Journal of a Staff-officer in Paris during the events of 1870 and 1871

Front matter

JOURNAL OF A STAFF OFFICER JOTTKNAL OF A Staff*©fftcer in parts burins tbe Events of 1870 anfc 1871 I'.V M. LE COMTE D'HERISSON |p0ttt>0it REMINGTON & CO., PUBLISHERS HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 1885 AU Eights Reserved CONTENTS I. New York to Paris . . . . l II. The Camp at Chalons . . .16 III. Across Paris . . . . .29 IV. The Fourth of September . . .53 V. The Journey of the Empress . . 82 VI. In the Home of the Empress . . .95 VII. The Empress and the Governor . .123 VIII. Paris Blockaded .... 131 IX. An Amateur Diplomatist . . .143 X. From the Capitol to the Tarpeian Rock . 157 XL Trochu at Home . . . .167 XII. The Thirty-First of October . . 181 XIII. Elections and Negotiations . . . 206 XIV. Paris 219 XV. Villiers Champigny .... 242 XVI. Buzenval . . . . .269 XVII. At Versailles .....

Preface

TWO DOCUMENTS I Extract from THE Gouvernement de la Defense Rationale, by Jules Favre. ' At half -past four I was still without any reply. The day had been foggy and cold; night was falling. The cannonade from the forts and ramparts resounded with greater intensity than ever. Shells rained over the city ; the works which covered Saint Denis, and even Saint Denis itself, were wreathed in flames. Innumerable anxieties were torturing me. I was at a loss to account for this inexplicable delay unless, indeed, the Chancellor refused to treat with us at this decisive moment. At length, at five o'clock* the door of my room opened, and my envoy handed me a letter from M. de Bismarck to the effect that he would see me on the morrow, or that very evening if I so preferred.

PREFACE.

II 'The young officer who brought me this despatch, Captain d'Herisson d'lrisson, was on the Head-quarters Staff of General Trochu, and had brought himself into prominent notice by his polished manner, his courage and intelligence. Gifted with a special aptitude for languages, he spoke English perfectly, and German with facility, not to mention Chinese, which he had rapidly acquired while serving with the brilliant expedition under General de Montauban. When the war with Prussia broke out he was in the heart of America; he returned in hot haste to place himself at the service of his country, and to shut himself up in the town which he believed was in the o-reatest danger. The Governor willingly confided the most dangerous missions to him, and he acquitted himself of these important duties with equal coolness and in trepidity.

I had asked for him because I knew that I should find in him the qualities of which I stood in need. He was my staunch, discreet, and faithful com panion during these long and painful negotiations. I am glad to have an opportunity here of recording my appreciation of the affectionate zeal which he never ceased to display in regard to me.' II Letter addressed to the Author by General Schmitz, commanding a Corps d' Armee. ' The undersigned Schmitz (Pierre-Isidore) General of Division, Commander-in-Chief of the 12th Corps d Armee, Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, late Chief of the Staff of the Armies of the National Defence, hereby certifies that M. (Maurice) d'lrisson d'Herisson was attached, as Captain of the Garde Mobile, to the Staff of the Governor of Paris during the whole of the siege.

PREFACE.

III ' The Governor of Paris on many occasions expressed his entire satisfaction with the services rendered by M. d'lrisson, notably in the affairs of L'Hay, Chevilly, Villiers, and Champigny ; this officer, indeed, did his duty with admirable zeal and devotion, and when, at the end of the siege, negotiations were going on between M. Jules Favre and Count de Bismarck, he rendered eminent services ; he obtained from the Germans the concession that the colours should not be handed over to them, and several military points were, at his instance, erased from the Convention. ' Profoundly recognising the services rendered by M. d'lrisson, the General, Chief of the Staff, would have been happy to have conferred upon him the Cross of an Officer of the Legion of Honour, but he was in too close contact with the Governor to receive that reward. ' We all of us considered that our services, under such lamentable circumstances, ought to be gratuitous. ' The only exception to this rule was in the case of Captain Thory, upon whom the Minister of War caused the Cross of an Officer to be conferred at Bourdeaux, after the disbanding of the armies and the conclusion of peace. ' Given at Head-Quarters, at Limoges, December 1st, 1879. ' SCHMITZ, ' General Commanding the 12th Corps d'Armee. ' The officer who accompanied Jules Favre, and was his discreet, faithful, and devoted companion, the officer to whom General Schmitz did the honour of addressing the foregoing testimonial, is about to recount to the public'his impressions of the period from July 1870, to February 1871. This officer is not a historian ; he endeavours to be a narrator. Moreover, history is, as it were, a case which is

PREFACE.

IV ever under hearing. The historian is a species of president who sums up a discussion. The narrator is a witness who recounts what he has seen. From the historian, as from a president, are demanded, above all, strict impartiality and a succinct classification of facts. From the narrator and the witness are demanded candid evidence and genuine impressions. I am going, then, to describe, with frankness and sincerity, not all that happened, but everything that I saw during these terrible days, so full of catastrophes from which France has not even now recovered. D'HERISSON. Paris, January, 1885.

Chapter I New York To Paris

Prevost-Paradol — His Despondency — His Suicide. — The Germans in America. — Irish and English. — The Treaty of Tien-Tsin. — In France. — The Marseillaise. — With the Minister of "War. — En route for Chalons. On the 10th of July, 1870, I was in Washington and soliciting a short interview with Prevost-Paradol, who had recently been appointed Minister Plenipotentiary of France in the United States. As I was entrusted by the Minister of Commerce with an official mission to North America, I was really somewhat dependent upon the new Ambassador, and he was good enough to give me an early appointment. Before I left France I had been presented to the brilliant writer, won over from the old to the Imperial regime, a trophy of Cæsar converted into a Member of Parliament. He lived in a modest suite of rooms in the Rue Saint-Georges, and at the date of our first interview A he had only just received his diplomatic appointment, and was preserving an unflinching demeanour under the angry sarcasms which were being hurled at him by his old friends for what they called his apostacy.

He then appeared to me to be full of confidence in his own future and in the star of the liberal empire. In Washington he was no longer the same man. He had fallen away, had aged even in so short a time, was melancholy, undecided, and as if he were borne down by the sense of having made an irreparable mistake — what the boulevards in their highly imaginative language call a boulotte. Such was my impression of the trenchant journalist, the witty talker, and the frank diplomatist, happy in airing his newly won distinction and in hearing himself styled Your Excellency, whom I had met only a month previously. ' Ah, my friend,' he said, as he welcomed me, ' what a misfortune, what an irreparable misfortune ! ' ' What do you mean ? What misfortune ? ' I replied in astonishment. ' Well — but — I mean this war; ' What war ? ' ' The war with Germany.' ' Where do you get that idea from ? ' I began to wonder within myself whether his brain was affected, or if he had already fallen under the spell of the ' evil eye ' of the White House.

I must explain that at Washington— a horribly wearisome place, seeing that it only contains the Capitol, the residence of the President, and the public offices, all of them institutions which act directly on the spleen— there is a current belief that the White House, the modest palace of the President, brings misfortune to those who enter it for the first time. He read my thoughts and sadly replied to them : ' No, I am not mad. You evidently are in the dark as to what is going on. Learn, then, that General Prim took it into his head four days ago to offer the crown of Spain to Prince Antoine of Hohenzollern, of the Royal Family of Prussia ; that France has protested in most energetic terms against what she calls the resurrection of the empire of Charles V ; that at this moment curt and angry notes are being exchanged between Saint-Cloud and Ems, where the King and M. de Bismarck now are, and that there can only be one fatal result of all this — war, within a week, to morrow, possibly to-day.' ' It will blow over, you will see, just as in the Luxembourg affair.' ' It will not blow over, for two reasons.

The first is that Prussia wants to go to war with us. Indirectly for the last sixteen years, and directly for four, she has been preparing for it. Her army needs fighting just as loco motives need to be used, lest it should become rusty. That is the first reason, and it is a peremptory one. The King and M. de Bismarck are wise enough to retreat even now, perhaps, if they were not afraid that some general, more sagacious than Niel, might arise in France to compel the Chamber to vote a fundamental re-organisation of our army on the model of their own. But the second reason, alas, is more absolute. The Empire needs a war, it wishes for one, and it will make one.' And, lowering his voice, he added, in a tone of despondency, ' There were fifteen hundred thousand Non in the plebiscite.' ' Very well, then let us admit a war.

And I thank you for having given me timely warning. I shall pigeon-hole my figures and reports. France has no more need of statis ticians; she wants soldiers. I am a captain of Mobiles. Is it time to pack up ? After all, I should not be sorry to take a trip through Germany. I speak German as well as old Arminius himself. I shall pay a visit of inspection to the libraries of the conquered towns.' The Minister interrupted me abruptly. ' What a grand thing it is to be young and to believe,' he said. ' But, unhappy youth, not only will you not go to Germany, but you will be overwhelmed in France. Believe me, I know the Prussians. We are deficient of everything that we need in order to struggle against them — generals, men, and supplies. We shall be ground to powder.' And then, as if he were speaking to himself and had forgotten that I was there, he added, ' France will be in a state of revolution before six months are over, and the Empire will be in the dust.

Ah ! I had good need ' He did not complete the sentence, but I understood that in the catastrophes which he foresaw, he was not entirely forgetful of himself. ' Are you pleased, at all events,' I asked, ' with your reception here ? ' 'Passably. These people do not love us,' he replied. ' They have never forgiven our attempt upon Mexico. And as far as I am personally concerned — why should I not confess it privately ?— I have noticed a certain amount of astonishment, almost amounting to disapprobation, in regard to my changed attitude. America is German to the back bone, and how should it be otherwise? There are certainly more Germans than English here, and not one of them, in betaking himself to a new country, has forgotten his old one. I tell you that from the moment rumour hinted at a rivalry between France and Germany, families who settled in America three generations ago, began to look askance at the French, and you may rest assured that many of them would abandon their commerce, their manufactures, their situations, to take up arms against us, even though they might stay here in peace.

Their country, the Fatherland, as they call it — with such a feeling as that they would go to the end of the world. To speak frankly, I am discouraged, extinct, annihilated. Most undoubtedly was I wrong to leave Paris and lay aside my pen.' He then apologised for not asking me to stay to dinner. He was not settled, but was still like a bird on a twig. Later on I left him in an agitated frame of mind, but I nevertheless could not bring myself to share his delusions and his fears. France defeated, the Empire done away with — what nonsense, said I to myself. ' Dress up a clever man in official costume and he will be frightened of his shadow.' I was coming down stairs from my room on the following morning when I was accosted by a table d'hote companion. ' You are a Frenchman, sir.' ' Yes. What of it . ' ' Have you not heard the news ? ' ' No. Is war declared ? ' ' Your Ambassador committed suicide during the night.' I rushed off to Prevost-Paradol's house.

I was denied admittance. The eyes of the servant who refused me were full of tears. I pushed him aside and went upstairs. On his bed and fully dressed I saw the Minister, with a large stain of blood on his shirt front, where the bullet had entered his body. The police were engaged in drawing up their report. During the night Prevost-Paradol had placed himself before the glass, and feeling with his left hand for the beating of his heart, he had placed a pistol with his right hand to the spot, and shot himself. His valet, who hastened to the room on hearing the report, found him standing up, with his elbows on the mantel-piece and his head between his hands. ' Did you hear ? ' his master said to him. ' Yes, sir. I thought you had fallen. If you are ill you had better go to bed.' And he fell dead almost in the arms of his servant.

I offered to take back the children of the unhappy man. A friend of the family undertook their removal to France. The fatality which dogged their steps is well-known. The son followed in his father's steps. One daughter, I believe, went mad, and the other went into a convent, where she prays to that God who was so cruel to them all. It was with the greatest difficulty that we succeeded in obtaining the prayers of the Catholic Church for the suicide. The priest of the Church of St Matthew only opened the gates to the corpse on the express order of the Grand- Vicar of Baltimore, who was acting for his Bishop, absent at Rome for the Council. He pronounced a touching funeral oration over the coffin, from which the f olio win o very remarkable passage has been often quoted : ' However extraordinary, however unchristian, and even anti-christian, may appear the manner in which an end was put to this earthly existence, however diverse may be the opinions of the world in regard to it, and particularly in regard to the moral and religious sentiments of the deceased at the terrible moment of his death, let us remember that judgment does not belong to us. ' No men, and no class of men, have any right to judge their fellows after they have departed this life. ' The Church herself, chosen by Christ to explain His doctrines and precepts, and to watch over His sacred con stitution, does ,not take upon herself to condemn a soul that has taken its flioht to the other world, because her minis serial authority does not extend beyond the tomb.' On the day following the obsequies the newspapers announced the declaration of war between France and Germany.

I had nothing more to do in America, and I hastened to New York to secure a cabin on board the first steamer — a Cunard boat — for England. During the few hours preceding my departure I was enabled to realize that Prevost-Paradol had not exaggerated the anti-French sentiments of the American people. At the drinking bars, in the streets, in the squares, in the places of business, everywhere there were manifestations in favour of Germany. It needed much self-restraint to avoid coming to blows, and I well remember in what a state of furious exasperation I spent in the solitude of my cabin the last moments of my stay in the United States. Unhappily, I found the same feelings rife on board the boat. Every corner was full of Germans on their way to rejoin the army. I longed to commence hostilities on my own account, and the ten days of the voyage were one long spell of enervating excitement.

We had on board the American General, Burnside, who was going to attach himself, as a looker-on, to the German Staff, in order to follow the military operations, to gain some instruction, and to see the great war. He himself had a certain military reputation which he had acquired during the war of the Secession. We had also Major Kodolisch, an Austrian, who subsequently was destined to attract public attention in France as Military Attache to the embassy of his country. But when I reached Ireland the scene changed, and I was delighted to find at last some people who loved France. At Queenstown first, and afterwards at Cork, I was stopped without ceremony in the streets, in the hotels, everywhere. ' You are a Frenchman, sir ? ' ' Yes, I am.' ' Ah ! So much the better. Good luck and courage to you ! ' and then followed a shake of the hand, a slap on the back, and a cordial look of sympathy.

Some of these good fellows who imagined that as a Frenchman I should be sure to be on intimate speaking terms with the Emperor, used to get me into a corner to impart sotto voce confidences, something after this fashion : ' Be sure you tell your Emperor that as soon as he has sained his first victories we shall rise here. And, above all, don't let him forget us when he comes back from Berlin.' In the principal towns of Ireland our early successes, fleeting and insignificant as they were, were received as national victories. Flags and illuminations were the general rule. This enthusiasm had the effect of startling the English government, and the uneasiness it caused in official circles was not without its influence on the sur reptitiously hostile attitude which England held towards France during* the whole of the war.

At the end of the siege she sent us cheeses, there is no doubt about that — the lesson was worth their cost. We were no longer to be feared, and she could without danger display her gastronomic commiseration towards a nation which a little diplomatic commiseration might possibly have saved. I do not like the English, I confess. I fully recoo-nise their grand qualities as a nation, their tenacity, their spirit of enterprise, and their magnificent solidarity. But all this appears to me to be spoiled by their selfishness, which is both monstrous and somewhat unscrupulous in regard to ways and means. I admit that nations should be selfish ; it is, we are told, their duty, and selfishness is, perhaps, only a species of patriotism. But let them be honestly selfish, for honesty spoils nothing, not even patriotism.

And on this point I will ask permission of my readers to recount to them, by way of example, a personal remi niscence, an entirely unknown and unpublished anecdote, the authenticity of which I guarantee. The incident happened in China. Following on the first operations conducted by General de Montauban, a treaty was signed at Tien-Tsin, not on this occasion by the captain of a man-of-war, but by Lord Elgin on behalf of England, and by Baron Gros on that of France. This treaty, duly signed and drawn up in duplicate — one copy in English, the other in French — was entrusted to the Mandarin who had discussed its provisions, and — nothing more was ever heard of it. When it became apparent that China was not acting in accordance with the treaty, an enquiry was set on foot as to what had become of it, and I have still a vivid recollection of the laughter of the Commander-in-Chief, and the quips of his Staff', when he received the cool, calm reply that the Mandarin with whom he had been negotiat ing had no powers whatever, nor had he been entrusted with any mission ; that he was an amateur diplomatist, merely a private individual who happened to be in our neighbourhood, and had amused himself and filled up some measure of his time by treating directly with us.

We advanced to Palikao, and then to the Summer Palace, where we arrived quite by chance, without knowing anything about it. In fact, we might just as easily have found ourselves anywhere else, for the maps in possession of our Staff were most imperfect, and on none of them was there an indication of the locality of the famous building— a fact which did not in any way prevent the Paris gossips from saying that Montauban was a rogue, and that he knew exactly where to put his hand on the hoarded treasures of the Son of Heaven. When we arrived at this sumptuous residence, a collec tion of magnificent palaces, we were received by half-a dozen rounds from as many guns defending the gateway, and we found that the palace had already been half-sacked by the populace of the surrounding district, who were delighted at the opportunity of displaying their hostility to the conquering race, the Mougol dynasty.

The soldiers dispersed in all directions, and a sergeant of a line regiment soon brought General de Montauban some papers which he had found in the Emperor's private apartment. They were our celebrated treaty of Tien-Tsin. The General sent for me, and out of curiosity, as well as in accordance with his extremely methodical habits, he took the French copy and gave the English one to me to translate. We set to work to collate them, and I had not gone very far with my reading before he interrupted me. D'Herisson, that is not there.' Indeed it is, sir; You are quite sure ? ' Certain.' Strange ; but go on.' In a word, the English treaty was not word for word with the French treaty. It was not a literal translation. The English had stipulated for all kinds of private advantages for themselves alone, stating that we were mercenaries in their pay, and that they would settle with us in due course.

These two curious papers ought to be found somewhere or other in the archives, public or private. But however that may be, I had them in my hands. I assert that as a fact, and pass on without further comment. The trip across the arm of the sea which separates Ireland from England, St George's Channel, sufficed to plunge me once more headlong into America. In England no attempt was made to conceal the general longing for the success of the German armies. I hope, I may say I am convinced, that the day will come when the English will regret having been passive spectators of the overthrow of their rivals, so long resigned to the thankless role of allies of Great Britain. But we can hardly ask nations to display perspicacity, and in this month of August, 1870 — it is a fact — the subjects of Queen Victoria had but one fear, that of seeing us in Berlin.

Their anxiety was destined to be short-lived. At last I reached France. I thought that when I set foot in my native land I should find a nation in arms, silent, calm, conscious of the serious nature of what is called a Continental war, master of itself and prepared as one man for a supreme effort. Alas ! I was speedily disenchanted. Scarcely had I commenced my journey by rail, at the very first stations on the Northern line, when I found myself surrounded by unhealthy excitement and inex pressible confusion. The soldiers who were rejoining their regiments sang the Marseillaise. The crowds who escorted them gave themselves up to childish manifestations. The}* shouted ' To Berlin ! ' They were drunk with words and wine. I expected a very different sight. Beside me the more serious and reflective part of the population looked into each others' eyes, and in that mute language exchanged the saddening reflections they dared not express.

Not in this fashion did the great armies of days gone by, who crowned our glorious colours with so many victories, set out for war. To use a barrack-room expression, ' It smelt nasty.' I reasoned with myself, nevertheless ; I thought of the nerves of the French nation, and I said to myself that all this excessive excitement was perhaps a good thing, that the high spirits would work wonders. And I breathed a sigh of relief and confidence as I felt under my feet the pavement of Paris, that pavement which seems to be alive beneath the soles of your boots, and strikes you as at once elastic and firm. I am not a historian. That title suits neither my in clinations nor my powers. I have not undertaken to give an account of the Franco-German war ; not even of the siege of Paris. What I have promised my readers and what I shall strive to give them are my own genuine impressions.

I have not a word to say as to why or wherefore the insignificant success at Sarrebruch was followed by the repulse at Wissembourg and the disaster at Reichshoffen ; how or why Bazaine, amid the applause of the Left of the Chamber, was appointed Generalissimo ; how or why the Left of the Chamber, from the moment of our earliest defeats, commenced to wage a war against the Imperial dynasty, which, thanks to the disaster of Sedan, culminated in the revolution of September; how or why the Ollivier ministry succumbed under the weight of the very first misfortunes brought about by the war; how or why the Emperor, without command or prestio-e, driven out of Paris by the Empress-Regent and repulsed from the frontier by Prussia, wandered a pale phantom of an already halfdethroned Cæsar, between his capital and the advance guard of the enemy ; nor, last of all, how or why General Palikao undertook the difficult and patriotic task of forming a Cabinet, and enjoyel a certain amount of popularity even at the hands of the Left.

I saw nothing of all this, and I am only going to record what I saw. An hour after my arrival in Paris, on the 13th of August, I called upon General the Comte de Palikao, Minister of War and President of the Council. I had con scientiously employed the hour in getting myself a com plete uniform, equipping myself from head to foot, trans forming myself, in a word, into a presentable soldier. To those who may be astonished at the idea of a simple captain of Mobiles boldly knocking at the door of a Minister's office, I must explain once more that during the Chinese campaign relations had been established between the General and myself, partaking of almost paternal kindness on his side, and of absolutely filial devotion on mine. I may also explain that the General had given me an even greater mark of his favour after the war, by sending me home to the Emperor as the bearer of his despatches and reports, among which was a rather curious document.

The General had received an official intimation that the Emperor was desirous of conferring* upon him a title commemorative of his victories, and a pecuniary grant as a recompense for his services. The Chamber, it will be re membered, refused the grant, and the Emperor supplied the omission by a private gift of 500,000 francs from his privy purse. The General was worried by an idea on the subject of a title. He was afraid that the Emperor would make him Duc de Pekin. 'Due de Pekin,' he would say over and over again, half jokingly and half in earnest, 'that would not sound well for a soldier ' ; and he was created simply Comte de Palikao. After this explanation it will be understood that as I was on the unemployed list, I was not doing anything very extraordinary in asking my old chief, who had always shown himself desirous of continuing to be my protector and my friend, for a company.

In addition to this I promised to take up very little of the time he had to devote to his immense labour. ' You are to wait for the General ; he will take you with him in his carriage to the Chamber,' was the intimation I received after a short sojourn in the ante-room. And a few moments later the Minister emerged in civilian attire, with his portfolio under his arm, and pushing me into his car riage he sat down beside me. ' Well, my dear boy,' said he at once, ' what are you doing here ? ' ' I am a captain of Mobiles on the unemployed list, sir ; I should like a company.' 'Very well; go to Chalons. All the Mobiles are there.' He scribbled a few words in pencil on a slip of paper and added, ' Give this to Berthaut, who is in command there, and if he has not a company at his disposal he will form one for you.' Then, as we were whirled rapidly along, he plunged forthwith into old reminiscences, and went on so say: ' Ah, we had a good time in China !