398 Appendix I 



Sudley in her own barouche, and we drove up the Champs Elysees at a 

 foot's pace, a conspicuous figure in the good-natured Parisian crowd for 

 the illuminations. Now quel degringolage ! 



' The night before last there was an emeute in the Villette, a band of 

 men crying ' Vive la Republique,' attacked some unfortunate pompiers in 

 their guard house, killed two or three, and then fired into the mob who 

 were coming to the rescue. They were some fifty or sixty armed with 

 daggers and revolvers, but after a show of fight they ran away, some being 

 caught and almost torn to pieces. The incident has been put down to ' the 

 gold of Bismarck,' just as in former days there was talk of 'the gold of 

 Pitt.' Paris is still full of Germans; there will be a general massacre of 

 these if it comes to a siege, perhaps of us English too. At this end of 

 the town everything is quiet. Count d'Aquila who arrived at Deauville 

 with eighteen of his favourite horses the day before I left, has made over 

 his house in the Avenue de l'lmperatrice for an ambulance, so I hear has 

 Evans the American dentist. 



" 5 p.m. — A letter has been posted officially from the sous-prefet of 

 Verdun, stating that cannonading was heard the whole of yesterday, and 

 that it was reported the Prussians had lost 40,000 men the day before near 

 Metz. On the other hand the ' Independence Beige ' gives a despatch 

 from Berlin from King William to the Queen of Prussia announcing a 

 glorious victory. Edmond About writes in the ' Soir ' describing the entry 

 of the Prussians into Saverne and MacMahon's retreat. The French, he 

 says, were ridiculously commanded. The Prussians are levying contribu- 

 tions in France just as they did in Frankfort and Homburg in the war 

 of 1866. 



" lyth Aug. — This is my birthday of thirty, it finds me healthy, wealthy, 

 and wise, three things I never thought to be. Anne has made me a 

 birthday present of a silver coffee pot, I have long coveted, a Louis XVI 

 one of very beautiful French design. I have nothing left to wish for as a 

 birthday gift, except the destruction of the German army. 



" I went last night to the Gymnase theatre, where they gave ' Diane de 

 Lys,' the moral of which is, ' II a voulu garder sa femme et il l'a gardee.' 

 The French pieces now generally give the beau role to the husband on 

 the stage as is also the case sometimes in real life, such as in that of 

 Beaumont who wounded his wife's three lovers one after the other. One 

 of the three duels was with Metternich. Metternich has, as all the world 

 knows, been Mine, de Persigny's lover, and then made court to Mme. de 

 Beaumont. She taxed him one day with his former devotion, and to prove 

 to her that it was at an end he made over to her Mme. de Persigny's letters 

 to him. These were found by Beaumont in his wife's drawer along with 

 letters to her from Metternich. The Ambassador, who is no Palladin, 

 refused to fight. Beaumont threatened to expose his treachery to Mme. 

 de Persigny. The matter was laid before the Emperor, and Metternich, 

 it being decided he must fight, was run through the body, but soon recov- 

 ered. Beaumont also wounded du Hallay and another, whose letters also 

 had been found. Now nobody dares approach Mme. de Beaumont. 

 Metternich is what is called a gros fat, who likes to be called Monseigneur. 



