CHAPTER X
We arrived at the door of Jacques Desjardins about seven in themorning; he had just got up, and was taking coffee with his wife andhis children.
At the first sight of us, Desjardins stood with his mouth wide open,and his wife and his children were preparing for flight, or to call forhelp; but when I said: "Good-morning, cousin; it is we," Desjardinscried: "Good heavens! it is Christian and George Weber! What hashappened?"
"Yes, it is we, indeed, cousin," said George. "See what a conditionthe Prussians have brought us to."
"The Prussians! Ah, the brigands!" said Desjardins. "Lise, send tothe butcher for some chops--get some wine up. Ah! my poor cousins. Ithink you must want to change your clothes, too."
"Yes," said George; "and to shave."
"Well, come then. While your breakfast is getting ready, you willchange your shirts and clothes. You will put on mine, until yours havebeen washed. Good gracious! is it possible?"
He took us into a beautiful room upstairs; he opened the linen drawers.Cousin Lise was coming to fill our basins with clean warm water.
"Put on my shoes and stockings, too," said Desjardins. "Here are myrazors. Make yourselves comfortable. Ah! those thieves and rogues ofGermans! Did they, indeed, treat you in that way--a mayor, and aperson of such respectability?"
Then she left the room, and we began to throw off our clothes. Thesight of our stockings, our neckerchiefs, and our shirts, made thiskind old Father Desjardins groan; for he was one of the best of men.He could hardly believe his eyes, and said: "My poor cousins! you havehad a dreadful bad time."
Our first business was to get a good wash. The nice, clean whiteshirts were already spread open upon the bed; and I cannot tell youwhat pleasure I experienced in feeling this nice fresh linen next to myskin.
After this I shaved, while George was recounting our misfortunes to ourcousin, who interrupted him at every moment, crying: "What! what! Didthe barbarous creatures carry their cruelty to such a point? Then theyare bandits indeed! Never has the like been seen!"
I wiped myself dry and comfortable, even to behind the ears, and passedthe razor to George. Our Cousin Desjardins lent me a pair ofstockings, trousers, a blouse, and nice dry shoes. We were about thesame height, and never had I been more comfortable in my life.
Then George dressed; and just as we were finishing, the servant cametapping at the door, to announce breakfast; and we came down full ofgrateful feelings.
Cousin Lise and the children were waiting to embrace us; for they didnot dare come near us before, and now they were anxious to excusethemselves for having received us so badly. But it was natural enough,and we did not feel hurt.
I need not tell you with what appetites we breakfasted. George beganagain the story of our misfortunes for Cousin Lise and the children,who were listening with eyes wide open with amazement, and cried: "Isit really possible? How much you must have suffered, and how happy youmust be now you are safe!"
When we had finished she told us that all this was the doing of theJesuits; that those people had sent abroad evil reports of theProtestants, and that now, the Prussians having proved victorious, theywere preaching against Gambetta and Garibaldi. She told us that it wasthose people who had excited the Emperor to declare war, supposing thattheir Society would have nothing to lose and everything to gain by it;that if the French should conquer, they would crush the Lutherans; andthat if the French lost, Chambord would be set up again, to restore tothe Pope the ancient patrimony of St. Peter.
Thus spoke Cousin Lise, an elderly woman with hair turning gray, andwho took a pleasure in discussing these subjects.
But George, after emptying his glass, answered that the true cause ofall our misfortunes was the army; that that army was not the army ofthe nation, but of the Emperor, who bestowed rank, honors, pensions,and grants of money; that the interests of such an army is ever opposedto that of the country and the people, because the army wants war, toget promotion; but the people want peace, to work, bring up theirchildren, and gain a livelihood.
Cousin Desjardins agreed with him; and when coffee was brought, Liseand her children went out. Pipes were lighted, and our cousin told usthe latest news.
Desjardins had many books, like most of the Protestants, and receivednewspapers from all quarters; first of all, the _Independance Belge_,then papers from Cologne, Frankfort, Berne in Switzerland, Geneva, andelsewhere. At his age--having a son fifty years old--he did nottrouble himself much now about dyeing or business, and spent his timein reading.
He was therefore a better-informed man than we were, and one in whom wecould place full confidence. It was from him that we heard of thesplendid defence of Chateaudun, the landing of Garibaldi at Marseilles,and his appointment as General of the Army of the Vosges, the march ofthe Bavarians under Von der Tann upon the Loire, and the arrival of thefrancs-tireurs in our mountains, in the direction of Epinal andRaon-l'Etape. He read to us that fine proclamation of Gambetta to theFrench people, setting forth the high purpose of the inhabitants ofParis, their inexhaustible means of defence, the organization of thecitizens as National Guards, the union and harmony of all in thismoment of difficulty, and the victualling of the city for severalmonths, which would raise the spirit of the provinces and give themcourage to follow so noble an example.
I still remember this passage, which stirred me like a trumpet:
"Citizens of the departments, this position of affairs imposesimportant duties upon you. The first of all is to allow no otheroccupation whatever to divert your attention from the war--from astruggle to the very last extremity; the second is, until peace shallbe made, loyally to accept the Republican power, which has sprungequally from necessity and from right principle. You must have but onethought: to rescue France from the abyss into which it has been plungedby the Empire. There is no want of men: all that is wanting isdetermination, decision, and continuity in the execution of plans; whatwe have lost by the disgraceful capitulation of Sedan is arms. Thewhole of the resources of our nation had been directed upon Sedan,Metz, and Strasbourg; and we might justly conclude that by one finaland guilty plot, the author of all our disasters had schemed, infalling, to deprive us of all means of repairing the ruin he hadcaused!"
"He is quite capable," cried George. "Yes, I am sure the _honest man_contrived to leave himself a back door into Prussia."
Cousin Desjardins continued: "At this moment, thanks to theextraordinary exertions of patriotic men, arrangements have beenconcluded, the end and object of which is to draw to ourselves all thedisposable muskets in all the markets of the globe. The difficulty ofeffecting this negotiation was very serious: it is now overcome. Withregard to equipments and clothing, manufactories and workshops will bemultiplied, and materials laid under requisition wherever needed;neither hands nor zeal on the part of workers are wanting, nor willmoney be lacking. All our immense resources must be called into play,the lethargy of the rural districts shaken into activity, partisanwarfare spread in all directions. Let us, therefore, rise as one man,and suffer death rather than submit to the disgrace of a partition ofour country."
The enthusiasm of George rose with every sentence.
"Good! good!" cried he, "this is speaking to some purpose. Once givethe impulse, and the object will soon be gained. Our youths will takeup arms _en masse_. One victory, only one, and all France would rise;we should fall like hail on the backs of the scoundrels; they would belooked out for at every corner in the woods: not a man would live toget back again!"
Cousin Desjardins, having folded up his papers, said nothing; I, too,was full of my own thoughts.
"And you, cousin," said I, "have you any confidence?"
And only after a minute's silence, and having taken a good pinch ofsnuff, to waken up his ideas--for he took snuff, like all the oldfolks, but did not smoke; after a minute he said: "No, Christian, Ihave no hope; but it is not the Germans that I fear: they have takenStrasbourg; after a time they will have Metz by starvation--th
at isalready settled. They are besieging Verdun; Soissons has just falleninto their hands; they have invested Paris; they are advancing uponOrleans. Well, in spite of all this, it is not the Germans that Ifear."
"Who then?" asked George.
Without noticing the question, he continued: "France is so strong, sobrave, so rich, so intelligent, that in a few months she could haveflung these barbarians across the Rhine again; but what alarms me, isthe enemies in our midst."
"Nobody is moving," said I.
"It is just because no one is moving that the Germans are on theLoire," said he, fixing his clear, gray eyes upon me. "If the questionwas to restore Chambord, Ferdinand Philippe, or even Bonaparte IV., youwould see all the old councillors-general, all the councillors of thearrondissements, all the old prefets, sous-prefets, magistrates, policeinspectors, receivers of taxes, comptrollers, _gardes generaux_,mayors, and deputy mayors in the field. No matter which of the three,for the principal object is to have a Monsieur who has crosses,promotions, pensions, and perquisites to give: whichever of the lot, itis all the same to them; they only want just one such man! Thesepeople would move heaven and earth for their man: they would put thepeasants into lines by thousands, they would sing the Marseillaise,they would shout the 'country is in danger!' And the bishops, thepriests, the cures, the vicars, would preach the holy war; France woulddrive the Prussians to the farthest corner of Prussia; arms, munitionsof war, stores would be found for every day! But as it is a Republic,and as the Republic demands the separation of Church and State, freeeducation, compulsory military service; as it declares that all mustcontribute to the public good, that a rich fool is not a better manthan a poor but able man; and because, on this principle, merit wouldbe everything, and intrigues and knavery go to the wall, they hadrather see France dismembered than consent to a Republic! What wouldbecome of the good places of the senators, the peers of France,prefects, chamberlains, squires, receivers-general, stewards, marshals,influential deputies, and bishops under a Republic? They would all beput into one basket: and they don't want that. They would rather theKing of Prussia than the Republic, if the King of Prussia would onlyengage to keep all the good places for them. Yes, in their eyes _lapatrie_ means lucrative places and pensions. It is not the first timethat the Germans have been relied upon to restore order in France.Marie Antoinette had already ceded Alsace to Austria, to have herantechambers filled again with smooth-faced, obsequious old servitors.Passing events bring back those times again. Formerly the huntersafter pensions, the egotists who wanted to snap up everything and leavenothing for the people, were called _nobles_; now it is the _bourgeois_trained by the Jesuits. But at that time the chiefs of the Republicwere resolved upon the triumph of justice. They did not leave thefunctionaries and the generals of Louis XVI. at the head of theadministrations and of the armies. These great patriots hadcommon-sense. They established Republican municipalities in everycommune; they gave the command of our armies to Republican generals;they restrained the reactionnaires; and having cleared our territory ofGermans, they judged those who had called them in; and France was saved.
"The same thing would happen to-day, in spite of all the preparationsof Germany, in spite of the treason of Bonaparte, who, seeing hisdynasty sacrificed by his own incapacity, gave up our last army atSedan to stay the victory of the Republic.
"Yes, notwithstanding the egotism of this unhappy man, we might yetbeat the Germans, if the Royalists were not at the head of our affairs;but they are everywhere. In Paris, they command the National Guard andthe army; in the provinces, they are forming those famouscouncils-general, whence have been drawn the juries to acquit PierreBonaparte, and who would without shame sentence Gambetta to death ifthey were assembled to try him. Instead of helping this brave man,this good patriot, to save France, they will obstruct him; they willrun sticks between the spokes of his wheels; they will hinder him fromgetting the necessary levies; they will clamp the enthusiasm of thepeople. See what all these German papers say: they cannot sufficientlyabuse Gambetta, who is defending his country, nor sufficiently flatterthe councils-general named under the Empire."
"But, then," said George, "must we surrender?"
"No," replied Desjardins. "Although we are sure of being vanquished,we must show that we are still the old race: that its roots are notdead, and that the tree will sprout again. If we had reeled and fallenunder the blow of Sedan, the contempt of Europe and of the whole worldwould have covered us forever. The nation has risen since. It seemsincredible. Without armies, or guns, or muskets, or victuals, ormilitary stores, betrayed, surprised, overrun in all directions, thisnation has risen again! It defends itself! One brave man has beenfound sufficient to raise its courage. What other nation would havedone as much? I am, therefore, of opinion that the struggle must bemaintained to the end, that the Germans may be made, as it were,ashamed of their victory. They have been fifty years preparing; theyhave hidden themselves from us, to spy upon us in time of peace; theyhave dissembled their hatred; they have brought their whole power tobear upon us; they have studied the question under every aspect; theythrew against us, at the opening of the campaign, 600,000 men against220,000; they are going to attack our raw conscripts with their besttroops; they will be five and six against one; they will call Russia totheir help if they want it; and then they will proclaim, 'We are theconquerors!' They will not be ashamed to say, 'We have vanquishedFrance. Now it is we who are _La Grande Nation_!'"
"All that," said George, "is possible. But in the meantime, we may wina battle; and, if we gain a victory, things will be different. Weshall gain fresh courage, and the Landwehr who are sent againstus--almost all fathers of families--will ask no better than to returnhome."
"The Landwehr have not a word to say," replied Desjardins: "they arenot consulted; those fellows march where they are ordered; they havelong been subject to military discipline. It is a machine: nothing buta machine; but a machine of crushing weight."
Then Cousin Desjardins told us that, having travelled long in Germanybefore and after 1848, on business, he had seen how these peopledetested us: that they envied us; that we were an offence to them; thathatred of the French was taught in their schools; that they thoughtthemselves our superiors, on account of their religion, which is simpleand natural; while ours, with all its ceremonies, its Latin chants, itstapers and its tinsel, induced them to look upon us as an inferiorrace, like the negroes, who are only fond of red, and hang rings intheir noses; that, especially, they deemed their women more virtuousand more worthy of respect than ours: this they attribute also to theirsuperior religion, which keeps them at home, while ours pass their timein all sorts of ceremonies, and neglect their first duties.
Desjardins had even had a serious dispute upon this subject with aschool-master, being unable to hear an open avowal of such an opinionof Frenchwomen; amongst whom we number Jeanne d'Arc and other heroines,whose grandeur of character German women are unable to comprehend.
He told us that, from this point of view, the Germans, and especiallythe Prussians, considered us Alsacians and Lorrainers as exiles fromfatherland, and unfortunate in being under the dominion of a debasedrace kept in ignorance by the priests.
George, on hearing this, became furious, and cried that we had moreintelligence and more sense than all the Germans put together.
"Yes, I believe so, too," replied Cousin Desjardins; "only we ought touse it; we ought to set up schools everywhere; the lowest Frenchmanshould be able to read and write our own language; and this is exactlywhat the lovers of good places don't wish for. If the people had beeneducated, we should have known what was going on upon the other side ofthe Rhine; we should have had national armies, able generals, awatchful commissariat, a sound organization, enlightened andconscientious deputies; we should have had all that we are now wanting;we should not have placed the power of making war or peace in the handsof an imbecile; we should not have stupidly attacked the Germans, andthe Germans, seeing us ready to receive them, would ha
ve been carefulnot to attack us. All our defeats, all our divisions, our internaltroubles, our revolutions, our battles and massacres in the streets;the transportations, the hatred between classes--all this comes ofignorance; and this abominable ignorance is the doing of the selfishstatesmen who have governed us for seventy years. Good sense, justice,and patriotism would lead them to inform the people; they preferred analliance with the Jesuits to degrade the people; can any treason beworse?"
George, who had long entertained the same view, had nothing to add; buthe still argued that we might gain a victory, and that then we shouldbe saved.
Cousin Desjardins shook his head, saying: "Our forces are of tooinferior a quality; Gambetta will never have time to organize them; andif the traitors thought that he would, they would deliver up Metz atonce, in order that the second German army, Prince Frederick Charles's,might reach the Loire in time to prevent our army from raising thesiege of Paris: for then, I think, the country might be saved. Butthis will not come to pass. When I saw generals coming out of Metz togo and consult the Empress in England, I knew that our cause was lost.And then the forces of King William are immense. Those 300,000Russians who, as the papers tell us, are ready to march uponConstantinople, are only waiting the nod of the King of Prussia tostart by the railways and come to overwhelm us, if the Germans don'tthink themselves numerous enough to vanquish us with 1,200,000 men.The decisive opinion of Europe is that there shall be no republic inFrance--no, not at any price; for, if the republic was establishedhere, every monarchy would be shaken; the nations would all follow ourexample, and there would be an end of war; we should have a Europeanconfederation; kings, emperors, princes, courtiers, and professionalsoldiers might all be bowed off the stage. Only commerce, industry,science and arts would be thought of; to be anything, a man would haveto know something. The talent of drawing up men in line to be mowndown by cannon and mitrailleuses, would be relegated to the rear ranks;and a hundred years hence, men would hardly believe that such thingshave ever been; it would be too stupid."
Desjardins then told us how, in 1830, travelling about Solingen to buydye-stuffs, he had noticed that the Prussians thought of nothing butwar. From that very time they exhausted themselves to keep on foot,and ready to march, an army of 400,000 disciplined men. Since then,after their fusion with the forces of North Germany, Bavaria,Wurtemberg, and Baden, the total would amount to more than a million ofmen, without reckoning the landsturm: composed, it is true, of men inyears, but who have all served, and can handle a rifle, load a gun, andride well.
"Here, then, is what Monsieur Bonaparte has brought upon our shoulderswithout necessity," said he; "and it is against such a power thatGambetta is undertaking to organize in haste the youth that are left,and of whom the greater part have never served. I confess my hopes aresmall. God grant that I may be mistaken; but I fear that Alsace andLorraine are for the time ingulfed in Germany. The war will continuefor a time; treachery will go on working; and, finally, after all oursufferings, messieurs the sometime Ministers and councillors-general,the former prefets and sous-prefets, the old functionaries of everygrade, in a word, all the egotists will be on the look-out, and willsay: 'Let us make an arrangement with Bismarck. Let us make peace atthe expense of Alsace and Lorraine; and let us name a king who shallfind us first-rate places; France will still be rich enough to find ussalaries and pensions.'"
Thus spoke Cousin Desjardins; and George, growing more and more angry,striking the table with his fist, said, "What I cannot understand isthat the English desert us, and that they should allow the Prussians toextend their territory as they like."
"Ah," said Desjardins, smiling, "the English are not what they oncewere. They have become too rich; they cling to their comforts. Theirgreat statesmen are no longer Pitts and Chathams, who looked to thefuture greatness of their nation and took measures to secure it:provided only that business prospers from day to day, futuregenerations and the greatness of Britain give them no concern."
"Just so," said George. "If you had sailed, as I have done, in theNorth Sea and the Baltic, if you had seen what an enormous maritimepower North Germany may possibly become in a few years, with herhundred and sixty leagues of seacoast, her harbors of Dantzig, Stettin,Hamburg, and Bremen, whither the finest rivers bring all the bestproducts of Central Europe, all kinds of raw material, not only fromGermany and Poland, but also from Russia; if you had seen thatpopulation of sailors, of traders, which increases daily, you would beunable to understand the indifference of the English. Have they lostthe use of their eyes? Has the love of Protestantism and comfortdeprived them of all discernment? I cannot tell; but they must seethat if King William and Bismarck want Alsace and Lorraine, it is notexactly for the love of us Alsacians and Lorrainers, but to hold thecourse of the Rhine from its source in the German cantons ofSwitzerland down to its outfall at Rotterdam; and that in holding thisgreat river they will control all the commerce of our industrialprovinces and be able to feed the Dutch colonies with their produce,which will make them the first maritime power on the Continent; andthat, to carry out their purpose without being molested--whilst theRussians are attacking Constantinople, they will install themselvesquietly in the Dutch ports, as they did in the case of Hanover, andwill offer us Belgium, and perhaps even something more! All this isevident."
"No doubt, cousin," said Desjardins. "I also believe that every faultbrings its own punishment: the English will suffer for their faults, aswe are doing for ours; and the Germans, after having terrified theworld with their ambition, will one day be made to rue their cruelty,their hypocrisy, and their robberies. God is just! But in themeantime, until that day shall arrive, we are confiscated, and all ourobservations are useless."
And so the conversation went on: I cannot remember it entirely, but Ihave given you the substance of it.
The Plébiscite; or, A Miller's Story of the War Page 10