23. Shame
244 no rain: “Foreign Intelligence,” The Times, Wednesday, October 4, 1865, 7.
244 Asiatic cholera: “Quarantine at Rome,” The Times, Saturday, October 7, 1865, 7; “Foreign Intelligence,” The Times, Thursday, October 12, 1865, 10.
244 Damascus and Acre: “Foreign Intelligence,” The Times, Thursday, October 5, 1865, 10.
244 Beirut and Jaffa: Ibid.
244 Tripoli, Malta, and Gibraltar: Ibid.; “France,” The Times, Tuesday, October 3, 1865; “The Cholera in Gibraltar,” The Times, Tuesday, October 3, 1865, 12.
244 At Rome: “Quarantine at Rome,” The Times, Saturday, October 7, 1865, 7.
244 startling suddenness: “Foreign Intelligence,” The Times, Wednesday, October 4, 1865, 7; “Foreign Intelligence,” The Times, Wednesday, October 4, 1865, 7; The Times, Tuesday, October 3, 1865, 12.
244 Vibrio cholerae: “Vibrio cholerae and Asiatic Cholera,” Todar’s Online Textbook of Bacteriology (Madison, WI: Kenneth Todar University of Wisconsin—Madison Department of Bacteriology, 2005).
244 Weakened: “Treatment of Cholera,” The Times, Friday, October 13, 1865, 12.
244 had reached Paris: “Foreign Intelligence,” The Times, Monday, October 2, 1865, 8; “Foreign Intelligence,” The Times, Saturday, October 7, 1865, 10.
244 “Otto’s Herculean”: B, 191.
245 “Black Velvet”: BMS, 43.
245 mudlarks: “Foreign Intelligence,” The Times, Wednesday, October 4, 1865, 7.
245 The drains: Ibid.; “Foreign Intelligence,” The Times, Saturday, October 7, 1865, 10.
245 drink seltzer water: “Foreign Intelligence,” The Times, Wednesday, October 4, 1865, 7.
245 the Charité: “Foreign Intelligence,” The Times, Wednesday, October 11, 1865, 8.
245 Moulin Rouge: “Foreign Intelligence,” The Times, Wednesday, October 4, 1865, 7.
245 Quai d’Orsay: Willard Allen Fletcher, The Mission of Vincent Benedetti to Berlin 1864-1870 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1965), 38.
245 friend of Austria: Augustus Loftus, The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord Augustus Loftus, P.C., G.C.B., 1862-1879, 2 vols. (London: Cassell, 1894), i, 42.
245 “in a very bellicose”: Niall Ferguson, The House of Rothschild: The World’s Banker, 1849-1999 (London: Penguin, 1999), 136.
245 Biarritz: “Latest Intelligence,” The Times, Thursday, October 5, 1865, 12; Gesammelten Werke, v, 305-16; Adolphus William Ward, Germany 1815-1890, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1917), ii, 206.
245 Fearful: Bismarck to Princess Orlov, October 21, 1865, in Nicholas Orloff, Bismarck und die Fürstin Orloff (Munich: Becksche, 1936), 148.
245 Napoleon III: Gesammelten Werke, v, 306-11.
245 The barometer: “Foreign Intelligence,” The Times, Tuesday, October 10, 1865, 10.
245 An autumn storm: Philip Guedalla, The Second Empire (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1922), 353.
245 in a poor state: Adolphus William Ward, Germany 1815-1890, ii, 206.
245 He walked: Anna L. Bicknell, Life in the Tuileries Under the Second Empire (New York: Century, 1895), 200.
245 His protégé: Norman B. Judd to Seward, April 16, 1864, SD NARA M44/ROLL 13; John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 12, 1864, SD NARA T157/ROLL 6.
245 It was assumed: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, March 28, 1864, SD NARA T157/ROLL 6.
245 unpleasant scenes: Ibid.
246 quitted the city: Ibid.
246 General Frossard: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 5, 1864, SD NARA T157/ROLL 6; John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 12, 1864, SD NARA T157/ROLL 6; Michele Cunningham, Mexico and the Foreign Policy of Napoleon III (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 177.
246 his right to the throne: Norman B. Judd to Seward, April 16, 1864, SD NARA M44/ROLL 13.
246 a trifle fancifully: Maximilian’s claim of descent from Charles V was dubious. See John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 12, 1864, SD NARA T157/ROLL 6.
246 Charles V: Norman B. Judd to Seward, April 16, 1864, SD NARA M44/ROLL 13.
246 the will of the nation: Ibid.
246 twenty-five million francs: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, March 14, 1864, SD NARA T157/ROLL 6.
246 liveries: Ibid.
246 The prospect brightened: “Mexicans,” Maximilian declared when he assumed the imperial title at Vera Cruz in May 1864, “you have called me among you. Your noble country, by the spontaneous expression of the wishes of the majority, has chosen me to watch over its future destinies. I answer the appeal with joy….”—“Proclamation of Maximilian,” Vera Cruz, May 28, 1864, in “The Emperor of Mexico,” The Times, Wednesday, July 13, 1864, 12.
246 “You are the white man”: Ibid.
246 alarmed Americans: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, March 14, 1864, SD NARA T157/ROLL 6; John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 12, 1864, SD NARA T157/ROLL 6.
246 “this continent”: “The Civil War in America,” The Times, Monday, March 13, 1865, 9.
246 General Grant had dispatched: William A. Dunning, Reconstruction, Political and Economic, 1865-1877 (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), 153.
247 fruitless tourism: Cunningham, Mexico and the Foreign Policy of Napoleon III, 182.
247 had recently conferred: Etat des Services, May 11, 1872, Bazaine Dossier, AA, 6yd 62.
247 promoted from the ranks: Bazaine enlisted as a private soldier in March, 1831. Two and a half years later, in November, 1833, Sergeant Major Bazaine, having distinguished himself in the Légion étrangère, was raised from the ranks and commissioned a second lieutenant—Ibid.
247 not exactly known: BGE, 109; Fletcher, The Mission of Vincent Benedetti to Berlin 1864-1870, 39; Chester Clark Wells, Franz Joseph and Bismarck: The Diplomacy of Austria Before the War of 1866 (New York: Ruseell & Russell, 1968), 302; Ward, Germany 1815-1890, ii, 207.
247 Bismarck was determined: Bismarck was willing to purchase Austria’s interests in the duchies; but Franz Josef was not prepared to sell—See Chester Clark Wells, Franz Joseph and Bismarck, 311, and Niall Ferguson, The House of Rothschild, 138. The Kaiser similarly refused to sell Venetia to the Italians.
247 a factitious dispute: Under the provisional agreement concluded at Gastein in 1865, Prussia was to administer Schleswig and Austria was to govern Holstein. But Prussia “hardly makes a secret,” one diplomat observed, “of its intention if possible to annex [both] the Elbe Duchies.” Bismarck “means to keep [Schleswig and Holstein] for his sovereign,” noted another diplomat, “and in that undertaking he has the support in Prussia of all parties.” The object of this policy was not difficult to discern; by humiliating Austria in the matter of the duchies, Bismarck hoped to enable Prussia to make “its long cherished dream of supremacy in Germany a fact”—John Lothrop Motley to Seward, March 20, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7; John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 1, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7; H. Kreisman to Seward, August 6, 1864, SD NARA M44/ROLL 13. See also Loftus, The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord Augustus Loftus, P. C., G. C. B., i, 40.
247 “war to the knife”: Bismarck’s phrase—BMS, 81.
247 sinister bargain: “Prussia,” The Times, Saturday, October 14, 1865, 10; The Times, Monday, October 16, 1865, 8.
247 pleased: The Times, Monday, October 16, 1865, 8.
247 had extracted: Shortly after the meeting at Biarritz, Bismarck permitted to appear, in the semiofficial Provinzial Correspondenz, a statement in which he said that Louis-Napoleon had given him “upon pending questions … guarantees for the unaltered continuance of friendly relations between France and Prussia.” “It is mainly owing to this fact,” the statement continued, “that the question of the Duchies [can] be brought to a solution in conformity with German national and Prussians interests without European complications. No doubt exists that the [French] Emperor has resolved to continue the calm, honourable, and disinterested policy he has hitherto pursued”—“France and Prussia,” The Times, Thursday, October 12, 1865, 12 (emphasis added).
24
7 Some speculated: “Prussia,” The Times, Saturday, October 14, 1865, 10.
247 kept details of the talks: Fletcher, The Mission of Vincent Benedetti to Berlin 1864-1870, 39.
247 promise him territorial compensation: Ibid., 39. A. J. P. Taylor supposes that Bismarck, in exchange for the French pledge of neutrality, promised Louis Napoleon that Prussia would not stand in the way of an attempt by France and Italy to wrest Venetia from the Austrians—BMS, 80-81. See also Ward, Germany 1815-1890, ii, 207-08. C. Grant Robertson, by contrast, argued that Bismarck “accomplished the difficult task of securing Napoleon’s benevolent neutrality, without any awkward promissory notes, which could be presented for payment at sight at some future date”—B, 195. Robertson’s analysis anticipates that of Henry Kissinger, who argues that Louis-Napoleon left the question of territorial compensation vague because (like many military analysts of the day) “he expected Prussia to lose; his moves were designed more to keep Prussia on its course to war than to bargain for benefits”—Henry A. Kissinger, Diplomacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 115; see also Alan Palmer, Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph (New York: Grove/Atlantic Monthly, 1995), 143. That Bismarck believed he had secured French neutrality at Biarritz is all but certain, else he would never, in 1866, have denuded Prussia’s western frontier of troops in order to fight the Austrians. See, on this point, Loftus, The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord Augustus Loftus, P. C., G. C. B., i, 85-86.
247 Prussia, Louis-Napoleon believed: Kissinger, “The White Revolutionary: Reflections on Bismarck,” D, vol. 97, no. 3 (Summer 1968), 920.
248 “as calm and smiling”: MCCW, 785.
248 The town: MCCW, 789.
248 Some who had quarreled: MCCW, 783-85.
248 a guerrilla campaign: Winik, April 1865, 150.
248 “General Lee”: MCCW, 788.
248 “That is a lie”: MCCW, 792.
248 “I do not”: MCCW, 789.
248 “Now we belong”: Ibid.
249 “croaking and dismay”: “The Confederate States,” The Times, March 7, 1865, 5; compare Herman M. Hattaway, “The Civil War Armies: Creation, Mobilization, and Development,” ORTW, 196-97.
249 “Never”: MCCW, 779 (emphasis added). The picture of Hood at bay is a composite one; I have compressed into one scene a number of disparate incidents.
249 black care: MCCW, 785.
249 “the torture”: MCCW, 708.
249 was reviled: MCCW, 711. “The Civil War in America,” The Times, Tuesday, March 14, 1865, 5.
249 “Hood is dead”: MCCW, 698.
249 “turned as white”: MCCW, 646.
249 “future in the face”: MCCW, 709.
249 “She rarely speaks”: MCCW, 792.
250 so soft: MCCW, 804.
250 “beautiful, beautiful”: Ibid.
250 “fast”: EHA, 904.
250 “I stood by the fender”: MCCW, 804.
250 “pretended to be”: Ibid.
250 If he had been persistent: Ibid.
250 “well, I would have”: MCCW, 804-05.
250 “It was a shame”: MCCW, 804.
250 In his bedroom-study: LGT, 128.
250 After a brisk walk: LGT, 129.
250 hollow: E. A. Brayley Hodgetts, The Court of Russia in the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner, 1908), ii, 41.
251 Her principal consolation: Some say that the Empress gave way to religious mania after the death of her son. Ibid., ii, 41.
251 icons: LGT, 172.
251 After breakfast: LGT, 129.
251 On a spring afternoon: LGT, 177.
251 Milord: Walter G. Moss, Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky (London: Anthem Press, 2002), 90.
251 sunny: Ibid.
251 an overcoat: “Russia,” The Times, Monday, April 23, 1866, 10.
251 The Tsar was in the midst: Ibid.
24. “Better to Die”
252 Bismarck opened: B, 204.
252 “We have”: Ibid.
252 railway interests: Stern, Gold and Iron, 80; Craig, The Politics of the Prussian Army 1640-1945, 174; Ferguson, The House of Rothschild, 130-34.
252 “a nest”: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 17, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7.
252 The Viennese: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, March 20, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7.
252 a Prussian descent: Ibid.; Pflanze, Bismarck and the Development of Germany, 294.
252 less than seven weeks: Gordon A. Craig, The Battle of Könnigrätz: Prussia’s Victory Over Austria, 1866 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), 7.
253 “warlike activity”: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 1, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7.
253 “without any recognizable”: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 10, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7.
253 Bismarck pretended: One of the most careful students of the crisis concluded that Bismarck was the aggressor in the war and its conscious instigator—Chester Clark Wells, Franz Joseph and Bismarck: The Diplomacy of Austria Before the War of 1866, 476.
253 partial mobilization: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 17, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7.
253 promptly denied: Ibid.; John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 1, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7.
253 with some warmth: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 17, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7.
253 extensive military preparations: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 17, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7.
253 “All this”: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 17, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7.
253 an olive branch: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 18, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7; John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 25, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7.
253 If, he said: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 25, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7.
253 Vienna at once embraced: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, April 25, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7.
253 Italy: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, May 1, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7; Palmer, Twilight of the Habsburgs, 142.
253 the Austrians naturally: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, May 1, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7; Palmer, Twilight of the Habsburgs, 141.
253 Bismarck took care: In his eagerness to rally Germany to his cause, Bismarck not only planted articles in newspapers, he also proposed the creation of a Pan-German Parliament, to be elected by universal suffrage.
253 a German paper: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, May 1, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7.
253 to attack Prussia: Ibid.; “Austria and Prussia,” The Times, Wednesday, May 9, 1866, 6.
253 Ordinary Prussians: “Prussia,” The Times, Friday, May 4, 1866, 10.
254 six army corps: Joseph A. Wright to Seward, May 9, 1866, SD NARA M44/ROLL 13; “Prussia,” The Times, Monday, May 7, 1866, 9.
254 England, France, and Russia: Joseph A. Wright to Seward, May 16, 1866, SD NARA M44/ROLL 13.
254 “contented themselves”: John Lothrop Motley to Seward, March 26, 1866, SD NARA T157/ROLL 7.
254 zenith of its supremacy: James Truslow Adams, The British Empire 1784-1939 (New York: Dorset, 1991), 210.
254 “are much better”: B, 114.
254 “could not view”: Loftus, The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord Augustus Loftus, P. C., G. C. B., i, 99.
254 “enormous armies”: The Times, Wednesday, June 29, 1864, 10.
254 “in a state”: Ibid.
254 a volunteer movement: The Times, Monday, April 18, 1864, 9; The Times, Monday, April 25, 1864, 8; The Times, Saturday, September 30, 1865, 7. See also Anthony Trollope, Can You Forgive Her? (1865; London: Penguin, 1986), 76.
255 Palmerston himself: Count Charles Frederick Vitzthum von Eckstædt, Saint Petersburg and London in the Years 1852-1864, 2 vols. (London: Longmans, Green, 1887), ii, 112.
255 He had himself: Elizabeth Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857; London: Penguin, 1985), 78.
255 “is too weak”: Palmerston to Russell, Septembe
r 13, 1865, in Evelyn Ashley, The Life of Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston, 2 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1876), ii, 270.
255 “faults and recklessness”: Wells, Franz Joseph and Bismarck, 377; Pflanze, Bismarck and the Development of Germany, 294.
255 “The Missus”: Herbert Maxwell, The Life and Letters of George William Frederick, Fourth Earl of Clarendon, K.G., G.C.B,. 2 vols. (London: Edward Arnold, 1913), ii, 310.
255 “would be an injustice”: Russell to Clarendon, March 30, 1866, in ibid., ii, 311.
255 iron cot: Lieutenant-General Baron von Margutti, The Emperor Francis Joseph and His Times (London: Hutchinson, 1921), 45
255 “I am at”: Eugen Ketterl, The Emperor Francis Joseph I: An Intimate Study, trans. M. Ostheide (Boston: Stratford, 1930), 39.
255 bath attendant: Ibid.; Frederic Morton, A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888/1889 (London: Penguin, 1980), 236.
256 happiest hours: Henri de Weindel, Behind the Scenes at the Court of Vienna (London: John Long, 1914), 95-96.
256 the Emperor’s type: See Morton, A Nervous Splendor, 187.
256 “How can one”: Craig, The Battle of Könnigrätz, 5.
256 One evening: Joseph A. Wright to Seward, May 9, 1866, SD NARA M44/ROLL 13.
256 to the police bureau: Ibid.
257 pocket knife: “Prussia,” The Times, Wednesday, May 9, 1866, 14; Loftus, The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord Augustus Loftus, P. C., G. C. B., i, 59-60.
257 slight contusion: Joseph A. Wright to Seward, May 9, 1866, SD NARA M44/ROLL 13. Bismarck, forewarned of the possibility of an attempt on his life, had donned a padded undershirt that day, and this may have prevented the bullets from doing him greater injury—Loftus, The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord Augustus Loftus, P. C., G. C. B., i, 59.
257 “I consider”: Pflanze, Bismarck and the Development of Germany, 305.
257 “Events change”: Joseph A. Wright to Seward, June 7, 1866, SD NARA M44/ROLL 13.
257 “Why, after all”: Loftus, The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord Augustus Loftus, P. C., G. C. B., i, 58.
257 accuse Prussia: Joseph A. Wright to Seward, June 8, 1866, SD NARA M44/ROLL 13.
257 they resolved: BGE, 124-25.
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