My Paris Diary of 1870 393 



what I have always held him to be, an irresolute man, incapable of any- 

 great sustained policy. I believe him to have permitted Grammont's 

 original speech on the Hohenzollern question with the intention and full 

 expectation of the matter being compromised, but the country carried him 

 away and he was obliged to follow. He has been carried fairly off his 

 legs ; even a great victory could now hardly keep him on his throne. II a 

 gene In patrie." [What I did not know at the time of writing this was that 

 Napoleon III was incapacitated from playing the difficult part demanded 

 of him 'in the crisis by an attack of the stone, which caused him great 

 suffering. The decision, therefore, between peace and war had been left 

 practically in the Empress's hands, to whom the blame of the decision 

 rightly belongs.] 



" I am more hopeful of the National honour to-night. The army beaten, 

 the French ought still to have heart to win the campaign, holding as they 

 do the sea [Prussia at that time had almost no navy]. They can in time 

 starve the enemy out. As I sat at dinner the poet Morin came to speak to 

 me. He was very earnest in asking my candid opinion on the state of 

 France. He seemed much emotione, but I noticed that he ate a capital 

 dinner. 



" gth August, 12 o'clock (noon). — At the Embassy they talk of a 

 Republic under the dictatorship of General Trochu. I confess I never 

 heard of him before. The Chamber opens to-day. Great bands of blouses 

 have marched there, and a great band also of police. They say the Oppo- 

 sition will demand the immediate arming of all the citizens of Paris in- 

 scribed on the Electoral Roll. This morning Julie came in to me with my 

 little dog Rachael dying in her arms. 



" Something must have happened to the Emperor ; he has either run away 

 or abdicated or been shot. These ideas pass through one's mind. No one 

 ever mentions him. 



" 2 p.m. — They are shutting the Tuileries garden gates. 

 " 6 p.m. — I ran out and found the gates shut, but at the Tennis Court 

 gate by saying I was a socictaire they let me in, and looking over the balus- 

 trade of the terrace, saw some thousands of people collected in the Place 

 de la Concorde and on the Bridge in front of the Corps Legislatif. Biboche 

 and Serafin and Dalmand, the three paumiers, are absurdly impressioned by 

 the course of events. Biboche is a Bonapartist, Dalmand a patriot without 

 colour, Etienne, the marker,, fancies the Republic, and Serafin has tout 

 simplcment a wife at home with the scarlet fever. All look upon France 

 as lost. At three o'clock we were turned out of the Tennis Court, and 

 the garden was cleared of nurses and lovers. I went and sat in the Place 

 de la Concorde for an hour, till driven in by a thunderstorm, which 

 stopped any revolution, if such was intended. 



" A band came by our house just now, singing, with a ridiculous young 

 negro marching in front flourishing a wooden sword. I am beginning to 

 tire of the crisis. General Leboeuf has resigned his command, Bazaine 

 becomes Commander-in-Chief. [It was Leboeuf who, when the Emperor 

 asked him whether the army was completely ready for war, answered 

 ' Jusqu'au dernier bouton.'~] 



