My Paris Diary of 1870 399 



I have played tennis with him, but he is a poor performer. Du Hallay is 

 a fat, funny young man, fond of a joke, but one would think innocuous 

 in a virtuous household. 



" De Vogue, MacMahon's aide-de-camp, was killed at Worth, a good- 

 looking, very charming man of about thirty-five, bald, but the ideal of the 

 beau militaire. I used to know him in 1865, meeting him often at Madame 

 Arcos' (the Empress Eugenie's lady in waiting). He was at that time 

 Princess Poniatowska's lover — she a very pretty woman, tall, blonde, and 

 amusing. 



" The Orleans Princes have been refused service in the army. 



" iSth Aug. — Yesterday at half-past five Blount, the Banker, came to 

 the Embassy, and announced that a great victory had been won the day 

 before, the 16th. He stated that he had seen press copies of the despatches, 

 and that the details were most complete. Schneider, President of the 

 Chamber, fully believed the news, and Ministers were only waiting to 

 announce it till written accounts should come. All the result was a tele- 

 gram published ' hier 16. II y a eu une affaire tres serieuse du cote de 

 Gravelotte. Nous avons eu l'avantage dans le combat, mais nos pertes sont 

 grandes. Comte de Palikao.' And this morning the ' Figaro ' gives an 

 account of the battle of Borny fought under the walls of Metz, otherwise 

 called of Longueville. Gallifet is reported to have charged the enemy. 

 Gallifet is a brave man, and I always liked him in spite of his swagger. 

 It used to be a fine thing to see him play tennis with Smijthe of our 

 Embassy, who is a cool-headed man with one shoulder higher than the 

 other, an accident which gave him an extraordinarily heavy cut stroke on 

 the floor, most exasperating to Gallifet, who is a wild hitter. Gallifet plays 

 well, but was overmatched by Smijthe, who was the best player in the 

 tennis court three years ago. Gallifet used to call out, ' Ah dites done, 

 M. Smijthe, vous m'exasperez avec votre damnee patience; tappez done, 

 M. Smijthe.' 



" I have been talking with Julie. She tells me her father was maire 

 of a village in Brittany and her uncle a bishop murdered at the altar 

 during the revolution. She had a brother older than herself killed in the 

 campaign of Russia under Bonaparte, and her father died of grief. He 

 left her a dot of 40,000 francs, but her worthless husband ate it all. She 

 tells me that we have a mouchard here on the fifth floor, whose wife is a 

 chatterbox. She has let out to Julie that the Empress has just sent the 

 husband to England with her jewels. 



" igth Aug. — General Trochu is named Commandant of Paris. I went 

 yesterday to look at the fortifications. The guns on the walls are ridicu- 

 lous old pieces such as my Uncle Toby might have mounted on his horn 

 work. I was sent about my business by the sergent-de-ville. Carriages 

 still pass into the Bois de Boulogne over a narrow plank bridge. The 

 Germans describe the battles of Borny and Gravelotte as victories, and say 

 the French army has been driven back into Metz. 



"21st Aug. — Caen. I went down on the 19th to Deauville by train, 

 where I found Anne much better, and the next day, yesterday, we drove 

 here, stopping at Dives for half an hour to see the church. This is inter- 



