CHAPTER XIV 



" SATAN ABSOLVED " THE BOER WAR 



" George is in high spirits, as he has just been appointed Under- 

 Secretary for War, a less interesting place than the Foreign Office, but 

 still important, especially at the present moment. Things look more 

 and more warlike, as Russia seems to be backing France, and I suspect 

 most of the Continental Powers are against us. It is impossible Lord 

 Salisbury should maintain the full ground he has chosen, that of re- 

 fusing to negotiate without a war. The French will not give in like 

 that. The way out of the mess would seem to lie in the direction of a 

 European Congress, or at least of European intervention in the interests 

 of peace. George says that the British fleet has its programme ready, 

 and the French fleet would be shut up in their ports in a few days. He 

 and the ultra Jingo section of the party are all for war. He gets £1,500 

 a year by this appointment. 



"22nd Oct. — To Paris, by Newhaven and Dieppe, much the pleas- 

 antest route. I have not travelled by it since I landed at Newhaven 

 in a storm with a shipload of frightened refugees flying from Paris after 

 Sedan. 



" 23rd Oct. — Neville came to breakfast with me, and later old Juli- 

 enne, Francis Currie's bonne, who amused us with her view of the 

 political situation. The government of France, she said, was in the 

 hands of ' un tas de gueux, passez-moi le mot,' who were pillaging the 

 country, and there must be a new regime — Orleanist, Bonapartist, or 

 what ever else, she did not care, so long as it was not Dreyfusist. As 

 to the Fashoda trouble, it was all the rapacity of ' la grosse Victoire,' 

 meaning our own gracious Majesty, who wanted all the earth for her- 

 self and would leave nothing to poor France. ' Nous sommes bien bas, 

 allez.' I fancy this represents pretty fairly the general opinion at 

 Paris. 



" At 3 to Gros Bois, where I found our hostess entertaining two 

 Parisian ladies, dressed up like Parisian dolls, a ci-devant Russian 

 beauty, the Comtesse de Talleyrand, and Mme. Chevreau, her neigh- 

 bours. We were a party of six at dinner, lively in the usual French 

 way, which means all talking at once. I had some quiet conversation, 

 however, with Wagram before the guests arrived. He refuses to be- 

 lieve in a war and thinks the thing will be arranged. Russia, if it came 



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