The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914

by Barbara W. Tuchman

  BORDEAUX, HENRY, Jules Lemaître, Paris, Plon, 1920.

  BOUSSEL, PATRICE, L’Affaire Dreyfus et la Presse, Paris, Colin, 1960.

  BRUNETIÈRE, FERDINAND, Après le Procés: Réponse à Quelques “Intellectuels,” Paris, Perrin, 1898.

  CAMBON, PAUL, Correspondence, 1870–1924, 3 vols., Paris, Grasset, 1940.

  CASTELLANE, MARQUIS BONI DE, How I Discovered America, New York, Knopf, 1924.

  *CHAPMAN, GUY, The Dreyfus Case: A Reassessment, New York, Reynal, 1955.

  CLARETIE, JULES, “Souvenirs du Dîner Bixio,” La Revue de France, June 15, July 1 and 15, August 1 and 15, 1923.

  CLEMENCEAU, GEORGES, Contre la Justice, Paris, Stock, 1900.

  CLERMONT -TONNERRE, ELIZABETH (DE GRAMONT), DUCHESSE DE, Mémoires, 3 vols., Paris, Grasset, 1928.

  *DAUDET, LÉON, Au Temps de Judas: Souvenirs de 1880 à 1908, Paris, NLN, 1920.

  DELHORBE, CECILE, L’Affaire Dreyfus et les Ecrivains Français, Paris, Attinger, 1932.

  ELLIS, HAVELOCK, From Rousseau to Proust, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1935.

  FRANCE, ANATOLE, M. Bergeret à Paris, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1902.

  GARD, ROGER MARTIN DU, Jean Barois, Paris, Gallimard, 1921.

  GARRIC, ROBERT, Albert de Mun, Paris, Flammarion, 1935.

  GIRAUD, VICTOR, Les Maîtres du l’Heure (Jules Lemaître). Vol. II, Paris, Hachette, 1919.

  GOLDBERG, HARVEY, The Life of Jean Jaurès, Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1962.

  GUILLEMINAULT, GILBERT, ed., La Belle Epoque, 3 vols., Paris, Denoël, 1957.

  HERZOG, WILHELM, From Dreyfus to Petain, tr. Walter Sorell, New York, Creative Age Press, 1947.

  HYNDMAN, H. M., Clemenceau, New York, Stokes, 1919.

  IBELS, H. G., Allons-y!: Histoire Contemporaire, Paris, Stock, 1898.

  JAURÈS, JEAN, Les Preuves: Affaire Dreyfus, Paris, La Petite République, 1898.

  LETHEVE, JACQUES, La Caricature et la presse sous la Troisième République, Paris, Colin, 1961.

  LONERGAN, W. F. (correspondent of the Daily Telegraph), Forty Years of Paris, New York, Brentano’s, 1907.

  MARTET, JEAN, Le tigre (Clemenceau), Paris, Albin Michel, 1930.

  MASUR, GERHARD, Prophets of Yesterday, New York, Macmillan, 1961.

  MEYER, ARTHUR, Ce que mes yeux ont vu, Paris, Plon, 1912.

  ——, Ce que je peux dire, Paris, Plon, 1912.

  *PAINTER, GEORGE D., Proust: The Early Years, Boston, Little, Brown, 1959.

  PALÉOLOGUE, MAURICE, An Intimate Journal of the Dreyfus Case, New York, Criterion, 1957.

  PÉGUY, CHARLES, “Notre Jeunesse,” Cahiers de la Quinzaine, 1910. (This was a reply to Daniel Halévy’s essay on the Affair written at Péguy’s invitation and published by him in the Cahiers de la Quinzaine. It is reprinted in English translation by Alexander Dru in Temporal and Eternal. New York, Harper, 1958.)

  POUQUET, JEANNE SIMON, Le Salon de Mme Arman de Caillavet, Paris, Hachette, 1926.

  PROUST, MARCEL, A la recherche du temps perdu, Paris, Gallimard, 1921–27.

  *QUILLARD, PIERRE, Le Monument Henry: Liste des Souscripteurs, Paris, Stock, 1899.

  RADZIWILL, PRINCESS CATHERINE, France Behind the Veil, New York, Funk & Wagnalls, 1914.

  *RADZIWILL, PRINCESS MARIE, Lettres au Général du Robilant, Vol. II, 1896–1901 (the Appendix contains her correspondence with General de Galliffet), Bologna, Zanichelli, 1933.

  **REINACH, JOSEPH, Histoire de l’Affaire Dreyfus, 7 vols., Paris, Charpentier, 1901–11.

  ROLLAND, ROMAIN, Mémoires, Paris, Albin Michel, 1956.

  ROMAN, JEAN, Paris Fin de Siècle, New York, Arts, Inc., 1960.

  SOREL, GEORGES, La Révolution Dreyfusienne, Paris, Rivière, 1911.

  VIZETELLY, ERNEST ALFRED, Emile Zola, London, John Lane, 1904.

  ——, Paris and Her People, New York, Stokes, n.d. (1918).

  ZEVAÈS, ALEXANDRE, L’Affaire Dreyfus: Quelques Souvenirs personnels, La Nouvelle Revue, January, February, March, 1936, Vols. 141 and 142.

  ZOLA, EMILE, La Vérité en Marche (collected ed.), Paris, Bernouard, 1928.

  Notes

  Since my purpose in this chapter was not to retell the story of the Dreyfus Affair but rather to show French society reacting to it, I have not thought it necessary to document the historical events of the case unless they are controversial or obscure. The basic and essential source is still Reinach’s stupendous work overflowing with facts, texts, documentation, insights, comments, eyewitnessed scenes, character portraits of the leading figures he knew and his own direct experiences, such as the moment in the Chamber during de Mun’s speech when “I felt on my head the hatred of three hundred hypnotized listeners.” Everything that anyone said or did connected with the Affair he made it his business to collect and record, including, besides obvious matters, thousands of peripheral details such as Scheurer-Kestner’s disgust with the reporter or Count Witte’s flash of clairvoyance. As a major actor in, not merely an observer of, the events, Reinach was vilified, calumniated, and caricatured more than anyone excepting Zola. Under these circumstances to have put together a work of such historical value is a feat perhaps unequaled, certainly unsurpassed, in historiography. The reader may take it that any statement or quotation in this chapter not otherwise accounted for is to be found in Reinach, to be located through his Index, which occupies the entire seventh volume.

  The most thoughtful expression of the Nationalist point of view is Barrès’ while the most vivid and vicious is Daudet’s. The best modern account—reliable, objective and of readable length—is Chapman’s. For the riots at Auteuil and Longchamps I relied on the contemporary press.

  1 “Would have divided the angels themselves”: in Journal des Débats, Mar. 8, 1903, on death of Gaston Paris, q. Barrès, 9.

  2 “At your age, General”: q. Lonergan, 76.

  3 Lavisse on the Grande Armée: Histoire de France Contemporaine, III, 379.

  4 Anatole France, “all that is left”: The character is M. Panneton de la Barge in M. Bergeret à Paris, 65–70.

  5 Comte de Haussonville quoted: Paléologue, 147.

  6 “France loves peace and prefers glory”: said by Albert Vandal, member of the French Academy, q. Figaro, Sept. 25, 1898.

  7 Ladies rose for General Mercier: Proust, Guermantes, II, 150. The Duchesse de Guermantes caused a sensation at the soirée of the Princesse de Lignes by remaining seated when other ladies rose. It was this action which helped to defeat the Duc for the Presidency of the Jockey Club.

  8 “You can have it back”: Reinach, I, 2.

  9 “If Dreyfus is acquitted, Mercier goes”: Paléologue, 44.

  10 Observer reminded of Dante: ibid., 198–99.

  11 Bülow, “There are three Great Powers”: C. Radziwill, 298.

  12 Gossip on de Rodays bribed: Radziwill, Letters, 106.

  13 Zola, a “shameful disease”: l’Aurore, May 13, 1902, q. Boussel, 216.

  14 Ernest Judet’s fear of Clemenceau: Daudet, 43.

  15 Arthur Meyer’s career: C. Radziwill, 297–307.

  16 Rochefort and Kaiser’s supposed letter: Blum, 78–80; Boussel, 157–59. The story of the letter appeared in l’Intransigeant, Dec. 13, 1897.

  17 Boisdeffre and Princess Mathilde: Radziwill, Letters, 133–35. Princess Radziwill told the story to the Kaiser who commented, “It’s a good thing for me that such a man heads the French General Staff … and all I wish is that they leave him where he is.”

  18 The “Syndicate”: The Right’s conception of the Syndicate is expressed in all seriousness by Daudet, 11–17, and satirized by Anatole France in Chapter 9 of M. Bergeret. The Dépěche de Toulouse on Nov. 24, 1897, affirmed the existence of a Syndicat D. and its expenditure of 10,000,000 francs: q. Boussel, 138. Other charges from Libre Parole l’Intransigeant, Jour, Patrie, Eclair, Echo de Paris given with dates by Reinach, III, 20; also “Le Syndicat,” l’Aurore, Dec. 1, 1897, in Zola, 13–19.

  19 “Something very great”: Count Harry Kessler, q. Masur, 297.
<
br />   20 Henry Adams on reading Drumont: July 27 and Aug. 4, 1896, Letters, 110, 116.

  21 “Clandestine and merciless conspiracy”: q. Herzog, 30.

  22 Duc d’Uzès felt gratified: ibid., 31.

  23 “They bore us with their Jew”: q. Goldberg, 216.

  24 Socialist review of Lazare’s pamphlet: Zevaès, v. 141, 21.

  25 “The Duc de Saint-Simon himself”: Reinach, II, 618, n. 1.

  26 Esterhazy, “hands of a brigand”; “elegant and treacherous”: C. Radziwill, 326–27; Benda, 181.

  27 Scheurer-Kestner like a 16th-century Huguenot: Rolland, 290.

  28 Crowds in the Luxembourg gardens: described by Clemenceau in 1908 in a speech dedicating a statue to Scheurer-Kestner.

  29 Clemenceau on Monet: q. J. Hampden Jackson, Clemenceau and the Third Republic, New York, 1962, 81.

  30 “Only the artists”: Martet, 286.

  31 Clemenceau on Esterhazy, Jesuits, justice: q. Boussel, 143; Reinach, III, 265. The degree to which contemporary attention was focused on the Affair may be judged from Clemenceau’s five volumes of collected articles: L’Iniquité (162 articles from l’Aurore and La Justice up to July, 1898); Vers la Réparation, 1899 (135 articles from l’Aurore, July-Dec., 1898); Des Juges, 1901 (40 articles from l’Aurore, Apr.-May, 1899); Injustice Militaire, 1902 (78 articles from l’Aurore, Aug.-Dec., 1899); La Honte, 1903 (65 articles from La Dépěche de Toulouse, Sept., 1899-Dec., 1900).

  32 “Generals of debacle” et seq.: Reinach, III, 258.

  33 Anton Radziwill “loves to talk English”: Spring-Rice (see Chap. 3), I, 184.

  34 Witte, “I can see only one thing”: Reinach, II, 542, n. 1.

  35 Jules Ferry, “to organize mankind”: q. Goldberg, 39.

  36 Léon Bourgeois to the Ralliés: q. Chapman, 23.

  37 De Mun’s speech to the Academy: Mar. 10, 1898. Reprinted in his Discours politiques et Parlementaires.

  38 De Mun’s career: Garric, passim; on Socialism, ibid., 94.

  39 Galliffet, “continue to understand nothing”: to Princess Radziwill, Sept. 22, 1899, 342.

  40 Comtesse de Noailles, “too beautiful to be real” and “merely smiled”: C. Radziwill, 337–38.

  41 “Certitude of superiority”: Clermont-Tonnerre, 113.

  42 Aimery de la Rochefoucauld: “fossil rigidity” was Proust’s phrase for the Prince de Guermantes, for whom de Rochefoucauld served as a model. “Mere nobodies in the year 1000”: q. Painter, 189.

  43 Duc d’Uzès, “we were always killed”: Painter, 200.

  44 Gratin not hospitable: Clermont-Tonnerre, 113.

  45 English visitor of Duc de Luynes: Wyndham (see Chap. 1), I, 346, 480.

  46 Thiers on Comte de Paris: q. Spender, Campbell-Bannerman (see Chap. 5), II, 59.

  47 Gamelba: Lonergan, 120–21.

  48 “All this Dreyfus business” and “Perfectly intolerable”: Proust, Guermantes, I.

  49 “Colossus with dirty feet”: Flaubert, Correspondence, Apr. 18, 1880.

  50 “Pornographic pig,” “Merde!” and other reactions: du Gard, 8.

  51 Björnson, “stupor and distress”: Reinach, III, 314.

  52 “The scene is France”: q. Herzog, 144.

  53 Chekhov on Zola’s trial: Ernest J. Simmons, Chekhov: A Biography, Boston, 1962, 412–13.

  54 “Smelled of suppressed slaughter”: Paléologue, 131.

  55 “Paris palpitated”: Hyndman (see Chap. 7), 301.

  56 Zola’s trial: Paléologue, 131–33; Hyndman, Clemenceau, 176–77; Vizetelly, 450–56; et al.

  57 Labori “not an intellect”: q. Chapman, 175.

  58 Zola, “Listen to them!”: Guilleminault, I, 189.

  59 Clemenceau, “not a single Dreyfusard”: Hyndman (see Chap. 7), 301.

  60 Henry Adams on Zola verdict: Feb. 26, 1898, Letters, 151.

  61 Anatole France got out of bed: from unpublished diary of Daniel Halévy, q. Delhorbe, 95–96.

  62 “Altogether one of us”: Daudet, 66.

  63 Monet quarreled with Degas: Stephen Gwynn, Claude Monet, New York, Macmillan, 1934, 92, 201 Degas read Libre Parole: Chapman, 182; on arrivistes: q. George Slocombe, Rebels of Art: Manet to Matisse, New York, 1939, 158.

  64 Debussy and Puvis de Chavannes: Painter, 356; Reinach, III, 248, n. 2.

  65 “If I sign” said a school principal: Clemenceau in l’Aurore, Jan. 18, 1898.

  66 Emile Duclaux, Revision in the laboratory: Reinach, III, 169.

  67 “He paints with his hands in my pockets”: René Gimpel, Carnets, Paris, 1963.

  68 Gaston Paris: Reinach, IV, 150, n. 5; Paul Stapfer: Zevaès, v. 141, 202.

  69 Whole villages took sides: Barclay, 135.

  70 Dîner Bixio: Claretie. All anecdotes of Dîner Bixio are from this source.

  71 Opening of “Les Loups”: Rolland, 291–95.

  72 “We needed reassurance, ideals”: Adolphe Brisson on “l’Aiglon,” in Figaro, Mar. 13, 1900.

  73 Ranc, “warned not to sleep at home”: q. Reinach, IV, 151.

  74 The salons: Bertaut, 163–73; Wharton (see Chap. 1), 261, 273; Painter, 130, 201, 281; for Mme Straus, see esp. Bertaut, Painter, 110–16, Paléologue; for Mme Arman, esp. Pouquet, passim; Clermont-Tonnerre, I, 4–5, 13; Blum, 98; for Mme Aubernon: Paléologue, 114; Suttner (see Chap. 5), I, 282–84; for Mme de Loynes: esp. Meyer, Ce que je peux dire, 250–53, 287; Castellane, 195.

  75 Lemaître, “The Republic cured me”: q. Giraud, 72.

  76 “Que faite vous, Maître?”: Barclay, 142.

  77 Meetings of Ligue des Patriotes: Meyer, Ce que je peux dire, 253–63; Daudet, 89–90.

  78 De Vogüé, “Now the odious case”: Paléologue, 151.

  79 Reciting 17th-century poetry: Goldberg, 226.

  80 His “splendid amplitude”: Rolland, 298; “Like a huge cat with a mouse”: ibid.

  81 Socialists on Zola’s trial: Jaurès’ Œuvres, VI, 197, q. Goldberg; Reinach, III, 255, IV, 148; Zevaès, v. 141, 97, 199.

  82 Jaurès, “how tormented I am”: q. Goldberg, 220.

  83 “Because we seem to oppose”: from a letter of Nov. 7, 1898, in the Guesde Archives, Amsterdam, q. Goldberg, 243.

  84 Socialist Committee of Vigilance: Zevaès, v. 141, 203.

  85 André Buffet telegraphed Pretender: Details of the right-wing conspiracy and its financing were obtained from evidence at the subsequent trial of Déroulède, Reinach, IV, 332–42.

  86 “Eve of a new Commune”: Radziwill, Letters, 155.

  87 “Soul of a second lieutenant”: André Maurois, The Miracle of France, New York, 1948, 404.

  88 “Sanctuary of treason,” et seq.: Paléologue, 187–90.

  89 Anarchists on Dreyfus “parade”: Boussel, 170–72: Maitron (see Chap. 2), 307–18.

  90 Mme de Greffulhe wrote to the Kaiser: André Germain, Les clés de Proust, 1953, 43. (I am indebted for this source to Mr. George D. Painter, the biographer of Proust.)

  91 Change in the Guermantes: recorded in Sodome and La Prisonnière.

  92 An officer said to Galliffet: Claretie, 50.

  93 Jaurès, “If war breaks out”: q. Goldberg, 245.

  94 Contributors to the Henry Subscription: Quillard, passim.

  95 Loubet’s election: Paléologue, 203; “The Republic will not founder”: q. Chapman, 254.

  96 Lemaître on driving Loubet out: q. Goldberg, 247.

  97 Anti-Semitic League funds: Reinach, IV, 573, n. 4; V, 113, 254, n. 1, from evidence at Déroulède trial.

  98 Le Temps, “What other country”: June 6, 1899.

  99 William James, “one of those moral crises”: June 7, 1899, Letters, II, 89.

  100 -8 The attack on Loubet at Auteuil: Figaro, June 5, 1899.

  101 Next Sunday at Longchamps: Le Temps, June 12/13, 1899. Henri Léon, the Nationalist leader and cynic in M. Bergeret à Paris, describes how hooligans yelled “Pa-na-ma! De-mis-sion!” under his orders. “I beat time for them and they yell the separate syllables. It was really done with tast
e.”

  102 Lucien Herr’s argument: from Vie de Lucien Herr, by Charles Andler, q. Goldberg, 254.

  103 Socialists split on support for Government: Zevaès, v. 142, 47.

  104 Marquis de Galliffet, silver-plated stomach: Castellane, 99; “air of a bandit chief”: Reinach, V, 168–69; on arresting members of his club: Radziwill, Letters, 340; “courage and effrontery”: Reinach, loc. cit.

  105 Millerand, “cat in a downpour”: Suarez (see Chap. 8), I, 259.

  106 “Invite those chaps to dinner”: from Louis Thomas, Le Général de Galliffet, 1910, 247 (supplied by Mr. Painter).

  107 Rennes trial: eyewitness accounts by Marcel Prévost, New York Herald, Aug. 8/9; Severine and others, q. in Reinach, V; Barrès, 146; Zevaès, v. 142, 53; Benda, 211; London Times, New York Tribune, Aug. 8/9. Evidently it is a rule that discrepancies in observation increase with intensity of emotion: Dreyfus’ hair was “white” according to The Times, “auburngrey” according to the Tribune; his moustache “jet black” according to The Times, “frankly red” according to the Tribune.

  108 G. A. Henty: Hyndman, 184.

  109 Galliffet, “I don’t budge from my office”: Radziwill, Letters, 340.

  110 Labori “looked like Hercules”: Meyer, Mes Yeux, 152.

  111 “I’ve just killed the Dreyfus”: Paléologue, 241.

  112 Queen Victoria’s telegram: Reinach, V, 544.

  113 Clemenceau: In l’Aurore, Sept. 10, 1899.

  114 Comtesse de Noailles weeping: Painter, 299.

  115 Foreign reaction to Rennes verdict: The Times, Sept. 12, 13, 14, 1899; Barclay, 162.

  116 Grieg’s “Indignation”: Finck, Grieg (see Chap. 6), 104.

  117 Galliffet, “That’s something to see”: Lonergan, 369.

  5. The Steady Drummer

  Bibliography

  Official publications of the proceedings of the two Peace Conferences at The Hague are the following:

  FRANCE, MINISTÈRE DES AFFAIRES ETRANGÈRES, Documents Diplomatiques, Conférence Internationale de la Paix, 1899, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1900.

  ——, Deuxième Conférence Internationale de la Paix, 1907, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1908.

  *GERMANY, AUSWARTIGEN AMT, Die Grosse Politik der Europäischen Kabinette, Berlin, 1924–25. Band 15: Rings um die Erste Haager Friedenskonferenz. Band 23: Die Zweite Haager Friedenskonferenz. (Referred to in Notes as GP.)