BAZAINE, FRANCOIS ACHILLE. 



BEDS, FOLDING. 



81 



Finally, at a council of Mexican notables, Ba- 

 zaine declared the maintenance of the empire 

 impossible, and on March 12, 1867, having re- 

 treated to Vera Cruz, he embarked with all 

 his forces for France. On his arrival he was 

 greeted with a storm of reproaches He nev- 

 ertheless retained the confidence of Napoleon 

 Ilf, and was made a senator and intrusted 

 with the command of the corps stationed at 

 Nancy, and in October, 1869, was given the 

 chief command of the Imperial Guard. 



When the Franco-Prussian War began, Ba- 

 zaine had command of the Third Corps. He 

 might have supported Gen. Frossard at For- 

 bach, but would not move without orders. On 

 Aug. 13, 1870, he took command of the Army 

 of the Rhine, with which he checked Gen. 

 Steinmetz at Berny on the following day, al- 

 lowing Napoleon and his staff to retreat in 

 safety. He retired on Metz, perhaps in order 

 to detain the enemy until MacMahon's army 

 was formed at Chalons. If he had ordered 

 the Imperial Guards to support Canrobert at 

 Gravelotte, the Germans might have' been driv- 

 en into a retreat, instead of forcing him to 

 retire into the citadel of Metz. His army was 

 the only compact force that remained after the 

 surrender of Marshals Lebceuf and Canrobert 

 and the capture of the Emperor. The garri- 

 son made many brave sorties, but each party 

 was beaten back. After fruitless efforts to 

 obtain better terms, the commandant signed a 

 capitulation on Oct. 27, 1870, before a single 

 shot of the enemy had fallen -within the walls 

 of the fortress, in accordance with which his 

 command of 173,000 men marched out without 

 their arms. His declaration that his army was 

 vanquished by famine was contradicted by wit- 

 nesses, who said that there was food, and that 

 the men had in their knapsacks six days' ra- 

 tions. Accusations of treachery resounded on 

 every side. It was discovered on investiga- 

 tion that he had held communication with 

 Bismarck through a go-between named Regn- 

 ier, and after learning the pretended determi- 

 nation of the Germans not to treat on any 

 terms with the Government of National De- 

 fense, had allowed himself to be duped into 

 inactivity and finally into a surrender by Bis- 

 marck, who suggested that far better condi- 

 tions of peace would be granted if he kept his 

 army intact in order to support a serious Gov- 

 ernment with which Germany could negotiate. 

 Thus the wily diplomatist held out the hope of 

 the restoration of the empire with German aid. 

 After his return from captivity Bazaine pub- 

 lished a book entitled "L'Armee du Rhin," in 

 which he avowed that he felt no obligation to 

 obey the Government of National Defense aft- 

 er the downfall of the empire, and considered 

 himself justified in acting independently. It 

 was not till then that he was cited to appear 

 in August, 1871, before the Committee of Mili- 

 tary Investigation of the National Assembly at 

 Versailles. He offered himself for trial by 

 court-martial without awaiting the report. He 

 VOL. xxvui. 6 A 



was not arraigned till Oct. 6, 1873. The Due 

 d'Aumale pix-sided over the tribunal. The 

 marshal, who wore his full uniform and the 

 decorations of the Legion of Honor, in reply 

 to the charges of military incapacity in letting 

 himself be blockaded in Metz by a force not 

 much superior and in capitulating, and of trea- 

 sonable correspondence with the enemy with 

 the object of making himself independent of 

 the Government of National Defense, he said 

 that the motto of " honor and country " that 

 he bore on his breast had been his for the for- 

 ty years that he had served France, at Metz as 

 well as elsewhere. He was found guilty (1) of 

 having capitulated before the enemy in the 

 open field; (2) of having agreed to terms mak- 

 ing his command lay down their arms ; (3) of 

 having entered into negotiations with the ene- 

 my before doing all that duty and honor de- 

 manded ; (4) of having surrendered a fortified 

 place that was intrusted to him to defend. He 

 was condemned on December 10 to death and 

 military degradation, but in compliance with 

 the unanimous recommendation of his judges. 

 President MacMahon commuted the sentence 

 to twenty years' seclusion. He was incarcer- 

 ated in Fort Sainte Marguerite, near Cannes, 

 on December 26. In the following August 

 he lowered himself from a window by a rope 

 into a boat, on which he made his escape to a 

 ship lying off the island, and reached Italy. 

 From there he went to Cologne, and to Eng- 

 land, and finally he took up his residence in 

 Madrid. In September, 1874, he published in 

 the New York "Herald " a defense of his con- 

 duct during the war, to which Prince FriedricL 

 Karl bore honorable testimony, and in 1883 

 he went over the ground again in a volume. 



BEDS, FOLDING." Bedsteads so contrived that 

 they can be folded into a more or less com- 

 pact form are to be found in all civilized and, 

 perhaps, in some uncivilized lands, and are of 

 almost as many different patterns as are the 

 tables and chairs that keep them company. 

 Goldsmith's familiar lines in the " Deserted 

 Village " are more than a century old : 

 The chest contrived a double debt to pay, 

 A bed by nigLt, a chest of draws by day, 



and they go to show that folding beds were not 

 uncommon at that time. In 1888 about forty 

 patents were issued in the United States bearing 

 upon such articles of furniture, and a visit to 

 any industrial exhibition or large furniture es- 

 tablishment affords abundant evidence that the 

 supply keeps well up with the demand. This 

 is largely due no doubt to the crowding of 

 population in the large cities. Where a fami- 

 ly occupies a flat or "apartments,"' the ques- 

 tion of space becomes very important, and 

 where a single person occupies a room, perhaps 

 a small one, his comfort is greatly enhanced by 

 being able to double the floor-space by dispos- 

 ing of the bed during the day-time. 



To begin with the simpler and least expen- 

 sive forms of folding beds, it may be said that 

 ingenious mechanics not infrequently provide 



