no answer to them. Mr. Washburne called the attention of the French Government to this outrage; but, as no harm had been done, we could not follow the matter up. Under our consular convention with France, a consul's house is inviolable; but a vice-consul has no official existence when the consul is present. When he is absent, his deputy succeeds to his privileges and immunities as consular representative of the country.
Mr. Washburne was not the man to submit to any outrage upon German or American property. A squad of National Guards entered and partially pillaged the house of the German school-master Hedler, where Washburne's son and other American boys were at school. Our Minister was in arms at once. The Government apologized, the battalion was paraded under arms, the Chief of Police made them a speech, the guilty men were called out and punished, and full damages were paid to Hedler, assessed to Mr. Washburne's satisfaction.