297 cheers: Ollivier to Napoleon III, July 6, 1870, Origines Diplomatiques, xxviii, 58-59; The Times, Thursday, July 7, 1870, 12; The Times, Saturday, July 9, 1870, 12.
297 casus belli: It was at this time that Gramont began to inform French diplomats abroad that, if Prussia insisted on the Hohenzollern candidature, “c’est la guerre”—Gramont to General Count Fleury, July 6, 1870, Origines Diplomatiques, xxviii, 64.
298 other thoughts: MR, 236.
298 “It often happens”: MR, 237.
298 A visit to Moscow: MR, 264-67.
298 The noble families: MR, 264.
298 “the intruders”: Ibid.
299 “That is the sort”: MR, 25.
299 “A couple of”: MR, 264.
299 Yet he did not love: MR, 250-51.
299 In the house next door: MR, 266.
299 “Very grave news from Spain”: Gramont to Benedetti, July 3, 1870, Origines Diplomatiques, xxviii, 20.
299 Shortly afterward: Gramont to Benedetti, July 7, 1870, Origines Diplomatiques, xxviii, 86; Benedetti to Gramont, July 8, 1870, Origines Diplomatiques, xxviii, 112.
299 every imaginable argument: Benedetti to Gramont, July 11, 1870, Origines Diplomatiques, xxviii, 218-19.
300 restoration of his health: His illness, he said, was of a “bilious character”—Moritz Busch, Bismarck: Some Secret Pages from His History, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1898), i, 25.
300 recalled him: George Bancroft to Hamilton Fish, July 12, 1870, SD NARA M44/ROLL 16; “France, Prussia, and Spain,” The Times, Thursday, July 14, 1870, 5; Le Sourd to Gramont, July 12, 1870, Origines Diplomatiques, xxviii, 253.
300 La Barberina: Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia, called Frederick the Great, 10 vols. (London: Chapman & Hall, 1872), v, 258-61, vi, 186, 189; BMS, 112.
300 “is interested in furnishing”: BMS, 112-13.
300 “repeatedly pacing”: Busch, Bismarck: Some Secret Pages from His History, i, 446.
300 in his office: Ibid., i, 21, 448-52.
300 writing table: Ibid., i, 450.
301 studious in fomenting: Lord, The Origins of the War of 1870, 53, 95, 107.
301 “As a matter of fact”: Busch, Bismarck: Some Secret Pages from His History, i, 24-25.
301 “That the unification”: David Wetzel, A Duel of Giants: Bismarck, Napoleon III, and the Origins of the Franco-Prussian War (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001), 66; Hans Rothfels, “Problems of a Bismarck Biography,” RP, vol. 9, no. 3 July 1947), 374.
301 “That German unity”: Wetzel, A Duel of Giants, 66-67.
301 “We can set”: Ibid., 67.
28. The Viper Casts Its Skin
302 “This dispatch”: Thomas W. Evans, The Second French Empire, ed. Edward A. Crane (New York: D. Appleton, 1903), 164.
302 “What has happened”: Wetzel, A Duel of Giants, 138.
302 The withdrawal: Gramont to Benedetti, July 12, 1870, Origines Diplomatiques, xxviii, 255.
303 “It will not be”: Evans, The Second French Empire, 164.
303 threw down his sword: Philip Guedalla, The Second Empire (New York: G. P. Putnam’s, 1922), 409.
303 The Empress, too: Ibid. Eugénie believed that war with Prussia was inevitable and could not be avoided—TE, 137.
303 telegraphed to Gramont: Napoleon III to Gramont, July 12, 1870, Origines Diplomatiques, xxviii, 260-61.
303 “Never have we been”: Evans, The Second French Empire, 168.
303 He had been left out: Roger Price, The French Second Empire: An Anatomy of Political Power (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 429.
304 “My children”: Honoré de Balzac, Eugénie Grandet, trans. M. A. Crawford (London: Penguin, 1955), 157.
304 “conscious of being”: Wetzel, A Duel of Giants 147.
304 Bismarck, too: Fritz Stern, Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichröder, and the Building of the German Empire (New York: Vintage, 1979), 130.
304 “with a threatening”: Sidney Whitman, Personal Reminiscences of Prince Bismarck (New York: D. Appleton, 1903), 28.
304 Queen Augusta’s: Gedanken, ii, 86-87.
304 “My first thought”: Gedanken, ii, 84-85, 88.
305 encounter with Benedetti: Lord, The Origins of the War of 1870, 84-85; Hedwig von Olfers Abeken, Bismarck’s Pen: The Life of Heinrich Abeken, trans. Mrs. C. E. Barrett-Lennard and M. W. Huper (London: George Allen, 1911), 252; “The War,” The Times, Monday, July 18, 1870, 9.
305 “might have embroiled”: Lord, The Origins of the War of 1870, 86; see also “The War,” The Times, Monday, July 18, 1870, 9.
305 Benedetti could not: Lord, The Origins of the War of 1870, 86-87.
305 “Well, Sire”: Ibid., 87; see also Benedetti, Ma Mission en Prusse, 372.
305 “It seems to me”: Lord, The Origins of the War of 1870, 87; Benedetti to Gramont, July 13, 1870, Origines Diplomatiques, xxviii, 293-94.
305 “Be kind enough”: “The War,” The Times, Monday, July 18, 1870, 9; George Bancroft to Hamilton Fish, July 14, 1870, SD NARA M44/ROLL 16.
306 The “position”: Whitman, Personal Reminiscences of Prince Bismarck, 133.
306 Was the army ready: Lord, The Origins of the War of 1870, 100.
306 “The tug”: Lincoln to Lyman Trumbull, December 10, 1860, SW, 1859-1860, 190.
306 “rather sternly”: Abeken, Bismarck’s Pen, 255.
306 more gentle: George Bancroft to Hamilton Fish, July 19, 1870, SD NARA M44/ROLL 16.
306 an ongoing negotiation: Gedanken, ii, 91.
306 “Ems, 13 July”: “France, Prussia, and Spain,” The Times, Thursday, July 14, 1870, 5.
306 “If I not only”: Lord, The Origins of the War of 1870, 101. Earlier in the week, The Times compared Prince Leopold’s candidature to “a red flag waved before the eyes of a bull”—“France,” The Times, Monday, July 11, 1870, 12.
307 He got drunk: Alice Hunt Sokoloff, Kate Chase for the Defense (New York: Dodd, Meade, 1971), 115.
307 “You know”: Ibid., 118.
307 “happiness of a wife”: Ibid., 138-39.
307 “acquiesce cheerfully”: Ibid., 156.
307 “sadly disconnected”: Ibid., 120.
307 “would feel”: Ibid., 124.
307 “I would not”: Ibid., 132-33.
308 “I will not”: Ibid., 120 (emphasis in original).
308 Mr. Worth: Ibid., 134.
308 But her dress was now: Ibid., 114-15.
308 “I almost hate”: Ibid., 158-59 (commas added for clarification).
308 “Jephtha’s daughter”: Henry Adams to Charles Milnes Gaskell, March 7, 1870, in Henry Adams: Selected Letters, ed. Ernest Samuels (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1992), 112.
308 Jephtha: Judges 11:30-40.
309 “Public Insult”: Le Soir, July 14, 1870, 1.
309 arrived at the Tuileries: “Latest Intelligence,” The Times, Friday, July 15, 1870, 12.
309 “slap in the face”: James F. McMillan, Napoleon III (London: Longman, 1991), 158-59; Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, The Life of Granville George Leveson Gower, Second Earl Granville, K.G., 2 vols. (London: Longmans, Green, 1905), ii, 34; “The War,” The Times, Wednesday, July 20, 1870, 5.
309 “It is now”: Evans, The Second French Empire, 180-81.
309 red silk: Vizetelly, The Court of the Tuileries, 1852-1870, 130.
309 influence of drugs: Wawro, The Franco-Prussian War, 26.
310 “Napoleon has no option”: George Bancroft to Hamilton Fish, July 14, 1870, SD NARA M44/ROLL 16.
310 “depth of French feeling”: The Times, Friday, July 8, 1870, 9. “France,” Louis-Napoleon said, “has slipped out of my hand. I cannot rule unless I lead…. I have no choice but to advance at the head of public opinion which I can neither stem nor check”—Michael Foot, “The Origins of the Franco-Prussian War and the Remaking of Germany,” NCMH, x, 598.
310 “la Guerre”: “France and Prussia,” The Times, Saturday, July 16, 1870, 9. According to le
gend, Eugénie boasted that she had finally got her “little war” (“ma petite guerre”); but she herself always denied this, and others have offered evidence that the quotation was fabricated by her enemies. See Thomas W. Evans, The Second French Empire, 167; TE, 121-22.
310 reeking hot: “The War,” The Times, Friday, July 22, 1870, 5; “The War,” The Times, Saturday, July 23 1870, 10.
310 “After the first battle”: “The War,” The Times, Friday, July 22, 1870, 5.
310 Soldiers went about: “The War,” The Times, Monday, July 18, 1870, 9.
310 Marie Sass: “The War,” The Times, Saturday, July 23, 1870, 10; Roger Price, The French Second Empire: An Anatomy off Political Power (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 438.
310 Garde Impériale: Etat des Services, May 11, 1872, Bazaine Dossier, AA, 6yd 62.
310 Josefa de la Peña: Bazaine to the Minister of War, July 10, 1865, Bazaine Dossier, AA, 6yd 62.
310 “Nous marchons”: Philip Guedalla, The Two Marshals (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943), 136.
29. Dead or Victorious
311 “rosiest humor”: Abeken, Bismarck’s Pen, 256.
311 “incredible napping”: Ibid., 257-58.
311 slept poorly: Ibid., 256, 263.
311 “It is terrible”: “The War,” The Times, Saturday, July 23, 1870, 10 ; “The War,” The Times, Thursday, July 21, 1870, 9.
312 The little Corsican: Lord, The Origins of the War of 1870, 108.
312 “forty millions”: George Bancroft to Hamilton Fish, July 16, 1870, SD NARA M44/ROLL 16.
312 in perfect order: George Bancroft to Hamilton Fish, July 23, 1870, SD NARA M44/ROLL 16.
312 “was neither confusion”: George Bancroft to Hamilton Fish, August 2, 1870, SD NARA M44/ROLL 16.
312 more than a million: George Bancroft to Hamilton Fish, July 23, 1870, SD NARA M44/ROLL 16.
312 “His mien”: John Van der Kiste, The Romanous 1818-1959 (Stroud, Glês: Sutton, 2003), 75.
313 “an inward”: Blake, Disraeli, 683.
313 “an insolent expression”: Stephen Graham, Tsar of Freedom: The Life and Reign of Alexander II (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1935), 208.
313 A teenaged girl: MR, 426.
313 A teenaged boy: MR, 427.
313 In the 1870s Tolstoy: Aylmer Maude, The Life of Tolstoy: First Fifty Years (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1910), 386.
313 There were moments: MR, 430-31.
313 “Don’t speak”: MR, 430.
313 drank to excess: Van der Kiste, The Romanous 1818-1959, 67.
314 an elevator: Paléologue, The Tragic Romance of Alexander II of Russia, 123.
314 “a true Russian”: Ibid., 168.
314 “completely dominated”: Ibid., 79-80.
314 “I congratulate you”: Ibid., 80; Alfred J. Rieber, “Alexander II: A Revisionist View,” JMH, vol. 43, no. 1 (March 1971), 44. Bismarck rightly considered Shuvalov’s appointment to the London embassy “a species of honorable exile”—Kennan, The Decline of Bismarck’s European Order: Franco-Russian Relations, 1875-1890, 70-71.
315 “big Utopian Babbler”: Robert K. Massie, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War (New York: Ballantine Books, 1992), 83.
315 “England, beware”: Whitman, Personal Reminiscences of Prince Bismarck, 30.
316 “World-Historical people”: Hegel, The Philosophy of History, trans. J. Sibree (New York: Dover, 1956), 37, 47, 78, 341-42.
316 “German Spirit”: Ibid., 341.
316 “that if Germany”: Fitzmaurice, The Life of Granville George Leveson Gower, Second Earl Granville, K. G., ii, 37.
316 who believed that Germany: “The universal error of the two generations after the Congress of Vienna was to exaggerate the strength of France among the Great Powers”—A. J. P. Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery 1848-1918 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971), 17.
316 found the prediction: By contrast, Lord Robert Cecil, afterwards Lord Salisbury, perceived the German threat as early as 1862; and he wrote presciently of the German problem in the October 1870 number of the Quarterly Review—Andrew Roberts, Salisbury: Victorian Titan (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999), 121-22. Yet even Salisbury continued to regard France as England’s most likely foe.
316 Belgium: Lord Newton, Lord Lyons, i, 302.
316 “the outworks”: Thomas Babington Macaulay, History of England, WLM, iv, 51-52.
316 Lord Palmerston put: Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August (New York: Bonanza, 1982), 18.
316 slyly released: “The War,” The Times, Thursday, July 28, 1870, 5.
316 photographic copies: Busch, Bismarck: Some Secret Pages from His History, i, 47.
317 autograph manuscript: George Bancroft to Hamilton Fish, July 27, 1870, SD NARA M44/ROLL 16.
317 With the release: The Times, Monday, July 18, 1870, 8; George Bancroft to Hamilton Fish, July 27, 1870, SD NARA M44/ROLL 16; E. B. Washburne to Hamilton Fish, July 29, 1870, SD NARA M34/ROLL T-70.
317 Bismarck: In 1867 Bismarck decided against going to war with France over the question of Luxembourg in part because he feared that Prussia would appear the aggressor, and would draw on itself the antipathy of Europe.
317 “French Bismarck”: Wawro, The Franco-Prussian War, 33.
317 “the stupidest man”: Alistair Horne, The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune 1870-1871 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1966), 36.
317 “France seeks”: “The War,” The Times, Monday, July 18, 1870, 12.
317 The marriage: Frances Herman Jackson and Mary McNease Kinard, A Silence After Trumpets: The Story of Sarah Buchanan Preston (Spartanburg, SC: The Reprint Company, 1998), 205.
317 “Poor wounded”: MCCW, 813.
318 Dixie School writers: C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South 1877-1913 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1971), 167.
318 “Everybody knows”: MCCW, 815.
318 “to protect niggers”: Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 276.
319 Not all the gains: Ibid., 602-03.
319 “brief moment”: Ibid., 602.
319 “They have taken”: MCCW, 829.
319 “Dem wuz”: Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South 1877-1913, 167.
319 J. P. Morgan’s: Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform, from Bryan to F.D.R. (New York: Vintage, 1955), 232.
319 The strike spread: Foner, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, 583.
320 just sixteen percent: Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital (New York: Vintage, 1996), 138.
320 “broken down”: EHA, 976.
320 “was never meant”: EHA, 1063.
320 Walter Scott: W. J. Cash, The Mind of the South (New York: Vintage, 1991) 65.
321 Henry Vaughan: Frank D. Ashburn, Peabody of Groton: A Portrait (Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1967), 89.
321 321 “was ashen”: TE, 141.
321 His hair: Vizetelly, The Court of the Tuileries, 1852-1870, 133.
321 “Is it true?” TE, 141.
321 resigned fatalism: TE, 142.
321 The air was heavy: Evans, The Second French Empire, 190.
321 “I gave it”: TE, 142.
321 “I had no doubts”: TE, 143.
322 sadness: Evans, The Second French Empire, 190.
322 “No, don’t expect … smoking”: Ibid.
322 The Prince Imperial: Vizetelly, The Court of the Tuileries 1852-1870, 379.
322 The Empress: “The War,” The Times, Saturday, July 30, 1870, 5.
322 dead or victorious: The Times, Thursday, August 11, 1870, 6.
322 the Cross: Guedalla, The Second Empire, 415.
322 The whistle blew: Details concerning the departure of the Emperor can be found in Ernest Alfred Vizetelly, My Days of Adventure, available on the Internet; Thomas W. Evans, The Second French Empire, 191; and Philip Guedalla, The Second Empire, 418.
322 In the camps: The m
orale of the French camps is evoked by Emile Zola in his 1892 novel La Débâcle.
323 Rue Serpenoise: Ferdinand Foch, The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, trans. T. Bentley Mott (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1931), xxxiii.
323 “of a man utterly”: Ibid.
323 “the old woman”: Wawro, The Franco-Prussian War, 136.
323 no plan of campaign: Ibid., 66.
323 The Emperor spoke: Ibid., 74.
323 A fortnight after: Vizetelly, The Court of the Tuileries 1852-1870, 397; James F. McMillan, Napoleon III (London: Longman, 1991), 161.
324 blew their brains out: Wawro, The Franco-Prussian War, 85.
30. “Déchéance! Déchéance!”
325 the footmen: Vizetelly, The Court of the Tuileries, 1852-1870, 44.
325 “I saw”: TE, 180.
325 The German invasion: Wawro, The Franco-Prussian War, 86-137.
325 fought back years: Guedalla, The Second Empire, 417.
325 “In a flash”: TE, 180.
325 “When I reached”: TE, 181.
325 A strange light: TE, 181-82.
325 “I felt”: TE, 180.
326 “The dynasty”: Ibid.
326 326 Eugénie wore: Vizetelly, The Court of the Tuileries, 1852-1870, 97.
326 “The sun was”: TE, 12-13.
326 fascinations of power: TE, 20.
326 “Even as a girl”: TE, 61.
326 “What stirred me”: TE, 62.
326 “The sky was ablaze”: TE, 16.
327 “almost virile”: “The War,” The Times, Wednesday, July 20, 1870, 5.
327 “used to irritate”: TE, 66.
327 Emile Ollivier: TE, 185.
327 “Madame”: TE, 182.
327 “Frenchmen!”: “The War,” The Times, Monday, August 8, 1870, 5.
328 “visionaries”: MR, 308.
328 The only credential: MR, 306.
328 “a closely united”: Ibid.
328 “did I meet”: Ibid.
328 “Gradually”: MR, 302.
328 “to the people”: MR, 252, 301.
328 “as doctors”: MR, 302.
328 “I am taking”: Alexander, Grand Duke of Russia, Once a Grand Duke (New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corp.—Farrar & Rinehart, 1932), 47; Joyce Carol Oates, “Tragic Rites in Dostoevsky’s The Possessed,” GR, vol. 32, no. 3 (Fall 1978), note 8.
329 “had lilywhite hands”: George F. Kennan, Russia and the West Under Lenin and Stalin (Boston: Little, Brown, 1961), 23.
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