My Paris Diary of 1870 389 



is beaten she will recover, if France she will go the way of the other 

 Latins. The Radical Party in England side with Prussia because they see 

 in it a triumph of atheism and socialism in Europe. France after many 

 years goes forth to the Rhine singing the Marseillaise in the cause of 

 order and religion. It is strange. 



" 28th July. — We drove this morning to St. Cloud to see the Emperor 

 and his son start for the war. He went off by the back door, and nobody 

 saw him go. The flag was pulled down exactly at ten o'clock. The 

 Emperor has his headquarters at Metz. 



" 2gth July. — It is decided that the French garrison is to leave Rome. 

 M. Visconti Venosta, the Italian Foreign Minister, has engaged to protect 

 the Holy See from the Garibaldians ; the Pope, however, is I am sure quite 

 able to take care of himself at Rome. The Foreign Legion is, or was, 

 when I saw it in 1866 as fine a body of men as any in the south of Europe, 

 they did not need the French chasscpots to beat the Garibaldians at 

 Montana ; however, we shall see. The announcement of the new dogma 

 of Papal infallibility has passed almost unnoticed after all, though there 

 are rumours of a schism in Germany. 



"30th July. — To-day we have a full explanation of the projected treaty 

 [that published in the ' Times ' of the 27th, about Belgium and the Rhine 

 provinces]. Benedetti writes to the official journal, stating that soon after 

 the war of 1866, being one day with Bismarck at Berlin, and talking as 

 they had often talked of proposed territorial changes in Europe, Bismarck 

 said : ' What is the good of always talking, why not put our ideas in 

 writing.' Thereupon giving Benedetti a pen and paper, he dictated the 

 famous draft and kept it, as he said, to show the King, a stroke worthy of 

 the golden age of diplomacy. I know positively from Usedom, who was in 

 the thick of affairs in Prussia during the war of 1866, that Bismarck 

 promised the Rhine provinces, or, at least, those south of the Moselle, to 

 France as the price of her neutrality, but never with the intention of 

 keeping the promise. Benedetti must have been a great donkey to be 

 gulled by Bismarck in this way, but the story he gives of the transaction 

 bears the impress of truth. It explains what was so odd in the draft, 

 namely, that in quoting the names and titles of the high contracting parties 

 the King of Prussia's name stands first. Bismarck is the most wonderful 

 man of his age, but he has outwitted himself as well as Benedetti here. 

 Public opinion in England is veering round from Prussia ; and Belgium, 

 which is most interested, acquits France in the matter. 



" A skirmish has taken place on the frontier, where strangely enough 

 an Englishman in the Baden service was killed, the first victim of the war, 

 his name Winslow. The addresses of the Emperor and the King to their 

 troops are both published. The King appeals to God the Emperor to 

 Glory, quite in the old style. 



" Yesterday we drove to Versailles through the Forest of Meudon, a 

 lovely old deserted road, never used apparently since Versailles became a 

 royal residence and the new high road was carried through Sevres. 



" Lascelles tells me the true history of the message sent by King William 

 to M. Benedetti ' Allez trouvez son Excellence,' the King said to his aide- 



